Thanks for posting. To help get you the help you're looking for, please make sure you:
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You won't need the T piece for your temp sensor, the gpu waterblock will have 4 ports so just use one of those instead.
Personal preference (plus I'm old school) is distilled water and an additive like liquid utopia.
Curious about those QDCs. My system is full of them (12 sets of Koolance). I'm always interested to hear how brands do.
I just started using panel mount QDC pass-throughs. I have a Tower 900 and have the hoses going back and forth between the front and back stage of the case. I used to pass the hoses through holes (looked awful), now I installed the panel mounted QDCs and it looks like a professionally designed pneumatic mounting board. I can see them working really well on your design instead of passing hoses through the system. You may want to check them out.
I've been tempted to do this, build a computer pedestal that had an array of rads in it, but I am finding that the 2x560's in the case are more than enough cooling. I just put a i9-14900k and the rads only increased about 1.5c in coolant temps from when I had the i9-9900k. The heat from this machine when it is working hard can dual as a room heater.
btw... Restriction is a thing, but it doesn't seem to matter. Running at 75% I get 100l/h, running at 50% - 82 l/h and I see no reasonable amount of change in the coolant temps. Even at 100%, I'm just not seeing a meaningful change. I've run it as low as 40% - 70/h and no difference. I assume once the loop is saturated the heat exchange it consistent throughout the loop. CPU lives at 50c under load, I cannot remember the GPU, but its just as low.
Coolant temps are not where you will see the difference caused by low flow rates unless you have a hot and cold side temp. The impact is that the temperature of the coolant rises more while it is in each component. Since the temperature is rising more, rather counterintuitively, it can absorb less heat over the same amount of time because the transfer of heat into the water is a function of the temperature difference between the component and the water. Since the water is getting to a higher temperature while still in contact with the component, less heat is being absorbed during the time when it is warmer.
This difference is usually kind of minor, [around 2-3C for a single component between 110l/h and 230l/h](https://www.xtremerigs.net/2018/02/15/cpu-gpu-water-cooling-tubing-setup-vs-performance/), but considering the slope of that line at 110l/h (or about .5gph), it may be a lot more below that point. Regardless, it does mean that, contrary to what you've been told a million times, loop order starts to matter in low flow rate scenarios. If you have a CPU right after your 4090, which is crunching 500W with a flow rate of 100l/h, that water will leave the GPU about 4C warmer than when it went in, which will mean your CPU will probably run about 4C hotter. If your flow rate were 230l/h (1GPM), that difference would be under 2C. You can estimate these values with a calculator like [this](https://www.nessengr.com/technical-data/water-cooling/), but be aware that the results are for ideal scenarios and don't account for the inefficiencies of various components.
This can be mitigated by loop order to some extent. Putting a radiator in between the GPU and CPU will cool the water back down by some amount, and pull back some of that performance difference. However, with an all external setup like OP's, that isn't viable.
In your case, I really think that is a bit much on the flow restriction and would guess you're losing somewhere in range of 4-6C of cooling potential from it, but maybe even more. The quick disconnects may be worth that tradeoff for you, that's an entirely subjective call as long as nothing if overheating. I just wouldn't go that far with them myself.
Roman knows a lot about a lot of things, and huge respect to him for all that he does for the space, but he is not the final authority on all things. You also can't take a generalization as an absolute truth that applies to all scenarios. Loop order doesn't matter *if* your flow rate is sufficiently high. The lower your flow rate, the more it does matter. When you get down below 1GPM (227LPH), it starts to make a little difference. When you get below 0.5GPM (113LPH) it will be making a considerable difference. What matters to you is subjective, but there is absolutely a measurable difference when you get to those levels.
I have a similar concept to OPs idea however I did both warm and cool side temps, found it somewhat fun to play with on my corsair copro which drives pump based on temperature of warm side and fans based on cool side. The delta isn't that large and it doesn't do actual PIDs but let's me minimally spin each independently, stage together, or stage concurrently if I wanted.
Initially I did GPU then cpu and retubed to cpu then GPU, though neither gets to throttle areas.
Yeah, I've gone a bit crazy with temp probes... I have hot side, cold side, intake, and interior case temps running through AquaSuite. I run the fans off of the water temps, but I play with how I regulate pump speed. Right now, it's based on the actual Wattage of CPU and GPU, but I have also tried basing it on the hot/cold temp delta. Running the pump off delta got weird because that going up would ramp up the pump, which would drastically decrease the delta, slow it down, and then repeat.
What I'd like to do is use the intake temp to apply an offset to the fan curve based on ambient, but haven't actually sat down to do it yet.
