WC Advice for i7 in P182 Case

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viets7ylez

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Jun 8, 2004
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Hey guys,

I'm kind of interested in moving to a watercooling setup for my i7.

I am looking for something that is quiet and want to keep this all internal if possible, I know the P182 is pretty small but I was hoping I could utilize the 5.25 drive bay area since I only have one drive there currently and probably won't be getting anymore.

I currently only want to run one loop for the CPU itself, I don't plan on moving to the GPU or anything. I want a good quality kit but I don't want to spend a crap load of money when it isn't necessary. Lets set a limit of $300.

Any suggestions would be great, I have NEVER done water cooling before :D

Thanks!
 
For that case to do internal and an i7, I think your only option is a high end single rad like a Thermochill on the exhaust fan mount. A double rad would require modding, like the bottom chamber.

For an external setup, you can use a radbox to mount the radiator on the outside, but keep everything else internal.
 
You can certainly mount a res in the 5.25" bays, and if you take out the upper 3.5" HD bay you can mount the pump there. Cut a hole for an extra fan on top and you can put in a 120x240mm radiator on the top, or if you moved your res somewhere else, you could put a 120x360mm rad by eliminating the top 2 5.25" bays.

It's not the biggest case but I'm sure if you plan it out carefully it'll all fit.
 
Alright I could consider a setup using an external radiator, but I'd like it to not take up too much room. Any run down on parts for a 1-loop WC setup with a budget of 300? Like I said, I'm new so I'm sorry for all the questions.

Back in the day when I had a P4 setup, it was dangerden that was the best but it doesn't seem like that nowadays.
 
you can get the exact setup in my signature for $300.

320 radiator, MCP355 + XSPC Restop, Swiftech GTZ should come out to $200-250.
spend the other $50 on tubing, clamps, barbs, t-line, distilled water, silver killcoil.
 
viets7ylez said:
I'm really liking this setup I found, it looks like what I want to do.

http://forums.pureoverclock.com/showthread.php?t=3934

What do you guys think?
Click to expand...

that setup isn't too good, you're better off with a single 320 radiator, and a MCP355 pump + Reservoir Top or MCP355 + XSPC Top + Swiftech MicroRes. i chose the reservoir/top to save some money.

the pump performans much better with an aftermarket top and it takes a whole 30 seconds to change.
 
So I am thinking about going with this setup to only cool my cpu.

Apogee GTZ water block
2 BIP 120mm rads so that I can keep it all inside
MCRES-Micro Revision 2 Reservoir
MCP655-B pump
And probably Noctuas to cool the radiators and keep it quiet.

Probably use Tygon tubing.

Thoughts?
 
Well i would say good luck that is a small case to use WC. Hope you have small hands. :)
 
Forget the posts above, I went ahead and bit the bullet.

I decided to get the following:

Apogee GTZ water block

MCR320 Rad
I'm gonna mount it on the back of my case using the rev 1 of the radbox since it is steel and will be able to hold the rad.

MCRES-Micro Revision 2 Reservoir

MCP655-B pump

Decided against the pricey Noctuas and got 3 Yate Loons to cool the rad.

Got 3 FT of Primochill tubing, I love the black color making it look sleek. Hopefully 3 FT is enough.

I also got about 10 plastic clamps.


It should all get here by the end of the week so hopefully I'll have something to play with over Easter break.

Am I forgetting anything? Let me know so I can order it right away :D
 
you nee more than 3 feet. i used about 8 feet in mine just cooling the cpu. my case is bigger and i probably ran a little excess tubing but you will still need more than 3 feet i believe.

also be sure to leak test it before powering anything on the computer. somehow my gtz block leaked from the cpu plate and i had a decent amount of water on my motherboard, video card, and power supply but none of it was hooked up luckily.
 
Last edited:
Barbs for the radiator and such? There were options to choose 1/2 or 3/8 or whatever you wanted on the site to be included :D
 
Update:

Got my parts in and just finished setting everything up. Leak test outside looked good so now its running with side open to test for more leaks :D.

Here are some pictures:

1-3.jpg


2-3.jpg


3-3.jpg


4-2.jpg


5-2.jpg
 
that looks really good man. nice work. how much did you end up spending all together?
 
~250. I bought a radbox to go with this but petra ships so slow compared to Jab-Tech so I just decided to mount it like this so that I could get started working on it. I might put it on the radbox when I get it or I might just end up selling the radbox on the forums.

For 250 it wasn't bad at all. I really enjoyed putting this together it was a lot of fun since it was my first time. The temperatures are GREAT. Was at 81ish running Linx with the Noctua but now it is about 65ish.. lower at night when its cool.

