New Koolance WC project begins... [Archive]

View Full Version : New Koolance WC project begins...

djagentorange

03-01-2007, 10:07 AM

I'm new to XS, but I thought I'd post this up here, as this seems to be the busiest place for watercooling discussion I've found.

While in the process of upgrading, I got an amazing deal on a Koolance PC3-426-BK Lian Li case PICS HERE (http://www.xoxide.com/koolance-pc3-426bk-case-black.html)
Now before I get flamed for using "kit" watercooling, I will tell you that I've done the DIY thing for a while, but I like the ease of use, and clean setup of Koolance systems. My last project log can be seen HERE (http://forums.bigfootcomputers.com/showthread.php?t=2318)

Anyway, back to the new project. The plan is to add an extra 120mm Rad to the intake of the case, and I'll be running blocks for the CPU, 2X7800GT's, and I also have blocks for the RAM and HDD's, but I'm not sure if I'll be using those or not.

I'm going to re-route the flow once I get it so that it goes from the top 2X80mm rad, down to the CPU, then to the 120mm Rad, then the vid card and any other components. I think this should supply the coolest water to the Vid cards and the CPU. Any Ideas that might make this loop run cooler?

I've already purchased most of the components:
C2D 6300
eVGA 680i Motherboard
2X eVGA 7800GT KO's w/ full coverage Koolance waterblocks
2X1Gb OCZ PC2 8500 SLI ram ( I got a good deal on it :P)
Corsair HX 620 PSU
+ the HDD's and ODD's from my current build.

I'm waiting for the RAM, the PSU and the case, so I'll post some pics once everything arrives.

ooh one last question, does anyone know if any local shops would sell pentosin? I usually just use de-ionized water, but I might put an additive in there this time.

mjassbong

03-01-2007, 10:21 AM

Here's just some of the few resources:
petrastechshop.com
http://store.impartsol.com/antifreeze.html ($10 for a 1.5Liter bottle in blue or red)

Or go to your nearest VW or BMW dealer.

serialk11r

03-01-2007, 05:03 PM

*Sigh*
DISCONTINUED (and it sucked in the first place)

djagentorange

03-06-2007, 02:41 PM

So, the gear is slowly arriving.

I did have a question about tubing, though. Is there anything other than flexibility I should worry about with different tubing? I need to pick up some more to complete this loop, and I don't want to wait another week to get it in the mail. I'm thinking of just going to home depot and picking up some of their 1/4" tubing. Anything I should know that would make that a bad choice?

serialk11r

03-06-2007, 05:10 PM

No, 1/4" causes more restriction. 3/8" is pretty close to 1/2" so between those 2 you probably won't see much difference. 1/4" will hurt you bad. And home depot tubing has extremely thin walls which means it will not make very many bends...

hopper

03-06-2007, 05:17 PM

to late to change up to 1/2....all his barbs are going to be 1/4... i wouldnt worry about it though my homie has one of those systems and it performes alright ya 1/4 is going to hurt him alittle but with 2 rads and that system he should be on par.....maybe 2 pumps to overcome tubing size i dont know 1/4 is what they use in europe and they like it over there so it must be workable... i wouldnt be stressing on it maybe nexttime use 3/8 1/2

serialk11r

03-06-2007, 05:21 PM

Tubing adapter...1/2" barb change ftw.

djagentorange

03-06-2007, 06:20 PM

I had a 1/2" system in my last case. I like the fact that the koolance systems have failsafes in the event of a leak or pump dying ( I had 2 die on me with my homebrew setup). As for the 1/4" tubing, if you're using it with blocks made for 1/4" tubing, it's not that bad. You get higher flow rates because there's less water to move overall. The koolance system I have already has dual pumps, so it should be fine with whatever I throw at it.

I'll post some pics in a bit once I start the leak testing.

djagentorange

03-06-2007, 09:27 PM

Ok, so back to the routing. Right now the plan is:

2X80mm Rad -> CPU -> Vid Card 1 -> Vid Card 2 -> Front 120mm Rad -> Mem 1 -> Mem 2 ->Pumps/res -> 2X80mm Rad

I had originally planned to have the 120mm rad in between the CPU and video cards, but this makes for a lot more tubing and clutter. Either way, having the 2 rads in the loop, I doubt this will change temps that much. Is there any solid evidence that routing can significantly change temps?

djagentorange

03-07-2007, 07:01 PM

Ok, so I got down to some real work last night. I took a few pics:

http://img411.imageshack.us/img411/4941/dsc00562zd1.jpg
Virgin case

http://img339.imageshack.us/img339/4894/dsc00563cj1.jpg
tearing it down to mount the new rad.

http://img242.imageshack.us/img242/1651/dsc00566oc5.jpg
http://img242.imageshack.us/img242/9876/dsc00565ez5.jpg
The rad was a tight fit, but it worked out perfectly.

