Beginning My Water Cooling Project

[Zardokk]

Well I've finally decided to make the plunge into water cooling. I finally gathered up some cash and ordered all my parts. I'll post some pics as soon as the rest of the stuff arrives (later this week). The important parts are in bold. Here's what my setup will look like and what it has cost me:

Hydor Seltz L30 II -- Purchased from Pied here at XS: $9
Single 120MM Heatercore w/shroud and 90CFM Sunon fan -- Purchased from sam375 at EOCF: $30
Swiftech Apogee -- Purchased from Jab-tech.com: $48
DD Derlin Fillport -- Purchased from Danger Den: $12
DD Fillport Reservoir -- Purchased from Danger Den: $15
Polypropelene Tee Fitting -- Purchased from Danger Den: $1.75
Pump Relay Switch -- Purchased from Danger Den: $18
Pack of hose clamps -- Purchased at local Menards: $6
20 Feet of 1/2" ID 3/4" OD Tubing -- Purchased at local Menards: $7
DD Fill Syringe -- Purchased from Danger Den: $2
4 DD 1/2" Barbs -- Purchased from Danger Den: $8
120MM Fan Filter -- Purchased from Jab-Tech: $4
Grand Total: $160.75

I think everything is pretty much self-explanitory. The DD barbs are for re-barbing my radiator (if they fit) and possibly my Apogee. The fan filter is for modding a 120MM fan slot onto the top of my case so I have a place to mount my radiator. Any thoughts/comments/ideas/suggestions? I plan on adding a MAZE4 GPU block to the loop in about 2 months or so; as soon as I have sufficient funds.

[Shpoon]

20 feet of tubing :o

Everyone's going to tell you that you shouldn't have picked the Apogee, but whatever. And nothing's bolded.

[Zardokk]

Oh yeah...I forgot the bold tag. Well I looked for info on the Apogee and I found that it was better on average than any of my other choices in the same price range. I had heard about leaking problems and things like that, but that really shouldn't be a problem for me. And yes, 20 feet of tubing. They sell it in 20 foot quantities. My options were 20 feet or 50 feet.

[Alchemist]

Expect 10° celsius lower temps on average.
Not as much as I had expected with my big water kit. :brick:

[septim]

well good luck on your parts and build, keep us updated with pics as you go along...

well your 20ft tubing hopefully won't kink under pressure...
budget wise, we hope your apogee works out for you...
also don't forget some good Arctic Silver 5 TIM...

[Holst]

Good luck with the install.

Please be carefull when using that hoze and clamps.
If you overtighten the clamps it will kink the tubing and leak. More expensive tube is less likely to do this.
So be carefull to leak test very carefully.

The apogee isnt the best block in the world, but its still pretty good and for a budget system you should get very good results.

Good luck and post some pics when you are done.

[Zardokk]

I don't think I'll have any problems with my tubing. It's pretty good stuff from what I can tell. It bends fairly easily and is pretty thick. I do plan on testing this outside of my rig for a day or two and then doing some quick tests inside of my rig before actually using it as a cooling method. I might have some difficulting fitting everything in my case, but I'm sure gonna try. I bought that 120MM fan filter thing (http://jab-tech.com/120mm-Aluminum-filter-Black-pr-1501.html) so I can cut a hole in the top of my case and mount the radiator to it (as soon as my parts get here, it's Dremel time :)). I think I should be okay with the reservoir, too, and those are really my only two concerns as far as space goes. About the Apogee...I asked around a little and looked around on different forums and the general conclusion was that the Apogee was the best block in its price range. If I have problems, then I'll either send it back or sell it or something. I'll definately post some pics soon.

[Zardokk]

w00tzors guys. My Apogee arrives tomorrow, as well as my fan filter thing. Gonna do some case modding and get things ready. Then on Friday the rest of my stuff comes. Hurray for Jab-tech! Hurray for Danger Den! Hurray for water cooling! Hurray beer!

[Zardokk]

Just got my Apogee! Woot! I'll post the first pics some time soon!

[mykeos]

can't wait to see the pics!

[Patriote]

Wheres the Pics ?!

[Zardokk]

Lol. Sorry guys, didn't take too many pics. I'll post some of the Apogee, pump, and rad. Right now I'm externally testing my loop and all is going well. Just got all the air out of the loop (took about 30 minutes) and nothing is leaking right now. I tested last night, but the Apogee was leaking, so I stopped. Re-barbed the Apogee with Danger Den barbs and all is well. Hurray Danger Den! (I really will post pics sometime soon...)

[Zardokk]

Oh noes! I think my pump just died on me! The stopped moving and the pump got very, very quiet. I'm gonna take it apart and have a look, but I think it might be dead :(.

[NickS]

Doesn't sound good man, sry. Good luck with it!

[ReD.SkY]

Hydors are known to suck ass.

[Zardokk]

Well I don't think it's dead, but if it's gonna stop like that, it's not a very reliable pump...I dunno what I'm gonna do. I could hold off a few more weeks and get a better pump (probably Liang D5 of some variety) or I could try to make this one work for now. What to do...hmmmm...

[Zardokk]

Pump is working just fine now, I think I've taken care of all leaks, and all is well. I'm going to continue running the loop for the rest of the day outside of my computer, then run it tomorrow inside my computer with the power off for about 8 hours, then finally actually use it. Woot!

