Ever seen an office PC with water cooling?
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The Cooler Master Silencio 550 - Water-Cooled
When was the last time you saw a PC dedicated to nothing more than mundane office duties - you know, a PC you'd typically find in any office anywhere in the world, where the most taxing thing it would be asked to do is multi-task and work on spreadsheets - that was cooled not with a typical CPU heatsink, but with a custom water-cooling setup? I've been building PCs for a few years now, and I've never seen one of those. I've never been asked to build one, either. I guess the reason this is is nobody has ever really thought about building a PC like this. At the very least, I've never run into anyone who has ever considered it.
Well, this week's blog post is a bit of a so-called "proof of concept." It will be all about one way to install a water-cooling system in Cooler Master's Silencio 550. There are several ways to do it, but I'll show you how I did it and explain the rationale behind some of my design choices in installing a water-cooling system in a Silencio 550.
Keep in mind that the following material is strictly MY way of realizing this particular concept; the risks I have taken during and for this project are mine and mine alone. Neither I nor Cooler Master are liable for ANY damage incurred by your components or ANY injuries you may suffer; I and Cooler Master are therefore completely indemnified and absolved of all responsibility should you choose to follow this guide. If you experience any problems during the course of attempting a similar project, even by following my recommendations to the letter, they are strictly YOUR problems; YOU assume ALL responsibility for any negative consequences that may occur. Proceed at your own risk.
With that bit of necessary legalese out of the way, let's get started.
First, though:
Preliminary considerations
Do your research when it comes to component selection. You have to know about basic compatibility issues. For example, what barbs are compatible with your radiator and water blocks? How much space does your case have for a water-cooling system, should you choose to mount it internally? What size tubing is appropriate for my fittings? Having answered questions like these before attempting to build a water cooling system into your PC goes a long way towards seeing the project through to completion.
Work slowly and carefully. This is true for water cooling veterans and raw rookies alike. Electronics and water can be very disastrous when combined with each other, so never be in a hurry when working with water cooling equipment. More mistakes and problems occur when you're rushing to get things done and up and running. Being extra careful will save you time and money and heartache in the long run. Remember: Take your time as you work, no matter how experienced you are with water cooling and/or PC construction. This is not a race.
Be mindful that any permanent modification to your computer case WILL VOID YOUR WARRANTY. Think hard before making the decision to modify your case by cutting holes into panels, removing sections from the case, drilling rivets out, or otherwise changing any part of it so that it is no longer identical to a factory-fresh example. Once you decide to modify your case this way, there is no turning back.
Be very careful when working with tools. It's common sense, of course, but it bears repeating that you need to exercise caution whenever you're working with saws, cutting blades, even screwdrivers. Any tool, even a rubber mallet, can hurt you if you do not treat it with respect or if you use it carelessly.
Use safety equipment as necessary. Safety goggles, protective gloves, drop cloths, filtered masks, etc., are essential when working with potentially hazardous tools and materials. Don't take YOUR safety for granted, ever.
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Essential tools for the job
Now, then, let's take a headfirst dive into installing a water-cooling system in your Silencio 550.
The first thing I always do when I install water-cooling is to research parts compatibility. Thankfully, in the last three years or so, water-cooling hardware has adopted some standards which greatly simplify parts selection. Probably the best example of this is the near-universal adoption of the G 1/4 thread size for all fittings. That means all G 1/4 barbs, compression fittings, and the like are guaranteed to fit onto G 1/4 threaded radiators, water blocks, reservoirs, and water pump/pump tops. The only remaining questions regarding fit now have to do with compression fittings on certain CPU water blocks, as compression fittings have a larger diameter (they are wider in cross-section) than simple barbs; since compression fittings are wider, blocks that have a small distance between their inlets and outlets may not accommodate a pair of compression fittings.
Fittings have another compatibility question associated with them. Fittings, whether simple barbs or the snazzier compression fittings, have two key measurements that you must be mindful of: ID (inner diameter) and OD (outer diameter). To minimize flow restriction issues, it is a good idea to keep your barbs'/fittings' IDs the same as your chosen tubing's ID. Typical ID sizes include 1/2", 1/4", 3/8", and 7/16", while typical OD sizes are 3/4", 5/8", and 3/8". Whichever combination of fittings and tubing you choose, remember this key point: Your ID must always be smaller than your OD.
For this project, I will be using the following water-cooling components. I've used all these parts in the past, so I know that everything I have is compatible with each other.
