Follow buckshotjr's Liquid Cooling Adventure!

Stan Radner

DARKLY Regular
I'm going to reserve my opinion of this comment until later this summer once the Devil's Canyon CPUs are out and once the X99 chipset is out and we get to see how fast shit can boogie with SATA Express and quad-channel DDR4 RAM.

Your sig made me laugh
 

OG buckshot jr

TD Admin
Necro.....

Starting out:
IMG_20140510_131555.jpg

Graphics card (had two, at one point but sold it cause SLI = useless):
IMG_20140510_131602.jpg

GPU disassembled:
IMG_20140510_142541.jpg

Better View:
IMG_20140510_143107.jpg

Close up of GPU PCB:
IMG_20140510_143113.jpg

GPU Chip cleaned up with alcohol:
IMG_20140510_143722.jpg

New thermal pads placed over VRAM (surrounding GPU) and MOSFET power supplies (6 of them towards bottom, 3 and 3):
IMG_20140510_144101.jpg

New paste on GPU:
IMG_20140510_144657.jpg

Block aligned with a few screws first, then rest go in:
IMG_20140510_151532.jpg

Back of GPU for reference:
IMG_20140510_151538.jpg

Checking gap, if any. Making sure thermal pads have contact:
IMG_20140510_151556.jpg
 

OG buckshot jr

TD Admin
Temporary labels for Sata cables. This helped a lot. That's a large, old mouse pad I worked on, no static and soft so no damage to shit:
IMG_20140510_152455.jpg

The baggy that contained the screws for GPU water block - put all of the original screws right back in:
IMG_20140510_152953.jpg

SATA cables labelled:
IMG_20140510_153014.jpg

Starting to route shit, at a high-level:
IMG_20140510_153023.jpg

CPU back-plate to start:
IMG_20140510_154227.jpg

Side-view:
IMG_20140510_154931.jpg

Clean CPU placed in:
IMG_20140510_155604.jpg

Thermal paste applied:
IMG_20140510_155909.jpg

CPU water block being mounted on the peg screws:
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Tightening opposite corners little by little, like lugnuts on a vehicle:
IMG_20140510_160218.jpg

Mounted showing inlet and outlet ports. Apparently you can use either or, but I used center for inlet; off-set center for outlet:
IMG_20140510_160224.jpg

Different view to more clearly show inlet (left) and outlet (right) that I chose. That silver/metal elliptical shape around the center [inside] is a water spreader - there are four types, depending on what CPU you get. They're incredibly effective:
IMG_20140510_160347.jpg

Full View of Mobo - getting there!:
IMG_20140510_160352.jpg
 

OG buckshot jr

TD Admin
Case Disassembly:

Bye-bye :):
IMG_20140510_161612.jpg

Full-view as shit comes apart:
IMG_20140510_161618.jpg

I put case screws back in, less to lose. You'll be surprised at the mess and sheer number of parts/screws/other lying around as you disassemble and build - every little bit helps:
IMG_20140510_161717.jpg

Stock front case grill - those trays are coming out:
IMG_20140510_161909.jpg

Inside front view of more shit coming out:
IMG_20140510_161914.jpg

Front grill re-worked:
IMG_20140510_162102.jpg

Top view - emptied out, readying for radiator:
IMG_20140510_163440.jpg

Front view:
IMG_20140510_163445.jpg

View or working area - this is what I meant by how much space you'll need and how much shit ends up everywhere. I cleaned as I went from section to section; like GPU, CPU/mobo, case disassembly etc:
IMG_20140510_163600.jpg

Mounting radiator - watching as I screw in screws to make sure they don't penetrate radiator fins:
IMG_20140510_164038.jpg

Side view of mounted radiator:
IMG_20140510_164113.jpg

Front view of mounted radiator. The yellow plugs are temporary and illustrate where I've chosen to have the inlet/outlet plugs located (at the front):
IMG_20140510_164122.jpg

Wider side view looking towards front (right):
IMG_20140510_164721.jpg

Dual-bay reservoir with Laing D5 Vario Pump attached. Figuring out which outlet to use:
IMG_20140510_165324.jpg

Turns out you have one option, so it's mounted with a 90degree to shoot up to radiator. All fittings are Bitspower, black chrome compression fittings. Nothing but the very best:
IMG_20140510_165955.jpg

