P180 Watercooling Project Pics - Comments and Suggestions welcome

Well I followed in Maxxx's footsteps and picked up a Antec P180. I've gotten older and decided it was time to let my U2-UFO go and start a new silent-watercooled project. I decided this time around to try slightly different components from my previous setup (Thanks Petrastechshop!!):

Swiftech Storm R.2
Swiftech MCW-60
50z or D5 (I have both here)
T-Line
Masterkleer 7/16 ID' Tubing
Thermochill PA160
4 x Yate Loon D12SL-12

I've received the case this week and took some pics. The bottom piece of plastic was damaged but not to the point where I thought it would effect much. I'll just patch it up myself.

Initial impressions of the case are that it's not that heavy and it seems pretty tight to work with inside. Both of these opinions are probably based on the fact that I came from the U2-UFO which is heavy and spacious. Build quality is quite good, my front door is not warped unlike some. I wish the mobo tray was removable. The rubber grommets on the hard drive mounting bay are really soft and fun to play with. ;)

edit: March 26th: Thanks for the advice from everyone for removing rivets and the extra bays for fitting in the PA160. New pics added below after drilling out and cutting the tabs on the bays.

I'm also considering removing the filters and front fan grills as they would obstruct airflow and probably cause more noise.

Well here are the preliminary pics. Thanks to Erasmus354 as it was his rig I saw that made me decide to use the PA160.

Edit April 14th:
Spent the whole day putting things together and here is my feedback... (pics tomorrow since I gotta hit the sack after this)...

P180 is a tight fit for watercooling but it works... :) The thing weights a ton. After I finished working on it in the basement, it was a workout carrying it back up to the 2nd floor. Front firewire and audio access is a joke for DFI mobo... the cables would have to go across the mobo so I didn't install... extra drive bay covers are way too flimsy.

Masterkleer is where it's at, bends like hell, seals air tight, crystal clear, and did I mention it bends like hell??

PA160 rocks. I decided to go ultra quiet over perfomance and went with two Nexus fans. The system is silent... the loudest thing is the nf4 chipset fan (of course)... I thought the weaker Nexus would be a problem but no.... X2 4600+ @ 1.42v 10x280 w/ 2gb gskill idle 28C, dual prime load 36C with a gpu in the loop (YES with a SINGLE nexus fan on the rad and one for case exhaust). However looks like a fan over pwmic would be nice...

DO NOT attach the pump to the case... AQX 50z on neoprene... can't hear it at all.

http://www.jpop.com/gocchin/pa180a.jpg
http://www.jpop.com/gocchin/pa180b.jpg
http://www.jpop.com/gocchin/pa180e.jpg
http://www.jpop.com/gocchin/pa180f.jpg
http://www.jpop.com/gocchin/pa180g.jpg
http://www.jpop.com/gocchin/pa180i.jpg
http://www.jpop.com/gocchin/kink.jpg
http://www.jpop.com/gocchin/i-ram.jpg
http://www.jpop.com/gocchin/ipa180j.jpg

try dremeling the head of the rivet. that should do the trick

a drill will do the job

I've got a P180 SPCR which I'm currently modifying to fit my needs. I love the layout and size of the case but the build quality feels kinda cheap. I wish they would have used alumium like Lian-Li and coolermaster, I would gladly have payed the extra cost. It's designed to be quiet but they still didn't remove those steel grills, it wouldn't have cost many cents to replace them with something better. Lovley concept but sadly on a too tight budget.

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Originally Posted by gocchin

my front door is not warped unlike some.

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I think the older doors /w warping problems had plastic on the inside and alu on the outside. Since alu and plastic contract and expand differently during temperature changes the door would warp. Antec designed a new solid alu door to fix this problem. Your door has alu on both the inside and the outside and it's solid alu trough the whole door which eliminates the warping problem. I also got the new door. :banana:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by gocchin

In order to fit in the PA160 I'm going to have to remove the lower 5.25bay and the floppy bay which are held in by rivets. I have no idea how to remove the rivets and any suggestions on how to do it would be much appreciated.

