Project: Blue Shift

[Mark_Hardware]

congrats man!

[UnWantedSoldier]

Woo Hoo Front Page (i know its a bit late lol but hey) Thx guys

Anyway back to the project. Im still up in the air about the way i want to go with the decals for the case so for right now that is on the back burner till i figure out exactly how i want to do it but in the mean time....

It has always been my intention to water cooling this rig. Thermally she is at her max on air i could probably get higher clock speeds on both the gpu and cpu but that would mean pushing it into a temperature zone (and noise zone, the stock ATI cooler is extremely loud above 45%) that I'm not completely comfortable with. So the obvious solution is to water cool it. However this stage is going to be majorly held up by available funs. So until the funs arrive i thought i would break out sketchup and start drawing out the custom parts i was planning for the rig.

This is my first atempt at water cooling so any pointers or suggestions any of you might have as to materials, tubing sizes, connectors, etc, please feel free to offer them up, they will be much appreciated.

My plan is to use a single loop to cool the cpu and gpu with a single 240 radiator externaly mounted off Blue shifts rear exhaust fans. I plan on utilizing the Empty drive cages (now acting as wind tunnels to for extra cooling for cpu and gpu) to house the Reservoir and Pump. The Reservoir will be custom designed out of some sort of acrylic/plexi to fit inside the drive cage. Since a 120mm fan sits at the front of the drive cage i was planning on using copper tubing to create mini wind tunnels through the reservoir turning it into a sort of second radiator.

I started mocking up the drive cage in sketchup and its almost finished, once that is done i will start on the custom reservoir.

sketchup

actual

I'm thinking for the loop it will go Pump > GPU > Radiator > CPU > Reservoir > back to pump. The CPU is what I'm concerned with most so i want it to have the coolest water pumping though it. so i put it directly after the Radiator. Since the Reservoir should, with this design, act in part as a second radiator that should drop the water temp before it hits the gpu. Witch i would think would be better than having the GPU directly after the CPU, please correct me if I'm wrong.

[The boy 4rm oz]

Tip one, the coolest component to cool goes first, so the CPU would be the first thing on the list, and you shouldn't have coolant coming out of a water block and going straight into a res, just ends up pooling heat and will drastically increase temps on your GPU.

My loop is Res, 240mm rad, Pump, CPU, GPU, 120mm rad, Res and I get temps of 33-34c idle and 44c load on my OCd 8800GTX and temps of 30-32c idle and 38c load on my Q6600 at 3.2GHz.

For you I would do Res, Pump, CPU, GPU, Rad, Res. That will maximize your cooling potential. Ideally you would want at least a 360mm rad to maximize cooling and considering you have an Antec 1200 you got a ton of space for rads, even if you can add another 240mm rad or even a 120mm rad you will notice the difference.

Personally I would utilize that extra 12cm fan in the front of your case and mount an extra radiator. If you get a Laing DDC3 pump they fit anywhere so you wont need an entire drive bay anyway and for the res a Swiftech Micro res works perfectly or you could always get one of the bay reservoirs that you mount the pump directly to.
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?...ducts_id=12561

Another tip is to never mix metals. Make sure everything is copper, if you have alu in the loop it will corrode, took 2.5 months for my alu block top to corrode, nasty stuff.

Hope that helps ya a bit.

[UnWantedSoldier]

Another tip is to never mix metals. Make sure everything is copper, if you have alu in the loop it will corrode, took 2.5 months for my alu block top to corrode, nasty stuff.

I had heard about some of the horror stories from that. I initial wanted to use a The 200mm radiator antec makes for the top fan until i found out they use an aluminum core.

As for the rest and pump locations i know there are alot of options out there and places where i can easily mount one but the drive bays are a must for this build. Since i just spent so much time modding them so that i can change the filters on them without demolishing the case i want to preserve that set up. So a custom reservoir is gona be necessary to fit with this build.

Thanks for the pointers on the loop layout. I was thinking now that i could put a second 240 radiator in the top below the 200mm fan. the loop would go, Res > Pump > Top 240 > CPU > GPU > Rear 240 > Res.

