H2O Cooling Build Log 4-way SLI V 3.0

[Pako]

That's great to hear. I was actually just going to use my 120.3 rads but through a series of unfortunate mistakes and a little too much pressure with a drill, I will have to use one of 120.3 rads for the motherboard on it's own 3/8" loop while I have the rest of the system, CPU and GPU's on the mega cooling MORA loop. Amazing how such a tiny drill bit forces my hand to get the MORA.

 

[Pako]

New Info: Well, I have some parts that should be here the first of next week. I have started thinking if Phase 3 could be here sooner than later. So, if I am cooling my CPU below 0c, how do I manage condensation? Seems like the best way to handle this would be to take Spike's suggestion for mineral oil submersion, but not for cooling, but for keeping atmosphere and therefore condensation off of the motherboard and other components.

I have access to a 5,000 BTU A/C that I can modify with a smaller heat exchanger to drop right in the tank.

I would probably just run this loop on the CPU, but I would still water cool the GPU's and VRM's via a secondary loop. I would only use the mineral oil for insulation letting the water blocks still cool the components directly.

 

[dice1998]

Damn it, I just dabbled back into modern PC society with my build and now I want to do mineral cooling thanks to this thread XD

Well, at least it isn't Phase Change cooling...yet .


Anyways Pako, thanks for making very delicious jelly out of me. (Thanks for making me super duper hella jealous of your build). 5k BTU A/C? Mineral Oil? Modded Fish tanks? It's like my nerdiest wet dream that I want to do one day!

**edit** I can't wait to see how much more awesome this build gets 👍.

 

[Pako]

You crack me up.... Checking into a few things at the moment. Once I get those ironed out, I should have a pretty solid game plan to move forward with.

 

[Shaun]

Nice to see you are making some progress mate. 👍

New Info: Well, I have some parts that should be here the first of next week. I have started thinking if Phase 3 could be here sooner than later. So, if I am cooling my CPU below 0c, how do I manage condensation? Seems like the best way to handle this would be to take Spike's suggestion for mineral oil submersion, but not for cooling, but for keeping atmosphere and therefore condensation off of the motherboard and other components.

I have access to a 5,000 BTU A/C that I can modify with a smaller heat exchanger to drop right in the tank.

I would probably just run this loop on the CPU, but I would still water cool the GPU's and VRM's via a secondary loop. I would only use the mineral oil for insulation letting the water blocks still cool the components directly.

Have you discussed the bolded part with your friend?

An A/C's evaporator has air flowing over it not only to disperse the cool air but to allow the system to run correctly. For example if your evap fan isn't working the evap will freeze up and due to the lower pressure of the refrigerant than normal (see Refrigerant Pressure Temperture Chart) the system will shut down via the low pressure switch.

Can a coil submersed in water simulate the heat exchange properties of an air cooled evap coil. Well I think so but it probably wont be as easy as just dropping a coil into the tank. Size of coil, surface area of fins (if used) will all have to be considered. TBH I don't design systems, just install/maintain them. I could probably get it to work but it would be alot of trial and error for myself. Hopefully your friend can help out here.

Looking forward to watching any further developments.

Cheers Shaun.

 

[Pako]

Update:

Phase 1 is almost done. I have a working system as I type this out. Extended load temps are as follows.

Ram at 2.4ghz,
CPU at 3.9ghz,
GPU's at 630 (stock EVGA Overclock)

CPU running Prime95 after 45 minutes maxes out at 36c.
GPU's in Quad-SLI at 90%+ load after an hour of gaming are as follows:
GPU1 - Max 32c
GPU2 - Max 33c
GPU3 - Max 36c
GPU4 - Max 38c

I feel pretty good about the temps. My old 965 i7 would average mid 60's under load at a 4.0ghz OC. At basically the same speed I have cut the core temps in half. The video cards are a good 10-15c cooler also.

I have noticed that the pump appears to be just shy of being strong enough to really push a good amount of water through the entire system. I am letting the idea sit while I decide where the best spot would be to add a second pump inline. I have an extra MCP355 pump rated at 120gph and is rated at 15ft of head pressure. Might be enough to boost the flow out of the graphics cards and into the rad faster.

I am still undecided if I want to go to phase 2 or not. I haven't started to really push the CPU yet. Letting things kind of settle in before I start OC'ing it, but if I can hit a stable 5ghz on this chip with my current setup, I really don't think I will go Phase 2/3. At least not in the short term.