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Just drill them out. I've completly rearranged all drive cages in my case. I just drilled out the rivets and JB-welded the cages where I wanted them.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by gocchin

I'm also considering removing the filters and front fan grills as they would obstruct airflow and probably cause more noise.

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I'm also considering this. I've removed the steel grill and brought a couple of 120mm filters from petrastechshop.com. Hopefully I'll be able to replace the original filters and filter doors with those. I'm not quite sure how to do it yet though.

Yout got some nice parts, super choice on the 7/16 tubing!

for the rivets just drill them out with a drill bit slightly larger than the middle hole.

To remove rivets carefully drill with a bit slightly larger than the "hole" of the rivet.

can i get the name of the girl in the poster?

D5 doesent sounds like a great choice tbh, youll really feel the triple heatdump on that 160... and its not as quiet as your 50Z. D5 on the 120.3 and 50Z on the 160 would have been better, imo :)

Air filters are gonna decrease your flow and increase noise a little aye, but on the other hand you just hoover the filters to clean the dust, instead of having to hoover you rad. Tradeoff...

Masterkleer 7/16 owns ^^

Thanks guys for all the advice. I can use a 50z too as I still have it. I was thinking the same thing about the heat dump.

I do have a drill for getting the rivets out but there are some spots that are nearly impossible to get a drill into.

@ andersson.j how did you drill out the floppy bay as the rivets are vertical and it would be difficult to get a drill in there.

@ situman GOTO (lastname) MAKI (firstname) also the girl in my avatar and sig and my username gocchin is her nickname as I mention on my website

Personally with a rad that small id try bolting it to an existing fan slot. The only time you really need to mod a case is when you use doubles and tripples

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Originally Posted by Sentential

Personally with a rad that small id try bolting it to an existing fan slot. The only time you really need to mod a case is when you use doubles and tripples

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I will be bolting it to an existing fan slot... it's just the pa160 needs the two bays removed (above the fan slot and below)... as Erasmus354 shows in his pic here:

http://members.cox.net/erasmus354/wa...ling%20002.jpg

I used a flexible shaft for my dremel copy.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by gocchin

I will be bolting it to an existing fan slot... it's just the pa160 needs the two bays removed (above the fan slot and below)... as Erasmus354 shows in his pic here:

http://members.cox.net/erasmus354/wa...ling%20002.jpg

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I disagree with that arrangement. You lose alot of slots doing it like that. Why not mount the rad on one of the exhaust ports or externally. With the rad there it will be a REAL pain in the ass if you need to move anything. Its always prefered to make sure nothing is blocking any of the ports

Different case but this is what I'm talking about. You want to mount the rad away from any components so that you have plenty of clearence so you dont have to drain if you want to upgrade anything:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...l/DSC00156.jpg

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sentential

I disagree with that arrangement. You lose alot of slots doing it like that. Why not mount the rad on one of the exhaust ports or externally. With the rad there it will be a REAL pain in the ass if you need to move anything. Its always prefered to make sure nothing is blocking any of the ports

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I'm not to worried about blocking bays as the case still has 3 x 5.25 bays above that and room for mounting 4 x hard drives below it. Considering I'll only have an optical drive and maybe a fan controller I should be okay :).

I'm trying to keep everything internal and quiet as possible. :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by gocchin

I'm not to worried about blocking bays as the case still has 3 x 5.25 bays above that and room for mounting 4 x hard drives below it. Considering I'll only have an optical drive and maybe a fan controller I should be okay :).

I'm trying to keep everything internal and quiet as possible. :)

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Understood. If you only have that few CDR devices ( I have 4) then go right ahead :)

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Originally Posted by Sentential

Understood. If you only have that few CDR devices ( I have 4) then go right ahead :)

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Yeah just one DVD burner is all I need... :)

I wish i could get rid of the floppy on mine... its useful though, im none too fond of flashing the bios from winblows... anyone know if you can do that with a USB floppy drive?