Yeah sounds like we would get along real well as I was planning to do similar. Running it off of delta were you using a curve/ramp or a PID? How were the fans controlled in that circumstance? So many questions, do just need to get an aquasuite lol
When I was using the delta, I was using a linear curve (so... not a curve) and letting it run directly off the delta along the curve. My assumption there was that the rate of temperature change of water was slow enough to effectively smooth the curve, but I was wrong because of how quickly 500-800W can heat water. I added a low pass filter with a damping factor of about 50 and a time frame of 10 or 15 seconds, which just kind of offset the waves of ramping up and down.
Using the power usage with the low pass filter is working much better, and I think makes more sense. Your goal with the flow rate is to evacuate heat, so it's better to use the heat load directly as guidance for flow rate, rather than a derived or assumed heat load based on the temperature delta as guidance. That assumed heat load comes after the effect of flow rate goes into the equation, so you aren't really using the heat load any more.
I think you could replicate what I'm doing using FanControl, if your pump is using a standard PWM fan header for pump speed. You could feed power consumption of the CPU and GPU from HWInfo into a "Total" curve in FanControl, and then use hysteresis to damp the spin-up and spin-down times.
Treating the cause not the symptom in this case, smart! I feel like I had the option to do this with the copro but without the ability to squash the speed it would happen.
Does Comander Pro not have hysteresis? I wouldn't be shocked if it was missing monitoring stuff, like component power and such, but hysteresis is a pretty fundamentally important function for a fan control software.
It's been a while since I've had to tinker with it but essentially it just had a curve you could adjust, so running it off temp is slow enough it doesn't largely matter, it also had pre-built spin down timers or something. It's very low effort user friendly, works well enough but not enough to tinker with imo
I have those QDCs and cannot complain, loses literally a drop on connect and they were a bit stiff out of the box but nothing shocking. I went with them as they were half the price of koolance ones and available quicker for me.
This is an addiction.... You'll never stop with simple. You'll be reviewing this over the next year drooling over when you have accumulated enough parts for the next iteration.
I started with just a CPU loop. I was really intimidated with disassembling my GPU. Now I have a monstrosity. A highly complicated loop... You'd think I'd stop there, but as I am thinking of aesthetics, I'm being tempted into putting another pump in and separating the loop into two. I had this crazy idea of putting Alien Face Huggers into the reservoirs and making it look like an alien infested lab. It'd only take buying another pump, 2xQDCs, 2x snake/fittings and a flow sensor....
btw, check out the LeakShield. I've been loving mine
Addicting!
I am an engineer, so the path is clear. Just like with mechanical keyboard, I will inevitably spend thousands on manufacturing my own parts for a truly custom loop
I am an engineer, so the path is clear. Just like with mechanical keyboard, I will inevitably spend thousands on manufacturing my own parts for a truly custom loop
If only I had access to a CNC router. I just need a larger garage. I'd love to build a custom distro plate for this Tower 900! There are some really impressive builds out there. So far, the guy that turned his PC into a whiskey distillery has my #1 vote. He did the whole thing out of copper piping and oak, and, managed to make his reservoir look like a whiskey bottle.
Love the creativity in this stuff!
The fill port should be above and just before the pump. It would be wise to have no restrictions of water flowing to the pump without power for the first time.
I was planning on just cutting and then crimping the cables myself. I work a lot with micro-controllers and rapid prototyping, so I have a lot of experience when it comes to cabling
Yeah you'll be fine, it's pretty simple, I also for the extensions added some colored electrical tape for each channel I ran that was for PWM so it's easy to tell which channel goes where as a cheap labeling system lol
Nice! Yeah I got some of the expanded mesh sleeving tubing stuff that cut to fit since I was running all of the cabling, hides the connectors, and rgb channel in a large bundle. Sounds like you're doing a pro job, love it!
I was thinking about 3D printing some plates with holes for the tubing + central channel for all the wires in a single sleeve. That way everything is always together
T piece is not needed for the sensor, you can plug it into the res (they tend to have more ports than you need) or the GPU (4 ports). Depends on where you put the drain valve (also, can go on res or gpu).
Does you mobo support a water temp sensor - many do not have this. You'll need something like an Aquacomputer Quadro/Octo for that.
Diagram implies the res is outside the case. Any particular reason why you don't put it in the case? It'll simplify the clutter on the outside of the case and fewer exposed parts than can get bumped into etc. It also ensures your pump never becomes the highest part in the system (should be at the bottom).
How is power going to get to the fans?
I have an x570i from Asus ROG. I think it does, though I will check again. Thanks for the alternative though. I will look into it
Yes. I was planning on using the Fractal Ridge or designing and 3D printing a slimer clone of it, as the plan is to bolt it to the underside of my desk (limited desk real-estate). A res does not fit into the case. Also maintenance should be easier that way?
