Water cooling project 101

Well, I'm going to try to keep all my progress posted on converting from air to water :banana: Here are some pixs of my set up now, this pc is only 3 weeks old. I always use to build conventional boxes, ie. NO PIZZAS! So I broke down and did my first mod job....

Here is a pic with the lights out
This is my new ViewSonic VP912B 19" LCD
Here is where I will place my rad box, see them figurines

Well thats what I have now, this will be a slow process, and I will try to keep anyone interested in my progress updated!

Hey is that orange cable sleeves? :stick:

good luck with ur setup. if you need any help dont hesitate to ask.

Yes, I also have green and blue in there. I have some more UV lights coming so I can light the top part. That cam really not that great of a pic, much better sitting here in front of it.

Thanks Maxxx, I will be posting pics and maybe asking question if I run into problem.

anyway u can take more closeup pictures?

Well the first part of my water cooling showed up today. Its my Iwaki MD20RZT!

Here you have a factory sealed box :)

Here it is with the fittings they supplied so I can run 1/2" tubbing.

Another angle

This thing is just big!!!

No way will I try to squeeze this pump into my case!

bimmer, I will get some inside case shots when I go to put it all together ok!

btw - awesome pump.
My next pump will be the iwaki.
I current have the DD 12v pump, and it kicks so much ass.
And i've used Eheim1250 and ViaAqua1300, both every good pumps.

Thanks bimmer!

Ok for any of the new people to water cooling that might be following this work in progress, I will be having a short waiting period. Two item that I will not change are specialty items...

1. The Storm G5 water block
2. The Weapons monster core

I will be building a rad box, and following Maxx and others will use MDF for the construction. The box will incorporate an idea of mine that will make draining a breeze.

you can make it alot smaller if you go with 3/4 fittings straight off the bat and use 5/8 tubing coming and going from the pump. just get a weapon heatercore with 5/8 fittings and a resivour with 5/8 fittings (weapon modded mine) and you can do it.

Ya, I think I will do that. I already talked to weapon and did ask for the flow cannons. I have a question Maxx, which one is intake? I would guess it would be the one sticking out to the side. What I will do is make all the tubbing in the rad box 5/8" ID and then reduce it to use 1/2" to and from my case... Do you know where I can find 2 5/8" connectors?

Well I think I found what I'm looking for, and here is a link if anyone needs some of these...

Poly Tubing insert fittings

the one on the end of the pump is intake...

those fittings are the same ones as i have.. but the price on this is a bit high.. if you go to www.customaqautic.com or www.marinedepot.com you should get better prices.

well you found the 5/8... so i suppose just get them both there.. the two places i listed dont do 5/8 fittings. btw why do u need 5/8 female fittings???

I was refering to the barb side, its 3/4 or NPT female. Custom aqautics was where I bought the pump and they told me on the phone that they don't make an FPT 1/2" so I went with their suggestion. What I have on my pump is male threads so what I ordered was...

2. NPT female 5/8" insert
1 5/8" coupling
1 5/8" tee

I will not be using a resivour and the coupling will be used to join the 5/8" ID hose to the 1/2" ID hose running to the computer. The returning line will be forced onto the tee.

i strongly suggest that you use a res in your rad box. place it about 2 inches from the pump inlet with 5/8 tubing between it and the pump.. the iwaki really likes to suck hard (no pun intended) and if you dont feed it properly you will end up with cavitation which can lead to a damaged pump.

this 5/8npt female insert will adapt your 3/4 pump fittings to 5/8? looking at the description i dont see anywhere where it says 3/4.. can you clarify?

Well, I'm not sure now. I was assuming that the mesurments on the end was for the insert size. I'm going to have to call them tomorrow becuase they are close today.


Look at this page

Thanks for pointing that out for me. That site is a bit confusing, they only give you one mesurment. I was looking at them fittings and how can you have a 2" insert on a 3/4" female thread.

yah.. its very odd.. i dont think they have a 3/4 to 5/8 adapter there... i suggest you just get some 5/8 tygon (have it be 1" OD) and be done with it. it will be hard to stretch over it but it will do it just fine.

