Water Cooling help

[zealot_32]

In my never ending quest for knowledge, I've been wondering how normal people mount the radiator in their w/c loop. An external mount on the back doesn't look good or is portable, so where does it usually go inside the case? Also, other than the fans on the radiator, are there any other fans required on a watercooled rig? Does anyone know of a good case for w/c?

[7thSeal]

Well you ask the same question that I did before jumping into watercooled. It will first depend on what size radiator you want. One with 120mm single fan or 80mm single fan are avilable and are much easier to mount on the inside of the case. So once you decide on what case you want and how big of a radiator you want will depend on where it should be mounted at.

[zealot_32]

How do you decide what type of radiater you want? Does it all depend on cooling power and resistance? So if you did get a small radiater, would it be mounted in the front of the case, maybe in the place of some removed 3.5" bays?

[7thSeal]

You have to decide on how many waterblocks you want to run in your loop. If your planning on cooling the cpu, chipset, and video gpu then yes a dual 120mm radiator fan will most likely be needed. If you plan on watercooling the cpu and gpu then a single 120mm fan radiator would suit you. If you want to just cool your cpu then a 80mm fan radiator will work. Having it mounted at the front is the idea place so that the cool fresh air is passing through the radiator but in my case I plan on using 3 waterblocks in the near future so I mounted mine on the outside of the rear case so that cool fresh air is passing through the radiator at all times.

If you go watercooled then a good exhaust fan will be enough to remove the remaining heat inside the case.

[zealot_32]

You say you mounted yours on the outside, is it secured or just free? Wouldn't it interfere with all the wires in the back?

EDIT: also, what brand radiator do you recommend. I was thinking Danger Den Black Ice II or some Swiftech radiator, but those seem too large to mount inside the case and I don't know how to secure it outside. Could you recommend some guide for a first-timer?

[7thSeal]

Originally Posted by zealot_32

You say you mounted yours on the outside, is it secured or just free? Wouldn't it interfere with all the wires in the back?

EDIT: also, what brand radiator do you recommend. I was thinking Danger Den Black Ice II or some Swiftech radiator, but those seem too large to mount inside the case and I don't know how to secure it outside. Could you recommend some guide for a first-timer?

I got mine from http://www.swiftnets.com/ and its a very good kit. It comes with very detailed instructions and was simple to read.

Here is some pictures of my rig and how I mounted the radiator. http://www.worldisround.com/articles/254377/index.html
I had to move the radiator out about an 1/2 inch more than what the instruction called for because it was hitting the cable on the back of my video card. It uses a bracket and four bolts to hold it down and I used the bolt holes on the 80mm exhaust fan that I removed from the back. Its quite sturdy than it might look and I've already bumped the radiator a few times pretty hard while installing the rest of the stuff but it didnt give or anything. And then I ran the hoses through the exsisting fan hole so I wouldnt have to drill 7/8 holes in my rig.

You might want to order extra hose when you order the kit because I found that you will decide to reroute some hoses and not have enough. Also leave plenty of slack so that you can remove the reservoir and fill it up.

I highly suggest taking your time with it and not rushing or you will become discouraged rather quickly. It takes time and patient but its worth it.

[footmaster]

(I hope it's ok to revive this thread and that I'm posting this in the right place)

Having had a few dreaded leaking experiences a while back I thought I'd share a learning or two - hopefully this will be useful for those thinking of setting up a water cooling system.

I spent an absolute age choosing the various components for my rig but the only part I took for granted was the stock water cooling part that came on my motherboard....

1 - Use stock water cooling solutions on motherboards with caution

My entire water cooling system has high-flow 1/2" tubing, but the in and out ports on the northbridge block were 1/4". I thought this would be fine as I knew the motherboard shipped with adapters.

However I found the quality of the clips and adapters to be way under par, which is especially annoying considering the high cost of the motherboard.

The first problem was that this 1/4 section in the water cooling system caused a massive bottle neck and caused an area of high pressure just at the point where the fittings and clips were of substantially lower quality.

2 - Be prepared for high pressure when mixing fitting sizes

By shortening out the PSU I did test just the water cooling system without sending power to the rest of my system, but then one day, my display went all funny and the system powered down by itself.

And so, it had leaked. All over my 8800 GTX which thankfully survived. The leak occurred at the join where the outlet from the water block is attached to the 1/4 tubing (before it hits the adapter)

3 - Test areas of high pressure for as long as possible before powering the whole system up.

I then tried a whole host of other clips, and found none to be substantial enough, until I was recommended using 'ear clamps' by a pneumatic firm (who also found me some much better quality and tighter fitting 1/4 tubing).

I thoroughly recommend these clips above all others especially where joins are questionable and where pressure is high. They are a bit of a hassle to use - you can only use them once and they require use of a ear clamp tool for fitting and removing.

However, these clamps are so efficient that they force the tubing out from underneath them sideways with a relatively large amount of pressure, and this of course forced my poor quality plastic adapter apart, which in turn proceeded to project water all over my 8800 again.

4 - When using ear clamps (especially on plastic fittings) do not push the tubing all the way over the fitting - allow a couple of mm.

I'm now using only one plastic adapter in my system as the outlet from the water block now goes straight into the graphics card as the block on the 280GTX has both types of fittings.

5 - Avoid using plastic adapters in a water cooling system as much as possible.

I hope these tips help someone in the future - I know I've had a bit of a nightmare but I don't regret going down this route at all; I really appreciate the benefits of water cooling.

[eligy]

Nice post Footmaster, I think those are very handy hints for those who may be new to watercooling.

I've had exactly the same experience with that board and it's lousy northbridge block. I now air cool my NB as a result. Using the supplied fitments I had a small leak which ended up killing my X-FI, it leaked over a period of two weeks that I was away from home it seems, when there was no flow through the system.

Avoiding plastic fittings, I think, is good advice, but in the same vein, I believe mixing metals is really not a good idea in a water loop, so that's worth bearing in mind if you do go down the route of avoiding plastic as much as possible.

http://www.directron.com/waterinfo.html#battery