Need advice for WC components for new 900D build.

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NKDietrich

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Jul 25, 2004
Messages
5,442
Hey all.

Working on a new build. The only watercooling components I have so far are three EVGA Titan Hydrocoppers. Other than that, I'm still trying to decide how I want to do things. Here's my thinking so far:

I've got a Rampage IV Extreme. I'm not even sure if I want to water cool it. It would cut down on loop complexity to avoid it, and the available waterblocks for it don't appear to be compatible with 3/4" OD system. (Specifically I'm referring to the EK one.) But on the other hand, I understand X79 chipset can get pretty toasty.

Definitely not watercooling my RAM unless someone can provide a really compelling argument for it.

Haven't decided on a waterblock for CPU. I'm thinking Koolance CPU-380 or EK Supremacy.

Radiators. I am fitting 2x480s and 1x240. Thoughts on brand/model would be appreciated.

Tubing I'm thinking Norprene. I like the sort of industrial look and lack of plasticizer leeching.

Fittings, probably just go with some variety of Bitspower compression fittings.

Pump/Res, no damn clue. So many options here.

Setting up a nice drain port would be nice, not sure the best configuration there. Someone suggested a quick disconnect at the bottom of the loop and just having the other side of the disconnect attached to some tube sitting in a drawer for when I need it.

Anyhow, I'm open to any and all suggestions, as I haven't done a custom loop in 12 years.
 
Still looking for tips/advice. Wanting to order most of my loop tomorrow.
 
Myself, between the 2 CPU blocks I'd get the Koolance. Eff EK products after their plating debacle and what they did to Sidewinder.

Radiators, you can either go down the rabbit hole trying to match up the fans you have and their RPM to rad FPI...or you can get whatever you want on the cheap.

Pump/res. Depends on what you want and your budget. In general I'd get a D5 variant over a 35X -based pump. D5 has more legs, the pump itself runs cooler, and makes less noise. Lots of D5 bay res to pick from, or get a standalone D5 and separate res...with 3 GPUs, I'd consider 2x pumps. Bay res units are often more of a pain to bleed IME, but that depends on the res.

Separated QDC is a nice idea for a drain port...otherwise you could setup a T-line with consumer plumbing.
 
Thanks. My only concern with the Koolance is it's nickle plated, and the warranty is void if you use anything but their coolant.

As far as the dual pump configuration, any thoughts on where the second pump should go in the loop? Most of the dual pump setups I've seen are intended more for dual loop.
 
Tell them to take their warranty and shove it then, don't give them any business. Get an Aquacomputer, or Watercool VGA block, laugh at vendors that put out garbage and hide behind 'coolant' warranties.
 
What I've ordered so far:

10x Corsair SP120 Quiet Edition Fans
2x Phobya G.Changer 480 Rads
1x Phobya G.Changer 240 Rad
Some Tygon Norprene tubing
Dual Swiftech 655 pumps with Bitspower pump top that puts them in series.
Bitspower Crystal link tubes and fittings for the Hydrocoppers.
Killcoil
Bitspower 250 reservoir addon for the pump top.

All that's left is to decide whether to watercool the RIVE, and pick a CPU waterblock. (Leaning towards the Phobya UC1 or an Aquacomputer one at this point) I may also want to figure out something for a fan controller. Then once I get it all set up I can measure and figure out a tubing route and what fittings I'll need.
 
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NKDietrich said:
What I've ordered so far:

10x Corsair SP120 Quiet Edition Fans
2x Phobya G.Changer 480 Rads
1x Phobya G.Changer 240 Rad
Some Tygon Norprene tubing
Dual Swiftech 655 pumps with Bitspower pump top that puts them in series.
Bitspower Crystal link tubes and fittings for the Hydrocoppers.
Killcoil
Bitspower 250 reservoir addon for the pump top.

All that's left is to decide whether to watercool the RIVE, and pick a CPU waterblock. (Leaning towards the Phobya UC1 or an Aquacomputer one at this point) I may also want to figure out something for a fan controller. Then once I get it all set up I can measure and figure out a tubing route and what fittings I'll need.
Click to expand...