I have hte 5/8ID 3/4OD tygon and its way to thin.. the 1" OD stuff will be alot better

I also use the 3/4 fittings that they sell on that site. they are of supurb quality and are insanely strong.

ok, I was able to cancle my order. I purchased this from USPlastics...

2 3/4"FNPT x 3/4" Hose ID Polypropylene Female Adapter
5 Tygon® Laboratory Tubing 5/8" I.D. 7/8" O.D. and 1/8" wall
1 Black High Density Polyethylene Connector Fitting 5/8 x 5/8

If I heat my 1/2" ID tygon I should be able to get it on the 5/8" barb connector?

you wont need to heat it. you can get it on the 5/8 connector pretty easily... its just hard getting it off afterwards.

My MD-20RZ arrived today but there's a little problem, the power cables have been cut down to about 2", so theres no way they'll reach my PCI Relay card, what do I have to do to extend them?

Go to this site...

Minute Man Electronics

Scroll down to the product...

18 AWG 6' Black
3 Conductor SJT Power Cord
Philmore # SJT183-6

Then when you get it cut it to lenght and take the black butt of the pump and re wire it, you will be set then!

Oh you might want to buy 3 new crimp connectors and just do one wire at a time, so you don't confuse your self with which wire goes where!

My pump only has Black and White wires coming out of the back :( According to the PCI Relay card site that means its missing the green ground wire, is that alright?

Open the black cap and see if the is a screw in the end. That is where the green goes.

Maxx, I'm going to use this 2 qt. air tight container with a locking lid for a res. What if I buy some PVC tubing and just JB weld or silicon sealant to hook the pumps intake right to the res. This way there will be no restriction smaller than the size of the intake of the pump.

sounds good spatman.. the pvc should work.

The fittings on my MD-20RZ are 11/16", my Weapon HC will have 5/8" Fittings, everything else is 1/2", so really the only place I can use bigger tubing is from the pump to the radiator, I'm thinking Tygon 5/8" ID 15/16" OD, then 1/2" ID 3/4" OD for everything else, sound good?

I don't see why not, but I have never built a water cooling system yet. I'm going to run 5/8" to and from my PC and use only 1/2" ID inside the pc. I'm going to use 1" PVC pipe from my res to intake of my Iwaki, and the rest of the tubing will be 5/8" ID.

Here is a couple of pics of the res I will using. Its a polycarbonat Icehot air tight 2 qt. container. My question is which would be better as a setup, pump mounted to bottum or to the side of my rad box?


Pump mounted to side wall of rad box

or

Pump and res flat on the bottum


Here is a little leak test I tried

Here are a few pics of the mod to the pump intake to the res...

Side view

Front view

Top view

Maxx, if you see this I have a question. If I run a 1" pvc tub from the top of the res to the top of my rad box and use this as a fill tube, also could I run my return line into this fill tube so it acts like an air trap? Would that hert flow rates?

Well, here is my completed reservoir. I don't think it will have too much impact on flow, cause I used 1 1/2" PVC to construct an air trap and fill tube. I will fill it to about 2" from the top so the 2 qt. res will be completely filled with coolant and hopefully the air trap will keep the bubbles to the top of the trap.

Here is the res with the modifications, the barb is for draining and you can see the 1 1/2" fitting on top.

I made the inside flush so when I fill air will escape.

This is my 1 1/2" PVC air trap with the 5/8" ID return line attached and end cap.

This is how it looks put all together.

I used plumbers goop for all the seals with 2 layers. The return line is connected straight in to the end cap of the Y. The last two seals to be made are the Y to the res and pump to res, but I will do this when I install it in the rad box.

