My Second Build!

[YooNiBaLL]

Hello everyone, after a long hiatus from XS after a successful first build, I couldn't resist the urge to build a new and more beastly system .. Well here's my current plan so far:

Budget: None as of now
Theme: Black/White
Uses: Everyday Use/Overclocking/Gaming/Hobby

Purchased Main Components:

CaseLabs Case STH10

ASUS Maximus V Extreme Z77 E-ATX Motherboard

Intel Core i7- 3770K 3.5 GHz

2 EVGA 680GTX PCB

Crucial 512GB SSD

Corsair Dominator Platinum 16GB 1600MHz

Corsair AX 1200 (Planning for future additions of GPU)

Watercooling Products for SINGLE loop:

1 XSPC Raystorm CPU Block

2 Heatkiller GPU Block

1 XSPC D5 Dual Bay Reservoir/Pump Combo

2 XSPC RX 480 Radiator

16 Yate Loon D12SM-12

10ft PrimoFlex Pro LRT 3/8 Tubing

Silver Bezel Wire, .999 Fine Silver 12" strip

6 Compression Fittings 3/8

2 SLI fittings

1 Rotary fitting

Feser Aqua Ultra Pure Non-Conductive Water


My questions are:

1) Will those Yate Loon fans work well with two RX 480s? I plan on getting another 680.
2) Where's the optimal locations for my radiators? I was planning to have them on the sides of the bottom to draw in colder air through the radiators. I will most likely have exhaust fans on the top for the rising hot air.
3) Are the two radiators listed above adequate to plan ahead for an extra 680 in the loop?
4)Should I try running things in a particular order? I was planning to put them in this order: Pump/Reservoir => 2xRAD => CPU => GPU
5) Is that D5 Pump going to be sufficient for the length of the loop?
6) Would it be okay to add distilled water with that Feser fluid?
7) All the parts I purchased are copper, but I don't think the fittings are and I'm worried about corrosion in the long run. What about that silver? Would it cause corrosion?
8) Should I just run two separate loops?

Thanks guys for taking the time to read this! Hopefully all you guys can chime in with any constructive criticism/advice/feedback!

[musicfan]

My questions are:

1) Will those Yate Loon fans work well with two RX 480s? I plan on getting another 680.
2) Where's the optimal locations for my radiators? I was planning to have them on the sides of the bottom to draw in colder air through the radiators. I will most likely have exhaust fans on the top for the rising hot air.
3) Are the two radiators listed above adequate to plan ahead for an extra 680 in the loop?
4)Should I try running things in a particular order? I was planning to put them in this order: Pump/Reservoir => 2xRAD => CPU => GPU
5) Is that D5 Pump going to be sufficient for the length of the loop?
6) Would it be okay to add distilled water with that Feser fluid?
7) All the parts I purchased are copper, but I don't think the fittings are and I'm worried about corrosion in the long run. What about that silver? Would it cause corrosion?
8) Should I just run two separate loops?

Thanks guys for taking the time to read this! Hopefully all you guys can chime in with any constructive criticism/advice/feedback!

The 3770k CPU has a tdp of 77W and the gtx 680 is 195W. Is this your board? We should probably calculate for the tri-SLI. Fortunately the newer VGA cards and chips are not as hot as recent years so that is good. Adding up your tdp's = 662 Watts. Putting your numbers in a PSU calculator yields 577 Watts. Since this is an estimate let's use about 640 Watts (makes math easier). Much will be lost to air rather than cooled by the blocks and you will not reach 100% load under gaming but you may OC some.

1. Yes, the YL at 1650 rpm and 120.8 of XSPC RX will be cooling about 80 Watts per 120.1 unit (80 Watts x 8 units = 640 Watts). Using Skinnee Labs data, the air-water delta t will be near 6?C, which is very good and will allow for OC. Your delta t will be close but his flow rate is 1.5 gpm in the test. See this written by XS member Conumdrum for more on delta t.

2. I am looking at that case too. Performance wise, you are correct but I was thinking of putting my rads low because the weight may make it more stable. Don't think performance will suffer either way.

3. Yes, see answer #1.

4. Res must > fill pump is the only general "rule". Otherwise to avoid kinks and maximize air-flow.

5. Yes but barely. Martin's Pump/Rad Optimizer says you will have about 1 gpm at level 5, which is OK. Not sure how loud that will be in a bay res. You may want to look at the 35x or 35x2 in the Swiftech Maelstrom bay res.

6. I used distilled water and silver and think pre-mixes are expensive.

7. Not to worry. There will be some fitting wear but more concern about dropping one and damaging a thread than wearing out.