[The boy 4rm oz]

That would be the loop I would go for, best options really. It is easy to make alu bracket to get the rad to fir up top.

[UnWantedSoldier]

Not much has been hapening in the last 5 months with one exception, I got engaged in january woo hoo! But as far as Blue shift is concerned the only thing that the dvd drive died and replaced it with a Blu-Ray burner. But now my birthday is right around the corner and a little birdie has informed me that i can be expecting these to arive soon

Watercool HEATKILLER® CPU Rev3.0 754/939/AM2 LC

Watercool HEATKILLER® GPU-X² 4870/4890 LT

With summer practically upon me here in Phoenix and the fact that Star Trek Online has been pushing my 4890 into the red zone routinely with its factory cooler i have decided to put liquid cooling Blue shift to the top of my to do List. Additional the upcoming Desertbash Intel Lanfest at the end of June is another motivator.

The Plan is pretty much the same as before but with a few changes. First off i decided to ditch the custom reservoir in favor of this one.

http://www.frozencpu.com/products/im...r_RES-005.html

I plan on mounting this on the external radiator off the back of the system. I decided to go with this res because of its mounting capabilities off the radiator. This position should make the res the highest point in the loop so from what i've read that should make filling and bleeding the system easier.

Next change is that i plan to run the Pump off a separate power source to be controlled by one of the top switches. I'm planing on using an external Power supply (Power brick/ac wall adapter). Since i am planning on taking this to a lan or two I'm probably gona drain the system prior to moving it so i want to be able to run the pumps independent of the system for filling and bleeding. This i could use some help figuring out. I'm planning on using either a single Laing D5 or two Laing DDC pumps (i might run dual loops more on this later) so i need to make sure the power brick i get can reliable power them.

As mentioned earlier i am considering running dual loops. I know its not necessary but i'm thinking about running different colored coolant for the CPU and GPU. but most likely time/money is going to prevent me from doing that seeing as how its probably gona cost an extra $100-200 make this a dual loop.

So here is the plan as it stands I i'll be using (most likely) a D5 Laing pump powered by a external power source, Two Black Ice Stealth 240 (Blue) radiators, Heatkiller water blocks, Danger Den External Reservoir, 3/8" ID tubing with either Primochill black plastic compression fittings or bitspower compression fittings (if i can afford it). If i do a single loop it will be with clear tubing and red uv liquid. If i do dual loops i will do red and blue liquid.

If you guys have any suggestions or see something that might cause a problem let me know. Once i get the blocks in i'll put up some new pics with them

[Trace]

I have that same CPU block. Keeps my i7 quite icey.

[The boy 4rm oz]

If your running duel rads, and 240 ones at that I would go duel loop, one for the CPU and another for the GPU.

Congratz on the engagement as well buddy .

[UnWantedSoldier]

If your running duel rads, and 240 ones at that I would go duel loop, one for the CPU and another for the GPU.

Congratz on the engagement as well buddy .

Thanks bud.

unfortunately right now in the short term i don't think I'm gona be able to afford a second pump and res for the second loop. So my question to you then would be should i even bother with the second rad now. i can always go back and add it when i put in the second loop later. I don't know enough about water cooling to know if the extra radiator would be a enough of a help in a single loop like this to make it worth it.

Oh and with the above plan the top 240 would be cooled by the 200mm top fan and the rear 240 would be cooled by the two rear 240 fans. Basically I'm planning on using my exhaust fans to cool the rads. not the best situation but for how im planning on mounting them its really the only way.

Edit: also i did calculations and a 12v 48-60w 4-5a power brick by my calculations should provide sufficient amperage and wattage to run the Pump plus all the remaining fans. I decided that if i'm gona run the pump separately i might as well do the entire cooling system.

[UnWantedSoldier]

another question i have for the water cooling gurus out there. as mentioned previously i am debating between a Laing D5 and DCC pump. I was wondering what some of your opinions are on the two. the DCC seams to have the most options available as far as top covers and mounting possibilities. But the D5 seams to be a bit heavier duty. Also i was wondering if there are any position that you shouldn't mount either pump in (directionally speaking)