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Watercooling Penguin v5.0 - Ongoing Watercooled Build

Discussion in 'Hardware' started by rowin4kicks, 4 Apr 2013.

  1. rowin4kicks

    rowin4kicks a man walked into a bar ...

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    Hi Bit!
    I'm looking to document and get some advice with my ongoing PC build, dubbed Penguin v5.0, so any advice you can give me would be greatly appreciated.


    This computer is being used to render out my uni work so I can only really afford a day of down time every couple of weeks to work on the w/c loop and to sort out whatever I want/need to do. This also give me a bit of time to workout a new direction and fix any problems I have with the current build and order some tasty new parts.

    I started off a couple of weeks ago with my trusty i7 930, x58 Sabertooth Motherboard and GTX 580 housed in a Fractal R3. The plan was to transfer the components over and build a loop out of the parts I had been collecting over a period of 6 or so months into a brand new Fractal XL R2. I had the following to use:

    Aqaucomputer CPU Block
    Aquaero 5 LT with w/c block and water temp sensor
    EK Nickel GTX 580 Block
    Laing 18W DDC
    4 x Noctua 120mm fans
    240mm SR1 Black Ice Radiator
    240mm ??? Crossflow Radiator​

    I wasted no time and as soon as the case was delivered it was on the dining room table, stripped down with the hard drive cages removed and awaiting the radiators. The SR1 fit upfront perfectly and the 2 Noctua fans held it perfectly. When it came to install the crossflow rad up top I encountered my first problem. The fan spacing was too large to fit all the screws in so only one end was attached and it was basically touching the motherboard.

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    So after a lot of frowning, wasted time and trying to get everything to fit I ended up with both radiators in the case and just needing to install the reservoir and blocks on the CPU/GPU.

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    Fast forward another 4 hours and the whole day had gone, big plans turned into just trying to get the machine working, watertight and running again. I had major problems trying to get the EK compression fittings watertight on the tubing, every time i would fill the loop with water it would turn into a collinder and drain straight out! I skipped setting up the Aquaero and left that for later but the whole build time was around 12 hours shut down to restart. This is how the case sat for the last 2-3 weeks waiting on a few new parts to do rebuild #2.

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    A few bad points so far:
    • Cant shut the side panel due to the fill port being in the way
    • Aquaero wasn't installed so all the fans were on full load all the time
    • The top radiator didn't fit inside the case at all and needs to be replaced
    • Its impossible to tighten the EK Compression fittings enough to prevent leaks!
    • Its impossible to fill the loop as its airtight and overflows
    • The route of the tubing is awful and needs to be tided up!
    • Cables need tidying!

    I have just finished the 2nd part to this journey today and will be posting some progress shots of that soon.
     
  2. Big Elf

    Big Elf Oh no! Not another f----ing elf!

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    I can only guess that there's a mismatch with your tubing size and compressions. Normally you wouldn't be able to screw the collar fully down on the fitting anyway (although I seem to have managed to do that with my Bitspower fittings). Even without the collar it should be basically watertight although not up to running like that for any length of time. I can see you're using straight rather than rotary fittings so it isn't that that's leaking. What size fittings and tubing are you using? Have you measured the tubing to make sure it's correct?

    Can't you bend the fill port tube enough to fit into the case?
     
  3. rowin4kicks

    rowin4kicks a man walked into a bar ...

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    Round 2

    Ok so round 2 was today, I came fully prepared and had ordered the following last week:

    14 x 1/2" Fat Boy Silver Barbs
    14 x Alphacool Copper Tube Clips
    1m White Tubeing
    240mm Alphacool Monsta Radiator (to replace the SR1)
    240mm Aplhacool XT45 Radiator (to replace the X-Flow)
    Aquaero 5 LT drivebay mounts
    2 x Slim line Sata Cables
    Shoggy sandwhich pump mount​

    So the same rules applied today, I only had this afternoon to finish off any changes I needed to do before the PC needed to be back up and running.

    Having built a drain port into the loop (which I now hated the look of) it only took me a couple of minutes to drain the loop and get the case back onto the dining room table.

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    The plan was to replace the compression fittings with standard barbs and use the alphacool copper tube clips to hold the tubing in place. I really like this look and will probably be putting more copper highlights into the build soon! Here is a cheeky pic of the Aquaero just before installing it into the drivebay.

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    I lost all the images of the build in progress so here is how it sits now, both new radiators fit perfectly. The top radiator needs new M3 bolts ordering for it as its only held in with 4 at the moment, not ideal and it looks crap! Both the side panels fit on which is a plus and the Aquaero is finally installed. Still have a long list of problems to solve but its getting there. Not one leak today with the standard barbs which is great, keep things simple and they will work!

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    The plan for Rebuild #3 is:
    • Cutout a hole underneath the front radiator to use the blanking plugs as a drainport
    • Replace the reservior with a copper version
    • actually use the shoggy snadwhich to mount the pump instead of it just hanging there
    • buy some more copper bolts and washers to attach the top radiator properly
    • Either strip and paint the Noctua fans or buy some Noiseblockers
    • Get some ram coolers for the Corsair LP
    • New PSU and some major cable tidying
     
  4. rowin4kicks

    rowin4kicks a man walked into a bar ...

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    Its the EK 1/2ID 3/4OD Compression fittings I was using and some XSPC 1/2ID and 3/4OD tubing with it. I couldnt screw the fittings down quite all the way, but something was defiantly wrong with the setup I was using.

    The fill port was just a temporary thing knowing that I would be changing the loop around in a couple of weeks.

    As you can see I have solved both problems now and cleaned the loop up allowing me to add and remove the fill port to the top of the res without affecting the rest of the loop. Much easier :D
     
  5. rowin4kicks

    rowin4kicks a man walked into a bar ...

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    Took some slightly better photos of the current state the build is in. If anyone can think of a better way to route the tubing then feel free to let me know. I actually quite like the way its done at the moment.

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    Quick shot of the white tubing and copper clips, the tempsensor for the aquaero is there too

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    How the pump is currently mounted, or not.

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    The radiator is HUGE! Looks like it was built for this case though, fits in perfectly, no room for the 140mm version though.

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    A whole mess of wires where the Aquaero is, any ideas how to tame the mess?

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    The top radiator is in desperate need of more screws to hold it in place, bit of a ghetto setup at the moment.

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