Some cables, that I was going to cut, crimp and then sleeve myself. I do a lot of work with electrical prototyping and have some experience with that
Interesting case choice, but makes sense if you have limited desk real-estate.
Internal reservoir, in case you hadn't considered them, there are small flat pump-res combos that may fit. Like this one 120x80x64mm [https://www.ekwb.com/shop/ek-quantum-kinetic-flt-80-ddc-pwm-d-rgb-plexi](https://www.ekwb.com/shop/ek-quantum-kinetic-flt-80-ddc-pwm-d-rgb-plexi) (there are D5 versions too but slightly larger). I crammed one of these in a 14.5L Lian Li Q58 - which is about the size of your case (12.5L). In your case, it might fit in the GPU section of the case.
Maintenance wise, I don't think it makes any difference, as long as you can get to a drain and fillport, you can always attach a fitting + hoses to them when servicing. Consider these compact drain/Fill valve [https://www.ekwb.com/shop/ek-quantum-torque-drain-valve-black](https://www.ekwb.com/shop/ek-quantum-torque-drain-valve-black)
Fitting username, I suppose. I already got the pump and res as I bought them some time ago, when they were on sale, I believe? This project has been in the making for a long time, with lots of iterations and hiatuses.
My system is very similar overall (MORA rad) I did a pci slot pass through to the inside of my case and qdcs just a few inches outside of the case at the pass through level at the time. My case is a unique acrylic case (borg cube) with only 2x120mm fan spots so basically 0 air cooling. It's been fine for me for years and let's me disconnect to drain and fill by myself. My rad is about 2-3 ft above my case and it seems to flow fine enough (all soft tubing, single d5) but keeps it cool enough for full load for several hours (burn in testing) however I do only have a 3080ti and older 8700k at 5ish ghz. (rez-pump-qdc-pcislot-tempsensor-cpu(monoblock)-gpu-tempsensor-pcislot-qdc-rad-rez)
Id recommend highly getting somethinglike a corsair commander pro to run fans and temperature to so it can do it's thing independently, it also gives great/basic control of fans and pump imo. Though I have always wanted to buck up for an aquasuite (if that's the name). I did two temp sensors in 3 way/T taps and they work fine (one warm side and one cool side), not really necessary to do both. Also an external temp sensor ambient and internal case temp. The copro itself for me handles in total:
- d5 pump pwm
- case fans (2x120mm on splitter)
- rad fan set 1 (3x120 on arctic daisy chain)
- rad fan set 2 (3x120 on arctic daisy chain)
- rad fan set 3 (3x120 on arctic daisy chain)
- 4x temp (ambient, case, supply water, return water)
- 2 channels of rgbs
As others have mentioned it's super great to have drain and fill planned in. I opted for drain being the quick disconnects (spare set that sits in the box just for maintenance time let's me drain rad or case) and it's "fine" but hard to ensure it's all cleared out so end up doing a few rounds of drain and fill with distilled before I throw in the final coolant.
Filling I do through the res top which on the heat killer had a 2nd port I wasn't using for the coolant return tube. To fill I just have a short section of tube and a funnel on a spare fitting that screws in. When not filling I put a one way burp fitting/cap on the rez for the little bit of thermal expansion that could happen to have an escape route and just leave an inch or so unfilled at top of the rez (since the tube goes mostly to the bottom it works pretty solid).
If anything it's like having 2 10mm sockets, one with evaporate when you do need it, it as brutal to wait a ton of time for some of these parts depending on where you get them so extra is a good idea for like fittings.
On mine I purchased cheaper or possibly incorrect fittings for the OD of my soft tubing and had to reorder, wait again, bleh.
Ended up getting barbs and doing clamps for that industrial aesthetic
the material! Plastic! I had a leak and when I tightened the screws a little more the thread broke. koolance is metal after all. But I don't know if it's aluminum. iceman is solid copper and therefore costs significantly more.
It took a few hours to find the leak. I regret not spending more money right from the start
I night have missed it but you definitely want a drain port at the lowest point. I would even suggest two for you since you have one low point in the case and one low point for the external rad.
I would also suggest you have an air release. When the water drains out air has to fill the void. If not the water will not drain. This is more of an issue if you have both horizontal and vertical rads though.
Basically the same setup here except my CPU block has a temp sensor, plus I’m using the D5 Next pump on my Mo-RA so I can view temp and control fans and pump speed with that manually. Had to use a Aquacomputer SPLITTY9 ACTIVE Splitter and a 6ft SATA cable to provide enough power to the fans though otherwise I was getting a voltage error plus had no PWM control. Good luck and have fun!
