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Cooling Pete's Watercooling log/how-to. UPDATE: UPGRADES!!!

Discussion in 'Hardware' started by Bloody_Pete, 10 Jan 2011.

  1. Parge

    Parge the worst Super Moderator

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    Just checking guys:

    What approximate temps should I be expecting for a 2500K at 4GHz, under water with two EK 240 rads – vcore at stock? I’m getting mid 50’s under full load, with maybe one core at 57C at peak. That is with two 480’s in the loop though, so maybe that is about right?

    Am I correct in saying that in some cases your idle temps will be higher under water because they are in the same loop as your GPUs? (unlike on air where they are separate). Mine seems to idle about 33C.
     
  2. Bloody_Pete

    Bloody_Pete Technophile

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    That sounds about right to me. And, yes, that can happen, depending on your loop of course.

    And can people suggest some good angled fittings?
     
    Last edited: 8 May 2012
  3. law99

    law99 Custom User Title

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    With my 360 rad, with a cpu and gfx card in the loop, I'm getting around the same. Although the card is lower than the cpu heat wise.

    I get 44c max on my gfx card at 900mhz in furmark. I get max 52c in IBT on the cpu which stays at its turbo speed the whole time of 3.7ghz.

    Can't wait to do a little overclocking this weekend. Going to look about for some heatsinks to chop up for my GFX card also. :lol:

    [​IMG]

    and

    [​IMG]

    I literally am kicking myself for not doing this sooner.

    Edit: Definitely need some white memory modules in there with the blue ones. Going to properly stick the leds in this weekend too.
     
  4. Parge

    Parge the worst Super Moderator

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    Nice setup dude! And yes, watercooling is awesome!

    I have to admit, I found the whole thing a total ballache to begin with, I had leaks all over, it was a pain to fill, I had pump noise (because it was running at full pelt all the time) and then I had to drain it because one of the hoses was coming loose (even though it wasn't leaking).

    Anyway, lets just say I've learnt a LOT about it in the last 6 months, and now, honestly, I wouldn't go back to air. WCing just nets you such good temps and looks so frickin cool.

    Have you got a core block on your 460 there? Its a great card, but yeah, probably worth cooling the VRMs too. Someone on the marketplace was selling some mini VRM watercooling modules.
     
  5. law99

    law99 Custom User Title

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    I wouldn't go back to air for my proper machine either now. Admittedly I wouldn't water cool my nas, or any other home computers... just my personal rig. I am considering building an ITX table computer now though just be cutting up an existing table. And the looks are the biggest yes in it... temps are awesome. But it looks so much better without a massive heatsink taking up the whole house.

    On the 460 I have a universal block from EK. I decided that I wanted to keep the block across all cards I owned, so didn't want to do go the route of:

    a) Paying more for a card with factory watercooling.
    b) Buying a new water block every 2 / 3 years.

    But I did hit a snag. The universal block doesn't wholly fit my card. When I was putting it on the card it didn't all line up. You should have seen my face. My flat mate was on his PC in the office at the time I was attaching it. Apparently I looked really down the moment it didn't fit.

    But I found that the two would fit across the core opposite corner to corner, so I attached it to those and found some washers that were just big enough with a small enough hole to reach over to the thumb screw things.

    So it's a bit of a botch on the gfx card, but it still looks good.

    [​IMG]

    I also absentmindedly stuck a ram heatsink on the wrong way around... :waah: as you can see in the photo.

    Cheers for the headsup on the VRM coolers

    Edit: I got all the air out also by tipping the pc up and over while holding the res up in my other hand. I left it for about 5 hours with the whole open on top also so the air wouldn't just continue around the loop.
     
  6. Parge

    Parge the worst Super Moderator

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    I had the same block, and was thinking of doing the same thing, but in the end I just bought the two 480’s with full covers already attached. Is your 460 non reference? I’m just assuming that’s why it didn’t fit. As long as the block is firmly on the GPU core you should be ok even if it does look a bit bodged.

    My res is a bay res, and because I like my setups super neat, my tubes aren’t long enough to take it all the way out. I got all the air out of my loop now, mainly just by leaving it on for ages with the lid off my res so the air could escape, then giving it a tip to one side every hour or two. Now and again when I run the pump full whack I get a few rogue bubbles pop through but apart from that it seems to be clear.
     
  7. law99

    law99 Custom User Title

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    Yeah. The hawk is non reference. It also has raised components on the PCB between the vrms... which is annoying as. So I have to go with the little square ones, smaller than the zalmans attached to the memory to cool them - or it is get a dremel out, measure where they are and cut grooves into the heatsink so as not to short anything out. Also, I worry that they need thermal glue rather than paste or just a sticky pad. I know some pads bond with heat, so I could hairdryer them on after applying pressure maybe. Should'nt be too much of an issue as I am slowy coming round to the idea of running this card into the ground.

    Yeah, I've heard that using a bay res is difficult for rookies, so I decided against it for my first build. But I like the way it looks through the window, so I'm happy. May add another res as a bay res later, as more water helps right? Or does it just take longer to reach peak temps?

    I was lucky as I could literally just turn my pc upside down and zippy clip the res upside down to run for a few hours. So all air naturally came out including some rocking.
     
  8. Bloody_Pete

    Bloody_Pete Technophile

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    More water will probably do nothing in a high flow system :)

    My machine is a pain to bleed, there's still some air in the rad, as when I popped my 3570k in I couldn't be bothered to undo my fans (note forgot to undo them) when it was full of water so I couldn't remove it from the case to bleed it fully. Atleast my itiings have stopped dripping for now, I'm going to replace them when I move to my new house, hopefully get some Mayhems Aurora too...

    It'll probably
     
  9. law99

    law99 Custom User Title

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    Good to know. Thanks. Another rad or bigger 140.3 one in the future then me thinks.

    The leaky fittings situation... is this normally caused by something simple like old tubing that has been compressed too many times? Or is it something more sinister that I should look out for?

    I think I should check the compression fittings are on tightly every month or so. They shouldn't loosen themselves mind.

    I've got some overclocking to do this weekend, so I'm looking forward to seeing how much I can get out of my chip now. Although, it was my mobo that was the limit last time. So I'm not so sure I'll know the difference over the previous build.
     
  10. Parge

    Parge the worst Super Moderator

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    No, all my leaks have been through angled fittings with leaky joints. Compression fittings if connected correctly in the first place should be fine, and shouldn't need checking once a month.
     
  11. Bloody_Pete

    Bloody_Pete Technophile

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    Yeh, it was angled fittings. They're fine if you apply pressure to them in the right direction...

    I have new ones though, so I'll be rebuilding my loop in a couple of months I think.
     
  12. HawkeSolaris

    HawkeSolaris What's a Dremel?

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    This thread was amazing to learn the basic. Thanks! :)
     
  13. flame696

    flame696 Terminating People Since 1980....

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    Holy thread revival Batman!
     
  14. Bloody_Pete

    Bloody_Pete Technophile

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    This indeed! I thought this thread has sunk off into history!

    I'm glad you enjoyed it though :)
     

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