Hmm, the perennial CPU block question. :)

If you're shopping around and not stuck between two choices...You're dealing with a setup that has quite a fair bit of restriction simply due to the GPUs. Catch being blocks like any of the Aquacomputer CPU blocks or for that matter the Phobya UC are among the highest restriction recent-release blocks you can get. They're great thermal performers, but whether any thermal advantage as benched in a single-block-loop block evaporates due to lower flow rate than the comparison is something you'll have to find out for yourself as there isn't a whole lot of data floating around GPU blocks.

If you want to glaze your eyes a little bit with lots of hard data, this is the last great monolithic waterblock bench:
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?282245-Stren-s-2012-CPU-Water-Block-Roundup

Take away lessons I'd highlight out of all those bar graphs and data:
-Apples:Apples benched in a single block loop, with the same pumps/TIM/board...All CPU blocks are separated by 2-3C thermally. Which, is easily within the tolerance of a good or bad TIM mount.
-However those same blocks vary in flow rate (restriction) by as almost 1/2 gallon per minute or 30-40%....and that is 1/2GPM when using an MCP35x2 double pump running at 39% PWM or about 66% pump throttle.

IME: In my current sig rig, I used to have an old high restriction Apogee XTL in it with a 6970 Komodo full coverage block and a 35x pump with 2x240mm rads (ample rad space). Changing that high-restriction CPU block for a very low restriction block like a DT5Noz (no longer sold), gave me 5C off all my GPU thermal sensors simply due to a greatly increased flow rate while CPU temps didn't change that much.

Not saying skip those blocks, but be aware that due to lack of hard comparative info on GPU blocks at all (unlike CPU blocks where there's gobs)...you're going to be finding out yourself how much flow you can get through all your GPUs...as at least serially plumbed, the UC1 or Aquacomputer blocks are going to slow your flowrate down quite a bit. Some folks parallel plumb their GPUs, I've never bothered with CFX or SLI in watercooling so cannot comment on the benefit. Hopefully someone else can. Otherwise, blocks like XSPC's Raystorm or DT's Sniper are great high-flow blocks-not the sexiest but they do get the job done.


For fan controllers, ya want pots or switches? Lamptron makes a bunch of high-wattage quality controllers in both styles.

Good choices on pump, sidenote you may want to have some foam at the ready. To get d5s silent, it is best to decouple them from direct contact with their mounting surface.
 
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Yeah I'll have to repurpose some foam or something. Still not sure exactly how I'm mounting the pumps yet. Regarding the controller, I'll take a look at the Lamptron stuff. IIRC I had a lamptron controller a million years ago I was pretty happy with in my Athlon XP box.

For the waterblocks, I'm not really picking between those two. The roundup you linked showed that even at low pump settings, the high restriction blocks like the Phobya were still really good. But like you said, three GPUs adds
a lot of restriction.

Of the blocks in that roundup, it looks like the EK Supremacy and XSPC Raystorm were good middle of the road block that didn't benefit massively from cranking pump speed to 100%. I deduce that they are relatively low restriction blocks because of that?

By the way, I assume forgoing the motherboard waterblock is a good idea for keeping restriction to a minimum in an already heavy loop?

EDIT: Oh, also, thoughts on an external PSU for the pumps that I can just turn on and off easily during the fill process?
 
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NKDietrich said:
Yeah I'll have to repurpose some foam or something. Still not sure exactly how I'm mounting the pumps yet. Regarding the controller, I'll take a look at the Lamptron stuff. IIRC I had a lamptron controller a million years ago I was pretty happy with in my Athlon XP box.

For the waterblocks, I'm not really picking between those two. The roundup you linked showed that even at low pump settings, the high restriction blocks like the Phobya were still really good. But like you said, three GPUs adds
a lot of restriction.

Of the blocks in that roundup, it looks like the EK Supremacy and XSPC Raystorm were good middle of the road block that didn't benefit massively from cranking pump speed to 100%. I deduce that they are relatively low restriction blocks because of that?

By the way, I assume forgoing the motherboard waterblock is a good idea for keeping restriction to a minimum in an already heavy loop?
Click to expand...

The thing about the pump they used, the 35X, is that the pump throttle does not scale 1:1 directly with respect to PWM %. For a 35X, the throttle that review used: 39% PWM, translates into 66% pump throttle, and for perspective 66% PWM=100% pump throttle. If you hop on the Swiftech website page for the 35X you can see this on their performance charts page. So they didn't get the data they did at low settings, they got them at high settings, and one of the loudest settings a 35X can be run at.

