Project : Scan_H2O_v1.C

[Scaniris]

Hello,

This is my first worklog here, and my first worklog ever for a pc build.

My goals are:

- to share with others my experiences (positive and negative) gained in designing this system (products, tools, ...)

- to share with others the questions I asked myself as a beginner in watercooling and case modding (this is only my 3rd watercooled system, 1st one was built 5 months ago....)

- to get lots of comments that will help me improve my current system, but also in the design of future systems

All remarks are really welcome, this systems is IMO a draft... but this is the first time I invest so much time and energy to modify the case, to think about the best tube routing and s.o.... and I like this! Previous systems were... not really optimized but I was starting from nothing, with no experience and thanks to XS forum I discovered some weeks ago, I learned many things that helped me a lot to build this new rig!

I take great pleasure in spending time (for fun, it's a hobby only) to make this type of system. And I hope to receive your advice, your help and some ideas for improving this configuration, and the following

Let's start with some photo, the build is not completed, for example I'm not really happy with the reservoir (using EK BAY Spin... but I have 2x Res 100 and Res 150 in my ''stock''), not happy with the pumps like this (I'll maybe try to split the D5, I have 2x X Top in my ''stock'')... but well here's the starting point.

Special thanks to

- XS forum members for all the helpful threads, worglogs, answers... MANY thanks to you guys!!
- Eddy from EK Waterblocks for the excellent customer management
- Tom from ChilledPC for the very good recommendations (fittings, radiator for top mount into the TJ07, clamps, etc...) and the incredibly fast reaction time (email answers, delivery time...)

[Scaniris]

reserved

[Scaniris]

Reserved

[dapzar]

Nice job man but u need cable sleving ^^

[miahallen]

Why are your fan filters on the inside of the rad? Shouldn't they be on the other side to prevent dust from building up in your rad? Or are your fans pushing air out (through the rad)?

[Scaniris]

@ dapzar: well.... cable management yes, it's ongoing there, but cable sleeving... lot of work and nothing to do with performance and optimization, it's mainly for the design and well.... I'm not sure I want to invest so many time in cable sleeving. Probably one day with MDPC when the rest of the system will be optimized. I think there are some other parts to improve before thinking about sleeving. There's maybe some advantage with cable sleeving: cables are probably easier to bend and as you can see with the enermax psu, cables are big and hard to bend and to hide... So... hum, erf... it's maybe more important than I think it is. Have to think about it seriously...

@ miahallen : yes my fans are pushing the air through the rad, and the fan filters are there to prevent dust into the rad, and also to prevent fan dammages because of a cable or any other part. On the other side, there is the standard mesched plate of the side panel, and I'll maybe install a dust filter in it if necessary (I don't think so because this is the air outtake not the air intake). The rad is mounted on this side because when I'll use the system, I don't want to have some airflow in my direction Not really comfortable ^^

[josk1]

awesome part choice, but what a mess... 'got cable management coming up, dude!!

[Scaniris]

yes before I have to make sure that my tubing routing is ok, and I don't think so because I'll maybe modify the reservoir, and the pump setup. I think i have to wait for the final tubing setup. I'm waiting some parts from Aquacomputer since 2 weeks now... they shipped the parcel but I never received it and they did not answer to my last 2 mails.... I'm waiting for inline thermal sensors so... I'll have to mount them in the tubing that's why I'm waiting before beginning cable management.

So today I'm asking myself some questions:

- reservoir: I'm not happy with the EK Bay Spin reservoir because it's noisy (the flow indicator makes noise @ 290l/hour rate, and the water makes some noise when coming back into the reservoir from the top....). I'll probably plug the tubing on the bottom to avoid this unwanted noise (mechanical and water noise....). But I'll maybe swap with my Res 100 or Res 150 reservoir... I have both of them, and also a LINK option, I can stack both reservoir tube....

