Help Me Build Water Cooling Kit

[Parker]

Originally Posted by azianai

parker, just wondering....do you get some sort of commission from petra?

Haha, nope. But I've met them both! I live close by there shop.

I don't secretly work for them or anything, It's just a great place to buy, the customer service is excellent too

Lol, someday though, I may be able to work there.........

[Yellowhello]

Looks like you got it all sorted out, that is an excellent list!

[Capper]

LOL, I know.....we should get some advertising revenue from them.

They have some nice stuff, at good prices....but I find they are out of stock on a lot of things too often.

[Parker]

Originally Posted by Capper

LOL, I know.....we should get some advertising revenue from them.

They have some nice stuff, at good prices....but I find they are out of stock on a lot of things too often.

Thats cuz they've got LOTS of customers that buy there stuff.

I bet if you contact Alex, he'd be glad to let us advertise for them.

[Yellowhello]

True, they are out of stock quite a bit, but I like them because they are pretty close. I usually get what I ordered the day after they ship it, even at the cheapest shipping. And let us not forget the legendary Petra's pen and handwritten thank you note with every order!

[Boy'nBlack]

For just cooling the CPU, it's overkill to have a monster like the Themochill PA 120.3 sitting on a desk. Just for comparison, A single BiX 120 will cool the CPU as well as the best aircooler will, along with a couple HD3870's in a single loop.

A Themochill PA 120.2 or Fesser TFC Xchanger 240 would be both optimal for now and allow future additions (like GPU additions) and be much easier to deal with.

I have a bunch of CAD's for cases and water cooling component models to mix and match for questions like this, and the large 3x120's are never a bolt up affair; even the the largest of cases. The 120.3 shows that it needs at least 16" of vertical clearance and 5-1/4" is the exact width (5.5" clearance)...so it ends up setting on your desk. If stuffed in the Cosmos, one entire bank is blocked. You'll have to cut it out to get it able to be used. The 120.2 will fit nicely in the top section with no restrictions.

You'll also find that the fans should be mounted on the bottom and sucking in if the rad is mounted in the top.

[Yellowhello]

Wait, so your saying a single BIX 120 will cool a CPU and 2 HD2870's all in the same loop and you will get the same temps as, say, a TRUE on the CPU? Somehow I find that hard to believe...

[Boy'nBlack]

Here's a pic from a series we did in another forum that may help here:

The outline is a great place to build out a little lexan reservoir. This ended up to be a two res system where this is just for the air catch and fill and another lower to hold water. But I suppose you could cut out the section and stab a monster rad up there.

It's still bad practice to have a radiator of any size simply bolted to the top of a case. No thought is then given that the radiator is now the top of the loop. Top of the loop is where air likes to sit. Extra thought needs done to get away from air being in your main heat exchanger. I've done schrader valves on the rad for the TJ09, while this reservoir worked great with less hassle for the cosmos. There's no plastic on the TJ09 to get in the way like the Cosmos has.

Originally Posted by Yellowhello

Wait, so your saying a single BIX 120 will cool a CPU and 2 HD2870's all in the same loop and you will get the same temps as, say, a TRUE on the CPU? Somehow I find that hard to believe...

Been doing it over 6 months now. I've long been animated about design of the system more than bolting a list of highly ranked parts together...and expecting much.

One aspect that is never seen is the quantity of water in the system. Where even a double bay reservoir may hold 32oz (1L) of water, I don't feel that's enough and go for as much as space allows. The old build holds 100oz/2.8L/.75G and does just this. The new build holds a full gallon of water. This is more dissipation and the loop is never saturated. In common loops with over the counter reservoirs, you're set at how much water you have. The water "cycles" (effect, not motion) and the water temp will compound until leveled off to what the radiator dictates. The more water, the less it cycles.

I'll pick a radiator and put it on the drawing board. I'll then figure out what maximum hardware I want to include in the build; both to see free space and what needs cooled. After that, a person can accurately figure out the BTU rating each drop will need..If it gets within what the radiator is capable of, find more capacity of water. Say you have 4500BTU able to be moved via a rad, the more capacity you add, the further you get from actually meeting that. Meeting it would/will be a saturated loop.

Anyway, it's been done to great success for a very long time. Only 6mo has been with the quads to be on point here, but 4 years of various other CPU's and GPU combos (and until the quad, raptors in a water block) with just one 120mm radiator. Name it, they've been tossed in the loop. Water cooling design and build is more than the sum of parts...it can get technical, or we can just put neato parts in and see what happens.

[Xtremeoverclocking]

what is the best Pump ?

Laing DDC w/ Petra'sTech DDCT-01s Top Combo
Petra's Tech Shop

[Yellowhello]

Originally Posted by Xtremeoverclocking

what is the best Pump ?

Laing DDC w/ Petra'sTech DDCT-01s Top Combo
Petra's Tech Shop

I'm more inclined to say the D5, because you can change the speed of the pump, and you don't have to fiddle around with changing the top. The only reason I have a DDC 3.2 with a top is because I used to have a 3/8in. loop.