I like that mod gocchin, im really not into extrernally visible mods on cases :)

You sure one D12SL-12 is gonna be enough on that 160 though? I was thinking the D12SM-12 is more appropriate for it - if youre going to use a fan reg (i suggest an automated t-ban setup like mine ;)) maybe something a little more powerful so you can get some extra cooling when needed? From marci's and cathar's tests the 160's performance needs something with a little more kick to come close the 120.2.

USB floppy drive will work fine so long as your computer supports bootable floppies.

looking good gocchin.

gocchin - lookin' good there! I have liked that case since I first saw it, I'm sure that you will make it shine :toast:

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Originally Posted by creidiki

I wish i could get rid of the floppy on mine... its useful though, im none too fond of flashing the bios from winblows... anyone know if you can do that with a USB floppy drive?

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Pickup a cheap USB flash drive , around 128mB...
You can make them bootable by using a program called 'mkbt20' , google it and you will find instructions on how to do it... it does require a floppy to copy the boot sectors from... mkbt20.exe
In your bios you wil prolly have to choose to boot from USB ZIP for the USB flash drive to work...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by creidiki

I wish i could get rid of the floppy on mine... its useful though, im none too fond of flashing the bios from winblows... anyone know if you can do that with a USB floppy drive?

I like that mod gocchin, im really not into extrernally visible mods on cases :)

You sure one D12SL-12 is gonna be enough on that 160 though? I was thinking the D12SM-12 is more appropriate for it - if youre going to use a fan reg (i suggest an automated t-ban setup like mine ;)) maybe something a little more powerful so you can get some extra cooling when needed? From marci's and cathar's tests the 160's performance needs something with a little more kick to come close the 120.2.

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creidiki, that's a good idea. I guess it wouldn't hurt to have a more powerful fan since it would probably be on my fan controller. I do play with a lot of cpu's some hotter than others so I will check out that D12SM, thanks for the advice. :)

glad to see your back at it again.:)

:toast:

Oddly enough most rivets can can just use a flathead screwdriver on and just keep twisting until you dig through the rivet - takes 2 min of hard work for each rivet.. Thats how I did them in my lianli where there wasnt much room - also leaves less mess that using a drill... But for ease use a drill!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by UnreaL

Oddly enough most rivets can can just use a flathead screwdriver on and just keep twisting until you dig through the rivet - takes 2 min of hard work for each rivet.. Thats how I did them in my lianli where there wasnt much room - also leaves less mess that using a drill... But for ease use a drill!

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that is one hell of a wierd technique..

Quote:

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Originally Posted by UnreaL

Oddly enough most rivets can can just use a flathead screwdriver on and just keep twisting until you dig through the rivet - takes 2 min of hard work for each rivet.. Thats how I did them in my lianli where there wasnt much room - also leaves less mess that using a drill... But for ease use a drill!

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Don't Lian-Li use Alu rivets ? If so then that method probably wouldn't work too well on Steel rivets. Good idea for people who havn't got a drill though. (Or are too lazy to get a drill out. ;))

I'd recommend cutting out the front fan grille for more airflow, since you'll need all you can get. Also second getting a slightly faster fan and temp controlling it or something.

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Originally Posted by MaxxxRacer

that is one hell of a wierd technique..

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Yeh but lian-li use alu rivets, super soft, just dig n twist and its gone. Steel might be a problem, didnt think of that...

I can guarentee my method leaves less mess in the case where rivet was, and makes less mess removing it. :)

ya that tecnique wont work on steel rivets idont tihnk. handt realized that lian li used al revits on their cases. I had to drill a few out before on a V2100.

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Originally Posted by MaxxxRacer

ya that tecnique wont work on steel rivets idont tihnk. handt realized that lian li used al revits on their cases. I had to drill a few out before on a V2100.

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Haha, im just so used to using alu cases, much nicer to deal with than steel - come to this century :p:

i just grab the metal plate and just start twisting. Comes off pretty clean. The metal is not as hard or strong as you might think.

