Water-Cooling

[W1nTry]

As stated, this thread caters to the more experienced members of GATT sharing their collective knowledge on the subject matter ALA WATER COOLING. As some may or may NOT know, there are 2 'veterans' of the sport, namely MessiaH (formerly Mathewhypolite) and IsMe2003. Their latest rigs are a testament to their dedication of custom building rigs that aren't just for show. So i'll just start it off with some questions that hopefully the 'waterers' will help us out with:

1. Could you highlight the main parts used? I have been checking sites since your latest builds and see terms like 'barbs' and a whole TONNE of sizes of tubing, etc. It's VERY overwhelming, especially if you're just casually trying to learn more. I am guessing that a water pump, radiator, tubing and water blocks are the 'MAIN' parts, but what about all the in betweens? as with the human body you can't bend ur arm unless you have an elbow, same you can't build a water cooled rig if you don't know what coolant to use.

Take it away.

[MessiaaH]

LCS, lets go:

Core Compoents are

Waterblocks: Replaces the air coolers on all your parts, CPU/GPU/NB etc, there are even waterblocks for hard drives lol.

Pump : this is obvious, push d liquid through yuh system

Radiator: used to cool the liquid, as the cool water passes over your parts and gets heated up, the radiator cools it back down.

Resevoir: this is basicaly yuh tank to hold yuhwater. there are many types some with heatsinks on them etc. we've been through a ton of reservoirs, most cuase bubbles to enter into d loop, which is a bad thing and degrades thermal performnce, d one we buy now, doing a very prolific job. and as time go on we go see just how good.

Tubing: this is d hose in d system, d veins.

Fittings: each waterblock/resevoir/pump etc, u need to attach a fitting to it, dat d tubin/hose attaches too. there are different types of fittings, barbs, compression, angel, swivle, and d list goes on and on. d type of fitin u get depends on how u want to run ur hose, so u have to plan out dat before u buy these, for instance , look at d pics on my rig,  fittings are laid out as such:

CPU: 2 Angel Barbs
VReg: 2 angel barbs
NB: 1 angle barb (connect to vreg), and 1 straight barb (connects to gpu)

you shoudl get the picture from that.

Compression fittings are awesome but expensive, with barbs u have to use a hose clamp, to secure d hose to d barb, compress fitin have a screwin type lock, dat does it for u.

1 problem with compression fittins, is dat not all hose sizes work with it.

Fitting/Tubing ID&OD: ID = inner diameter, OD is outer.
Dis is basicaly d size of yuh hose and fittings. d size of hose u buy have to match up wiht d size of fittin u use.

We used 3/8s in d past, and migrated to 1/2" now.
D bigger 1/2" allows for more liquid to flow through d rig at a time, think of it as a bigger pipe.

each compoenent in your loop offers restriction and slows down d liquid, so d Waterblocks dose dis d most, but u want yuh liquid flowing fass, so to take off load, its better to go with a 1/2" loop. avoid those fancy contraptions, like d thermaltake front bay i used on my last rig, dey offer unessasary restrictions to ur loop.

OD is very important when using compression fittin, make sure and see what OD d particular compression fittin support.
With barbs d ID i what importnat, OD is important for d hose clamps used with d barbs, but hoseclamps cheap, so if u going with 1/2" hose, jus buy hoseclamps to fit half inch hose.

Elbos (d plastic ones), Y Spliters, and all of that, is jus things to use if u need it, so if yuhhose have to make ah tigt bend, use an elbow to do d bend for u. Avoid makin tigth bends with ur hose, becuase when d liquid heat up, it is going to warp d hose, and stop d water from flowing., u can come home one day and meat yuh cpu fried lol.

I talk enough, ill let isme2003 take it from here, and we go continue up as time pass

[IsMe2003]

well MessiaaH gave a nice run down of the various parts and so fort that you may see online, its all up to you which combinations there is alot more info to like diffrent types of pump design but we can talk about that later, as far as liquid go, its better / cheaper to mix your own liquid (it last longer to) all i do when mixing liquid for our systems is buy some bottles of distilled drinking water, some AlgeFix from the pet store, and a bottle of Radiator coolant (that orange or grean shit yau is put in your car RAD) i have a little ratio i use to mix the right amounts.

here is why the 3 items are nessasary

Distlled water - no micro organisums in there to start growing in your loop

AlgaeFix- just incase micro organisums get in there during the mixing process this will eliminate them

Radiator coolant - improves the thermal performace of plain water, it also acts as a water wetter (Causign it not to stick to the surface of blocks/hose) and prevents rusting for the metal parts of the block

you can mix your own liquid for alot less than buying them fancy ready made liquids out there and get alot more ( i used two 1 galon bottles to full all 2 machiens (with dual loops) and i still have left over for when time to change

another benefit of mixing your own liquid is it last longer, i got ready made liquid already (from thermaltake) and that liquid degraded in 6 months and started making a mess of my water blocks, so i had to regularly drian, clean and refill the system, but with my home made liquid, i ran the same water for 2 yeares no problem, and when i did drain it not much gunk in the blocks atall was easy to clean.