RE: motherboard blocks, you're shooting in the dark as there's no more hard data on chipset blocks than there is GPU blocks. That being said, with the 2x655 pump setup you have, you're in the best position to handle it if you choose to do it. If I myself wanted to do it with your gear so far, I'd consider splitting the flow off the pump into GPUs and another for CPU/chipset. I'm theorizing how I'd do it here, as like I've said I read and seen parallelized loops but not run one myself.

Raystorm is one of the best deals in restriction/thermals/price around TBH. I personally have taken to avoiding EK products on principle no matter how they perform. That is me voting with my wallet, and being an informed consumer, though. They perform nice now that they've finally had their QC under control.

They had a notable fiasco in the last few years in QC. Where running distilled water (or just about any coolant) caused their nickel plated blocks to go to hell with the Ni dissolving off..and blamed everyone (yes everyone) and everything (from distilled water which made no sense chemically, to silver killcoils which made even less sense chemically) but their own QC for their shitty plating, and denied RMAs for toasted blocks most of the time, until the enthusiast community researched it with certified ISO metallurgists and spent a few $$$ and spelled it out to them...afterwards they threatened to sue vendors for having an opinion on the matter.
 
I'd heard a bit about the nickle plating fiasco, but didn't know the full extent of it. Wow, what a clusterfuck. I think I'll go for the Raystorm in that case. On the motherboard side of things, I'll probably pass on the awkward RIVE blocks just to get as much flow as possible on the important bits.
 
Alright, so on coolant I was just going to do distilled + killcoil. Any other minor additives worth considering? One person mentioned a couple drops of dish soap as a surfactant. But I don't know why you'd need one.
 
NKDietrich said:
Alright, so on coolant I was just going to do distilled + killcoil. Any other minor additives worth considering? One person mentioned a couple drops of dish soap as a surfactant. But I don't know why you'd need one.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't bother with any other additives. I don't think any of the other folders in the f@h [H]orde do either.
 
Skripka said:
I wouldn't bother with any other additives. I don't think any of the other folders in the f@h [H]orde do either.
Click to expand...

Thanks. Working on building the first bit of my loop now (GPUs). These Crystal Link things are highly overrated. I don't even see how you're physically supposed to get them betweenthe cards.
 
Looking like the manifold on the side of the Hydrocoppers is too thick. It's a lot thicker than other blocks, making less space for fittings between SLI...

Y6Qmffd.jpg
 
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Tsumi, based on the spacing options 1 and 2 you linked will not fit, nor would I suggest the 1st option at all, for me those parts have not been good.


OP - your spacing is screwed from the end plates on EVGA cards there, is there a way to remove them? or does EVGA sell a bridge similar to what heatkiller has?

(ive never used EVGA blocks)
 
W.Feather said:
Tsumi, based on the spacing options 1 and 2 you linked will not fit, nor would I suggest the 1st option at all, for me those parts have not been good.


OP - your spacing is screwed from the end plates on EVGA cards there, is there a way to remove them? or does EVGA sell a bridge similar to what heatkiller has?

(ive never used EVGA blocks)
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure they are removable, but they don't have any kind of water bridge for Titans.

And yeah, I've already tried the Bitspower stuff. Doesn't work.

My only solution seems to be moving the cards to slots 1, 4, and 7, using regular fittings, and rigging up some kind of ghetto triple SLI bridge with flexi bridges. Is that even possible? This solution would leave one of my cards at 8x though...
 
NKDietrich said:
I'm pretty sure they are removable, but they don't have any kind of water bridge for Titans.

And yeah, I've already tried the Bitspower stuff. Doesn't work.

My only solution seems to be moving the cards to slots 1, 4, and 7, using regular fittings, and rigging up some kind of ghetto triple SLI bridge with flexi bridges. Is that even possible? This solution would leave one of my cards at 8x though...
Click to expand...

Was chatting with WFeather in IRC chat...another option I found...What is the space between manifolds on those blocks?