I figure I should let you know how I removed the rivets on mine...

Ok first of all I used a drill on all the rivets that can be accessed from the front. I started with a relatively small drill bit and kept moving up to larger ones until the rivet sort of fell off. Unfortunately, my drill was too big to get at the rivets on the bottom for the floppy bay.

Those rivets were a real PITA. There are four of them on the outside of the unit. The way I got them off was to first hammer a nail through the middle to pop out the middle portion (not sure if that is necessary or not this was the first I have dealt with rivets). Then I got a flathead screwdriver, situated it up against the side of the rivet and hammered it until it chopped off the rivet. Much finaggling later I finally got the rivets off. You can then bend the floppy bay off.

A word to the wise though, the 3.5" enclosure is rivetted into the outer shell which is connected to the case. You dont need to remove those rivets, only the ones on the front and the 4 on the bottom.

Hope that helps some.

Hopefully I wont need to remove the floppy bay. Although I rarely use the floppy it is nice to know that it has a post. But i might also remove it for the reason that the metal there looks relatively thin, and might be prone to vibration with the pump situated on top of it.

Thanks for the advice on removing the rivets. I drilled them out then used my dremel to cut the tabs for the 5.25 bay above. The dremel actually worked well on the floppy bay too and I had it off within 2 minutes! :)

http://www.jpop.com/gocchin/pa180b.jpg

Looking good Gocchin. Are you gonna do cpu and gpu with that loop? if so it would be interesting to see how you tube it. Looking at the other user who used the PA160 he did a cpu only loop.

Looks nice, it probably would have been a lot easier for me if I had a dremel :) I was considering buying one but the PA160 ate up all of my money hehe.

this one im gonna be watching. the p180 looks really tempting now... but ill probably build me a box instead due to lack of money! my q-tec is ready to be swithed out!

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Originally Posted by Erasmus354

Looks nice, it probably would have been a lot easier for me if I had a dremel :) I was considering buying one but the PA160 ate up all of my money hehe.

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Well after you said it would be a pita, I figured I did not want to waste too much time, so I just popped down to Home Depot and bought the cheapest dremel they had... worked wonders and will be useful for sure in the future!!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by gocchin

Well after you said it would be a pita, I figured I did not want to waste too much time, so I just popped down to Home Depot and bought the cheapest dremel they had... worked wonders and will be useful for sure in the future!!

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so how did you remove the floppy bay and HDD mount..use dremel or nails like Erasmus354

I am looking forward to doing this with P180 in couple of months

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Originally Posted by nealh

so how did you remove the floppy bay and HDD mount..use dremel or nails like Erasmus354

I am looking forward to doing this with P180 in couple of months

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Because the dremel was a lot smaller than my drill but just as strong (actually seemed stronger) I just put a drill bit in the dremel and even on an angle it easily drilled out the rivets holding the floppy bay/HDD mount.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by gocchin

Because the dremel was a lot smaller than my drill but just as strong (actually seemed stronger) I just put a drill bit in the dremel and even on an angle it easily drilled out the rivets holding the floppy bay/HDD mount.

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thanks....

I've begun cutting out the grills on the front and back of the case. This dremel is proving to be a useful purchase. Hopeful this will ease some of the restriction on the airflow and make it ever slightly more quiet. ;)

http://www.jpop.com/gocchin/pa180e.jpg

Looks like this is gonna come out very nice, gocchin. I have a P180 myself, and posts like this always get me thinking about WC'ing my rig.

Looking good man :)

more pics please...by the way did removing grills help with airflow??

Those grills dont look *too* restrictive - not as bad as the rear grill on my old V1100 anyway - but it cant 'ave hurt...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by yngndrw

Don't Lian-Li use Alu rivets ? If so then that method probably wouldn't work too well on Steel rivets. Good idea for people who havn't got a drill though. (Or are too lazy to get a drill out. ;))

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Well for rivets you can just use a flat head screwdriver place it agaisnt the edge of it and hit the end with a hammer and it will snap the head off of the rivet.