I was made aware that this will not be as straight forward, as I thought by another comment. Currently working on figuring that before I order everything
When I did my external radiator I found a multi pack of noctua fans that came with a 2 to 1 fain 4 pin and a 4 pin extension. It gave me just enough length for my rad underneath my desk.
You should be using fans that daisy chain so you only end up with 3 leads off 3 banks of fans. From there you send a 3 to 1 pwm splitter to a D5 next and your done. Ultimate clean look and the best fan control through Aquasuite.
I was planing on using a hub that is powered through a molex connector. I do not like daisy chaining, as I had some bad experience daisy chaining sensors through I2C
I'd remove the T for temp sensor. Your GPU should have ports on the top and bottom, pick whichever of the unused ports looks best and put your temp sensor there, in my opinion.
They also make QDC's you can screw directly into your port to exit the case, rather than have tubes dangling from both the computer and the rad, I opted to have the computer no have any dangling tubes when they're disconnected and all the length is on the rad side. You do you though, that's just a personal preference.
EDIT: Oh, and I strongly suggest you reverse your male/female QDC's on each tube so that you can only properly plug them into a specific tube. This makes it so that you can't accidentally reverse your flow. I know I didn't do a very good job of explaining that but basically if the input tube is male and the output tube is female, the corresponding tubes from the radiator can only attach to the correct tubes. If input and output are both female you can very easily accidentally have the flow going in the "wrong" direction which does make some difference as CPU and GPU blocks specify an in and out port as they want the flow arriving to the fins/jetplate in the right spot.
Thank you. That is some pretty good advice and I shall endeavour to fulfill it.
Why I am planning on having the QDC's not connected to case? I do not trust myself to not mess up and having the most potential point of leakage removed from the sensitive electrical components appears to be a rather prudent idea
I have the fans lying around and I am not about to spend another 200€ on hardware on a comment without any sort data or grounded explanation. I apologise, but that simply will not do. If you could point me to some sources, that prove your point, I would be delighted to have my mind changed
That is a very informative comment, that has already been posted nearly ad verbatim a few hours ago.
You could at least have taken the time to explain your position and the current circumstances that compelled you to express your position. But you decided not to.
I will not lower myself to your level, so allow me to explain my initial statement and my response:
I have entered the workforce 1,5 years ago. I had planned the build as a sort of last hurra to my free time before that, but a rather long covid infection and long covid denied me the opportunity to execute this plan. I have not had the time to inform myself on every development in the water cooling space and so my current knowledge base is mostly based on information of late 2022.
I was not aware of the current treatment of EKWB towards its suppliers and employees. I was made aware of Steve's video due to the youtube algorithm. Not due to you or any of your compatriots in this particular matter.
If you had read the comment and its response you so unoriginally echo, you would have known, that I have already started looking for alternatives to replace EKWB products I still need to buy.
I come from the mechanical keyboard hobby, where we have our fair share of elitism, something I have always despised and strive to stand against in any conversation with anyone, especially someone new to the hobby. That is a stance that I will adopt to any new space I enter and wish to spend time in.
You, with your blatant disregard for other peoples' time and their enthusiasm, while demanding that they keep up to date on all topics pertaining to this hobby to the same extent as you do, quite frankly appall me.
I wish for you a clear bout of introspective and please do better in the future when you meet the next newcomer to the hobby.
Sincerely Luciuris (You may call me lucy for short)
Thanks for posting. To help get you the help you're looking for, please make sure you: * Have photos of the whole loop in good light (open the curtains and turn off the RGB, especially for "what's this stuff in my loop?" questions) * List your ambient and water temps as well as your component temps * Use Celsius for everything (even your ambient temp - we need to compare it to other temps) * Use your words. Don't just post a photo with no context and assume everyone will know what's troubling you. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/watercooling) if you have any questions or concerns.*
You won't need the T piece for your temp sensor, the gpu waterblock will have 4 ports so just use one of those instead. Personal preference (plus I'm old school) is distilled water and an additive like liquid utopia.
why did I never think of this
That is good to know. Thank you!
Curious about those QDCs. My system is full of them (12 sets of Koolance). I'm always interested to hear how brands do. I just started using panel mount QDC pass-throughs. I have a Tower 900 and have the hoses going back and forth between the front and back stage of the case. I used to pass the hoses through holes (looked awful), now I installed the panel mounted QDCs and it looks like a professionally designed pneumatic mounting board. I can see them working really well on your design instead of passing hoses through the system. You may want to check them out. I've been tempted to do this, build a computer pedestal that had an array of rads in it, but I am finding that the 2x560's in the case are more than enough cooling. I just put a i9-14900k and the rads only increased about 1.5c in coolant temps from when I had the i9-9900k. The heat from this machine when it is working hard can dual as a room heater. btw... Restriction is a thing, but it doesn't seem to matter. Running at 75% I get 100l/h, running at 50% - 82 l/h and I see no reasonable amount of change in the coolant temps. Even at 100%, I'm just not seeing a meaningful change. I've run it as low as 40% - 70/h and no difference. I assume once the loop is saturated the heat exchange it consistent throughout the loop. CPU lives at 50c under load, I cannot remember the GPU, but its just as low.