CPU Block: D-Tek FuZion v2
Radiator: XSPC RS240
Water pump + Reservoir: XSPC X20 750 Dual 5.25" Reservoir Pump combo unit
Barbs: 6 x G 1/4 1/2" ID 3/4" OD (2 x Danger Den High Flow + 4 x BitsPower Chrome)
Tubing: PrimoFlex Pro LRT White tubing (1/2" ID, 3/4" OD)
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Essentials for water-cooling your PC
Once I'm sure that all my water-cooling gear will all work with each other, I take a close look at the case I'll be using next. I disassembled the system I had in the Silencio 550 that I've had for the last couple of blog posts (except for the motherboard, which I kept in the case) and went over everything with an eye open for potential problems. By potential problems I specifically mean features on your case that might interfere with the installation of your water-cooling parts to your system. Often these things might require you to modify the case (and, as I said before, modifying your case in a traumatic way automatically voids your warranty).
Here are two that I spotted on the Silencio 550:
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These guide tabs in the 5.25" drive bays may be a problem
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We may need to remove these rivets if we decide to remove the lower HDD cage
Now that we've identified possible problem areas, we need to check whether or not these will indeed be problems.
Since I will be using the XSPC X20 750 Dual 5.25" Reservoir Pump, I needed to make sure that the case's 5.25" bays would accommodate the pump+reservoir combo unit. The protruding pieces of metal on both sides at the bottom of each drive bay may have interfered with the installation of the pump+reservoir if they were positioned differently; all it would take was a difference of mere fractions of an inch either higher or lower, and I would have to explore alternatives. These alternatives include either filing away those protruding pieces of metal so that they would be flush against the inside of the drive bays, or cutting them off with a motor tool and rotating blade attachment, or bending them with a pair of pliers and a lot of brute strength. Thankfully, test-fitting the pump+reservoir combo unit revealed that no such modifications were necessary. The key was a groove cut in the pump+reservoir unit's sides which was exactly where the higher of the protrusions were. This speaks to the precise engineering of the Silencio 550, in that they were able to design and manufacture their product and have it be compatible with a non-Cooler Master product.
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Test-fitting the pump+reservoir combo unit
The radiator placement, though, was a more interesting possible problem. I realized that I had two real options on where to mount the XSPC RS240:
I could place the 240mm radiator just behind the front intake vent, where the two 120mm front fan mounts are. That would require removal of the two hard drive cages. The top cage is removable by design, but removing the bottom hard drive cage would have necessitated drilling through eight rivets (six on the floor, two attached to the motherboard tray). Obviously, this would void the warranty.
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Floor rivets
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Mobo tray rivets
The second option would require no traumatic modification of the case, but it might result in some radiator performance loss: You could put the radiator on the rear plane of the hard drive cages. This presents a different problem, though: There is no obvious way to hold the radiator securely if one were to mount it there.
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Mock-up of radiator placement
Rather than removing the hard drive cages (the bottom one permanently) by drilling through the rivets, I decided to mount the radiator on the rear plane of the hard drive cages. To keep the radiator in position, I used velcro tape, available at any good hardware store. This technique may not seem to be the "sexy" way to keep the radiator in place, but you gain the advantage of being able to take the entire radiator out of the case (for draining and cleaning purposes, an essential task in a water-cooled system that you do every few months to ensure that no micro-organisms are growing in your system) without drilling any additional holes anywhere on your case and therefore avoiding voiding your warranty. If you keep the velcro away from view, no one would even ever know how that radiator stays in place.
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Velcro tape may not be sexy, but it works superbly
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More velcro tape, this time on the floor and the lower HDD cage
With the radiator mounted and the pump+reservoir unit confirmed to fit in the top two 5.25" drive bays without problems, it's time for something easy. It's time to mount your CPU block. All you really need to do here is to follow the instructions provided by your CPU block's manufacturer. I actually did things a bit out of step here and installed my D-Tek FuZion V2 very early on in the process. For all intents and purposes, when you mount your CPU block makes very little difference.
The one thing I would like to highlight, though, is one of those features of the Silencio 550 that I have actually neglected to mention in my earlier blog entries (twenty lashes with a wet noodle for me): The good-sized and well-positioned cut-out on the rear of the motherboard tray made removing the stock CPU retention hardware from the motherboard and installing the CPU water block a simple operation. I did everything with the ASUS M4A89GTD Pro/USB 3 in situ.
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CPU block installation
The tubing is the last of the water-cooling items to be installed. It's a mostly straightforward process, but here are a few notes which you might find helpful:
The tubing might be difficult to put on a barb. One way to ease the tubing onto the barb is to dip the edge of the tubing into some hot water. This will soften the tubing a little bit and make it more pliable.
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Inserting the tubing onto the barb
With our dual 5.25" bay pump+reservoir combo unit, you'll need to account for the fact that you need to slide the pump+reservoir out of its drive bay in order to fill it up with distilled water. Therefore, you have to give the tubing attached to the pump+reservoir unit enough slack so that you can pull the pump+reservoir unit out enough. If you don't, you will never be able to pull the pump+reservoir unit out from its mounted position.