Inlet - again, a 90degree because my loop would go: pump->Reservoir->CPU->GPU1->GPU2->Reservoir. GPU2 was not in this build; I added it later, then removed it again. I'll find pics of it later:
IMG_20140510_170421.jpg

Front view of reservoir mounted, as well as LCD temperature screens:
IMG_20140510_190024.jpg

Inside view after mounting pump, LCD screens etc. All wiring is temporary until all is mounted. I like to route cables last once everything is in place. I'll post updated pics after:
IMG_20140510_190036.jpg

This was my way of measuring tubing. Primitive as fuck, but surprisingly on my first ever liquid cooling build, I did not have to re-cut any piece of tubing :D:
IMG_20140511_122045.jpg

After connecting all tubing, I mounted the Power Supply. While leaving the power supply disconnected from everything, I jumped the power supply so I could turn it on when I needed as I filled liquid:
IMG_20140511_143539.jpg
 

OG buckshot jr

TD Admin
I bought smaller tubing (can't remember inner/outer diameter, but I'll check later) and a turkey baster and connected them. Pro Tips, son, write this shit down..:
IMG_20140511_143118.jpg

The turkey baster acted like a small funnel, as well as an easy way for me to suck up bubbles as I filled the reservoir:
IMG_20140511_143152.jpg

The general guide is this:

1. Fill Reservoir
2. Turn on PSU to activate pump
3. Immediately shut off PSU once reservoir gets low
4. Refill reservoir
5. Repeat 1-4 until constant flow
Never run pump dry, you will break the pump. This is no joke.
That said, I used a measuring cup as I filled it so I could tell how much my custom loop would use. This would help me when emptying the loop and cleaning it, to know what to expect:
IMG_20140511_141240.jpg

Front view of reservoir (it's got a clear tube in the middle that allowed me to slide an LED light strip in it - I couldn't resist..). The bubbles there are from a solution I used to combat corrosion. I use nothing but distilled water and a basic anti-corrosion additive. This is where the turkey baster allowed me to suck the bubbles right from the top:
IMG_20140511_143110.jpg

Bubbles = inefficiency, so what I did was turn my pump up fairly high to force shit out while moving my parts around. The CPU, since its attached to the case, I would pick up my hole case and hold it at different angles to help get CPU bubbles out. Here's a pick of me rotating and shaking GPU:
IMG_20140511_143551.jpg

IMG_20140511_144108.jpg

Last method is time.. left it run for a while, you're wasting next to no electricity and because your pc is actually not on (remember, the PSU is only connected to - and thus only powering - the pump), it's great to let it run a few hours. This is also good to find leaks, which I've never had because of compression fittings. They're worth their weight in gold, and easily are worth their $120 price tag for this build:
IMG_20140511_145616.jpg

Eventually, I re-routed cables (boring and I took no pics of it, but I promise I'll show updated pics of my case tomorrow) and got it all together to take some pics at night. The tubingis blue, but reactive to UV light. I laid two 30cm/1ft LED strips in my case, so tubing looks white-ish:
IMG_20140511_210522.jpg

Side angle of it closed up:
Side_Angle.jpg

Close up of side:
Side.jpg


I'll come back to update this thread with:
1. How it looked with SLI and how I chose to tube it
2. Update tubing as it is today
3. Updated pics of cable routing etc. as it is today
4. Start a new thread on how to clean a loop out - very, very important!!
5. Start a new thread on the cable sleeving I'm now doing, as well case mods, paint, PSU painting etc.!

I'm never done modding :) Cheers
 

TankClash

TF2 Staff | Chief Peon
Noice....... ya'know those magnetic bowls and mini white boards are handy for.... screws and shit or scrap IED HDD magnets work too for making your own.
 

OG buckshot jr

TD Admin
Noice....... ya'know those magnetic bowls and mini white boards are handy for.... screws and shit or scrap IED HDD magnets work too for making your own.
For sure! I have two of them in my garage. However, I neglected to use them because I wanted to keep 'sets' of screws together; for example, GPU screws together, cpu screws, case screws, mobo screws, liquid blocks (GPU and CPU) etc. I work very neatly. It costs me time, but well worth it. My method is using the baggy for new sets of screws to bag the old set.
 
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