Build almost ready.. here is what I learned

[ahmad]

Chinese proverb says:

you are stupid if you learn from your own mistakes

If you didn't get that, it means you are smart if you learn from others' mistakes . Well I wasn't that smart. I thought I did enough research but trying it out is never the same.

Putting together water parts for the first time was a unique experience.

Skills you need to have:
- How to attach tubing to barbs
- How to remove tubing from barbs.. it helps if you work out
- patience
- patience
- patience


Tools/equipment:
- Watercooling gear that you think you need
- air pump/compressor for leak testing - one member here recommended 7psi, I did 10psi and nothing blew but its better to be safe than sorry.
- An excess of distilled water. I am filling my loop with this stuff, about 10l should be more than enough. Better do this stuff first before you dump in your expensive nano-fluid.
- 6x1-1/2" sheet metal screws for the rad (these were slightly too big for case+rad+20mm fan, for fear of damaging the rad I chopped off the bottom 2-4mm to be safe)
- Filter for the loop *my biggest regret so far
- A funnel
- A ton of paper towels
- At least one 45° fitting.. even if you don't think you need it *another major regret
- Flashlight
- A bucket or two (small, 3-5l enough)
- At least one quick disconnect in the loop *another (minor) regret
- xacto-knife/scalpel/other sharp tool for making clean cuts
- An external IDE HDD powersupply is useful, usually comes with stuff like this or this from your favourite chinese wholesaler. Easier than powering your beautiful 1000w power supply.

Other things I wish I had known/thought about:
- Where to put your drain valve.. e.g. not at the block inlet

- keep kids away from rads. They like to poke the fins for "fun"

- If your going to install the rad above the res, mount it after bleeding if possible

- Primochill tubing is so damn thick, its a pain to remove

- wash your parts
- wash your parts
- wash your parts.. I ended up with what I thought were micro-bubbles when in fact it was shiny bits of crap (became obvious when I turned on the flashlight) and I am not sure of the source. Now my loop is full of this and I am going to drain it at least once more to see if I can get this junk out

- If you want to be able to move things around, make your tubing a bit longer. It also helps if you ever need to disconnect a tube, easier to cut then to remove.

- Acrylic wears down quickly at the threads from excessive screwing/unscrewing of the barbs. I did it only twice to my res input and I saw some acrylic come off in the thread. Very minor but for the future I am going to get a res that has stronger thread for fittings.

- If your res is below the rad (and you have 2in1 res/pumptop like i do) and you have already attached the rad, seal your res, tilt your case 90° and watch the bubbles come out like scared chicken. I could have saved one hour of waiting if I had done this from the beginning. Careful with the water level, keep the pump power cable nearby for quick shutoff.

The devil is in the details. I have much to learn, but maybe those with experience have tips on how I could have made my life easier, along with other rare hard-to-find tips.

If you are wondering, this is the list of parts.

[Kenjiwing]

Thanks for the details.. it seems hard to find this kind of info for new people like myself

[irenedakota]

Thanks for the tips. Going to be useful once my parts arrive.

[pizan]

Instead of washing everything, you can just have your loop leak 2 times before getting it right like I did.

Nice summary though.

[4ddiction]

Tip to put on tubing on fittings. Run tap water hot for a few minutes till it gets really hot. Pour some into a glass. Then take your tubing dip the end into the water and keep it there for 20 seconds or so. The rubber will soften up and it will slide onto the fitting a lot easier.

[lesterc]

what do you mean by filter for the loop?
i just finished putting together my first water cool setup as well

i definitely agree with the warm water! helped a ton!

[Sadasius]

Don't listen to Chinese proverbs.... Those were made to try and compensate for other ummmm short comings.

The mistakes you learn in this are very much often from yourself. Call it war wounds or even a right to passage. It is a road we all go down. The devil being in the details could not be more true. It is why I keep inviting him over to fix my messes. He don't want my soul anymore!

[r0bot]

what do you mean by filter for the loop?
i just finished putting together my first water cool setup as well

i definitely agree with the warm water! helped a ton!

im curious of this as well, after reading these forums for a while i havent seen a mention of a filter.

[scgt1]

Nice little write up.

[ahmad]

Thanks for the compliments Thanks for your wisdom Sadasius, devil is a little busy now with other things

As for those wondering about the filter, I am referring to this.

Keep it in your loop for a few days until all the residue is gone, then put it to rest until the next time you mess with your loop I learned this from MaxxxRacer's guide two days ago. Although I hear he has made mistakes in other parts of that guide (some apparently don't like vinegar..) so do your homework.

[Scaniris]

You know what: I have twice more parts in boxes than into my rig.... I tried many different products, components, chanded it for improvment and finally with the spare stock I have I can build 2 additional watercooling loops (except for a missing pump)..... that's why I trust in what you say: The devil is in the details ^^

But this is a part of the fun we have building new rigs. The preparation, the planning, etc... I think it's a nice time.