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Originally Posted by Jokester_wild

Well for rivets you can just use a flat head screwdriver place it agaisnt the edge of it and hit the end with a hammer and it will snap the head off of the rivet.

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I can tell you from experience that this method is not ideal for the rivets needing to be removed in the P180. This is the method I used and it took a LOT longer than it would have if I had been able to get a drill at them. It probably took me a good 30 minutes at least to get 4 rivets off.

The best way to remove rivets is with a strong dremel and some kind of lubricant. If you don't use lubricant the drill will get dull after a few rivets and if you use a weak dremel copy like I do it still takes five minutes per rivet because you can't apply enough pressure w/o the dremel halting.

Lubricant? Ive used the same bit to remove dozens of rivets and its still razor sharp. Maybe if its a super cheap bit or your drilling through stainless steel.

The dremel i have is the best investment in moding tools i have made.

If sure taking out those grills will improve both air flow and noise, helped alot with my lian-li.

If you're drilling in soft metalls like alu it doesn't matter, I used the same drill bit for 500+ holes in my last build w/o lubrication but it was only alu.

Steel is another deal, now the drill won't chip away enough material to remove the friction heat so lubricant is a good idéa since it cools the drill and prevents it from going dull.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by andersson.j

If you're drilling in soft metalls like alu it doesn't matter, I used the same drill bit for 500+ holes in my last build w/o lubrication but it was only alu.

Steel is another deal, now the drill won't chip away enough material to remove the friction heat so lubricant is a good idéa since it cools the drill and prevents it from going dull.

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exactly what i mean.

what kinda lubricant

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Originally Posted by nealh

what kinda lubricant

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most anything really, if u dont mind the mess u can use car oil.

good ole water works too... i remember in my old lab i had a column drill that would automatically pour water over the drill bit...

thanks..I am going to remove the bracket in lower chamber in front of HDD case to place a 120mm in take fan....Antec should have done this

I have a 92 mm fan but would like a bit more airflow for the HDD

Spent some time today working on the case... :)

I decided to seal up the back grill that was made for the vga duct and the top 120mm fan hole. I decided that one 120mm fan would be good enough for exaust of the main chamber of the case since it would be on water. I actually got the idea from Ralf Hutter on SilentPCReview to control the airflow of the case and block out extra noise. As Ralf did, I used HVAC tape to seal the areas first then as an extra step used some neoprene (thanks to MickeyMouse for sending me a big roll) to further block in any case sounds.

I also took the time to flush out the Thermochill PA160 as per Maxxx's instructions . And he was right as the first few flushes resulted in cloudy looking water and I flushed it till it was crystal clear. I then screwed in the barbs but not all the way in, only as far as there were threads in the opening. The less restriction the better. Hopefully there will be no leaks around the barb area but if there are, the handly waterproof goo is ready. ^^ Finally for today I dug out some extra thick Neoprene that I got last year from k|ngp|n to use for mounting the AquaXtreme 50z Pump... as you can see in the last picture of the two side by side Neoprene pads, the small one is the one that came with the 50z, and the thicker one is what I will use to dampen out the vibrations...

http://www.jpop.com/gocchin/pa180f.jpg

where are people buying the neoprene?..I asked at Ace and they looked at me as if I was nuts

BTW..looking great

I tried to palce a 120mm fan in lwer chamber infront of the HDD...but you need to cut out the grill and then drill screw holes...too much of a pain...instead I mount a 92mm fan with nylon ties..Panaflo

once you are done I am interested in noise level as I am 100% convinced I am doing this...

gocchin thanks for your inspiration of a frot mounted pa 160 thats exactly what i did with my old fashioned stacker .

went from an exterior install to a completely interior one shortened my tubes got rid of the res and put a "T" line in and droped about 4-5 degrees (and its all your fault)
just kidding

thanks againfor the thought
tom

Looking good gocchin...

Should have gone with thin lexan IMO.