T-12 will be glad to know that I had to install a Sabertooth Z77 board. After a very long evening of troubleshooting my Maximus V Formula mobo, I discovered a couple of spots on the CPU socket where the pins were bent. I did not notice these bent pins prior to my install so I can only assume I bent them, but for the life of me, I have no idea how I would have. Since my 775 mobo fiasco of 2006, I always handle the seating of the CPU with extra care. There was no stress that would have caused this damage. Anyways, the next morning I took the mobo to the shop where they will RMA it for me. In the mean time, they had a Sabertooth Mobo in stock. To get the system up and running, picked it up and away we went. It even supports my Kingston 2400hz ram. Flashed the bios and haven't looked back. Once I get the Maximus board back, I will need to decide if I should tear the system down again to swap the boards or keep the Sabertooth and sell the Maximus. I am honestly not sure what I will do. There are a few features of the Formula board that I like such as bluetooth, wifi, and a really need feature where you can connect a laptop to the computer to control all bios OC features as well as external monitoring. The Sabertooth doesn't have this.

In any case, that is where I'm at. Gaming performance has improved. BF3 runs especially smooth (when I can launch the game). System stability is rock solid.

While I was tweaking on the system, I also made a custom acrylic SSD mount made out of left over Plexiglass from the tank's top. It makes the SSD's appear to be suspended in the air. I needed a way to mount the SSD's out of the way, and I think this mount works great.

Things I am waiting on.....

I have a custom wall plate getting made with a wire harness. The wall plate will have x3 DVI-D connectors, HDMI, x2 RCA Audio, x2 1/4" TRS Balanced Audio, X2 RCA connectors for the remote power/reset switch, Cat6, and dual USB. It will all fit in a 3 gange outlet box. Polished aluminum.

I am already running my system remote through a hole in the wall, but running video via HDMI which limits me to 1920x1080 instead of my accustomed 2544x1440. I also only have my one monitor running while the other two sit idle on the side.

I also need to decide if I want to add a second pump or not. If I do add a second pump, I will need to drain part of the system for the install. While I am add it, I would like to add a couple more quick disconnects between the Radiator and the Res in case I need to move it.

Other Observations:
There are some things that I discovered with this build that I will use for every water cooling build I do in the future. Tygon tubing.......this stuff is awesome. The 3/4OD-1/2ID tubing is thick, easy to bend, and doesn't kink. I also used Swiftech compression fittings throughout the system, also GREAT! Clean, easy to install, and not one leak. Finally, Koolance's quick disconnect couplers are AWESOME! They allow a disconnection of line without any water spillage. They automatically seal, and in my case (no pun intended), offer a portability of my system so I can detach my tower from the rest of the cooling system for offsite maintenance, etc.

I also really appreciate the smaller size of the Antec 1200w PSU compared to my PC Power and Cooling 1200w PSU. It is easily half the length. This allows me to use a straight coupler off of the bottom graphics card instead of needing an elbow. With this, I was able to completely eliminate all elbows from the system with exception to the 3/4" elbows coming off of the tank which I am not concerned about.

Should have some pictures later today.

 

[Terronium-12]

Those are some killer temps!

And I can say you wound up with a board that can overclock like mad; getting it to agree with your settings is a different matter because it's mighty fussy. Kind of reminds me of the old DFI boards, really.

Looking forward to the pictures.

 

[Pako]

Temps:
Pics:

 

[dice1998]

image porn

 

[djinline]

Now that is a mighty system (sorry for the understatement)! Great job! 👍

 

[Terronium-12]

You know what Pako?

You're making me want to pick up one of these again:

 

[Pako]

Well...I will say that it is a quality piece! Air flow is somewhat restrictive. I don't know if you would have the same performance out of it if had 4x180mm fans, but it does perform well and seems to be cooling my CPU and 4 GPU's quite well..

 

[Shaun]

That's some impressive temps Pako. 👍
I'll have to wait until I get home from work to have a proper look at the pics as a phone doesn't do them justice.

Cheers Shaun.

 

[Pako]

I just hit 5.0ghz

 

[Spike125]

I can only say "cool cool cool" ^^
Great temps, specially with the four heater cards in the system.
The MoRa is really awesome.

