Building First Time Liquid-Cooled PC

[Mormegil]

Nice build! Its amazing the computing power one can get today for $2k. iirc, I paid about $3,600 for my first i386 build in the 80's. That was a lot of cash in those days.

SX or DX?

I was lucky enough to inherit my dad's old 386 when he got a 486. I've been continually upgrading it ever since. Not a single piece of the original is left. I think the oldest thing is the keyboard (PS/2 connector type, NMB "Click" keyboard "Designed for Windows 95"). Rest of the specs are in the sig, which was useful during the beta testing period.

 

[Floyd]

To be honest, there really wasn't whole lot of "building" in those days...iirc it was an SX. A PC's Limited computer. State of the art was expensive, I looked up my old depreciation schedules and found a cost of $4500 (US).

 

[Reise]

IT BEGINS

Spoiler!

 

[r5cya]

eight ram slots! me want!
what cooler did you choose?
sexy motherboard!

 

[Reise]

Thats the corsair H80. Wanted to mount it to the bottom for intake since the case I bought has a vent there, but the piping wasn't long enough. There's enough room for my ram with both fans on the radiator but one's gonna have to be removed if I ever want to swap out.

The rest of this beast should be in as the week closes.

 

[Mormegil]

Any recommendations for somebody who doesn't overclock, and just wants a quieter computer? I'm running an old 2.8ghz i7-860 Lynnfield (see the sig).

 

[Reise]

Dat cable management.

Spoiler!

Reading up it seems 750w just makes it for peak load on this machine with the specs it has. Might have to step up to 850w if there's shutdowns during gaming. Sucks if that's the case but I think it'll be fine.

 

[Floyd]

Great minds think alike.....eerie....

I mis-spoke earlier. I opted for the Antec Khuler water cooled system.
Here is my build from August 2011.
(Notice the orientation of the pipes. This is prior to rotating the radiator.)
There is a slight variation in the cases.

Spoiler!

 

[Reise]

Haha nice!

You ever run into heat issues having the ram close to the coolant radiator? Mine will be tucked right next to it once the 2nd fan is installed.

 

[Floyd]

Not in that big case. Plus there is that big fan at the top of the case, and if yours is like mine you've got another in the side panel. Plenty of air flowing around....

 

[Reise]

Arg. Everything is working now, but had a rocky start.

The damn picture-only instructions for the corsair H80 had me confused and I put in the wrong CPU mounts by mistake, and it almost cost me my brand new i7. Luckily the PC shut itself off and even warned me on boot so I could check it out and mount it correctly.

The instructions also didn't tell which power to connect so I just had the 3-pin CPU fan connector plugged in, and the first time I started up I immediately realized (thanks to CPU FAN WARNING and no lights on the block itself) that you need the molex connector on there, too.

What a pain in the ***. I almost died when I saw the CPU was running bare, too. It didn't even contact the pre-applied thermal gel. Steadily rose from ~72C in that state until 75C shutdown for anyone who's curious. Replaced that crap, mounted it right, and now it runs at 30c idle. Dodged a huge bullet there.

But it IS incredibly loud. I've heard you can connect the corsair fans to the CPU cooling block itself for dynamic fan speeds, but if that isn't possible (can't tell because of ****ty installation instructions) I'll definitely be investing in quieter fans.

Aside from that it's golden. All I need now is my SSD and DVD rom and I can get Win 7 up and running.

 

[Oldih]

And I used to think 620s instructions were bit odd. Good thing your CPU survived, in any case.

 

[=GG= Mr Moe]

And I used to think 620s instructions were bit odd. Good thing your CPU survived, in any case.

Yeah, me too! They were terrible. I think I searched out several Youtube videos on how to install it because the instructions were lacking. More vague pictures than words!

Glad the cpu survived. Must have been quite the scare Reise.

 

[Reise]

Posting from new machine now. Installing updates and all that stuff.

Can't wait to see this thing perform.

Edit: Definitely need quieter fans

 

[LightsabeR]

 

[Floyd]

The Antec Khuler came with a driver and program that controls the fans speed based upon the temp of the water. I can also set the temps and speeds (fans and pump) that I want the system to run at certain water temps. OR, I can select preset alternatives of Silent or Extreme. Extreme sounds like a jet engine. Silent scares me its so quiet, so I have it set on Custom.

I assumed all of these types of cooling systems came with such (either cpu or water temp based). I'd be surprised if it didn't...check the website.

 

[Private Who?]

Not sure if you are dead SET on a water cooling system....but you could also look at high end tower/fan coolers. I spent 65-70 on this almost 3 years ago:

Tuniq Tower 120 Extreme

and it's been worth every cent. I keep the fan dialed below 50%, so it stays very quiet. I have my Phenom II x720 oc'd from 2.8 up to 3.47 and it still stays nice and cool on hot Texas afternoons. It wasn't a cinch to install, but it's solid as a rock.

To me, the best site on the 'net for researching PC cooling, whether air or liquid is FrostyTech.com Do a lot of reading there before you commit dollars one way or the other.

 

[Reise]

Thanks for the suggestions guys, but it seems I've solved the problem.

Turns out the H80 is set to run at full speed no matter what when you only have one of the fans installed. Now the beast is purring quietly and temps are slightly better. Not sure why Corsair couldn't take the time to explain this in their instructions, but I suppose it saves them precious time on translations.

The reason I had just one intake for the radiator installed was because it just barely clears the RAM that sits on the left side of the CPU. At first I wasn't sure it'd fit but it does. With the fan in there's about 1/8th of an inch between it and the RAM's heatsinks. The two sticks on the left are spaced apart though so there shouldn't be any trouble with heat.

I'll have pics of the final setup once I order and install my SSD. Until then, have a screenshot I took when first test driving Centurion V last night on the game Chivalry: Medieval Warfare (which you should all be playing):

Spoiler!

 

[Mormegil]

I went for it. Got an Antec Khuler 620. While I was at it, I redid the cabling in my case. I don't have a new case with all the convenient holes, so I had to snake some cables right under my motherboard. I also don't have a bunch of pretty lights in there, besides one case fan (couldn't find one without LEDs at the time). Too bad I still have an IDE cable in there for the DVD-writer.

Anyway, it dropped my idle temp 15 degrees C, and my high load 35 degrees (Adobe premiere render with 95% CPU usage). RO2 falls at about 30-40% CPU load, and runs about 20 degrees cooler.

 

[=GG= Mr Moe]

I went for it. Got an Antec Khuler 620. While I was at it, I redid the cabling in my case. I don't have a new case with all the convenient holes, so I had to snake some cables right under my motherboard. I also don't have a bunch of pretty lights in there, besides one case fan (couldn't find one without LEDs at the time). Too bad I still have an IDE cable in there for the DVD-writer.

Anyway, it dropped my idle temp 15 degrees C, and my high load 35 degrees (Adobe premiere render with 95% CPU usage). RO2 falls at about 30-40% CPU load, and runs about 20 degrees cooler.

Not worried about air bubbles with those lines on top like that? Mine are on the bottom.