Besides being sick on and off (flu-type stuff, mostly), there's another reason I haven't been around much for a couple of weeks. Specifically, I decided to take the plunge and build a liquid cooling system in my gaming rig.
It's something I've been thinking about (and saving for!) for a while now, despite the fact that I'm a complete newb when it comes to doing any liquid-cooling work. Part of the reason is that my gaming rig needs some real help when it comes to temperature. This thing is mostly built from used/refurb parts I found on Craigslist or in the returned-merch section of my local store; in fact, the only components I bought new in this whole rig is the CPU, DVD drive and power supply (all on sale, heh). Anyway, as you can see, I hadn't done a very good job at allowing for airflow, much less good cable management:
So, after some research, the first thing I discovered is that liquid-cooling is an
expensive endeavor, at least if I wanted to do it right. I was working with limited birthday and Christmas gift $$, so again I scoured around for deals, and finally ended up with the necessary components:
Starting from top left:
- Tube of thermal compound (Scythe MX-3, per suggestion from Grendel)
- Swiftech Apex Ultra kit (an older discontinued version, but still good), including:
- - Swiftech Apogee CPU waterblock
- - Coolant reservoir
- - Radiator/fan assembly (2x120mm)
- - 3/8" inner-diameter tubing and coolant mixture
- - Mounting and tubing hardware
- - Pump (MCR-655)
- Watercool 4870x2 LT HeatKiller waterblock
I also was planning to add a second Swiftech MCR220 "stackable" radiator, and actually got it at one point, but it turns out the including "stacking" hardware only matches the radiators in the newer Swiftech Apex kits. So I had to stick with the dual 120mm radiator, and hope it was enough.
So, despite a bit of hesitation (any errors in a build like this could kill my rig!), I got started.
First, I removed everything from the case:
Removed the backplate and stock cooler from my 4870x2 video card:
Cleaned it up, and applied thermal pads per the waterblock's instructions:
Applied the thermal paste to the GPUs, and mounted the waterblock.
Looks great here, but I wasn't sure if it would work, as I'd read a number of horror stories about shorting out the card, or tightening the block too much and killing a GPU, etc.
Mounted the CPU block to the motherboard, after applying some thermal paste to the CPU. By comparison, this seemed much easier than mounting the video card.
Started putting components back in the case, cutting a couple holes in the case for the tubing, and cutting tubing to fit. The big thing on the left is the radiator/fan assembly; it fits close to the back of the case, which was a bit of a worry (more on that later). Pump is on the bottom right, at the base of the case.
For those interested, I debated for a while, and finally settled on a loop as follows: Pump -> GPU block -> Radiator -> CPU block -> Reservior -> Pump. Obviously, it favors cooling the CPU, which is what I was looking for (I was planning to overclock the CPU, but probably not the video card).
Once that was done (not an easy task to put 3/8" ID tubing over 1/2" barbs!), I clamped down the connections, and added the coolant mixture, turning on the pump for quick bursts to get it through the system. I left it for a while, and when I didn't see any leaks, I turned the pump on. Not sure if you can see, but there are a lot of tiny bubbles throughout the system:
About 15 minutes later, still no apparent leaks, with most of the bubbles out:
I topped off the coolant, and let it run for another day or two. Still no leaks! Yeah!! So I started putting the components back in:
Case closed back up, and I did a power-on test. Everything (pumps, fans, drives) appeared to power up, and I have to say I kinda like the effect of the green/blue LEDs with the coolant and tubes.
Now, back to that radiator assembly. I was able to keep it out of the way of most of the back panel ports... with the exception of the video card. There's no way a regular DVI plug would fit between the ports and the fans. Fortunately, a couple of days before, I had come across a couple of DVI cables with right-angle jacks... for $1.99 each. Score!
So... I finally got to the really scary part was hooking it up, and trying a boot.
And...
it didn't post/boot. Let me tell you, that feeling was NO FUN. Did I do something wrong? Had I missed a leak, or killed a component somehow? I wasn't sure (lights on the CPU and GPU weren't indicating anything wrong), but I wasn't relishing the prospect of a rebuild.
Anyway, I started jiggling/resetting components and retrying. On the fourth try (I don't recall what I had adjusted just then), it booted!!
I quickly checked the temps, and let the machine get to idle. 31-33C for the CPUs, and 27-30C for the GPUs... Awesome! Much better than I had expected.
And then, upon a restart... it didn't post. AGAIN. Crap!
More jiggling, more taking things out and resetting them. Finally, after resetting my RAM sticks, it posted, and I haven't had any problems since.
I've had family things going on for a few days, so I haven't yet had the chance to stress-test the system, but so far still no leaks and even in heavy usage (plus overclocking my Q6600 to 3.0GHz), I haven't seen any temps over 47C. Not bad for a water-cooling newbie.
"You seem a decent fellow, I hate to kill you."
"You seem a decent fellow, I hate to die."