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Originally Posted by n00b 0f l337

Should have gone with thin lexan IMO.

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Thin lexan? What's that?

Lexan is like plexiglass. It's used in race cars for windshields, etc. b/c it is lighter than glass. If anything use plexiglass b/c lexan should be more expensive and harder to find.

Edit: Your rig is awesome. I might have to take the dremel to my P180. ;)

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Originally Posted by Coroner Kyle

Lexan is like plexiglass. It's used in race cars for windshields, etc. b/c it is lighter than glass. If anything use plexiglass b/c lexan should be more expensive and harder to find.

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Place near here has stacks & stacks of 2x1m and 2x3m lexan sheets...

Its a General Motors trademark, iirc, shouldnt be hard to get in N.A. if its so easy in nothern italy >.>

How are things going..is the setup quiet...

any idea where in the US I can get neoprene

How loud is your pump?

any more pics?

I'm still waiting for my blocks to arrive from Petras... damn mail is taking too long. It's almost been two weeks. I'm dying to get this together as someone has already bought my old setup and U2-UFO... :)

oh sorry had no idea...

Great work! Nice and clean. What kind of blocks are you going to use?

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Originally Posted by Razzz

Great work! Nice and clean. What kind of blocks are you going to use?

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It's all in the first post. :)

All my goods arrived today thanks to Petrastech! Was surprised to see Masterkleer for the first time, just how small the tubing seemed compared to the tygon and clearflex I had been using... anyway. Let's see how much system I can put together tonight. :)

Sweet I've been waiting for some more pics. Please report your experience with Masterkleer as I'm about to order some.

I would be interested in your temperatures. I would like to know how well a single PA160 can handle the load of both a GPU and CPU with a lower speed fan.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Coroner Kyle

Sweet I've been waiting for some more pics. Please report your experience with Masterkleer as I'm about to order some.

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And be sure to include more background poster pics of gomaki... :p:

I am waiting and hopeful you will be happy with the perfromance and noise levels..as I hope to use your excellent guide on my setup....

Started measuring out the tubing yesterday and getting everything layed out in the case... I know people here like pictures so here are some more or the new parts while I get it all together....

http://www.jpop.com/gocchin/pa180g.jpg

Looks good so far. Those are really nice looking waterblocks imo.

it lookes a little like the card is being bent, but its non the less really nice..

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Originally Posted by krullet

it lookes a little like the card is being bent, but its non the less really nice..

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What card? I haven't posted any pics of any cards yet? :confused:

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Originally Posted by gocchin

I know people here like pictures[/IMG]

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oh yeah! we love pictures!!!!! :woot:

I believe krullet posted in the wrong section.

Yay pictures! ^^

So are you finished putting the rig together....

if so how are your temps? are you pleased with performance?

BTW what cpu and gpu are you cooling???

Spent the whole day putting things together and here is my feedback... (pics tomorrow since I gotta hit the sack after this)...

P180 is a tight fit for watercooling but it works... :) The thing weights a ton. After I finished working on it in the basement, it was a workout carrying it back up to the 2nd floor. Front firewire and audio access is a joke for DFI mobo... the cables would have to go across the mobo so I didn't install... extra drive bay covers are way too flimsy.

Masterkleer is where it's at, bends like hell, seals air tight, crystal clear, and did I mention it bends like hell??

PA160 rocks. I decided to go ultra quiet over perfomance and went with two Nexus fans. The system is silent... the loudest thing is the nf4 chipset fan (of course)... I thought the weaker Nexus would be a problem but no.... X2 4600+ @ 1.42v 10x280 w/ 2gb gskill idle 28C, dual prime load 36C with a gpu in the loop (YES with a SINGLE nexus fan on the rad and one for case exhaust). However looks like a fan over pwmic would be nice...

DO NOT attach the pump to the case... AQX 50z on neoprene... can't hear it at all.