 

[Pako]

Well. Had about a 3 hour Borderlands 2 session.

It wouldn't run at 5.0.
It ran for about 15min at 4.8
Ran it the rest of the night at 4.6ghz@1.25v. Temps hit mid 70's with my GPU's all in the mid 30's.

There is definitely room on this system. I need to find the relative humidity in my room so I can calculate the dew point and think seriously about some additional cooling. This system is just so responsive. It will be a blast to work with!

 

[Shaun]

Well. Had about a 3 hour Borderlands 2 session.

I need to find the relative humidity in my room so I can calculate the dew point and think seriously about some additional cooling.

Do you have access to a sling hygrometer/pyschrometer?

Very impressive if you walk into a room of people waving it like a madman .
What sort of seasonal differences for humidity would you normally see in you area?

Finally had the chance to look at the pics mate.
Very impressive 👍.

Cheers Shaun.

 

[Pako]

Sounds awesome, but no I don't. I'm picking up a cheap little digital one with temps etc. Once I know what my dew point is, I can get a safe estimate of how much cooling I can safely apply to the system without forming condensation on the block or surrounding areas. It's may be worth the effort or it may not be. Being able to currently maintain a solid 4.6ghz on the CPU with hyperthreading and 2400mhz on my ram is pretty darn good I think, 0's and 1's are moving along nicely.

Glad you guys like the build. My wife thinks I'm crazy.... especially since I spend more time in the laundry room then she does now...

 

[Phoenix]

Great looking system you got there. 👍

Need. More. Pictures!

 

[Pako]

Great looking system you got there. 👍

Need. More. Pictures!

When pictures are requested, who am I to not oblige.

 

[Shaun]

Sounds awesome, but no I don't. I'm picking up a cheap little digital one with temps etc.

More than sufficient 👍.

Chances are once it tells you the wet and dry bulb temps it will also calculate the dew point for you.
No more looking at a chart with a million lines on it.

Ah, the times we live in.
I used to have to do all that with charts and maths.

Cheers Shaun.

 

[Pako]

Update:
Hyperthreading Enabled, 1.25v 4.7ghz, Dram@1.65v, 2400mhz
Core/Min/Max
0/27/65
1/24/71
2/30/71
3/24/66

Hyperthreading Enabled, 1.30v 4.8ghz, Dram@1.65v, 2400mhz
Core/Min/Max
0/34/70
1/31/77
2/35/76
3/28/69

Idle temps 28/26/32/26

Pretty happy so far I think. Solid clock. 30 minutes of Prime and 3 hours of solid gaming.

GPU's during gaming session quad SLI and still at stock OC:
GPU/Min/Max
1/22/30
2/23/32
3/23/35
4/24/34

I was increasing from 1.25, to 1.26, 1.27, 1.28, 1.29, and finally 1.3 when things stabilized for 4.8ghz. I was hoping to be <1.3 also but for a 4.8 clock, it just wasn't possible. It is clear to me for a solid 5ghz clock for daily use and gaming, sub-ambient cooling will be required, and it will take more than just some cold air blowing on the radiator. It will have to be a inline chiller of sorts that can take me down to some pretty impressive temps in order to achieve higher voltages at safe temps. When I did my 5ghz run, my temps were in the mid-90's. I was there long enough to validate my clock, but I would certainly not run any system at those temps. On sub-ambient cooling, I should be able to easily maintain temps at those voltages around 20c relatively easy. What is still unknown is how cool does the water/coolant need to be to adequately cool the cpu to those levels? My initial guess would be around -20c coolant temps would achieve this. This presents some issues to say the least. Sludging of the coolant and condensation becomes a #1 concern.

With the runs last night, something that was interesting was the max temps listed on the CPU core hit about half way through my Prime95 run. They actually settled down between 72-74c on the hottest core before I finally stopped the test.

The GPU temps are really good and are still on average ~15c cooler than my old setup. The tubes and res used to actually get warm to the touch after a night of gaming. On this setup, even being after the CPU and even with the CPU oc'ed, the tubes are still cool to the touch coming out of the last video card. Maybe I don't need another pump for more water flow. It kind of seems that I am getting plenty of water flow as it is, otherwise I should be able to expect 45-50c temps on the cards which was typical on my previous setup.