- pumps: I'll maybe separate the D5 pumps. I also have 2x D5 X Top Acetal in my ''stock'' and it could be a good idea to mount one D5 upstairs (behind the Aquaero controller) and the other D5 where the Dual are on the photo. And link the pumps with tubing. Removing one of the pumps from the bottom may ease the tubing and cabling management, also clear some more surface for air intake

- go for black: I'll contact Tom to confirm details about a modded TJ07 unit, powder coated with some tailor made parts. I don't want to make it myself because it's a lot of time and I don't like painting... (except for my house ^^).

[miahallen]

- pumps: I'll maybe separate the D5 pumps. I also have 2x D5 X Top Acetal in my ''stock'' and it could be a good idea to mount one D5 upstairs (behind the Aquaero controller) and the other D5 where the Dual are on the photo. And link the pumps with tubing. Removing one of the pumps from the bottom may ease the tubing and cabling management, also clear some more surface for air intake.

Sounds like a good idea...the top half is beautiful the way it is...but the bottom leave something to be desired

[hewi]

I like the fact it's a bit "Ghetto'ish" stands out from the hundreds :P of TJ07's out there that are all glitter & glam with every wire spot on.
1/2" tygon and that dual D5 EK setup makes it look like it has some serious balls, you can tidy it up later on. Good job Scanris.

[Scaniris]

Sounds like a good idea...the top half is beautiful the way it is...but the bottom leave something to be desired

I have to clear it. And maybe splitting the pumps will help, I'll try it for sure. I'm using distilled water and not anymore glycol based coolant so... it's not really a problem now to empty the loop and fill it again.

I'll also think again about cable sleeving... but I'll maybe find a workaround to achieve a clean cable management. Not for ''cosmetic'' reasons, I don't care so much about tuning stuffs, but for pratical reaons and also for performance. Having so many cables behind the fans is a limit for fresh air intake. Performance are not bad, but could be improved if there's more empty space behind the 480 rad.

I like the fact it's a bit "Ghetto'ish" stands out from the hundreds :P of TJ07's out there that are all glitter & glam with every wire spot on.
1/2" tygon and that dual D5 EK setup makes it look like it has some serious balls, you can tidy it up later on. Good job Scanris.

I love this expression!

As this is my first ''real'' watercooled build, I was trying to select components not because of their beauty, but because of their performance, of their ease of use, of their safety. Let me give you some example:

- rotary fittings are helpful if you want to ease the tube routing. BUT there are so manye reports of leak issues with rotary fittings, even if they are expensive or not that... I choosed safety and not beauty. I don't want to take any risk with leaks, and I prefer to make some compromises on design but none on security.

- plexi cover for waterblocks: it's because I can see what's happening inside the waterblock! I can watch how the coolant travels inside, I can see the O ring and detect if there's any problem, I can see hos the fittings fits into the 1/4 thread, I can check if the o-ring of the fitting is well compressed all around the contact surface... etc..

- transparent tubing: because I can see if there's problems with air, with alguae, etc... and I can see if the tube is well plugged on the barbed fitting, I can adjust the position of the clamp very precisely,...

- barbed fittings instead of compression fittings: because I can see what I do, with transparent tubing and clamps. Nothing is hidden there, better for checking if everything is ok. And easier to detect origin of a leak if happening

- why DD Fatboy and EK WB barbed fittings? Because they are strong, big, the o-ring are very good (quality). I prefer the Fatboy... but the EKWB are absolutely recommended for the Nickel side of the waterblocks, because the fatboy 1/4 thread is not long enough to fit with the spacer, but too long to fit without spacer... I mean on the plexi side, I can use a Fatboy without spacer, and on the nickel side I can use EKWB + spacer, and the match is perfect like this. On the HK 3.0, the thread of the EKWB fittings are too long, and the Fatboy fits perfectly because the thread is shorted, but it's not a low profile one! So I like the thread lenght of the Fatboy because it's between full and low profile I have some other fittings models @ home... I bough other models, compared and made a choice, my own selection regariding my technical expectations.