http://img242.imageshack.us/img242/2466/dsc00564iq2.jpg
SilenX Fans to replace the Adda fans from stock.

http://img136.imageshack.us/img136/4070/dsc00568oi1.jpg
All assembled and ready for leak testing.

http://img136.imageshack.us/img136/8762/dsc00573re7.jpg
ghetto leak detectors :fact:

And this is where the project takes a turn for the worse... I have everything all set up, plug it in, I hear the whoosh of the fans, then a few seconds later... BEEEEP BEEEP BEEEP. The koolance unit is giving me a pump circuit open error. I tried unplugging everything on the control board, and trying different types of power cords to no avail. So now I have this system, all assembled and full of water, and I thought it was all over.

Then I took a look at the bottom of the koolance unit, and saw some thumbscrews... a few minutes later the whole top unit was free from my case. Long story short, I actually ended up with TWO of these cases on hand. So I did a quick emergency change of the top rad/pump/res units, and after some slick acrobatical moves to keep everything from spilling, I have a fully functional unit. I got the broken unit on clearance for ridiculously cheap, and because it was clearance, there's no returns, so it looks like I'll have to sort out the pump issue when I'm all done here.

It's been leak testing for about 14 hours now without a single drip. I think it's about time to finish setting her up.

I'll post more pics when I can. :)

Omastar

03-07-2007, 08:48 PM

Nice build, but those elbow bends on the video cards are killing me.

IanY

03-08-2007, 07:01 AM

I think I'll go to my corner and cry.

djagentorange

03-21-2007, 10:37 AM

Hey guys. I had to put the build on hiatus for a week or so. Lots of commissioned projects were coming in, and there's nothing more disastrous than re-installing windows in the middle of a design project.

I didn't have a digi cam for the whole process, so the shots are kind of spotty.

http://img252.imageshack.us/img252/5013/dsc00574tg3.jpg
Here's the busted koolance unit I mentioned before. Here I was testing contact points to find where the circuit is open.

http://img115.imageshack.us/img115/4159/dsc00575sl0.jpg
Ugly cables before I have a go at them.

http://img115.imageshack.us/img115/8375/dsc00576ip4.jpg
http://img110.imageshack.us/img110/6933/dsc00577ct6.jpg
http://img78.imageshack.us/img78/6681/dsc00585xy0.jpg
This is my invention to deal with the unbearable NB fan that came with my motherboard. I had these strips of foam with adhesive on one side kicking around, so I cut them into small squares, and voila, instant standoffs/decouplers.

http://img129.imageshack.us/img129/6829/dsc00578ks2.jpg
http://img486.imageshack.us/img486/1755/dsc00580qs2.jpg
It was a tight fit to get my audigy in there, so I covered all the solder on the back with electrical tape to make sure it doesn't short.

http://img486.imageshack.us/img486/2688/dsc00579eo7.jpg
Ghetto custom rounded Audigy cable.

http://img119.imageshack.us/img119/2395/dsc00581tu8.jpg
My attempt at cable organizing.

http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/4323/dsc00583ge1.jpg
http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/4530/dsc00588uy1.jpg
All assembled and ready for action.

http://img251.imageshack.us/img251/8792/dsc00586gq5.jpg
Oldschool cathodes installed.

http://img251.imageshack.us/img251/3948/dsc00592ap0.jpg
IT'S ALIVE! This camera sucks, so this is the only night shot that turned out ok. It's actually very bright.

I'm actually happy with it so far. Idle temps sit around 34 which is pretty good considering I've got the CPU and 2 GPU's on there.

I did notice after getting it up and running that my rear chassis fan doesn't spin when I connect it to the rear header on the motherboard. it does work, because plugging it in to a regular molex works fine. It's an ADDA 120mm fan, shouldn't require too much amperage or anything. Anyone know what could cause that?

I'll post some OC results when I get a chance to crank this baby up.

-n7-

03-22-2007, 06:20 PM

Nice setup ;)

AuroraProject

03-22-2007, 06:30 PM

Go into BIOS and turn the vreg fan on, it's set to off by default. That'll fix your "dead" fan header.

Spawne32

03-22-2007, 07:52 PM

Any temps yet?

djagentorange

03-22-2007, 11:48 PM

Thanks Aurora. I found that setting myself. Seems odd that that's the header for Vreg and not a chassis fan...

Anyway, I've been trying to OC with the little time I've had, with not much success. I bought this chip from a friend who had it up to 3.4. He was using a P5B. On my 680i, it looks like I'm hitting the 450Mhz FSB wall others seem to hit with these reference boards. Nothing I do past that will even post. I tried jacking up the CPU voltage to 1.6 ( just for testing not for long), different ram settings and dividers ( my ram is rated at and runs at 1066, so that shouldn't be an issue), and I tried lowering the multiplier. Nothing gets me past the 450mhz FSB wall. I've read so many reports of people hitting 500FSB out of the box with this board, it makes me wonder if I'm overlooking something...