[ferrari_freak]

Pics! :slapass:

Usama aka Ferrari Freak

[Zardokk]

Well guys, this project has been temporarily postponed (for about 2 weeks). My Hydor isn't working too well and neither is my tubing. Nothing leaked after about 8 hours of testing, though, so that's a plus. Anyway...POSTPONED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE.

[thunderstruck!]

It sounds like you rushed this project. Never rush with water! Take your time, get the proper tubing and pump and avoid headaches like this.:stick:

[Zardokk]

Well I'm getting a Danger Den Mag II LE from NickS here on the forums, which should take care of my pump problem, at least for now. It should fit a little more nicely in my mid-tower case also. As far as tubing goes, I'm either gonna get some 7/16" Masterkleer or some 1/2" Tygon. My dad said he might be able to get me some Tygon for free from work, so I'm waiting to see how that goes...

[Zardokk]

Got ~7 feet of Tygon for free from my dad. Looks like I'll be doing final leak testing and putting this thing to use very soon. :)

[Sparky]

Got ~7 feet of Tygon for free from my dad. Looks like I'll be doing final leak testing and putting this thing to use very soon. :)
free tygon, can't beat that :woot:

But where are the promised PICS?! :slap:

[NickS]

We demand pix!! I wanna see my MAG II in a nice home to :)

[Zardokk]

Right now I got a lot of stuff I'm doing. I have about 10 pics that I took earlier on my digital camera, but I don't know where it is. My mom borrowed it for a while and...I'm gonna go find it. THEN you'll have some pics. :)

And just for clarification, this (http://svcompucycle.stores.yahoo.net/tygon-12-id.html) is the type of tubing my dad got me. :) $28 worth of free tubing. Not too bad.

[Zardokk]

IMAGES ARE HERE:

Block:

Here's a nice view of the block:
http://www.kingsasquatch.com/images/IMG00406.JPG

Here's a view from the top:
http://www.kingsasquatch.com/images/IMG00404.JPG

Here's the nicely lapped base mirroring my camera:
http://www.kingsasquatch.com/images/IMG00393.JPG

And here's the base mirroring a deck of cards:
http://www.kingsasquatch.com/images/IMG00394.JPG

Radiator:

Here's a shot of my rad:
http://www.kingsasquatch.com/images/IMG00361.JPG

And another:
http://www.kingsasquatch.com/images/IMG00363.JPG

Pump:

Here's a nice view of my pump:
http://www.kingsasquatch.com/images/IMG00395.JPG

And another view:
http://www.kingsasquatch.com/images/IMG00398.JPG

And here's the pump in my hand. It really is tiny:
http://www.kingsasquatch.com/images/IMG00399.JPG

Reservoir:

Here's a shot of my fillport all by itself:
http://www.kingsasquatch.com/images/IMG00402.JPG

And here's my fillport reservoir all by itself:
http://www.kingsasquatch.com/images/IMG00403.JPG

And here are the two together:
http://www.kingsasquatch.com/images/IMG00401.JPG

[Zardokk]

Well I'll have to wait until at least tomorrow to get this set up. I need a better 1" spade bit so I can make a decent hole at the top of my case for the fillport. Oh well, after waiting this long, a few more days can't hurt.

[thunderstruck!]

Dude, go wash your hands and this time use soap!

[NickS]

Looks good Zardokk :)

[Zardokk]

Dude, go wash your hands and this time use soap!

Lol. My hands were clean, my fingernails were not. I just need to cut my nails...they're way too long.

[Zardokk]

Well...installation is taking longer than I thought. I still need to make a 1" hole for my fillport. My dad said he would bring me home a "one inch knockout" from work. I don't know exactly what that is, but he claimed it would make a perfect hole and not leave any bits of metal laying around. So I'm probably going to use the knockout and make a hole tonight; then I'll finally be ready for final setup and leak testing. I bought a big sheet of 1500 grit sandpaper from a local hardware store, so I'll lap my Apogee one more time for good measure...might lap my IHS also, since it's a little messed up and possibly concave.

[Zardokk]

Running a quick test right now and everything is looking good. Idle temp is 28C full load is 41C. Gonna test with higher volts and see what kinda temps/overclock I can achieve.

EDIT: Under 1.6v I'm looking at idle temp of 30C and full load of 49C. I attribute the huge spike in load temp to the fact that my IHS is somewhat concave so there's not a very good mount. I plan on lapping my IHS sometime soon.

[Zardokk]

Well I'm back under air and I'm at new record low temps with my SI-97A. I'm at 29C idle and 45C load...scarcely worse than I was doing under water. I'm postponing my water cooling project until I flush/clean all my parts and lap and/or remove my IHS. I really need a better case, too. This one is terribly difficult to put my loop in. I think I might just give up on water cooling...at least for a while. It just doesn't seem to be worth all the hassle to me. I had to drain the loop twice during testing to fix some things and tighten some barbs, and even then I still found more problems and wasn't getting the best of temps. I think the problems are my IHS and possibly my radiator. A single heatercore probably wasn't the best choice, but I really can't afford anything else right now, so I'll have to make it work. Anyway, this project is off until at least next weekend.

[ferrari_freak]

Try taking the IHS off to just get rid of the hassle of lapping? Just my 2 cents..

Usama aka Ferrari Freak