Wasmachineman's Water Cooling Adventures

[Wasmachineman_NL]

I'm going to build my first loop in my old system (CH7, Ryzen 2600, H100i V1) and I have a few questions regarding WC:

• What fittings do I need for ZMT/EPDM?
• Coolant recommendations?
• Anything else I should look out for as a first time builder?

 

[Keith Myers]

Uhhh . . . . . huh?
The H100i V1 is an AIO. It is already a fully self contained cooling loop.
No fittings, tubing or coolant required.

 

[Ralph_IT]

Uhhh . . . . . huh?
The H100i V1 is an AIO. It is already a fully self contained cooling loop.
No fittings, tubing or coolant required.

Maybe the H100i is in the actual build he has and he wants to replace it....

@Wasmachineman_NL: Is that it? If not, as Keith said, it's an AIO. So plug and play. (more or less)

 

[Keith Myers]

I can see now that I could have misread the post and that he already has a H100iV2 and is wanting to go full custom cooling.
If that is the case he needs to have more parts than what he listed. Needs a block, fans, a radiator, pump/reservoir, tubing etc.

Nothing wrong with soft tubing. Easy to install and not as difficult as hard lines. Also easy to dismount the cpu or gpu card and block if you give yourself a long enough service loop. No need to drain or break apart the loop.

Never worked with ZMT before. Clear Primochill LRT tubing has been good enough for me. Fluid is nothing more than distilled water with the PrimoChill Liquid Utopia anti-corrosion concentrate. I don't build for bling, I build for performance, ease of maintenance and reliability.

I like the XSPC RX360 radiator as my standard build choice when I have the room for a 60mm thick one. I also just used the EX360 radiator when I needed a thinner radiator. Both are sufficient for cooling my Ryzen 3950X, 3900X and Epyc 7402P with all cores running BOINC distributed computing work.

For blocks I am running Optimus PC AMD AM4 Foundation and Ultimate Threadripper blocks. Also just put a cheap Bykski universal AMD block on a host as an experiment. Good enough and a good value at $65.

He is going to have to spend a lot more than the cost of that AIO for custom loop. I would budget $350 at minimum.

[Edit]

And I question why the desire for the complexity of a custom loop for 65W 2600 cpu. The AIO is totally sufficient for that load even if overclocked.

 

[lihp]

I'm going to build my first loop in my old system (CH7, Ryzen 2600, H100i V1) and I have a few questions regarding WC:

• What fittings do I need for ZMT/EPDM?
• Coolant recommendations?
• Anything else I should look out for as a first time builder?

Follow this link for all components for custom water cooling: EKWB custom loop configurator.

Of course they want to sell their stuff, yet they also generate a great shopping list on what you need if buying elsewhere.

 

[Wasmachineman_NL]

And I question why the desire for the complexity of a custom loop for 65W 2600 cpu. The AIO is totally sufficient for that load even if overclocked.

Because my main system is mission critical, if it breaks all hell breaks loose here at home. Long story about that one.

So i'll be building a loop in my old system to practice first. I also have a waterblock for my RX480 so when GPU prices become sane (lol never!) i'll move it to my old system and WB it too.

 

[Ralph_IT]

...And I question why the desire for the complexity of a custom loop for 65W 2600 cpu. The AIO is totally sufficient for that load even if overclocked.

Well, I wanted to reduce the noise of my Vega64, which sounded like a jet taking off every time I launched a game, and that is just the entrance to that rabbit hole. That and the will to learn and tinker with a watercooling loop did the rest.

So i'll be building a loop in my old system to practice first. I also have a waterblock for my RX480 so when GPU prices become sane (lol never!) i'll move it to my old system and WB it too.

@Keith Myers and @lihp already point you in the direction, but giving more info about what have you think about it cannot do harm.

BTW: I've built mine with WaterCool EPDM (3/8"-5/8" or 10mm/16mm) and barbed fittings. The build is noiseless oriented and it does a remarkable job.

 

[NablaSquaredG]

What fittings do I need for ZMT/EPDM?

Do yourself a favour and use the EK Fittings (EK STC 16/10). I've tried different fittings all of them are really difficult to use with EK ZMT.