And thanks to this forum, and thanks to reviews like yours, and reviews from beginners and experienced watercoolers, we learn a lot from other's experiences. Totally agree with that!!!

[Sadasius]

As for those wondering about the filter, I am referring to this.

Used one myself. Have this ultra cool see through one that I used to clean the last build. Works like a charm. Used it for 5 days straight to clean whatever may be in the system and it took it everything out. When I was done I had all kinds of tiny fragments of things as well as other contaminants in the filter. So it did do it's job really well.

[Scaniris]

Badly this won't clean the interior of the blocks. Did you had to clean blocks and fittings? I'm using distilled but it seems that even with distilled you should have to clean interior of blocks after a certain period of time.

[Sadasius]

I cleaned everything before putting it together. Every block taken apart to ensure there was a gasket in place and that all debris was out. The D-Tek V1 was notorious for having gasket gunk in the block that had to be taken out. After everything was cleaned then I used it for 1 week and still noticed floaties in the water. Put the filter on for 5 days straight and then afterwards all was clear.

[Scaniris]

OK so before mounting my loop, I also cleaned ALL components with hot water, vinegar, hot water, distilled water flush and now I'm running distilled water with silver coil. This means that with all these pre-production cares, I can expect a maintenance free rig? In another thread some people talked about manual cleaning of the interior of waterblocks for example. But I'm not using DYE, and other additives except siver coil. And I didn't see any floaties into the distilled into the blocks, res and tygon clear tubing.

My question is: after 1 year, 2 years, did you have to clean anything? I though you were using this filter after a 1y run.

[ahmad]

Not to answer for Sadasius, but I think to remain fully functional and efficient, a water cooling system should be drained and cleaned every 6months.

[Levesque]

You could also had to your list: ''keep pet away'', since my cat was the cause of a leak for me with my first loop. Had to dry my 5970 for days because of it.

[Scaniris]

Drained ok I'm pretty convinced it's necessary. But the question is about what cleaning means there. I thought we had to disassemble everything each year (or 6 month depending usage and coolant etc...). I was ready to do that but you are talking about filter and people with H2O distilled + silver coil or PT Nuke claim about maintenance free loops except draining and liquid replacement each 6 months. Just want to get some other feed back

[Sadasius]

Every 6 months for me and here is why. The rad is usually dusty and clogged even with filters and the blocks (especially with fine pins or cuts) sometimes have black gunk that builds up in there. I just pull everything a part and wash it all (including rads). Nothing gets dust out of rads like washing it out. Then do all the distilled rinses, put together and fill. If you get floaties from some contaminant then use a filter for a few days and everything will clear up. Actually I am going to be doing a tear down for cleaning this weekend. It needs it. GTX rads collect dust like mad especially when there is a lot of air flow through them.

[Scaniris]

Ok so it's a standard process. Thanks for the feed back. 6 months - 1year is very acceptable.

You know when you start in watercooling and see some beautiful rigs... you don't think about dust, gunk, maintenance.... But this is not only a detail because it's very important to know it and forecast it. Some choices (parts, routing, design) will affect the ease of maintenance, and also... the time to do it. Finally my gettho'ished rig will stay a gettho'ished rig because watercooling for me it's 85% performance (cooling, noise, oc) and 15% look and nice to have. So I prefer to have a bad looking stuff but ease the maintenance than reverse.

Thanks Sadasius and thanks ahmad for return of experience

[ahmad]

Anytime Scaniris. I agree, however, that it's not about looks (this thing looks ugly with all the herbie clamps). Considering that I can't even find anyone around me who has the same interests, my only source of ambition is XS.

Maybe some don't agree with that chinese proverb, but there is nothing better than one man's is experience. Other than two men's experience of course.

A small update: system is 95% air-free, the rad still makes noises when I move the case 45° x, 60° y so I know a few bad boys are stuck in there. Today everything better be ready and dry because I will finally power up this beast and see what kind of temps it gives.

One question, why is the copper surface on the sapphire block so damn sensitive!? I scratched it with a napkin trying to clean it.

[ahmad]

Cable management was a pain and not done properly but I am past it, I will get some pictures tomorrow.

I have got 5 scythe Gentle Typhoons now inside my rig. These fans are WICKED. Very silent and ever so powerful. Haven't had a fan move air like this before. Even my delta and panaflo, they move air definitely.. but not with such ease.

Glad to say BP temp sensor worked great with the XSPC LED, only problem on that thing is the viewing angle . CPU temps are down at least 15° from the previous setup (TRU+panaflo) if I remember correctly. But this should scale better with more heat load I hope.

Btw, the Cosmos S is a beautiful case for modding. I would say it's an almost perfect non-LianLi case

Off to some overclocking now.