Edit April 15th:

Here are some pics... iRam installed later today :)

http://www.jpop.com/gocchin/pa180i.jpg

Sounds cool. Can't wait to see the pics of the finished product!:toast:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by gocchin

SFront firewire and audio access is a joke for DFI mobo... the cables would have to go across the mobo so I didn't install... extra drive bay covers are way too flimsy.

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Interesting. I found that hte front bay covers pretty much sucked (one popped out during shipment to me). I will have to see about the cables for the mobo. I guess its a stark contrast to the PC-201B which has ample length for pretty much any mobo.

Added pics 3 posts above.... :)

Will install the iRam for hopefully speedy boots and zero sound today (i can't hear the hard drives in the P180 anyway :) )

I dont think the cables are too short for the DFI board...I think it is just that the DFI board has the most awful placement of the connectors that you need this nasty gray cable going all the way across the mobo. At least that is the reason why I too left out my firewire connector

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Erasmus354

I dont think the cables are too short for the DFI board...I think it is just that the DFI board has the most awful placement of the connectors that you need this nasty gray cable going all the way across the mobo. At least that is the reason why I too left out my firewire connector

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Yeah that's exactly what I meant, they're not too short... they just look terrible going across the board... :)

Gocchin:

:toast: :banana: :banana:

Absolutely awesome pictorial...very sweet temps :clap:

Do you think cutting out the fan grill (in front of the upper HDD cage helped??) what about the lower HDD cage?
what gpu are you cooling???


Why the AQX 50z vs D5? did you consider tygon vs masterkleer?

Where is the T-Line?

These are the same parts I was looking at

Swiftech Storm R.2
Swiftech MCW-60..
AQZ 50z or D5
Res (instead of a T-Line)
Masterkleer 7/16 ID' Tubing
Thermochill PA160

did you have any issues with bleed and fill?

I only hope I do half as well as you??


Neoprene is the the item I looking for now

Quote:

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Originally Posted by nealh

Gocchin:

Absolutely awesome pictorial...very sweet temps

Do you think cutting out the fan grill (in front of the upper HDD cage helped??) what about the lower HDD cage?

Why the AQX 50z vs D5? did you consider tygon vs masterkleer?

Where is the T-Line?

These are the same parts I was looking at

Swiftech Storm R.2
Swiftech MCW-60
AQZ 50z or D5
Res (instead of a T-Line)
Masterkleer 7/16 ID' Tubing
Thermochill PA160

did you have any issues with bleed and fill?

I only hope I do half as well as you??


Neoprene is the the item I looking for now

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I cut out the upper fan grill more for noise than anything... with the weird black fan "door" plus the grills and filter... there is a lot of restriction for airflow, and that equals noise and less cooling so I removed it. I never tested the temps with it still in place so I honestly don't know if it would make a performance difference.... :)

I didn't cut the lower grill, no fan being used there... I will only have one silent spinpoint down there and it runs pretty cool.

I decided on the 50z primarily because of the much lower heat dump... my pump outlet is going directly to the storm so the heat dump of the pump isn't getting cooled by the rad... I tried thinking of other loops but it seemed layout wise, this was the best way (same as erasmus did it too). This loop also resulted in the shortest run of tubing. The D5 does can be adjusted but I figure I don't want to keep opening the case to adust it anyway and the 50z is still one of the best pumps.

I used tygon and clearflex before... the masterkleer appears clearer and more flexible... when you see it in person you can really see how the 7/16" ID is perfect for flow with a 1/2" iD setup. Plus WAY cheaper. I bought 15 feet for like $5 and I only used like 4-5 feet :).

T-line is there, the tubing going up... (in the final setup it's trimmed and attached to a filport in the roof of the case) I feel T-line is the way to go with the P180... working in there is tight... if you have a lot of cabling, it fights for space with your tubing, so the less tubing the better. A resevoir would add two more runs of tubing and restriction. Of course the T is more difficult to bleed but since my loop was so compact, I filled it up pretty quickly and bled it pretty fast. I just kept adding water and tilting the case side to side, front to back, and the water just filled the loop.