- why 2x D5? In one word: redundancy. That's why I finally went back to a single loop system. I started with a dual loop project (that's why I have 2x D5 X Top in my ''stock''). But the performance of a single loop is excellent, and I have pump redundancy. It will be easier for maintenance to split the pumps I think, if one of them breaks, I can change it easily with clamps to isolate the deffective pump. I'll do it again with 2x single tops, but within a single loop. I made a review about the Dual Top in the related topic, and the flow difference between 2 pumps without a top and linked together with a tube, and the 2 pumps with the dual top is really.... hum hum... not really significant to be a must have.

- why inline temp sensors and inline flow sensor? For monitoring and safety automated processes. If anything goes wronf, system will stop immediately (the 24 pin ATX bridge that you can see on the photo behing the mobo mounting plate and that is not connected for the moment... is connected to the controller and can open the green power line to shut down the PSU immediately in case of alarm).

- why coolance clamps? Because they are beautiful It's probably one of the rare subjective choice within this system. I have 30+ plastic clamps like the black one you can see on the pump top outlet, and on both side of the flow sensor. But... the coolance are easy to use, and fit perfectly with the 5/8'' OD + fatboy bundle. But with the EKWB fittings... the 5/8'' Coolance clamps are a little bit too large, I'll probably replace them with the plastic one from EKWB (same as primochill I think... it's an OEM stuff probably).

- why 7/16'' ID tubing? Because I was using 1/2 ID tubing before. And I really feel better when pluging a 7/16'' ID tube on a 1/2 fitting!!! Leak proof, and with high water temps, a clamp is probably recommended but not as much as with 1/2 ID tubing!

...

I want to avoid problems you know. I try to make no compromise on saftey and performance. I try because it's not so easy and I probably miss some details.

For fun, here is my previous system some weeks ago I think it's more "Ghetto'ished" It was my 2nd watercooled system.

[Scaniris]

And here this is my first watercooled rig:

[Scaniris]

Hello,

Today I've rebuilt my loop. EKWB EK-Bay reservoir was noisy, and not really good (had bubble issues...). I planned to split the pumps, using my 2x D5 X-Top but... I tried something before unmounting the Dual Top and finally... it's fitting my requirements. No noise, no bubbles, easy tube routing, no 90° fittings...

Let's have a look:

[Scaniris]

As you can see, I replaced the 90° bitspower fitting under the second GTX295 with 2x 45° bitspower fittings, to have a ''larger'' angle. I removed the second 90° fitting that I used at the output of the 480 rad to reach the reservoir.

So no more 90° fitting, and only 1x 90° angle using 2x 45° fittings. With same pump speed setting, I have a higher flow rate than yesterday! + 15L/h (around 4 us gallons per hour). It's not huge but it means that 90° fittings reduced the flow rate in my rig.

I have less coolant into my loop (distilled water), less than 0,8 liter (< 0,21 US Gallon), in the previous loop setup I had 1,2 liters (0,32 US gallon)... less tubing, better routing, smaller reservoir.

Something else: the bubbles disapeared after less than 1 hour. With the EK Bay reservoir, I had bubbles injected into the loop on a regular basis... not so many but... here with this setup, no bubbles, no noise... the photo you can see here is the reservoir 1 hour after loop refill... pretty good.

I used the Petra Tech gelly pads to install the pumps... NO vibration, no noise... perfect solution, better than the ''sandwich'' foams that I used finally for pump vertical stabilization... ^^ This foam sandwich is not as performant as the gelly pads. It's stinking a bit chemical when brand new but it's not an issue.

On Monday I'll order my silver coils @ Chilled PC. Last week Tom was overbooked and not able to ship any other order than existing one.