Coolant recommendations?

If you want it to be simple: aquacomputer Double Protect Ultra

Otherwise: distilled water with BASF G48 / G40

Anything else I should look out for as a first time builder?

Keep in mind to not mix copper and aluminum blocks
Perform a leak test before actually starting the system
Use lots of paper towel on the first run
Keep in mind that you need a reservoir and place the pump below it so it never runs dry!
Keep in mind to integrate something to fill the system (usually via the reservoir), but much more importantly: Integrate a drain valve!

 

[Wasmachineman_NL]

How's this?

 

[Keith Myers]

Where's the pump and reservoir?

All looks reasonable if you like EKWB.

I'm a big fan of the 5 pack of Arctic P12 fans. Have used several boxes of those myself, but not the PST kind, just the basic P12.

 

[Ralph_IT]

I miss some components, but don't know if you already have them:
- Pump
- Reservoir
- Radiator(s)

I'm using those fans. Best bang for buck and quiet at low revs.
Also using the same coolant.

 

[Wasmachineman_NL]

Where's the pump and reservoir?

All looks reasonable if you like EKWB.

I'm a big fan of the 5 pack of Arctic P12 fans. Have used several boxes of those myself, but not the PST kind, just the basic P12.

I miss some components, but don't know if you already have them:
- Pump
- Reservoir
- Radiator(s)

I'm using those fans. Best bang for buck and quiet at low revs.
Also using the same coolant.

Rad is on order and I'll get a res/pump combo later. I don't feel like spending a ridiculous amount of money in one go.

 

[NablaSquaredG]

You're missing the drain valve.

I recommend a combo of 3-way splitter (e.g. EK-AF T-Splitter 3F G1/4 - Black), Male-To-Male extender (EK-AF Extender 6mm M-M G1/4 - Black) Ball Valve (EK-AF Ball Valve (10mm) G1/4 - Black) and another plug to make sure nothing leaks (EK-PLUG G1/4 Acetal - Black (10 pack))

 

[Wasmachineman_NL]

I bought a Hardware Labs GTS 240 rad, what screws do I need for my fans and to mount it to my case?

 

[Ralph_IT]

I bought a Hardware Labs GTS 240 rad, what screws do I need for my fans and to mount it to my case?

HLabs screws are metric based. The ones that come with your rad should suffice.
If you want to do a pull/push configuration you will need larger ones.

 

[Wasmachineman_NL]

HLabs screws are metric based. The ones that come with your rad should suffice.
If you want to do a pull/push configuration you will need larger ones.

It's used (was on sale since January, go figure!) without screws.

 

[Ralph_IT]

Then the maths are as follows:
25mm from the fan + 2 mm (more or less) to rad + 2 mm through the case panel
M4 x 29mm
I bought some packs with different lengths from this seller: HobbyKing (I wasn't sure which length will fit for sure).

 

[Wasmachineman_NL]

Then the maths are as follows:
25mm from the fan + 2 mm (more or less) to rad + 2 mm through the case panel
M4 x 29mm
I bought some packs with different lengths from this seller: HobbyKing (I wasn't sure which length will fit for sure).

I'm not going to run a push-pull setup, push only. What screws do I need to mount the rad itself?

 

[Ralph_IT]

Mounting option A: Case - Rad - Fan --> M4x5mm + M4x27mm
Mounting option B: Case - Fan - Rad --> M4x29mm

 

[Markess]

Keep in mind to integrate something to fill the system (usually via the reservoir), but much more importantly: Integrate a drain valve!

This ^ This ^ and This^ . Did I mention you should to this ^? A drain valve at the right spot will let you keep your machine upright, and save you both time and the expense of rolls and rolls of extra paper towels.

When I was still running a custom loop, I had both a drain and fill valve. I tend to over engineer and don't like a mess, so I put the fill valve at the high point in the loop so I could fill and "burp" air out easily. I'm by no means an expert, but it worked well for me.

If you really want to learn about custom loops by doing though, I suggest you set up a loop for one of those Precisions. Think of the challenge of fitting a block on a mobile CPU and an MXM card!