Hello everybody,
I’m planning on building a new system; my aim is to get a very silent system, with amazing looks.
I don’t intend to do much overclocking, just a bit, as long as I can keep the noise down.
I didn’t use watercooling up to now, except running a corsair H70 on the latest system I build, but as it’s a closed circuit, I don’t count it as real experience in the watercooling world
I’ll need quite some performance from the GPUs, as I run a 30” screen in 2560x1600 on one GPU and two 20” screens tilted to offer 1200x1600 on the second GPU to have a nice desktop surface of 4960x1600, so I planned one 360 radiator per GPU, maybe too much or not enough…
I will probably later on add a 3rd GPU, and obviously it could require adding another radiator in the setup, but this is not in scope at the moment.
I’ve been looking out in the various forums, wikis and other sources of information I could find to plan the setup, but now comes the time to ask you guys what you think about it and to provide insight on some choices to be made as you have experience in these fields…
Here’s the list of equipment for the new rig;
(I already ordered the Case, the front panel and USB3 internal adapter, and already have the caviar Black HDDs as well as one of the HD6970 GPUs, the rest will be ordered in phases during the construction progress)
Case:
Ascension CYO (Choose Your Own)
- Side 3: Triple Original Panel
- Side 2: Big Window Panel
- Motherboard Tray: XL-ATX
- Side 1: Big Window Panel
- Window Etching: None
- Front Panel Type: Trinity
- Front Panel Fan Spacing: 15mm
- Finish: Mirror Black
- Back Panel Type: Horizon
- Back Panel Fan Spacing: 15mm
- Acrylic Color: Smoked Grey
- changing the switches with Lamptron Illuminated Anti-Vandal Switch - Red/Black
- changing the leds with Lamptron Red/Black tailed LED
PSU:
CoolerMaster Silent Pro M1000, 1000Watt, ATX
Motherboard:
Asus Rampage IV Extreme, S2011, X79, 8xDDR3, ATX
Processor:
Intel Core i7-3960X, 3.30GHz, 15MB, S2011
Memory:
Corsair Vengeance R 32GB(4x8GB) DDR3 1866MHz CL10
GPU:
2x Asus Radeon HD 6970, 2GB
HDD:
2x SSD raid0: Corsair Force GT 120GB 2.5" SATA3 (for OS partition and boot)
2x HDD raid0: WD Caviar Black 1TB, 7200rpm, 64MB, SATA 6Gb/s (already have)(for temp, pagefile and data partitions)
BD drive :
Lite-On IHBS112-37 BD-RW 12X
Fan controller:
NZXT Sentry LX Multipanel, Zwart
Front panel:
Icy Box MultiReader 5,25" 6xCard 3xUSB 2xUSB3.0 1xeSata (b)
in addition: USB 3.0 20-Pin Header to USB 3.0 Type-A Short Cable – found at usb.brando.com
(to connect USB3 cables directly to MB)
WC reservoir:
Koolance RP-452X2 Dual 5.25in Reservoir for 1-2 PMP-450/S Pumps, Rev.1.3 (with attached pumps listed below)
Used in parallel mode
Added 2x Dual Ultra Bright LED Cable, 4-pin, White
with Fittings:
2x Koolance Nozzle Pair, Compression [For ID: 13mm (1/2in), OD: 19mm (3/4in)]
WC Pumps: 2x Koolance Pump, PMP-450 [13mm, 1/2in ID]
WC CPU block:
EK-Supreme HF - Acetal+Nickel
with Fittings:
2x EK-PSC Fitting 13mm - G1/4 Black
WC MB Kit:
EK-FB KIT RE4 - Acetal+EN (Nickel)
with Fittings:
4x EK-PSC Fitting 13mm - G1/4 Black
2x EK-PSC Adapter 45° G1/4 Black
(required to space out the fittings for installation of GPU in 1st PCIe slot)
WC GPU block:
2x EK-FC6970 Acetal + Nickel
with Fittings:
4x EK-PSC Fitting 13mm - G1/4 Black
4x EK-PLUG G1/4 (to reused from radiators when isntalled)
Connector:
Koolance Dual VID Connector, *Black* Adjustable 1 Slot Spacing (if used, depending on loop setup)
WC tubing:
EK TUBE Clearflex 13/19
With 2x Antimicrobial Silver Strip for Coils (12 inch) (SW-1001-12in) (one per loop)
WC radiators:
3x EK-CoolStream RAD XT (360)
1x EK-CoolStream RAD XT (120) – (maybe, depending on CPU/MB loop flow as noted later)
WC coolant:
Feser Aqua - Ultra Pure Water or equivalent (no dye, distilled water)
Fans:
47x Akasa AK-274CR-4RDS Quiet Red LED Fan, 120mm
Front panel (9x 12cm holes, used for 3x360 radiators)
Per 360 radiator placed on front panel inside the case: (12 fans per radiator, 3 rads, total 36 fans required)
- 3 towards chassis, pulling air from outsideGrills: still searching for grills with dust filter you can take out without unmounting the whole setup
- 3 without the fans, only housing and leds, acting as shrouds
- radiator,
- 3 without the fans, only housing and leds, acting as shrouds
- 3 inside the case, pushing air inside the case
With anti-vibration gaskets towards the chassis for case contact
Top panel (3x 12cm holes)
3 required for top panel, pushing air outsideBack panel (4x 12cm in bottom, 1x12cm on top near MB)
Grills: Black 120mm Steel Mesh Fan Grill / Filter (1.5mm Hole)
For the 120 radiator placed on back panel inside the case: (4 fans)
- 1 inside the case, pulling air from the case towards the radiatorGrill: 120MM Chrome Grill - Black
- 1 without the fans, only housing and leds, acting as shroud
- radiator,
- 1 without the fans, only housing and leds, acting as shroud
- 1 towards the chassis, pushing air outside the case
4 required for back panel, pushing air outside
Grills: 120MM Chrome Grill – Black
now the fun part, the WC loops configuration;
- MB/CPU loop;
o Scenario 1:
From pump/reservoir combo
To GPU1
Use a link connection to GPU2
To 360 radiator1
To 360 radiator2
Back to reservoir/pump combo
The advantage of scenario1 is to have less tubing, but the heat of GPU1 is transferred to GPU2 in the process
o Scenario 2:
From pump/reservoir combo
To GPU1
To 360 radiator1
To GPU2
To 360 radiator2
Back to reservoir/pump combo
The advantage is to cool the liquid between each GPU, but there are more tubes required
- GPU loop;
o Scenario 1:
From pump/reservoir combo
To MB block1
To MB block2
To CPU
To 360 radiator
Back to reservoir/pump combo
Advantage is less tubing, but the liquid goes into the CPU block with the warmth of the MB blocks, or the order should be reversed, but I take a wild guess the CPU is warmer than the MB cooled parts, so it should be better to first go through the less warm blocks…
o Scenario 2:
From pump/reservoir combo
To MB block1
To MB block2
To 120 radiator on back panel
To CPU
To 360 radiator on front panel
Back to reservoir/pump combo
The advantage here is to cool the liquid after passing the MB before sending it to the CPU block, is a 120 rad enough for this?
And now the big questions;
- Does anybody see something missing or wrong in the setup?
- Should I add additional reservoirs in the chassis next to the one used for the front bay?
o If I add a second reservoir and there is a leak, which one will get empty first? So basically can I then rely on the level seen in the bay reservoir without looking in the other more hidden reservoir within the case?
o Should the additional reservoir be in front of the pump in the loop or behind? Does it matter?
- What is the best loop solution for both CPU/MB loop and GPU loop based on above scenarios? Or should I review completely the scenarios?
- Is one 360 radiator enough for a CPU cooling?
- Will a 1000W PSU be enough? From some calculators on the web, it should with some margin, but without taking in account the Water Cooling system…
- Does it make any sense in having radiators between the blocks in the loops or is the order with a loop not really important?
- Should I add secondary pumps on each loop for redundancy?
- Or should I all together just use one loop? I’ve seen the threat of dual vs single loops, so not sure to the best way to go anymore…
Your help/comments will be greatly appreciated ;-)
Greg
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