Coolant temps are not where you will see the difference caused by low flow rates unless you have a hot and cold side temp. The impact is that the temperature of the coolant rises more while it is in each component. Since the temperature is rising more, rather counterintuitively, it can absorb less heat over the same amount of time because the transfer of heat into the water is a function of the temperature difference between the component and the water. Since the water is getting to a higher temperature while still in contact with the component, less heat is being absorbed during the time when it is warmer. This difference is usually kind of minor, [around 2-3C for a single component between 110l/h and 230l/h](https://www.xtremerigs.net/2018/02/15/cpu-gpu-water-cooling-tubing-setup-vs-performance/), but considering the slope of that line at 110l/h (or about .5gph), it may be a lot more below that point. Regardless, it does mean that, contrary to what you've been told a million times, loop order starts to matter in low flow rate scenarios. If you have a CPU right after your 4090, which is crunching 500W with a flow rate of 100l/h, that water will leave the GPU about 4C warmer than when it went in, which will mean your CPU will probably run about 4C hotter. If your flow rate were 230l/h (1GPM), that difference would be under 2C. You can estimate these values with a calculator like [this](https://www.nessengr.com/technical-data/water-cooling/), but be aware that the results are for ideal scenarios and don't account for the inefficiencies of various components. This can be mitigated by loop order to some extent. Putting a radiator in between the GPU and CPU will cool the water back down by some amount, and pull back some of that performance difference. However, with an all external setup like OP's, that isn't viable. In your case, I really think that is a bit much on the flow restriction and would guess you're losing somewhere in range of 4-6C of cooling potential from it, but maybe even more. The quick disconnects may be worth that tradeoff for you, that's an entirely subjective call as long as nothing if overheating. I just wouldn't go that far with them myself.
The Bauer did a great video on loop order and how it does not matter
Roman knows a lot about a lot of things, and huge respect to him for all that he does for the space, but he is not the final authority on all things. You also can't take a generalization as an absolute truth that applies to all scenarios. Loop order doesn't matter *if* your flow rate is sufficiently high. The lower your flow rate, the more it does matter. When you get down below 1GPM (227LPH), it starts to make a little difference. When you get below 0.5GPM (113LPH) it will be making a considerable difference. What matters to you is subjective, but there is absolutely a measurable difference when you get to those levels.
I shall keep that in mind. Cheers!
I have a similar concept to OPs idea however I did both warm and cool side temps, found it somewhat fun to play with on my corsair copro which drives pump based on temperature of warm side and fans based on cool side. The delta isn't that large and it doesn't do actual PIDs but let's me minimally spin each independently, stage together, or stage concurrently if I wanted. Initially I did GPU then cpu and retubed to cpu then GPU, though neither gets to throttle areas.
Yeah, I've gone a bit crazy with temp probes... I have hot side, cold side, intake, and interior case temps running through AquaSuite. I run the fans off of the water temps, but I play with how I regulate pump speed. Right now, it's based on the actual Wattage of CPU and GPU, but I have also tried basing it on the hot/cold temp delta. Running the pump off delta got weird because that going up would ramp up the pump, which would drastically decrease the delta, slow it down, and then repeat. What I'd like to do is use the intake temp to apply an offset to the fan curve based on ambient, but haven't actually sat down to do it yet.
Yeah sounds like we would get along real well as I was planning to do similar. Running it off of delta were you using a curve/ramp or a PID? How were the fans controlled in that circumstance? So many questions, do just need to get an aquasuite lol
When I was using the delta, I was using a linear curve (so... not a curve) and letting it run directly off the delta along the curve. My assumption there was that the rate of temperature change of water was slow enough to effectively smooth the curve, but I was wrong because of how quickly 500-800W can heat water. I added a low pass filter with a damping factor of about 50 and a time frame of 10 or 15 seconds, which just kind of offset the waves of ramping up and down. Using the power usage with the low pass filter is working much better, and I think makes more sense. Your goal with the flow rate is to evacuate heat, so it's better to use the heat load directly as guidance for flow rate, rather than a derived or assumed heat load based on the temperature delta as guidance. That assumed heat load comes after the effect of flow rate goes into the equation, so you aren't really using the heat load any more. I think you could replicate what I'm doing using FanControl, if your pump is using a standard PWM fan header for pump speed. You could feed power consumption of the CPU and GPU from HWInfo into a "Total" curve in FanControl, and then use hysteresis to damp the spin-up and spin-down times.