Spatman, i see you are coming along with project.Looks like we both need 1 more piece to complete. Will you be cooling GPU also. I originally started out to cool my 3.4EE & 9800 but while waiting on G5 i have thought about just getting new mobo,AMD & ATI???.I've convinced wife that is the smartest thing to do :D She can use this puter & i won't have to gut mobo etc.& have more pieces laying around. Your setup looks like it will cool very good only restriction u have is G5.

Yes, I will also add a WB for the vid card. Weapon sent me a PM and my monster core is going through last testing. We all know that it is a waiting game for the G5 so I will have my rad box done and tested before it arrives!

spatman that looks nice.. it should allw you to get the MAX flow through ur iwaki. congrats on the res.

i see hte pvc tubing u mentioned. you just want to run ur return line through it. i odnt see why you couldnt. it would just dump out into the res as soon as it gets to the end of the 1 inch pvc tube. but my question is y is there a y fitting there.? and why is there tubing comng out of it?

That tubing is the return line, the barb in the res is for draining and it will be hooked up to qwick disconnects. I put the Y there after reading some post on pro cooling forums about air traps. I want to have any air trap in the fill tube and the 2 qt res full with nothing but coolent.

I know Maxx, this is my first time at this k :) The top of the 2 qt res will be sealed shut with goop, and the way the rad box is I would not be able to open the res...

Better yet, I will post some pics with the setup in my rad box. I made it out of a printer stand that I had in my closet.

can you link me to the thread on pro cooling. im not sure what ur talking about.

Ok here it is, I have a few more things to do to it but...

I will have the weapons monster core in the open area. Painted and with the shroud its almost like a work of art so I will no hide it.

Front view

Disconnects for draining

Inside the box and power supply

Box with pump, res and fill/air trap

Back view

This is my first box, and I'm sure I will build another.The line from the core and the line to the fill/air trap will have to be spliced with 5/8" Y to hook up disconnects for draining. I know I might have a hit in flow, but being able to connect 2 lines to empty the whole system (Not the core) is a convenience.

hmm. interesting. so that tube going into the 1inch pvc is the retun line. it flows from the outside and into that. am i getting this right.

and where does the rad sit in al of this. also what is that extra fitting on the res. im trying to think how the core would connect up to all of this.

The barb in the lower part of the res will be hooked up to a qwick disconnect to empty the res. When I attach the end cap to the pvc the only way of getting it out is to hack the pvc, it will make flushing a breezzzz.

Here is the supply and return lines to the pc

This is the out flow from core

That tube will run between the pump and res to the other side. The 5/8" T or Y will be inside the box and will run to one of the disconnects.

This is for the outlet from pump to core

The barb from the res will have 1/2" running to a small valve then to the outlet of one of the disconnects. This will be on the opposit side of the 5/8" barb that the flow is on.

Yes that tube will be the return from the storm G5. It then runs into the pvc and trap the air at the top then the flow will move down to the res. The only two fitting I will use in the box is 5/8" Y to run to the disconnects.

still lost but ok. ill just have to wait to see when its done..

Here is a very crude scetch of the plumbing...


Plumbing

so on the end of thos quick disconnects you will have what? or are those just so you can press teh button on them and drain the water. thats kinda what im getting from what you did.

Yes, its just for draining. I was looking in the us plastics catalog and found some tees that are 3/4" 3/4" with 1/2" barb. I will be using them insted of 5/8" Ys. I want to minimize flow restriction.

good idea.. y's add more turbulence to your directed flow rate than would the T's. especially considering the T's are bigger.

Here is a pic of the drain and flush lines with the male disconnect on them. To drain I would open my end cap on the fill tube then attach these to the disconnects on the box.

Disconnects

sounds good.

Is green line a drain line from res. ?
What does valve do.

edit do i have flow right?

Yes, but mainly the disconnects will drain all the lines and res but not the Rad. I will ether disconnect the rad and empty or just fill the res with pump on and disconnects attach to flush.

The valve is needed so you don't get back wash into the res from the Rad. If it was just a tee, you would have a loop between the outlet of the core to the res.