This is rated for 1/2" minimum: http://www.jab-tech.com/misc-fittings/swiftech-sli-fittings/
 
Looks like I've got 5/8" between them approx, so it'd be close. I think it'd be worth a shot.
 
Jab-Tech emailed me, looks like they misplaced those fittings in a warehouse move. I have some other ones on the way to try. If those don't work I'm going to see if I can enlist EVGA to maybe nail down a solution so I don't have to keep spending money on fittings that don't fit. Seeing as how I spent $3600 on their GPUs, they should be willing to help.
 
NKDietrich said:
Jab-Tech emailed me, looks like they misplaced those fittings in a warehouse move. I have some other ones on the way to try. If those don't work I'm going to see if I can enlist EVGA to maybe nail down a solution so I don't have to keep spending money on fittings that don't fit. Seeing as how I spent $3600 on their GPUs, they should be willing to help.
Click to expand...

Also you can try going through Swiftech directly, they have these similar fittings listed:

http://www.swiftech.com/G1-4-MM-short-connector.aspx
 
Yep those are the ones I have coming tomorrow to try. With any luck, those will do the trick.
 
worst case you can just space it, use fittings, and tubing between .... depending on the fittings you *could* do this in your current setup as well
 
W.Feather said:
worst case you can just space it, use fittings, and tubing between .... depending on the fittings you *could* do this in your current setup as well
Click to expand...

Yeah I would just have to work out the SLI bridge for that kind of non-standard spacing.
 
by sli bridge you mean the ribbon cable right? Did they move it on the Titans? That shouldnt have an effect on making your own fitting/tubing. Could be understanding your incorrectly though.
 
W.Feather said:
by sli bridge you mean the ribbon cable right? Did they move it on the Titans? That shouldnt have an effect on making your own fitting/tubing. Could be understanding your incorrectly though.
Click to expand...

Yeah the actual SLI connectors. I mean if I were to move the cards apart and take the PCIe speed hit on the 2nd card. Tri-SLI bridge is designed for 1-3-5 spacing, not 1-4-7. It's a PCB bridge not a ribbon.
 
ahh, sorry for the odd questions cant visualize it, the PCB bridge affects the ports/fittings for watercooling on these cards? Your plan is for 1-3-5 spacing, correct?
 
W.Feather said:
ahh, sorry for the odd questions cant visualize it, the PCB bridge affects the ports/fittings for watercooling on these cards? Your plan is for 1-3-5 spacing, correct?
Click to expand...

No no, not directly. But I mean if I can't get fittings that'll work with the spacing of the cards, I'll have to move the cards apart, at which point the SLI bridge no longer works and I have to ghetto rig it with flexi cables.

But yeah I'm trying to make 1-3-5 spacing work.
 
I figured thats what was pictured. They do make shorter, "nubby" looking connectors, with some work / effort if one of the "off the shelf" alternatives dont work, you could make your own connectors with the short fittings + tubs, that may even look cleaner / better (I take it looks are important.....i'd have to measure my monsoon fittings, but i think those would be too close to call, but there are shorter ones out there IIRC.
 
MGoMOdh.jpg


So I got the Swiftech fittings to work. Kinda mangled the finish getting them attached, but its the only thing I've found that seems to work. We'll see when I get the rest of the loop built if they work without leaking...
 
If I ever pick up a 900D I would throw an alphacool XT45 480 in the bottom and a UT60 480 on the top. Well, I would probably just use my current UT60 420.
 
TYC3g77.jpg


Getting rads and fans in! Ordering a bunch of stupidly expensive Bitspower fittings and a couple fan controllers now. After that's done, I'll have to find a way to mount my pump/tube res assembly and figure out which fittings ill need for that.
 
Looking sharp there man, cant wait to see the finished product
 
I'm honestly considering setting it on some foam and just wrapping some strong tape around the pump and the crossbar below it, and then securing the reservoir pumptop to the unused cable management holes with those universal mounts or some black zipties. Not super secure, but I won't be moving a 900D around anyway.
 
dual D5s ... i missed the question while admiring the setup :D


Have you tried double sided tape on the right side of the pumps to the bottom of that drive cage ?
 
For my builds, since there's a short length of tubing between the pump/reservoir and the next component, it was held in place by the tubing. Not sure if that's applicable for your build though.
 
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