hey there guys.

Basically I would like to go back to watercooling for a couple of reasons.

I havn't watercooled since my OC'd P4 HT and havn't really had a need for it since.

I have had my P180 build for a while now and the specs are as follows:

Abit Fatal1ty FP-IN9-SLI

Q6600 G0 Stepping (with Xigmatec cooler)

4GB OCZ reaper-x DDR2 800

Geforce 8800GTX (HR-03 cooler with Sharkoon 120mm 1000 'golf ball' fan)

1x 750GB Samsung F1

Thermaltake toughpower 750 modular PSU

There are a total of 4 fans in the system- 3x Sharkoon 1000 golf ball fans and 1x Antec tri-cool fan


My plan was to water cool as the system is often on for extended periods of time and idles fairly warm.


My intended set-up is:


XSPC Water block (already have this)

Full cover VGA block for GFX card

1x Black ice GT stealth 360 rad

Laing DDC-1T Pro 10/18w

XSPC 5 1/4" drive bay reservoir


I was going to use the three Sharkoon fans on the rad for the time being and mount the rad on the top of the case (by cutting a hole in the top and mounting inside the case) and have the fans pulling/pushing out of the case.

What are your thoughts on this?

Will the radiator and pump be up to cooling the CPU and GPU? I also plan to get a NB cooler at some point.

The routing for the cooling will be:

Reservoir > Pump > Rad > CPU > GPU

Any thoughts/comments warmly welcomed!

Phil

Seems like a feasible solution.

One issue to contemplate is where in the circuit to place the radiator.
- The way you suggest it will provide a relatively low water pressure throughout the system, apart from the very first bit between pump and rad, which is good to prevent leakage. From a cooling perspective the rad is placed for optimal work when the computer load varies. The pump is fed relatively warm water, which isn't very good.

- Placing the radiator between the last block and reservoir will increase the pressure in the system (not maximum, but average) which increase the probability of leakage. At the same time cooling will be more efficient when the computer is working hard, since the rad will be fed the warmest water. The pump will be fed relatively cool water, which is very good for its service life.

Cheers
Olle

Thanks for that.

The only reason I thought to put the rad after the res/pump was that I read somewhere that the pump adds a certain amount of heat but this must be minimal really.

I have decided to go for an XSPC RS360 rad as reading further into it the Black Ice stealth isn't very well suited to low rpm fans due to its fin density and I would like to run low rpm fans for it.

Also I have decided to go for a different reservoir. One that fits into a 120mm fan slot which will go into the rear exhaust fan as I am going to block this up anyway.

Thanks

Phil

The placement of the components in the system doesnt really matter. Yea each component has a pressure drop and the system overall averge pressue will be lower, but taht doesnt actually matter. What matters (from the flow prespective) is the pressure drop across each component. As you only have so much pressure between the pump putlet and the pump inlet, and that's going to stay the same regardless of your component order.

Heat wise, you might get a 1c inrese across an extreamly hot component MAX. Thus, again, order does not matter as much. You pump will not mind the 2C diffrence between the rad bing in front or behind the other components. with a silent not OC like mad system just lay the order out by shortest tube runs to keep airflow smooth. If you're pusing your OC and need that last 1c, put a rad before each componet (I have a 2x120 infront of my CPU and 1x120 infront of my GPU in my rig).

Hope that helps....