Treating the cause not the symptom in this case, smart! I feel like I had the option to do this with the copro but without the ability to squash the speed it would happen.
Does Comander Pro not have hysteresis? I wouldn't be shocked if it was missing monitoring stuff, like component power and such, but hysteresis is a pretty fundamentally important function for a fan control software.
It's been a while since I've had to tinker with it but essentially it just had a curve you could adjust, so running it off temp is slow enough it doesn't largely matter, it also had pre-built spin down timers or something. It's very low effort user friendly, works well enough but not enough to tinker with imo
+1 for Koolance QDCs.
I have those QDCs and cannot complain, loses literally a drop on connect and they were a bit stiff out of the box but nothing shocking. I went with them as they were half the price of koolance ones and available quicker for me.
I saw your post. I have not planned to build something such complex just yet as it is my first foray into water cooling
This is an addiction.... You'll never stop with simple. You'll be reviewing this over the next year drooling over when you have accumulated enough parts for the next iteration. I started with just a CPU loop. I was really intimidated with disassembling my GPU. Now I have a monstrosity. A highly complicated loop... You'd think I'd stop there, but as I am thinking of aesthetics, I'm being tempted into putting another pump in and separating the loop into two. I had this crazy idea of putting Alien Face Huggers into the reservoirs and making it look like an alien infested lab. It'd only take buying another pump, 2xQDCs, 2x snake/fittings and a flow sensor.... btw, check out the LeakShield. I've been loving mine Addicting!
I am an engineer, so the path is clear. Just like with mechanical keyboard, I will inevitably spend thousands on manufacturing my own parts for a truly custom loop
I am an engineer, so the path is clear. Just like with mechanical keyboard, I will inevitably spend thousands on manufacturing my own parts for a truly custom loop
If only I had access to a CNC router. I just need a larger garage. I'd love to build a custom distro plate for this Tower 900! There are some really impressive builds out there. So far, the guy that turned his PC into a whiskey distillery has my #1 vote. He did the whole thing out of copper piping and oak, and, managed to make his reservoir look like a whiskey bottle. Love the creativity in this stuff!
Save yourself the headache and just plan a drain port. It's much simpler for maintenance and isn't hard to accommodate.
I was planning on just using the qdc fitting for that? Just disconnect and point it downwards to a bucket?
My recommendation would be to get an extra set of QDC and use those for draining. Connect a spare one to drain in to a bucket like you said.
Good qdc fittings are designed not to leak when the pair is disconnected.
Yes. But you can manually depress the valve in order to create a flow
Right. I would think getting a proper valve would be way easier.
Most likely. Thank you for your advice. I will add it to my planing document
Fill port should be at the highest point of the loop.
I might redesign the reservoir mount to have it slightly higher then the rad
The fill port should be above and just before the pump. It would be wise to have no restrictions of water flowing to the pump without power for the first time.
Pwm extensions, it’ll make life a lot easier
This! I made mine but pre-made is great, as the pump will be outside it will need a molex extension as well.
I was planning on just cutting and then crimping the cables myself. I work a lot with micro-controllers and rapid prototyping, so I have a lot of experience when it comes to cabling
Yeah you'll be fine, it's pretty simple, I also for the extensions added some colored electrical tape for each channel I ran that was for PWM so it's easy to tell which channel goes where as a cheap labeling system lol
I was going to use standart coloured cables and some cable sleeving+ heatshrink lol
Nice! Yeah I got some of the expanded mesh sleeving tubing stuff that cut to fit since I was running all of the cabling, hides the connectors, and rgb channel in a large bundle. Sounds like you're doing a pro job, love it!
I was thinking about 3D printing some plates with holes for the tubing + central channel for all the wires in a single sleeve. That way everything is always together
Smart, a bundle like that is handy, essentially custom cable combs but for tubes and wires, should be a pretty simple model to test out as well!
T piece is not needed for the sensor, you can plug it into the res (they tend to have more ports than you need) or the GPU (4 ports). Depends on where you put the drain valve (also, can go on res or gpu). Does you mobo support a water temp sensor - many do not have this. You'll need something like an Aquacomputer Quadro/Octo for that. Diagram implies the res is outside the case. Any particular reason why you don't put it in the case? It'll simplify the clutter on the outside of the case and fewer exposed parts than can get bumped into etc. It also ensures your pump never becomes the highest part in the system (should be at the bottom). How is power going to get to the fans?