Parts list looks just like mine. :)

Your parts were very nice quality and were the same recommended by Mad Mikee..except for the pump..he recommends the D5..but several have brought up the issue of heat dump

I am a complete noobie to water cooling and I have decided these parts are good quality and will allow me to use the cpu and I think the gpu block for a future upgrade

Tubing...is an unknown...if it is easier to bend probably better for me until I learn some of the issues of line placement and pitfalls of a setup...

I bought a dremel becasue of your handiwork...

I placed a 92 mm fan in front of the HDD in lower chamber since my OCZ psu does not allow for a mid chamber fan..I am going to mod a 120mm fan to fit down there with my dremel

here is nice idea for cooling the PMWIC....works great for me

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/....php?p=1359304

BTW I guess you have found the need for only the fan on the rad and exhaust...no others fan nneded for heat...I also have a 120mm YL fan blowing toward my chipset seems to help with cooling..looks like this would no longer be possible

I am looking more closely at your pics...the pump is just seating on the neoprene....is the neoprene secured to the case in some fashion...is there anything to keep the pump from sliding around?

Also could you leave the T-line under the top with no hole made in the case and just slide it over to refill???
If so what do you cap the T-Line with


Also what gpu are you cooling??

I have read the guides but wow alot of info and clearly I miss things

Thanks for you kind replies to this ignorant water cooling hopful to be noobie

Just do the t-line like i did in my ufo... you can cap it with anything... I used another filport...

There are more pics and descriptions of that setup at my blog http://www.jpop.com/overclock

http://www.jpop.com/overclock/images/water3.jpg

I have numerous video cards but the one in there now is a 6800GS, I'm interested to see how temps rise if I throw in my x1900xtx...

I'd like to blow fans on the pwmic and chipset and if I did it'd probably be one 120mm fan :).

Looking realy good gocchin. now here is the real question. How quiet is it?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MaxxxRacer

Looking realy good gocchin. now here is the real question. How quiet is it?

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It's pretty quiet maxxx, my wife's NF4 shuttle is louder now.

After running the thing for nearly 24 hours straight, testing dual prime at all
different voltages I noticed that temps were up a bit so I opened up the case
and noticed that the masterkleer had kinked!!! The outlet of the gpu block to
rad has a really tight bend and while it was fine when I first installed it, I'm
guessing the warmer temps in the case closed caused it to kink... I saw what
ben805 did in another thread and added a worm clamp to remove the kink...

http://www.jpop.com/gocchin/kink.jpg

It seems to have worked... just did a quick 5 min dual prime to get load temps
up (PWMIC definitely needs work, and interesting what nvidia temps show... must be off?):

http://www.jpop.com/gocchin/46002750temps.png

I think I'm going to have trouble installing the i-RAM.... space looks pretty tight...

Gocchin, that nVidia sensor doesnt look too far off considering where your cpu "says" its at. What were your ambient temps at the time?

And the GPU was at idle then too wasnt it?

Hope you can get the I-ram in there. What would be nice is if they included 2 SATA ports on it so that it could act like a RAID 0. That way you could get 600mb/s out of the new SATA2 version.

I agree, the PWMIC seems about right.

My PWM's load at around 52-53C on my Opty 165, with a nearly identical cooling and computer setup as yours ;)

The i-ram looks like it will hit the 50z if I stick it in... it's a pretty long card....

I considered cooling just the cpu in the loop as Erasmus did but ended up
throwing in the gpu since I won't really bench this rig 3D :).

I personally like keeping the PWMIC under 50, I believe it can help the OC stability. :)

I ran the setup at 2800mhz @ 1.45v for over 30min and PWMIC got up to
55C. I should let it run all day as I bet PWMIC will break 60C.

http://www.jpop.com/gocchin/46002800temps.png

this can and does help with pwmic:

http://xtremesystems.org/forums/show...highlight=crab

Very nice setup there. I plan on doing this same thing to my own Antec P180 but I never would have thought it quite this easy until your post. Thanks for all the nice pictures and details.

Damn, so much neater than my setup... =/