Thanks heater, I'm not that great at drawing a picture. Pictures are worth a thousand words so my vocabulare is limited, lol

You know i was thinking along the same idea as your set up, before family got my new case and all. I was in process of building external set up. I had allready ordered enheim 1250, res. tygon & i have set of colder disconects. I would like to add disconects to my system but i'm afraid my pump my not handle it (dd4 laing). Colder disconects have a X piece inside valve i thought about drilling that out so as to decrease resistence?
Will be following close so as to see how your set up performs it looks well thought out for 1st. time. With my spare pump & stuff i will set something similiar up.

I was going to do the same... but I did read on pro cooling and here on this forum that they are restrictive. So instead of using them inline I will use them to make my life easier.

I'm also thinking if I could mount weapon's monster core upside down so the barbs are at the bottum. This way when I connect the disconnects it will empty everything.

But there is a chance that air will be traped is the rad that way. I wounder if I can have a bleeder installed?

My thermochill has bleeder that i wish some how i could turn it into drain line as it is at the bottom of core, mounted horiz. in my case. Sorry to answer question with question but i think you just gave me a doable way to drain my system. Will have to ask his Royalness.
No reason why you could not add bleeder to rad. I would pm Weapon and get his opinion. Do you solder or braze maybe he could recomend someone close if not.

dont have the inlets at the bottom.. the heatercore will trap air if you do so.. niksub tested this with his thermochill 120.3,

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MaxxxRacer

dont have the inlets at the bottom.. the heatercore will trap air if you do so.. niksub tested this with his thermochill 120.3,

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Is that for me? ^
my rad is horiz. with barbs up & bleeder is on other end at the bottom. Would that some how work as a system drain . As in this position it does not function as a air bleeder.
I was thinking of attaching something to bleeder outlet with on off valve for drain as this would not act as a restriction if i'm thinking right. If this makes any sense i would appreciate any ideas on how to make it work.

Sorry spatman i should have started new thread :slapass:

lol. i was talking about spatman.

Ya, I'm not going to do that. I will ether just flush the rad out or take it out of the loop and empty it.

oh ok..

I found a solution to a filler port filter. Here are some pics of the items I bought at K-Mart this morning.

Catch and strain, plus a lint filter

I trimed down the catch and strain so it treads into the end cap

Here it is with the lint filter inserted

Here is the finished end cap filter

I think this will keep any unwanted materials from entering the loop with the end cap open while filling or draining.

good idea. just make sure it wont ever break up.

Its a nylon mesh. I can remove very easily to wash or replace and the water level in the fill tube will be just below the end cap. I imagin there will be some splashing coming from the return line, we will just have to see how it works.

Lot of ideas are good on paper, but sometimes never work out in actual use.

I have all the res seal except the end cap, so I decided to wire up the pump and test it out. I made a loop and pluged my res drain barb and filled it up with water. I want to run it all night for a good test but the pump is making a swoooshing noise. SO... I put some restriction on the line by sqeezing the tube and the noise stopped. All the air was out of the system in 30 seconds, that Y works very well!

My question is would it be ok to let the pump run all night without restiction? Also I had no leaks after running for about an hour.

Oh, I wish I made the top of the fill tube out of clear pvc! When it was running there was a very nice vortex in the uper part of the fill tube.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by spatman

Oh, I wish I made the top of the fill tube out of clear pvc! When it was running there was a very nice vortex in the uper part of the fill tube.

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Do that in revision 2! :D

Ya... I already had that in the back of my mind. This is my first WC system so I'm not going to reck that res I made. It seems to work very well!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by spatman

Ya... I already had that in the back of my mind. This is my first WC system so I'm not going to reck that res I made. It seems to work very well!

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I can say from experience that you definitely do not want to mess with a working watercooling setup if it's your first.

