Liquid Cooling Questions

[enGRAVEr]

First off, I have a couple of threads around, and on several I have mentioned my intent to POSSIBLY go liquid.

I have built many computers, but never messed with Liquid Cooling.

My concerns are:

1: As seen below I am running SLI, BUT do I really want to cool the GPU's? I have not found a reliable way to tell what they are running at.

2: I have always gone with name brand, Better if you can insult their name if something is wrong, and no one wants there name smudged. Brand reccomendations please.

3: I want to keep everything inside the case, I have plenty of room.

4: I have an opening for a 12 cm fan on rear, one 12 cm in the front also. Anyone heard of 2 radiators in one cooling loop? (overkill maybe)

5: I have 2 5.25 bays open, and would enjoy the option of OC'ing for trials, I do not think I would stay with it though.

6: Not overly concerned with price, the rig was expensive, and to try to go cheap now would probably bite me in the arse later.

7: GPU's in SLI on this MB have about 2.5 to 3 inches space between, so once again, space is abundant.

8: I am curious what people think of Temp sensors and where the best places are to put them. I would like a front panel that shows me the temps.

9: I prefer a CPU cooler that has some type of block behind the MB as I am bery unpleased with the mounting holes in the MB to hold the current heat sink in place.

10: For those that respond, thank you for your time and oppinions. They will all be considered, and when I make my move, I will place a new thread with the temps on various parts.

 

[Nubius]

You should probably start with the Intro to watercooling stickied up at the top of here...most of these questions can be answered with a little bit of research that is easily and readily available to you

 

[enGRAVEr]

Sorry, missed that I suppose. Will do. Thanks.

Still open for opinions though.

 

[gaara]

Deciding on whether you wanna cool your GPUs or not isn't really up to us, it depends entirely on you. I personally decided to since not only would it cool down the GPU 20-30 degrees, it only cost about 40 bucks for a maze4 which is about the same as a good aftermarket cooler with much better results.

You have a bit of an interesting loop. With two 6800GTs and a Prescott you're dumping a helluva lot of heat into the loop and I wouldn't suggest anything less than a dual 120mm fan radiator, therefore you'd have to mod your case some way to accomodate that.

With that many parts your also looking at restriction, I don't know if a D5 or 50z would work well enough or if you'd need to go all out and bother with an Iwaki.

 

[enGRAVEr]

I have plenty of room. I mean plenty, by the time I remove the fans. I still have to get the round cables for the cd and dvd and then wrap the power cords.

I can place one 12 in front, the other in the rear.

One other option I suppose I could look into is a seperate loop for the CPU, and another for the cards.

I would like to clean up the interior of the case also, which will happen with the liquid and wraps for wires it should turn out nicely, I HOPE!

 

[Nubius]

Iwaki pump and weapons monstercoreus-rex!

Plenty of power and cooling, but the monstercoreus-rex is named that for a reason...it's freakin HUGE....it uses 4 120mm fans

 

[enGRAVEr]

Can you give me a location to research these?

Website that distributes them, and maybe some reviews?

I can get away with 2 120's, and I believe I may be able to fit a third one in there. As for a forth, your talkin cutting now.

But, all options are open, as long as I get this heat issue under control. Thanks.

Is it ALL internal? Uses internal power supply also?

 

[gaara]

There is a guide which provides online retailers in the sticky dude. Basically, xtremesystems is the place for researching this stuff, maxxx conducts tests all the time and is always playing around and comparing different stuff, and there's a bunch of others who know wayyyy more than anyone here (although more people seem interested here than before).

I considered seperate loops way back, but when I started to think about it, if you can afford two D5 styled pumps, you can afford an Iwaki, and having one loop is always less of a hassle.

A monstercore would add about 10 pounds to your case nubius.

BTW, when he's talking about four 120mm fans, he's talking about having them side by side in a square shape, not spread out all over the place.

 

[Nubius]

I can get away with 2 120's, and I believe I may be able to fir a third one in there. As for a forth, your talkin cutting now.

Gaara already covered this, but yeah, when we're talking 120mms dude, we're not talking single 120mm radiators that can be moved anywhere you want....it's one huge freakin radiator (technically it's called a heatercore because the water passes through tiny fins, not winding tubes like in a rad) and it fits 4 120mms on there....

I'd suggest the class favorite 1977 bonneville 2-302 heatercore....guy named "weapon" at xtremesystems will mod them out for you and make them look sexy.

 

[enGRAVEr]

I will get in touch with him, or at least try to. Can't wait to see what a difference liquid makes.

Will be back soon.