As for temps, I have some work to do. With the CPU at 3.15Ghz, I sit idle around 39c. As soon as I load up orthos or TAT, though, that jumps up to 55-60. Cranking all my fans has no effect, and my GPUs stay cool the whole time, at about 35-37, so this leads me to believe there's something up with the CPU block. I'll reseat it when I have a chance. I also noticed that the previous owner changed the fans on the top rad to blow into the case, which seems inefficient to me. I'll probably change those around too. I'm also debating whether the RAM waterblocks are necessary... I got them for free, so I thought I'd give them a shot, but I might be better off just running the CPU/GPU's.

I'll post results when I get some more work done.

djagentorange

03-28-2007, 03:16 PM

djagentorange

03-28-2007, 03:27 PM

So I haven't had much time to deal with the machine in the last while, but I did try some tweaking, and the outlook isn't so good.

It seems I'm pretty much stuck at the 450Mhz wall with this EVGA board. I can only get it to post at 455 or 460, but it is extremely unstable, and needs more voltage than I want to put through it. So right now I'm running at 3.15, and it's needing 1.375V. I kicked the voltage up a bit, as after several hours of my brother playing Supreme Commander, it does a hard crash back to bios.

I've tried everything suggested around the net, and I can't seem to get a better stable overclock out of this board.

I still want to tweak my WC loop a bit, so we'll have to see if that has any effect on my OC results.

Things I'm considering:
Removing RAM from the loop. I'm barely overclocking this RAM anyway, so why watercool it? ( I got the blocks for free, btw)
Splitting the loop into 2 paralell loops. Have the CPU on one, and all the other components on another.
Trying the new CPU330 block, or another brand of block, althought I'd need to look for something other than copper, or jack this full of pentosin.

I'm out of the loop (no pun intended) with watercooling, so what do you guys think?

NickS

03-28-2007, 04:03 PM

The sixties load in TAT is normal, TAT is crazy. Run orthos for a realistic max temp ;)

Overall, for koolance, the setup looks great. :)

djagentorange

05-01-2007, 03:40 PM

So, I've come to the realization that the Adda and SilenX fans I was using really suck. I ordered a few Yate Loon 80mm's (they were on special for $0.95 CAD), a few 120mm's, and some other goodies for the case.

The overclock situation seems to be stabilizing, although I can get random reboots still, despite hours of orthos with no errors. She's running at 3.1Ghz right now, which is decent for a little 6300.

I'm also getting a deal on a 74Gb Raptor, which I'll be using for my OS drive, and I'll be setting up a raid 5 array with the rest of my disks. I want to put the raptor in some kind of enclosure, or at least something like the Nexus Disktwins to reduce the noise, even though they're supposed to be the quietest raptors (read up on silentpcreview).

More updates on the way...

mda96bjh

05-04-2007, 05:56 AM

very interesting thread this......

nice and informative.

I was wondering about a quick koolance exos II setup as i am sick of being deafened on high end air so wondered how loud your set up is??

septim

05-04-2007, 06:19 AM

nice overall setup, very clean...

but

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=142982
no further comments.

djagentorange

05-04-2007, 08:36 AM

nice overall setup, very clean...

but

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=142982
no further comments.

yeah, I know... I've been getting a lot of flak around here for using koolance :rolleyes:

I'm not looking for extreme temps or overclocks, I just wanted to overclock, and be cooler than air, and still be silent... I've got all of that. I would have never bought this gear new, though... way too expensive.

If I ever move to quad core, I might take a look at putting a new loop in, but for now it does what it's supposed to.

djagentorange

05-10-2007, 01:56 PM

very interesting thread this......

nice and informative.

I was wondering about a quick koolance exos II setup as i am sick of being deafened on high end air so wondered how loud your set up is??

Basically just the whoosh of air I can hear... no fan noise/whining.

MarcusFoX

04-21-2008, 09:59 AM

This setup is very nice... Let me me buy it..

Aldy402

04-21-2008, 12:05 PM

fluke420

04-21-2008, 12:14 PM

nice, I think koolance 1/4" setups are awesome for any non-oc/htpc machine
I'm reading everybody's negative comments and that sucks for the OP but I can definitely respect different water cooling setups for different types of rigs.I'm working on a totally silent HTPC with 1/4" tubing, all aluminum loop with koolance..

keep up the good work..

I agree with you although I oc my p4c 3.0 to 3.7 and my temps only get up to 34-35c. Thats with a block on my 6800gt. I love my Koolance system. It was a great way to get introduced into the wc scene.