8. One is much easier.

Add: I was a bit confused by the fittings but you might link to them. That is a big case for 3/8" tubing. Seems like a perfect case for 1/2" ID & 3/4" OD but this is all only my opinion. There are many good guides including the stickies here. Hope others will comment and feel free to ask questions. Good luck.

[YooNiBaLL]

1. Should I purchase fan controllers? I bought a pin convert that has one 3pin going to 9 separate 3pins. Would I be able to connect 8 fans used on each radiator to that 3pin converter to one 3-pin slot on a fan controller?

2. How are the Enermax Cluster fans? I see the Magma ones in many reviews, but I like the white color of the Cluster fans.

3. I am going to return 12 of the YL fans and get other YLs (D12SL-124W)ones that come sleeved and have white LEDs on them for the aesthetic appeal. Do you guys think the clear plastic + white LEDs will look tacky? I'm hoping the 1350 rpm is perfect speed for the RX 480s.

4. I also plan on returning the D5 res/pump combo for the swiftech maelstrom 35x like people have advised.

[musicfan]

1. If you are using 16 Yate Loons @ 1650 rpm, it will be a bit loud at 12 volts unless perhaps you are wearing a gaming headset. But you will likely want to be able turn them down to 5 to 7 volts or an rpm of 1200 or less where things start to quiet down when you are not under load. It's your choice whether to get a manual fan controller. The YL I linked to are 0.3 amps max each. I think you are asking if it is OK to run 8 fans * 0.3 amps = 2.4 amps on a motherboard 3 pin header? The answer is no because the motherboard header limits I have see are 1 amp and you could overload and damage your motherboard 3 pin header. But you can run 2.4 amps or 2.4 amps * 12 Watts/amp = 28.8 Watts on a fan controller designed for that. Lamptron controllers are more robust than some other brands. Look for at least 30 Watts per channel if you want to put 28.8 Watts on it. There are touch and sliders and knobs and temperature probes in different models.

2. I have heard good things about some Enermax but haven't seen them tested, have you? If so, please link. I usually try to get fans tested by Martinm210 or someone who tests on a radiator since the specs from the manufacturer can be misleading. The best performance fans are likely Gentle Typhoon AP-15 because of high flow with low noise. But you have so much rad and flexible rads that perform at any speed. So get what you like. If you want PWM control, the new fans from Swiftech are interesting to me. Here is a nice primer on fans.

3. I think that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Your RX480 won't care what speed fans you use. There is a pretty linear relationship across the spectrum with that rad, meaning more ventilation = better cooling but low speed fans work fine.

4. Good idea. Going to get one 35x or two?

Good luck.

[YooNiBaLL]

I ended up getting some Zalman 120mm fans. The ZM-SF3. I chose it because it had great reviews and was compared to the GT AP-15 and many said that they were both similar in overall ratings. I also wanted the fans for the color because it will be visible through the bottom sides of the case. Few more questions I had.

1. I purchased 1 radiator mount for the ST10 for only one of my radiators. (http://www.caselabs-store.com/120-4-...ount-st-smh10/) The product description says "with 15-20mm fan spacings." Does that mean the 120x25mm Zalman fans that I ordered will not fit on the radiator mount? I'm slightly confused and I didn't want to find out the hard way that I ordered a wrong part because I rather return it right away and get the correct part if I ordered the wrong thing.

Loop Questions:

2)Any ideas for how I should set up my loop? I will have the Maelstrom res/pump combo mounted to a 5.25 drive bay in the front and will be running that straight through the radiators, both of which will be sitting in the bottom of my case (hope it all fits!).

3)Should I run the radiators back to back or in some other way? From the bottom of the case, I was planning to have it go straight to the CPU, then the two GPUs (I couldn't resist getting another 680..). And from there, it will go back to the res/pump combo.

4) I was thinking maybe I should get another reservoir or res/pump combo? Which if I went with the latter, I could just keep my D5 pump that I have yet to return and run those two back to back as well? What do you guys say? Would it not be worth it?


Thanks musicfan for the insight!

[musicfan]

1. Not sure the Zalman fans have been tested on a radiator but if you are confident, it is your build.

2. I cannot get your link to the bracket to work but generally when manufacturers talk about fan spacing, 15 mm is standard. That means it is 15 mm between the holes so the fans will line up next to each other. Some older radiator have 20 mm spacing.

3. Set up your loop so the pump is always filled, i.e. res > pump. After that, avoid kinks and maximize airflow.

4. Loop order won't matter from a thermal/cooling standpoint since water temps are within 2?C in a simple loop.

5. If you want to keep your D5/bay res, and you want pump redundancy, just stick another D5 after the D5 in your reservoir. I use two D5's in an EK dual top (back before the 35x came out). Here is a link to multi-pumps setups.

Happy to help. Good luck.