The swiftech kit that you can get right now is about 240ish without shipping. I pieced together pertty much the same setup but instead of the MCR220 I was able to get the 320, tubing that I wanted which was black so it was more "sleeper" looking. Still runs quiet as it did with the Noctua but I need to get rid of the GPU noise. Might consider getting a block soon but haven't really decided on one. I just want a cheap one but not sure what to get :)
 
Screw the radbox in to the top. The rad needs to be off of the top to get proper airflow. That's basically the setup I had for a while (had the same case a while back), but I built some standoffs for the radiator to sit on rather than use a radbox. It worked very well. If you mount a couple more 120mm rads internally you could probably include your GPU as well.

I probably wouldn't have put the pump down in the bottom chamber like that (would've put the res in the top part below the optical drive, pump in the secondary HDD bay where you have the res now. That keeps the loop all in pretty much the same area of the case, which makes removing it when you need to far less troublesome. Might consider some quick disconnects to make removing the radiator easier too. Then it all just lifts out. I personally will never build a loop that isn't fully internal or doesn't have quick disconnects again -- too much trouble when making modifications.
 
Pump wouldn't fit in the HDD bay up top was gonna do that originally. I like how the setup is now, its clean and yes it'll be a pain to make any mods but I'm a patient person and I doubt I'll make any changes anytime soon to the loop that is.
 
Nice setup. I really like the tubing and you managed to fit it into the P182, very nice job! One suggestion, switch the top fans to blow into your case. There are 2 main rules in watercooling - 1) Res before pump ALWAYS and 2) The radiator gets the coolest air. It may raise your case temps slightly, but it will give you better cooling for your watercooled components, since the ultimate point of watercooling is to get the heat from the components into the water, then remove the heat from the water in the radiator.. The CPU will run cooler and GPUs are not very temperature sensitive (my old 8800GTS 512 didn't even START throttling itself unless temperatures reached 130c) so if it heats up a little, it won't matter.

In a lot of watercooled cases, the airflow tends to be kinda backwards, with the top or back radiator fans pushing air into the case and the front, side, and bottom fans exhausting air out.

If you want to cool the GPU, get the Swiftech MCW-60. It's tried and true and an excellent performer, and that price is the cheapest I've seen anywhere. Keep in mind you'll need some ramsinks, any will do, really. If you want to keep it "sleeper" looking with the black, this is a great custom kit that performs well and looks great (if you have the 8800GTS 512).
 
Hmm that is interesting about the airflow, I'll look into it and might switch it when the radbox gets here.

Would that GPU cooler work with the 9800GTX?
 
Yeah, it'll fit the 9800GTX no problem. The best thing about the MCW60 is that it's probably the most compatible GPU block there is right now. You can take it and reuse it when you get a new video card and it's such a solid performer that its basic design is still the same as it was when it was first released.

Also, that ramsink that I recommended won't work with the 9800GTX, you'd need this one, but it's out of stock at the moment.
 
Thanks for the advice, will I need a special mounting plate or anything or does it fit with what it comes with? I'll probably wait to get it since the GPU isn't loud unless I game but that is rare. I'm not sure this radiator could handle it in the loop either.
 
The stock mounting plate should work with it, I don't think Swiftech sells a 9800GTX backplate. Adding that to the loop may be a bit much, is your i7 overclocked? Before I added my NB to the loop, my MCR320 was handling my E3110 at 4GHz and my 4870X2 with good temperatures, but i7s put out a lot of heat.
 
Yeah the i7 is overclocked.

On another note,

You said I should have the top and rear fans sucking into the case and the fronts as exhausts. I don't really see that, since I have my fans sucking on the radiator.
 
The way you have the fans mounted, it's pulling air from the case through the radiator out the top of the computer. The better way to do it would be to flip them so the Antec stickers are facing down and have them take cooler air from the room and push it through the radiator into the case. That'll cool the CPU better.

What clocks/voltages is that i7 at?
 
Or better yet, block the top fan hole in your case, screw the radbox to the top of the case, and pull air just like you are now. You get cool air to the rad and cool air to the internal components. Everybody wins.

That, and you don't have to screw around with fan directions.
 
Interesting would it make that much of a difference?

The i7 is crap I got a really bad chip I run it at 3.6 with 1.4 Vcore and QPI in bios so with droop in windows its about 1.367 Vcore. I can't get it stable at anything higher. I was thinking a new bios might help but not sure.. I'm using the F5, I have the EX58-UD5 board.

Temps are about 65 with load.

Wow just realized I'm on GF's account haha, oh well.
 
Your girlfriend has an account at [H]? Lucky. Granted, only 12 days, but still.

You should see a noticeable drop if you seal the top fan opening (just stick some black closed cell foam or something in it) and mount the rad so it can "breathe" better with the radbox on the top of the case, yes. I won't commit to any specific numbers, but I'd guess 5C or greater, assuming it's pretty choked off now and sucking warm case air.
 
Yeah she has an account on here she likes to frequent the hot deals page.

I'll redo the rad setup once the radbox gets here next week.

I will probably end up doing what dealmaster suggested though and use that hole still.
 
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