[W1nTry]

So the next obvious question, since most of these parts are strictly by order, is there anything (other than the fluids) that can be purchased locally (read tubing) and what type/specification of tubing (some industrial standard)? what about cutting the tubing? important to cut straight or should it be jagged? And lastly, what type of sealant (if any) is used on the tubing to the parts (akin to that purple glue used with PVC pipes)?

[IsMe2003]

Well usually to be on the safe side i buy my hose online, i tried buying locally one time and it did not work out to well, the hose was either to thin and flimsy or to tuff. so when i buy i usually buy some extra just incase just incase. Cutting the tubing i usually use a scissors or a knife, ones it gets cut evenly where when you push the hose onto your fittings (e.g. the Barbs) it goes right until it bounces the little stop edge evenly.

No glue or sealant is used, if you used barb fittings you use a hose clamp to keep the hose on the barb, if you used compression style fittings they have there own screw-on locking mechanism.

[jason19842]

i was thinking about purchasing the thermaltake cl-wo121 water cooling system...would you recommend this one or what should i purchase

[jason19842]

oh yeah....can i use the coolant that they use in car radiators for pc cooling

[Kraeoss]

seek items from coolit...

[IsMe2003]

i was thinking about purchasing the thermaltake cl-wo121 water cooling system...would you recommend this one or what should i purchase

Not to sure how it performs, never looked into that one

[IsMe2003]

seek items from coolit...

they make the best al in ones, hoping i always wanted to jerry rig one of there chillers, but was proving to expensive

[IsMe2003]

All in one vs DIY

very impressive cpu cooler, cant wait to see some independat reviews on it and how it stands up to an equally priced air cooler

[IsMe2003]

y

oh yeah....can i use the coolant that they use in car radiators for pc cooling

you can use it but you need to have the right aount of water to radiator coolant, if you use pure radiator coolant it will end up being to thick for the little pump

[W1nTry]

I have seen reviews where water cooling kits were only AS effective as GOOD air, however there is 1 benefit that watercooling kits have that air does not (to achieve the same performance) SILENCE. In fact many of the AIO cooling kits are made for silent running versus ultra performance. Thus they perform like good air cooling, but you have the benefit of a silent case. Thin HTPC where silence and good cooling in smaller form factors is the issue. Sure you don't the cooling like a DIY, but you get cooling to match the best air but without the noise of the fans.

[IsMe2003]

I have seen reviews where water cooling kits were only AS effective as GOOD air, however there is 1 benefit that watercooling kits have that air does not (to achieve the same performance) SILENCE. In fact many of the AIO cooling kits are made for silent running versus ultra performance. Thus they perform like good air cooling, but you have the benefit of a silent case. Thin HTPC where silence and good cooling in smaller form factors is the issue. Sure you don't the cooling like a DIY, but you get cooling to match the best air but without the noise of the fans.

Yep, you got a good point there on the noise issue on stock to lite oc configurations, you also need to keep part failure of the cooling system in mind, there are air coolers out there that give great results on quit fans similar to AIO unites, if a fan fails, you replace the fan, if your Pump fails in your sealed AIO unit, your looking at a new AIO unit in most cases. (I have seen reviews where pumps have failed, cracks develop, stuff like that)

That’s why I like the independent reviews my self, they give you all the statistics (Noise, thermal performance on different OCs, stuff like that), I’m keeping an eye out on that new coolit eco cpu cooler as I am building an HTPC and might apply a small OC to it, the current case I got selected is to small for any internal AIO unit, but I wont mind upgrading the case to accommodate that Eco unit if its promise holds out.

[mailman166]

How about pictures of u guys 'watered' down rigs... Pun intended

[Redfish]

Interesting, good info here and the pro/cons always help tip the scale for me.

I love silence so sometime in the distant future I may adopt WC but carry on with the much needed info. When I get some time to do some digging I'll throw some other questions in to the mix...

[IsMe2003]

How about pictures of u guys 'watered' down rigs... Pun intended

You can check it out here http://www.carigamers.com/cms/forums/index.php/topic,14427.20.html

Post #26 has the final pics