The other thing I have going on this system is plenty of fresh cold water to feed the system. 8.5 gallons vs. .25 gallons is a major difference on supply.

 

[Pako]

Update: I got my wall plate today. Assembled most of it. I still need to wire in the power and reset switch, but wanted to get this far and enjoy some gaming tonight before it got too late. Any case, here's the plate. From top to bottom, left to right the connections are as follows:

1st Row:
Power | Reset
Audio L | Audio R
1/4" Audio Out | 1/4" Audio In

Middle Row:
USB 3.0
USB 3.0
Cat6

Third Row:
HDMI
DVI-D
DVI-D
DVI-D

I think it will work out pretty well for what I'm using it for.

 

[Pako]

Update: Desk Assembly

I think I am just about done. All that's left is to wire in the remote power and reset switches. Should be able to finish that up tomorrow.

 

[Terronium-12]

Bravo, mate. Bravo.

The temperatures and the connection arrangement are fantastic. I'm anxious to see how much lower the temps drop once winter comes about.

 

[Shaun]

Looks fantastic Pako.
Job well done mate. 👍

Cheers Shaun.

 

[djinline]

Looks very beautiful and professional to say the least!

Well done, Pako! 👍

 

[Pako]

Thanks guys. I appreciate the comments!

I ran into my first real problem today. I wired up my remote power and reset switch but it doesn't work. I check all connections and they're good. My only guess as to why they aren't working is the ohm's may be dropping too much with the length of the wire run and gauge of the wire. For now I will just use the switches that I mounted near the computer. I've lost some of the coolness factor I was going for not to mention the convenience of just sitting at the desk and hitting the switches, but I will manage unit I can solder up some RCA connectors to some heavier gauge wire to see if that works. I'm guess that the gauge wire on the power/reset headers is 22 gauge and the wire I was using (cut up RCA audio cables) were close to that same gauge.

Other Observations:
I might need to insulate the inside of the laundry room. Although it's not as loud as it was when the computer was right next to me, I would still like to lower the dB's coming from the fans.

I am also already looking at phase 2 and have already tried a small 5,000 btu A/C unit. The results are not stellar to say the least. It does help though, and as more heat is disbursed out the A/C unit, the cooler the A/C side becomes. If I was really serious about adding A/C in either air cooling for the Radiator/System or for inline liquid cooling, it would be best served if the unit was outside. Maybe a summer project.

 

[Pako]

Well, here we are. With the GTX Titan's tugging at my wallet (and retirement fund), I have decided to satisfy my need for higher performance with a more economical solution. Where I was running my u2711 monitor, gaming at 2560x1440 resolutions, what is the next step in gaming? With new games on the horizon, I'm not sure if my current system is ready for 1440p gaming. I have a couple options. I can keep gaming at 1440p but lower the game settings instead of running at ultra everything (where's the fun in that), I can run sub-60 FPS and get a migraine, or I can game at 1080p, at a lower resolutions. Well, if I'm going to take a hit in resolution, I had better get something out of it. That's where the high refresh rate monitors come in. The Asus VG278HE monitor comes into play at 144hz refresh rates at 2ms response time.

Not only am I interested in the silky smooth game play and low input lag, but also being 3D ready has it's appeal, though I am still undecided if the novelty of 3D gaming is worth the $129.99 price tag for the kit.

I have only had the opportunity to game for a few minutes with it, but can say that I will never go back to a 60hz setup, EVER! I am sold.

Gaming performance is very good. With VSync enabled, and the driver set to 144hz, it will cap my FPS to 144 for a very, very smooth gaming experience. BF3 for example now has a almost Counter Strike feel with how smooth it is now. Screen tearing is a thing of the past, and micro studders are gone which has plagued most quad-SLI systems from the beginning.

So, I would game, browse the net, and watch movies all day long on the monitor and enjoy it very much. What I would NOT do with this monitor is any kind of graphics design that requires calibrated color accuracy. This monitor doesn't hold a candle to the color accuracy that the Dell u2711 produces.

As a result, I know have two very specific monitors setup for 2 very specific tasks. Perhaps some day we can have best of both worlds and I will cross that bridge when it comes, but until then, 144hz gaming all the way!

 

[Terronium-12]

27 incher, huh? I may have to pick this up myself now.

Sounds like a good bit of kit, and like you I'm also deciding whether I want a new card but my focus is directed toward the 690.