Ok, so, weather or not I grow the balls needed to go through with ripping my baby up is a dif question, but I'm going to have to get these questions answered if I do, so i'll just put one foot infront of the other until its finished right? This is my first mod and my first liquid loop. I dropped $150 today on a rivet gun, a nice new dremel, and some acrylic. First annoyance, just get it out of the way: I live in Vancouver, BC, canada. Frozen CPU, as well as many other popular sites, are out. But I guess you guys are used to that as the majority of this cite seems to be European. 1 - Are those new Koolance nozzles decent? I like the clean look and the extra protection nozzles like that tend to provide, but Koolance's track record isn't too awesome (or so I hear). The thing that worries me most is that the G1/4 thread that I would plop into my rad (in this case, a swiftech MCR330), is only 4mm long! is that really long enough to hold? Can anyone provide a better alternative? 2 - Can I get decent temps using 1/4" tubing? If yes, is the aqua computer couplex a must or will a standard Fuzion do it? I want to use 1/4" tubing because I', putting it in a P180B and I hear 3/8" tubing is hard to handle in this situation. 3 - I have an obsession with making this thing parallel. What I want to do is run 1 or 2 pumps (you guys can tell me which, like to keep the total for the pumps under $120 if possible) into either end of a manafold which will distribute pressure among 5 outlets, only 2 (CPU, NB) or 3 (GPU, want a generic block that will mount on an RV770 board!) of which will be used from the get go. 4 - Can I Get 8/4 pin (12V leads and returns for motherboard) extender cables? where? I have the traditional P180B "cables wont make it captain!" problem. Doubly so when I plan on doing my cable management. 5 - where the bejesus can I get some 1000/1500(/2000?) grit sand paper for lapping processor and sanding the acrylic? If there's anyone on the boards in the greater vancouver area, please, point me in the direction of a shop carrying that stuff. 6 - can someone point me in the direction of "cable sleeving 101"? 7 - mixed metals. What do I do? How do I prevent corrosion? I read the recent article comparing the three fluids, but you guys didn't review their anti-corrosive properties (understandably, kinda hard to do something that takes 6 months in 6 days). I understand that nickel plated stuff is Ok to mix with things, but that copper and aluminum will give each other problems? The intermediate layer in the Couplex XT, what is that, polished aluminum, stainless steel, polished nickel, what? 8 - ICH9, ok to passively cool? Can I keep such a cooler low profile enough to still have a graphics card slide over it? For referance the motherboard is the Maximus Formula. Then again, if the R700 family turns out to be another flop (I'm holding out for it not to be), then I might go back to the old 680i which I've got sitting on a shelf, looking for a home. 680i SPP get so hot water cooling it is practically mandatory. 9 - I want to use the Arctic cooling 12, 12L and 12PWM fans for pretty much everything, any objections? Thanks for all your guys help. And whats the deal with subscriptions on this forum? Back on [H] whenever you made a post you were automatically subbed, not so here?
lets see what i can help with. all watercooling i cant help ya as i have not ventured to that frontier yet. but some of the others i might be of use for. 5 - where the bejesus can I get some 1000/1500(/2000?) grit sand paper for lapping processor and sanding the acrylic? If there's anyone on the boards in the greater vancouver area, please, point me in the direction of a shop carrying that stuff. try any automotive parts store like NAPA or Carquest they carry it for auto bodywork shops. 6 - can someone point me in the direction of "cable sleeving 101"? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FeCs98TSsYQ thats about all i can lend help for i'm afraid
1. The new nozzles are good, except for the quick disconnect are still a major flow killer. The problem with the old fittings is they were just coated aluminum which could lead to corrosion issues. The new bards are coated brass so they're completely safe. 2. It depends on what you mean by decent temps, as long as you're getting decent flow (~1 gpm) through your loop you will likely only see a couple degrees difference (see cathar's work for more imformation). I'd probably go with the fuzion since it's a lot less restrictive than the cuplex. 3. If you're serious about having a parallel setup then consider adding adjustable valves to the manifold outlets so that you can control flow to each loop. If you're a member of [H] I assume you've seen the awesome parallel loop project there. Since you're running a fairly restrictive setup (1/4" tubing) I'd go with the DDC for a pump. 7. How are you mixing metals in your loop? If you're using a fuzion (copper), non-alphacool radiator (bronze/brass), standard fittings (chromed brass), and copper water blocks you don't need to worry about corrosion. Corrosion only becomes a factor when you're mixing aluminum and copper (but even then it's debatable how much of an issue it is). The cuplex layer is not aluminum, if it's stainless steel or nickel plated brass doesn't matter too much. Check out ncix for computer parts.
Canadian Tire for the sandpaper. And shame on you for not thinking of it. Any patriotic Canadian turns to Canadian Tire first for solutions to all problems. Hardware related or not.
#4- Most of us solder splices into the wiring. I cannibalize old dead PSUs for the wire to do it. #5- I only sand down edges to 400 grit and surfaces to 600. I let the polisher do the rest of the work. 1000+ is overkill. #7- Unless you have a window showing the aluminum surfaces, don't worry about it much. A car's coolant system has steel, copper, brass, aluminum, tin, and lead. Anti-corrosives work wonders. (-says the guy with stuff swimming around in his system.) post#9- Registration isn't automatic because nice people have created bots to cr*pflood similar forums.
#4 What PSU do you have, I had the same problem with the extra 12V motherboard power until I got a Corsair 520HX, reaches just fine (with a little to spare) And my connector is in about the same position as your motherboard. #8 Yes you can, type in ICH9 into Google and have a look at the images, you will see many with tiny heatsinks and some without a heatsink at all. If you have and old Heatsink lying around you could just cut it up and stick it on (mounting could be a problem, unless you epoxy it)
OK here's my 2 cents (also applies to Canadian currency ) 1) I avoid Koolance like the plague and would never consider any of their products. 2) I prefer using 1/2" or 7/16" tubing but would never go with anything less than 3/8" 3) I would not use a manifold because: a) significantly less flow through the blocks = less performance and b) flow choses the path of least resistance so invariably one leg would be starved of fluid flow. 4) I personally would just spice in extensions. 5) Auto parts or hardware stores are your best bet 6) Don't know about any sleeving 101 but it's actually pretty easy; be sure you have the molex and ATX pin extractor tools. 7) Avoid all H2O components that have aluminum in them (e.g. all Koolance) and you'll be fine using just distilled H2O with a few drops of Biocide. 8) Possibly the Thermalright HR-05 9) Not sure about the fans In the User CP you can set the subscription preferences to auto-subscribe for you; I prefer to manually subscribe to the threads I'm really interested in. For H2O stuff you can also check out Petra's Tech Shop as they sell anywhere in the world (AFAIK Performance-PCs does too)