[Scaniris]

And here are the temps after some stress tests (Prime 95, Super Pi 32M) with fans @ 100%. With a silent system (fans @ 55%), temps are a little bit higher but not so much! Coolant temp is 3°C higher in the ''hot'' part of the loop (after the 3 waterblocks BEFORE the radiator). But CPU and GPU temps are not really affected by this... except under high load stress test. But for 2D and audio purposes for example, it's perfect. I only activate the 100% mode for benchmarking, for daily use, also for gaming, I've setup a progressive automatic mode within the Aquaero. I rarely have fans > 60%....



Tomorrow I'll stress this with Furmark and OCCT to put the graphic cards into real high load and see what's happening, then I'll OC the teow GTX295 and check the temps again.

But it seems to be ok with temps with a single loop. 480 + 240mm rad into the loop. Loop order:

Reservoir on D5 Dual Top >> D5 + D5 >> Rad 240 >> WB CPU >> WB GTX 1 >> WB GTX2 >> Inline Temp sensor (named LDR Hot in the screen shot) >> Rad 480 >> Flow Sensor >> Reservoir on dual D5....

I've tried a dual loop last week but... results were not really better than this and finally the tubing was a nightmare... so finally I'll probably stay with 1 loop. I have enough margin to hardly OC the GTX295. The CPU is ok, very stable @ 4,2GHz with memory @ 2000MHz 8-8-8-24.

I also weighed the systen... 34kg ^^ But no I can close both side panels and from outside it looks like a normal PC Nothing says from outside that this is a watercooled unit.

[Scaniris]

Yes something else: because the memory is very closed to the 120mm fan of the 240 radiator, the temperature is really good! 35°C average! If I stop the 2x 120mm fans, the temp of the memory can increase up to 55°C. The sensor is installed on the red part of the memory heatsink. I don't need to install the Dominator GT fan kit, and don't need any watercooling for this. VRM of the CPU are also very cool. NB also. And the temps here are the temps with both side panels closed. I'm very happy with those temps.

[cesthree]

Hey Scan! I'm aka Sgt.Steiger @ EVGA Forums.

Beautiful setups you have! I'll have to get some pics up of mine here soon.

Nice work, looking good!

[Scaniris]

Hi Yes open a worklog here, this is very interesting for beginners like me to see other's rig worklogs, this is really source of inspiration and so helpful.

Today I'm finishing another upgrade... I'm coming back to a dual loop system, I'll explain why and upload some photos later on.

eVGA FTW

[Scaniris]

Hi,

Revision 3 of my Scan_H20_V1.C

- Dual loop instead of single loop
- all tubing changed (I used only distilled without anything else but after 2 weeks... tubes were beginning to be a bit nasty... before filling I cleaned ALL components but anyway... I did it again an changed all the tubing
- 4 inline thermal sensors added
- full cleaning of all parts
- 4 silver coils (2 per reservoir) against algae
- 100mm res add, and EK Bay Spin res but used with bottom threads, not with the normal input thread
- removed the EKWB D5 Dual Top Acetal and installation of 2x EKWB D5 X Res Top Acetal

Some pics:

What I really want is that from outside... it's not possible to know that this is a watercooled rig I'm not that kind of tuning addict. I thought I was but I'm not. I'm looking for efficiency, not for building the sexiest possible.



Front view, you can see how easy I worked for fixing the top mounted 240mm rad... 4 screws, and dremmel to cut a part of the meshed plate.



Front view again, with EVGA ECP panel, res, you can see 2 silver kilcoil on the left side



Behing the 1st D5 pump with top, installed on a Gel Stuff from Petra's tech, no vibration, perfect match. And easy to access for changing the pump's speed



And now, behind the side panel....



On the bottom, you can see the other D5 pump with top, bot the VGA loop. The blue LED is not a tuning stuff... this is a part of the Aquacomputer Aquaero control system, I have 2 leds, one blue and one red, and depending on my settings, and on sensors information, brightness will change, color will change...



Closer look. CLAMPS EVERYWHERE Sometimes Koolance, and sometimes plastic clamps



Closer look on the bottom part of the case, PT Gel Stuff for the pump, very easy to change the speed of the pump (less easy than the pump upstairs but easy at all).