Well I have good news! :banana: my Weapon's monster core and shroud will ship on Monday! With this I can finish my rad box and then I will have to wait for the Storm G5. :rolleyes: Will give me plenty of time to leak test the rad box :toast:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by spatman

Well I have good news! :banana: my Weapon's monster core and shroud will ship on Monday! With this I can finish my rad box and then I will have to wait for the Storm G5. :rolleyes: Will give me plenty of time to leak test the rad box :toast:

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That's going to be sick :toast:

I think I'm going to use an MCW5002-64T on my CPU instead of the TDX, I just got one off a guy for cheap. If I put in a 226W Pelt with a dedicated power supply it shouldn't get above 15C loaded. Anyone think this is a bad idea?

I really don't know, but I will play with pelts later after I get some experiance with water. I do know I will need a new block, plus I would not think of putting a pelt on a Storm G5!

Pelts are too expensive and problematic for what you get out of them. Pelts can die, killing your processor in seconds. The powersupply that you need to power the pelts can fail, plus they're expensive. The pelt waterblocks are more expensive than standard blocks and their designs are not as good as the latest blocks anyhow. Lastly you'll spend a lot of money on a big rad and big pump and in all it'll probably cost you close to $500. For that, you could get a Prommie or Vapochill which would cool much better, or for much less you could get a superior watercooling system (non-pelt).

I have the rad box completed, all connection are final and will mount weapon's monster core as soon as it arrives. The last thing I have to do is seal up the back and run all my wiring for the fans to the core. I will have one panaflo fan in the back wall pulling air out so it will aid in cooling the pump. I did change the plumbing a bit and added a quick disconnect for the res, no valve, and remember the disconnects are only for draining and flushing. Here are a few shots of the box...

Here are the fittings. I went with 3/4" tees with 1/2" branch for disconnects, this is the return line (water block to res) and its disconnect.

This disconnect will be mounted in the back wall, its for the line from the core to the water block.

Here is the plumbing for the res and its disconnect. You can see the tee under the res barb, this runs to the back disconnect and is the core to water block drain.

Here is where the monster core will be mounted. It will not be enclose for easy removal for draining and/or flushing.

Here is the lines that run to and from the PC. You can see I added a vent so air will be drawn in over the pump by the panaflo fan mounted in the back wall.

The front fan is just a bling thing, and really not much else. I'm sure the panaflo on the back wall will draw enough air in through the vent to help aid in cooling of the pump.

I gave it a *sol enema last night for 1 hour to remove any material that may have been in the tubes from the manufacturer. I went through 5 gallons of distilled water for cleaning and flushing. I have to say the disconnect work like a champ at draining and made the whole process less time consuming. Then I seal the system so no air can move through so less chance of any contaminants getting into the loop. :)

Ok, big thanks goes to Weapon... Weapon if you see this great work! Here are some pics I posted in another thread, all I need to do is mount this baby and wait for my storm G5.

Pic 1

Pic 2

Pic 3

I was going to get 4 of the Weapon grills, but opted for regular gold fan grills. I think the gold with all the black I have going on will be nice.

wow that is a crazy setup.. still dont understand the flow setup u got there but it still looks very nice

Well after a little thinking I finally have the monster core installed! Here are some pics...

From the front

My 4 panaflo fans

line from pump to core

I have it mount in such a way all I have to do is remove the hoses and the shroud then the rad comes right out. Maxx, if you see this you can see the flow now....

1 Pump to rad
2 Rad back into the box where a 3/4" tee is spliced in, then it runs out the other side of the box to the pc.
3 Pc line back to box where the other 3/4" tee is spliced in, from there to the fill tube and res.
4 The barb on res goes stright to a disconnect in the side wall.

The 1/2" side of the 3/4" tees run to the disconnects one in the side wall, the other on the back wall. I have to say them 3/4" tees are hugh. The best part is I don't have to undo a single hose to drain or flush! :banana:

The last thing I need to do is install my back wall to the box. I was going for "different" I just did not want a square box sitting next to the monitor.

very nice man... very nice... got a backside picture of the internals. the side where the pump resides im refering to.

4 post up Maxx!