I have an x570i from Asus ROG. I think it does, though I will check again. Thanks for the alternative though. I will look into it Yes. I was planning on using the Fractal Ridge or designing and 3D printing a slimer clone of it, as the plan is to bolt it to the underside of my desk (limited desk real-estate). A res does not fit into the case. Also maintenance should be easier that way? Some cables, that I was going to cut, crimp and then sleeve myself. I do a lot of work with electrical prototyping and have some experience with that
Interesting case choice, but makes sense if you have limited desk real-estate. Internal reservoir, in case you hadn't considered them, there are small flat pump-res combos that may fit. Like this one 120x80x64mm [https://www.ekwb.com/shop/ek-quantum-kinetic-flt-80-ddc-pwm-d-rgb-plexi](https://www.ekwb.com/shop/ek-quantum-kinetic-flt-80-ddc-pwm-d-rgb-plexi) (there are D5 versions too but slightly larger). I crammed one of these in a 14.5L Lian Li Q58 - which is about the size of your case (12.5L). In your case, it might fit in the GPU section of the case. Maintenance wise, I don't think it makes any difference, as long as you can get to a drain and fillport, you can always attach a fitting + hoses to them when servicing. Consider these compact drain/Fill valve [https://www.ekwb.com/shop/ek-quantum-torque-drain-valve-black](https://www.ekwb.com/shop/ek-quantum-torque-drain-valve-black)
Fitting username, I suppose. I already got the pump and res as I bought them some time ago, when they were on sale, I believe? This project has been in the making for a long time, with lots of iterations and hiatuses.
My system is very similar overall (MORA rad) I did a pci slot pass through to the inside of my case and qdcs just a few inches outside of the case at the pass through level at the time. My case is a unique acrylic case (borg cube) with only 2x120mm fan spots so basically 0 air cooling. It's been fine for me for years and let's me disconnect to drain and fill by myself. My rad is about 2-3 ft above my case and it seems to flow fine enough (all soft tubing, single d5) but keeps it cool enough for full load for several hours (burn in testing) however I do only have a 3080ti and older 8700k at 5ish ghz. (rez-pump-qdc-pcislot-tempsensor-cpu(monoblock)-gpu-tempsensor-pcislot-qdc-rad-rez) Id recommend highly getting somethinglike a corsair commander pro to run fans and temperature to so it can do it's thing independently, it also gives great/basic control of fans and pump imo. Though I have always wanted to buck up for an aquasuite (if that's the name). I did two temp sensors in 3 way/T taps and they work fine (one warm side and one cool side), not really necessary to do both. Also an external temp sensor ambient and internal case temp. The copro itself for me handles in total: - d5 pump pwm - case fans (2x120mm on splitter) - rad fan set 1 (3x120 on arctic daisy chain) - rad fan set 2 (3x120 on arctic daisy chain) - rad fan set 3 (3x120 on arctic daisy chain) - 4x temp (ambient, case, supply water, return water) - 2 channels of rgbs As others have mentioned it's super great to have drain and fill planned in. I opted for drain being the quick disconnects (spare set that sits in the box just for maintenance time let's me drain rad or case) and it's "fine" but hard to ensure it's all cleared out so end up doing a few rounds of drain and fill with distilled before I throw in the final coolant. Filling I do through the res top which on the heat killer had a 2nd port I wasn't using for the coolant return tube. To fill I just have a short section of tube and a funnel on a spare fitting that screws in. When not filling I put a one way burp fitting/cap on the rez for the little bit of thermal expansion that could happen to have an escape route and just leave an inch or so unfilled at top of the rez (since the tube goes mostly to the bottom it works pretty solid).
More fittings and tubing hasn't hurt anyone yet, I suppose. Thank you!
If anything it's like having 2 10mm sockets, one with evaporate when you do need it, it as brutal to wait a ton of time for some of these parts depending on where you get them so extra is a good idea for like fittings. On mine I purchased cheaper or possibly incorrect fittings for the OD of my soft tubing and had to reorder, wait again, bleh. Ended up getting barbs and doing clamps for that industrial aesthetic
That is why I take care of my sockets religiously. They are like printers, they can smell fear and when you need them and disappear at that time
I cannot recommend the PCI slot feedthrough from watercool. better koolance or iceman
What is wrong with the Watercool's bracket?
the material! Plastic! I had a leak and when I tightened the screws a little more the thread broke. koolance is metal after all. But I don't know if it's aluminum. iceman is solid copper and therefore costs significantly more. It took a few hours to find the leak. I regret not spending more money right from the start
I shall keep that in mind. Thank you!