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Tubing installed; remember to give enough slack for a bay-mounted reservoir
Avoid kinking the tubing. Go for gentle curves. Kinks in the tubing restrict the flow of water, therefore reducing the efficiency and effectiveness of the water-cooling system.
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Gentle curves = No flow-killing kinks
No matter what anybody else says, if you're using barbs, PLEASE use some method of tightening the hose fit onto the barb. You can use a worm-drive clamp; you can use a plastic herbie clip; you can use a metal spring-tension clamp; you can even use nylon zip-ties. JUST CLAMP THE HOSE AROUND THE BARB. Not doing so exposes your system to the risk of a catastrophic leak when you've got the system on as water pressure might eventually slip the hose off the barb.
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Clamps help prevent leaks
With everything fitted, it's time for perhaps the most nerve-wracking part of the process: The leak test. The leak test is an essential step in any water-cooled build. There are people who might argue that leak-testing is a waste of time. Typically these people say that if it doesn't gush water the first time you fill the loop up with water, you're good to go. Obviously, I don't subscribe to that view. To me, leak-testing with the water-cooling loop in place is a lot like buying insurance: It offers you a good degree of peace of mind, and, like insurance, the one time you don't have it is the one time you actually needed it. So don't listen to those silly goofs who say leak-tests are a waste of time. JUST DO IT.
But how do you do it? It's pretty simple.
Prepare your system by putting paper towels in areas where there are barbs.
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Paper towels under the barbs to help catch possible leaks
Plug in your pump+reservoir combo unit's molex power connector to your PSU.
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Power to the pump - getting ready for our leak test
Bridge your PSU's 24-pin motherboard power cable to enable it to be jump-started. (Bridging: Connecting a black wire and a green wire with something metal - like a paperclip - so that they form a circuit. When you turn on your PSU's main power switch, the PSU will turn on.)
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Bridging the black and green wires for a jump-start
Fill your reservoir up with distilled water (This is my strong recommendation. Pre-mixed colored coolants tend to separate their components over time, and they will clog your blocks and radiator up, destroying their performance.).
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Fill 'er up! Distilled water only, please.
Turn the pump on to fill the loop with water. The first few times you turn the pump on, check all your tubing connections; make sure that no water is leaking out. Cycle this part of the process until the loop is filled.
Once the loop is full, turn the pump on, and keep it on for the duration of the leak-test.
The general recommendation of most good water-cooling enthusiasts is to conduct a 24-hour leak test, so I advise the same. You might choose to take a shortcut, but you just never know when a leak might occur.
You might argue that if a leak is going to happen, it's going to happen. Many people don't leave their PCs on for 24 hours or more, so what's the point of leak-testing for that amount of time? Fair enough. But I'd rather have the knowledge that I've done the job right and my loop will not leak. I've got a water-cooled file server that stays on every day, all day. You bet I leak-tested that system for at least 24 hours before deploying it for use.
The leak-test phase is also an ideal time to bleed the loop. What is bleeding? Put simply, bleeding is removing the air from the loop. This is done by tilting your reservoir (in this instance, since the reservoir is hard-mounted to the case as it is installed in the 5.25" drive bays, you tilt the entire case) so that the reservoir is at the highest point of the loop. Since air is lighter than water, it will naturally rise to the highest point. You'll know bleeding is done when there are no more bubbles in the reservoir. Once bleeding's all done, you can add either a silver kill-coil or some PT Nuke or other similar biocide, to discourage the growth of algae and other harmful micro-organisms in your water loop.
After completing a successful leak test, you're ready to put the rest of the machine back together. That means putting your hard drives, video card(s), and other components back into the case, then re-installing your power supply unit. You re-do your cable management, then voila! You're ready to use your water-cooled Silencio 550 system!
But then comes the million dollar question: Is installing a water-cooling system worth the effort of putting it in there?
I'll let you be the judge with these screenshots (ambient temperature = 81°F/27.22°C):
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Idle temperature on H2O = 37°C at 81°F (27.22°C) ambient temperature
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Max load temp on H2O = 41°C at 81°F (27.22°C) ambient temperature
Compare them to how the stock cooler on the AMD Phenom II X3 720BE fared (again, the system was on stock settings throughout; note that the ambient temperature for this round of tests was lower: 75°F/~23.89°C):
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Idle temperature on stock cooler = 36°C at 75°F (23.89°C) ambient temperature
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Max load temperature on stock CPU cooler = 47°C at 75°F (23.89°C) ambient temperature
So, there you have it. That's txtmstrjoe's installation of a water-cooling system in a Silencio 550.
I hope this has been an informative post for water-cooling novices especially.
Comments? Thoughts? :)
