More water cooling questions.

Neuromancer · #1 10-30-2009

Building a shell approximately 10 inches wide 19 inches tall and 17 inches deep.

Front of case is 95% BlackIce GTZ 480 radiator. I will have dvdrw and fan controller mounted vertically to fit in the narrow width along side the rad (no room above or below it) Thinking of putting the 3k Kaze fans on the inside in a pull config (might not be doable though), so I can put filters on the front of the rad, without looking too stupid. DVD and fan controller (and PSU for that matter) not pictured. Took a 2200 PSI pressure washer (on medium spray tip) to get the crap outta the fins, so REALLY dont want to have to be pulling this apart every 3 months (no way will air get it out of there).

Inside. The positioning of the Res, is so that I can lay it on its side, so that the top of the res, is highest and makes a good fill point.

Is this a bad idea? The case will be standing vertically, which means the res will be sideways. It is not a question of leaking since the res has fill ports on both ends. So either way, if it leaks I am screwed lol. It is a question of function though.

As for the this layout is not final, I really wanted the PSU on the bootom , but I think for water reasons it will go on top of the mobo tray with drive cage on the bottom. Imagine this pic as if the side panel was off and the case is laying on its side.

Ideally Mobo tray will be centered with PSU on top. Normally I HATE reverse ATX format with PSU on top, but for water cooling reasons I think it is best. I would rather have water drip on a sealed HDD than an open PSU. I would rather have no drips at all, but hey, no one is perfect

I do intend to use nylon clips (but I am using masterkleer which is a cheap soft material) so pretty sure a leak WILL eventually happen. Knowing me and my ham hands, if I used worm drives, I would end up slicing the tubing and have to start over :p

This watercooling setup is a great re-entrance into WC'ing. (I hope) and for the price I can't thank chicken Patty enough

Thanks Dave!

Oh one last note. Pump I just placed on top of the HDD cage to show nominal placement. Measurements must still be made (I eyeballed everything so far and THINK I can make it work. Worst case scenario drives go up top with the PSU in a vertical orientation like the DVD/fan controller. Also HDD cage is not guaranteed I may skip it as I did on my other IPC to save space.

Bones · #2 10-30-2009

Personally I'd keep the res outside of the case for obvious reasons if possible. However you decide to set it up, be sure to have what is called "Drip Points" / low points in your tubing when you run your hoses. That means the tubing has a little dip in it as it goes to each fitting. Remember that water always runs downhill and these loops or dips use that effect to control where small leaks would go and drip off.

You can control where this is to make things more predictable once it's setup to help avoid disaster.
After setting it up, you could set another machine beside it or simply place a PSU unit (Not hooked up to the WC'ed PC itself) and run the pump to check for leaks before powering it up. Make sure when doing this, you do not have a power cord plugged into your WC'ed setup since dripping water from a leak could possibly short the circuits inside causing your WC'ed machine to try and start during this time = Uh-Oh.

When I first setup my machine, I simply placed another PC alongside the machine, hooked up one of it's PSU wires and ran the pump from this machine so it could run without having power going to the WC'ed machine itself.
By doing it this way, if it had a leak you'd have no power going to the WC'ed machine itself and be able to fix those without frying your setup. That is what I did and I found a few when I did that, fixed them and once my testing and fixing was done, hooked it all up proper and it did fine.

Neuromancer · #3 10-30-2009

Oh yah, I know about leak checking. Take a staple from a staple gun bend it around a pair of needle nose, hook it into pins 14 and 15 on the main power cable, flip the switch and run

I know some people that actually build the loop outside of their cases (like I think you are suggesting) and leak test, install it and leak test again. I am not patient enough for that, so will leak test post install but keep power off the components. (Minus PSU that will be not plugged into anything of course)

I have run WC before (epic fail, not from leaking, just performance wise, leak testing did find a leak and I fixed it) and have researched my ass sometime after core 2 quad, as I thought I would need it for summertime.

TBH If I had not come back to intel, I still would not be WCing. These things are just freaking watt pigs though.

Bones · #4 10-31-2009

I already had the setup in place, filled and everything when I did the testing.

I simply did as described above to test run the system before actually applying power to the WC'ed system. That way if I had any leaks, there would be no risk of shorting anything out before I fixed the leaks I found.

Neuromancer · #5 10-31-2009

Great, thanks for the tip Bones

Bones · #6 10-31-2009

Keep a close eye on your rad. I noted you used a high pressure washer to clean it and while that's not a bad way to clean it out, it's possible to crack a solder seam by using a washer on it.

Neuromancer · #7 11-07-2009

Tubing being added now.

This is a temporary setup obviously. I am moving out to the gargae (it has been converted to an apartment) so I have more space

But only one window that opens :(

Slide is going to be spending a lot of time outside I think LOL

EDIT: Oh, and while the PSU is hooked up to the mobo (god first impressions of this board is that EVGA guys have never had to put a motherboard in a case. The cpu fan header is located between the sink and the PS/2 port. Needed needlenose to attach it, same with the CPU power cable (wire is stiff though so did not need the plierS)

24 ATX socket was so tight I was worried about breaking the mobo attaching it (could be the new PSU though...)

Neuromancer · #8 11-07-2009

Holy cow. 20 minutes to get one hose on the pump. So tight it does not even need clamps (I put one on anyway, but doubt it will be effective since it was hard to get to even one click with it

Neuromancer · #9 11-07-2009

Leak tested for about an hour. Rad is in the window without the fans blowing yet.

Decided to boot her up and...

F3-F6 post codes is all I can get (slight Flash on the reset button after F6) rinse and repeat thrice then it powers down for 4 seconds.

If I reset CMOS it powers up with F3 code shuts off. Then goes back to F3-F6 post codes.

If I pull all the ram and the video card.. same thing, so it is not even getting to a point of initializing IRQ I assume.

going to try swapping out the PSU for my fortron and see if that works (doubtful:( )

EDIT: okay it did work until I hooked it all up :s now that does not work either.. I had all peripherals removed all ready so it isnt them....

Kal-EL · #10 11-07-2009

Dammit I hate when that happens. You work so hard getting everything setup and blam, no boot. I'd check to see if the mount is too tight and then re-mount the cpu aside from all the good troubleshooting stuff that I know you already know about.

Nice progress until boot tho