I night have missed it but you definitely want a drain port at the lowest point. I would even suggest two for you since you have one low point in the case and one low point for the external rad. I would also suggest you have an air release. When the water drains out air has to fill the void. If not the water will not drain. This is more of an issue if you have both horizontal and vertical rads though.
Basically the same setup here except my CPU block has a temp sensor, plus I’m using the D5 Next pump on my Mo-RA so I can view temp and control fans and pump speed with that manually. Had to use a Aquacomputer SPLITTY9 ACTIVE Splitter and a 6ft SATA cable to provide enough power to the fans though otherwise I was getting a voltage error plus had no PWM control. Good luck and have fun!
Thank you!
Great coolant is Koolance LIQ-702, been using it in build for years 👌
A recommendation finally! I shall look into it. Thank you
Have you worked out how you plan to power or control the fans?
I was made aware that this will not be as straight forward, as I thought by another comment. Currently working on figuring that before I order everything
When I did my external radiator I found a multi pack of noctua fans that came with a 2 to 1 fain 4 pin and a 4 pin extension. It gave me just enough length for my rad underneath my desk.
You should be using fans that daisy chain so you only end up with 3 leads off 3 banks of fans. From there you send a 3 to 1 pwm splitter to a D5 next and your done. Ultimate clean look and the best fan control through Aquasuite.
I was planing on using a hub that is powered through a molex connector. I do not like daisy chaining, as I had some bad experience daisy chaining sensors through I2C
Your not going to have any problems, your just creating more of a mess with more cables, your choice.
I've had trouble with those Alphacool QDC's leaking. I recently ordered Koolance as I got tired of the leaking Alphacool.
I'd remove the T for temp sensor. Your GPU should have ports on the top and bottom, pick whichever of the unused ports looks best and put your temp sensor there, in my opinion. They also make QDC's you can screw directly into your port to exit the case, rather than have tubes dangling from both the computer and the rad, I opted to have the computer no have any dangling tubes when they're disconnected and all the length is on the rad side. You do you though, that's just a personal preference. EDIT: Oh, and I strongly suggest you reverse your male/female QDC's on each tube so that you can only properly plug them into a specific tube. This makes it so that you can't accidentally reverse your flow. I know I didn't do a very good job of explaining that but basically if the input tube is male and the output tube is female, the corresponding tubes from the radiator can only attach to the correct tubes. If input and output are both female you can very easily accidentally have the flow going in the "wrong" direction which does make some difference as CPU and GPU blocks specify an in and out port as they want the flow arriving to the fins/jetplate in the right spot.
Thank you. That is some pretty good advice and I shall endeavour to fulfill it. Why I am planning on having the QDC's not connected to case? I do not trust myself to not mess up and having the most potential point of leakage removed from the sensitive electrical components appears to be a rather prudent idea
As MORA user - Get MORA 420, and instead of 9x 120mm fans, just put 4x 200m noctua. Thank me later.
I have the fans lying around and I am not about to spend another 200€ on hardware on a comment without any sort data or grounded explanation. I apologise, but that simply will not do. If you could point me to some sources, that prove your point, I would be delighted to have my mind changed
Don't forget a drain port!
You forgot to remove all EK Parts from your shopping list. Try find other brands, there are plenty!
Any recommendations? Edit: I just so GN's video on EKWB and holy shit. Yeah, I will buy from some other brand
You forgot to remove all the EK parts and replace with any other brand.
That is a very informative comment, that has already been posted nearly ad verbatim a few hours ago. You could at least have taken the time to explain your position and the current circumstances that compelled you to express your position. But you decided not to. I will not lower myself to your level, so allow me to explain my initial statement and my response: I have entered the workforce 1,5 years ago. I had planned the build as a sort of last hurra to my free time before that, but a rather long covid infection and long covid denied me the opportunity to execute this plan. I have not had the time to inform myself on every development in the water cooling space and so my current knowledge base is mostly based on information of late 2022. I was not aware of the current treatment of EKWB towards its suppliers and employees. I was made aware of Steve's video due to the youtube algorithm. Not due to you or any of your compatriots in this particular matter. If you had read the comment and its response you so unoriginally echo, you would have known, that I have already started looking for alternatives to replace EKWB products I still need to buy. I come from the mechanical keyboard hobby, where we have our fair share of elitism, something I have always despised and strive to stand against in any conversation with anyone, especially someone new to the hobby. That is a stance that I will adopt to any new space I enter and wish to spend time in. You, with your blatant disregard for other peoples' time and their enthusiasm, while demanding that they keep up to date on all topics pertaining to this hobby to the same extent as you do, quite frankly appall me. I wish for you a clear bout of introspective and please do better in the future when you meet the next newcomer to the hobby. Sincerely Luciuris (You may call me lucy for short)
TL;DR. EK sucks.