Was kinda hoping for a straight picture that showed all of it so i can get a really good pic of what is going on :p:

ok hold on!

lol thanks man

Ok, here it is...

Back

Top back

This disconnect is connected to the 3/4"tee (rad to PC)

This disconnect is connected to 3/4" tee (Pc to Res)

That other disconnect is connected to res

Here you see the lines running to and from the PC, the one in the middle is connected to the 3/4" tee in the box coming from the rad.

Here you can see the tee for the line from rad to pc, its under the barb for the res. Can also see the res barb connecting to an elbo then to the disconnect in the side wall.

wow.. it all makes sense now..

very veyr nice setup. talk about flow optimized to the max.

Here is a pic with color for flow...

Ya, I really have you to thank Maxx! I would have used them Y instead and that would have been bad. I think this way the flow restriction has been minimized and the easy of draining and flushing are still there.

Hey Maxx...

Since I have this box setup so I can drain and fill in less than 10 minutes, and if I changed the water every month, could I get away with just using distilled water and no additives?

This system will take about 1 1/2 gallons! So thats $2 dollars a month at $24 bucks a year in water.

Rad I'm sure is copper and brass, the Wb for cpu will be silver, and I will go with a copper GPU Wb.

I would use some additives to protect your investment. Nice setup. :toast:

With that much water, if you run additives in there you shouldn't have to change the water for months. :)

Ya, if I do I will use 5% zerex. But I would like to see just clear water, but you are right why risk it!

I wouldnt risk it.. besides having to change the water every month will get annoying as heck..

there is no risk of corrosion but in about a week you could see funky stuff growing in the water that would lead to clogs...

One thing I think will be interesting will be to see if the air flow over the pump will have any effect on cooling. I have the 120mm panaflow mounted on the back wall and hooked to the fan bus.

I made a duct out of cardboard and it fits between the pump and the wall. The air flow moves very well around the pump as its pulled into the case and out the back. But with the monster core it may be a moot point!

Well, I was not pleased with the Noise Isolator fan controller. It made my fans whine and growl at low speeds. I ordered a Sunbeam controller and I will tell you that it made a world of difference.

Now I have now fan noise, and at 7 volts my rad box is silent. So I recommend that if your in the market for a fan controller, stick with a sunbeam!

thats odd about the controller, my cheapie thermaltake one doesnt do that and i only paid $10 for it, maybe you got a dud controller.

I think it has to do with what fans you use on a PWM type controller. I quess the panaflows did not like it, but they are completly silent now.

I made my coolant and filled the box to test for leaks and see how well it will do. It took just a little more than a gallon of coolant to be up and running and bled of air.

I'm using 95% distilled water, 5% zerex and 3/4 tsp Iodine for each gallon. I still have that sandy sound coming from the pump, and I sure hope the Storm G5 can add enough restriction to quit it down. If I pinch the line all I hear is the hum of the Iwaki pump.

The color of the coolant looks great, like a purple tint to it. I did run a sol enema, so I know there is nothing in there that can grow. The box is kinda big, but that spot is not being used by anthing anyway. Here are the pixs...

Spatman, mixed zerex today added to res. I'm getting some bubbles or suds buildup when i run pump. Is that normal? I have small air pocket in res. but waterlevel is above inlet. Distilled water has been run to flush nothing else.

When I mixed it in the gallon jug I had a very little. When I added it to my system its very clear, no foam.

The only thing I did was flush the system with a 25% pinesol 25% Lysol and 50% distilled water. I ran it like that for about 1 hour, but this was like 2 weeks ago. After I flushed it I sealed it and did not open it till today.

I also added 3/4 tsp of Iodine to the gallon of water first, then I added the zerex.

Well, I have decided to add an in-line strainer. Since I will be running the G5, I might as well take precautions against blockage. I will place the strainer right before the cool line enters the PC to the CPU WB. I found one that has 3/4" barbs and has a stainless steel mesh. Here is a link...

Strainer