So as some of you may remember around two years ago I started a log that covered my first jump in to the world of water cooling. Over the course of that log I went from a full air cooled system to a full water cooled system, Mobo, GP and CPU over the course of maybe 18 or so months. Last year I started to think about an upgrade to the system and I would try my hand at some Acrylic (Hardline) tubing, but couldn't decide what direction to go, thanks to you folk I ended up choosing to upgrade my GPU to a 970GTX and leave my motherboard as was. However fate had a different idea as shortly after deciding (but luckily before I ordered the new card) my motherboard of five years (Maximus Formula 3) decided to fail. So I ended up putting the GPU upgrade on hold and was forced to order a new motherboard and CPU, I also decided to put the hardline tubing on hold as well. End of Christmas I was luckily enough to have the GPU taken care of when I won a 290X from this website (again thanks) however after a reformat, and issues with the long standing black screening I decided to sell the card on and put the cash towards a water cooled 980GTX. So here we are today a new GPU in the post and a some new Hardline fittings. and some nice new Hardline fittings thanks to the folks at Primochill I had opted to go for Monsoon fittings at first however over the last month or two some things have come to light. 1). The fittings and the tubing need to be perfect, this is because the fittings use a glued on collar so the tubing edge needs to be flat and as close to perfect as possible 2). Once glued the collar and tubing would need to be replaced, so no chance of reusing. 3). Having looked at the forums it seems their are rather a few folk complaining about the collars cracking over time and the system developing leaks, sorry bit that's a no go. The Primochill fittins however are compression fit, using a clever compressed washer that seals the tubing to the fitting without glue, great because 1). The tubing ends don't need to be perfect to fit 2). The fittings and tubing can be reused 3). Quicker build, no messing around with glue and collars. Anyway, I am off at the moment so with any luck I am gonna tackle the build tomorrow.
So the builds up and been running stable with no issues for over 24 hours so here's a quick write up on the build. Start at the start The old 670 GTX and old rubber tubing, both of which are going to get replaced but here's the old stuff being drained. Hate draining the watercooling loop, so many places the fluid seems to get trapped and the fluid, whilst great if it spills or leaks (non conductive) really is horrible stuff if you get it on your hands, and you always do get it on your hands. Anyway, as the way of it fluid did leak out and some managed to run down the length of the motherboard, specifically the far right left side where the back plate is. What did that mean, well the board has this thermal armour stuff on it which means I either leave it and hope for the best or strip the board out, remove the armour and clean the board correctly. Guess what option I went for. Let me clarify, to get the board out I have to basically strip EVERYTHING out of the case, the top rad and both it's fans, the front rad and ALL 6 of it's fans as well, but the benefit of doing this is I can make sure that everything is totally drained and free of coolant. So here's the Maximus Formula 5 board minus it's sexy thermal armour. It's a bit ugly without it's fancy clothing ain't it? Oh and pliers were for unscrewing the old fittings. So, cleaning the board was fairly easy, the fluid hadn't gotten very far and if the board hadn't had the thermal armour it wouldn't have even needed to be removed to dry the fluid up. A few bits of toilet paper and the board was clean and ready to have the first bit of Arcylic tubing fitted. Key here is measure not twice but four or five times using these little measuring tools. They come in a range of pre cut sizes and allow you to measure from fitting to fitting at which point I then transfer the measures to a drawing board. However in this case since I am reusing the 90degree Monsoon fittings and just replacing the tubing I just had to make sure that the new cut Acrylic when fitted gave the same size, in this case 10cm. First bit of Arcylic cut so time to test, points for the person who spots my mistake. Did you spot my error? No? I fitted the CPU to Motherboard link BEFORE i refitted the motherboards thermal armour. This time with the thermal armour reinstalled. Spot the very well used Monsoon compression fitting tool in the background. So, a quick reinstall by quick I mean, sticking the motherboard, both rads and all 8 fans back in to the case but gotta give everything a good dusting first. So everything back in the case. Now the real fun beings, time to do some serious measuring, some cutting and my very first attempt at Acrylic tube bending. A few of the tools I am planning on using. And here's the first attempt I had two options, the simple one would be a single 90degree bend in the pipe, but I thought two 45degree bends would give a better look, my first attempt I bent in the wrong place, the wrong angle and I heated the pipe too long so it started to bubble. So I tried again and got the bends right but made a mess of the cut, no wonder look at the mandrel and saw that comes with the bending kit I was using. They are crap, the saw is too flimsy and the mandrel is too small, keeping things level and steady was difficult and I don't know how anyone could be expected to use these tools to make the precise cuts needed for Monsoon's fitting (ps this is Monsoons tool kit I am using) Anyway I pushed on and the results are I'll get some better pictures of the rig as the phone camera never seems to capture decent pics. Yes their are two bits of old rubber tubing still in there. That's because I ran out of Acrylic tubing on the motherboard to top rad, it was a difficult job as it require not only 2 45 degree bends but also a twist to get it to fit and while I think I have the technique to do it down I simply ran out of tubing to do the job (too many tries and practices.). It's a temporary fix, as I really needed to leak test and make sure the new card was up to scratch plus when I checked the Monsoon Blood Red tubing is rare as hens teeth.
Really nice so far. I've never seen a "Manli" GPU before and I must say I'm really down with the name. "Manli! The MAN's GPU". I can see it now.
So this hasn't been the biggest, best or most technically stunning project within these forums, I would have to check but I am pretty sure that I didn't really have to mod anything to get this done but after two years, several water cooling loops, starting with a simple CPU with rubber tubing and ending with a full GPU, CPU, Mobo Acrylic system. Several pumps, several loop designs, many leaks and a total replacement of all the computers bits, it's done. I am happy with the system as it is. The last part went in today a new set of 16Gb of RAM sticks and that's it. I've learned enough from doing all this to know that my next system will be a full air cooled system So here they are some final pictures taken with a better camera. The full setup after a quick spring clean and cable tidy, still using the older Ballistix RAM though. The rig with the new 16Gb of RAM in place. Now for the close ups. Close up of the 980GTX water block fittings. Close up of the CPU fittings Top rad, mobo fittings other gubbings. Yeah a wee bit of old rubber tubing on display but I would never have gotten acrylic cut and bent to do what I need this to do so I went for the slightly easier option. The stuff you aren't meant to see, tidy ain't it. Pump and res, the fittings and acrylic are stunning the rig has been running for a month or so with this set up and the res level is bang on where I filled it after bleeding the setup.
Lookin good! Really do love the Primochill fittings so nice to work with was really glad I opt in for using them with my first go with acrylic tubing!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtwhEpDXtyM A quick link to the rig in action, shows off the light bar effect on the new RAM very nicely. Yup, they were just a little too easy to work with, I kept thinking something has to be wrong seeing how much of a pain it was working with the Monsoon fittings using these Primochill ones was a total breeze.