It's designed to easy maintenance process. It's easy to drain, and also easy to replace tubing, inline temp sensors, flow sensor...

[Scaniris]

So...

What about the temps? 2 to 3°C better than before with a single loop @ same fan and pump speed, and same room temp. The difference is really not huge as already told by people, I knew it before doing this upgrade so WHY did I upgrade from a single to a dual loop?

Because:

- I want to control separately CPU and VGA cooling. Depending on what I do, I don't need same cooling power bot CPU and VGA. I mean I'm now able, with my Aquaero controller, to define better setup for my cooling system. More quiet than before! And Idle and 2D temps are lower after hours very stable. If the CPU needs more cooling power, the fan speed increase ONLY for the CPU rad, not for the VGA rads for example.

- I want to try this, until now I was only using single loop configurations, and I think it's important to do our own experience to increase skills, knowledge, and do better next time. I read carefully other's opinion, and learn a lot but for some topics, I want to do it myself and try.

- I'm upgrading hardware sometimes each 2 or 3 monthes. I want to be able to change a graphic card without drying the entire loop. I'm waiting for Fermi, and choose Fermi or ATI for my next graphic card experience. Maybe again a HD5970 who nows ^^

- It was a good opportunity to fix some problems, I mean some tubing issues on the version 2 of this project.

- I had a lot of components in my ''stock'' so... I had everything to do it without need to order something missing... so why not

[Scaniris]

And yes finally about the loop order:

Loop 1 CPU: EKWB Res 100 >> D5 (MCP655 vario) with EKWB D5 X Top Rev 2 Acetal >> 240mm Black Ice GT 240 rad >> CPU WB Heatkiller Rev 3 >> EKWB Res 100
Loopw 2 SLI : EKWB Res EK Bay Spin Acetal >> D5 (MCP655 vario) with EKWB D5 X Top Rev 2 Acetal >> 480mm HWLab SR1 rad >> EKWB FC-GTX295 single PCB Nickel/Plexi >> EKWB FC-GTX295 single PCB Nickel/Plexi >> EKWB Res EK Bay Spin Acetal >>

Tygon tubing 7/16 with distilled water and silver kilcoil
G1/4 - 1/2 barbed fittings DangerDen Fatboy with Koolance clamps and Termochill plastic clamps
4x High Flow Inline temp sensor Aquacomputer
1x High Flow flow sensor Aquacomputer
And lots of other stuffs... accessories etc..

[aka_GK]

I like your approach to building

[Antioch]

Scanris, did your "old" ASUS P7P55D motherboard make any squeaking/buzzing noises - or was it silent, as a motherboard should be? Thanks.

[Scaniris]

My P7P55D Deluxe was pretty silent as MB should be. But I had 2x Seasonic M12D PSU with strange buzzing issues. Never had problems with enermax PSUs (Mode 82+ and Revolution). Some people on the EVGA forum have some problems with buzzing components, probably coming from the PSU but some of them are sure it's coming from the Mobo... when C State is on.

[Antioch]

Hmm.. curious. My P7P55D was noisy so I had it replaced - the replacement was buzzy too. At that point I noticed my SeaSonic X-750 had a low-frequency buzz so it got RMAed. Waiting on replacement mobo and PSU but I'm really nervous about getting another buzzy mobo. I can't live with that! None of my other ASUS boards have had any issue. I think manufacturers are just becoming cheap these days (had same issue with a Lenovo Thinkpad laptop). My friend also has the same issue with his P7P55D - but his PSU doesn't buzz.

I'm glad that there's at least ONE P7P55D out there that is silent. Hopefully I'll get one too! *fingers crossed*

By the way, what model was yours? LGA, Pro, Evo, Deluxe, Premium? Judging from the MOSFET and the SB heatsyncs it looks like Deluxe to me.