Completed Thermaltake Level 10 GT Water Cooling build log

[sswilson]

After waiting over a week, all of the new parts are finally in. On the left are some Fesser 45deg adapters and compression fittings from Dazmode (Don't know why I didn't order black in the first place..... ;) ), and on the right are a Primochill Myriad Dual Bay D5 Res, Black Primochill 1/2" / 3/4" tubing, a few Bitspower straight barbs, and a Swiftech 655 I pulled out of my Cosmos S.

Being a cheap bugger, I decided that pairing compression fittings with 45deg rotary adapters would give me the most flexability for this build as well as any future use. My thinking on 45deg vrs 90deg is that 45 will work in just about any situation, while a 90 deg adapter would be a perfect fit for some situations, but completely useless in others.

Here's a shot of the adapters installed on the rad. I was a bit concerned that there wouldn't be enough room because of the diameter of the compression fittings, but while they're a tight fit on the WB, there's lots of room on the rad.

Parts breakdown of the Res, one glaring omission is the lack of any kind of instruction manual, topped off with the fact that the PrimoChill webpage is supposedly undergoing an update (wonder how long that's been going on????) so no online manual is available either.

Fortunately for me, unlike some of the earlier reviews on this item, it came mostly assembled so other than the PITA that setting up the mounting was, it wasn't too hard to figure out.

Kudos to Primochill for including a funnel, as well as (pictured on the right) a PSU shorting adapter for leak testing / bleeding the loop once it's up and running. I've been threatening to make one for years, but now don't have to pretend like that's ever going to happen.... :)

Rear view of the res both with and without the pump installed. The mounting arms are nicely machined, and maybe there's something I'm missing about how they should assembled in order to work properly, but without a manual I'm left to do the best I can.... Finally got it to a point where it's adjusted properly to be locked into the toolless design of the GT, but it was a major PITA, and the included screws were not only not black to match the rest of the res, they were too freaking long!!!! I ended up using leftover screws from the TT GT.

While we're here, you can see that I've chosen straight barbs for back here. You can also see that there are 2 fill ports up top (I'm assuming one is for filling, and one is for connecting to a fixed port), as well as 2 full sets of inlet/outlet ports on the back. No plans for the moment, but I'm thinking about either WCing my vid cards, or even just adding a PA120 into the loop which will make use of the second set of ports.

It hasn't been done yet, but the pump cable is going to get the same heatshrink treatment as the rest of the wires did.

That's it for right now, but I've pretty well got the loop roughed in already so I'd expect to have some more pics either tonight or tomorrow. As a bit of a teaser..... I've never put together loop with such a short amount of tubing..... ;)

[Mena]

That case is very......unique. LOL!! :D

[sswilson]

That's more like it!!!! Even 1/2" tubing doesn't look crowded now that I've got that bloody tube res out of there.... :) Total tubing for the loop runs awful close to 3' and as such is probably the shortest run I've ever done. Rad has been rotated so that the ports face forward.

Downside is that the loop would have to be emptied in order to remove the res, but the WB is easy to drop down as the lowest point in the loop for draining. Filling is as easy as removing the ODD (I could probably fill the res with it in, but why bother when it's easy to remove), and using the included funnel to top up the res.

Currently leak testing / bleeding. I'd forgotten how loud the 655 is until you get all of the air out of the system.

[n0mad]

Looks nice! If I ever did another set up. I'd probably do one like that.

[sswilson]

Originally Posted by n0mad

Looks nice! If I ever did another set up. I'd probably do one like that.

Thanks
.

I've always avoided the pump/res combos for fear of adding one extra chance of a leak, but couldn't resist this considering that I had a surplus 655 kicking around. Pretty sure I'm sold on the style now, it's just so easy to use, and provides custom loop performance in a neat package for a damn clean install.

This is definitely the loop I wish I'd put into the initial build.

[NSdeadly1]

Very nice. I'm in the same situation as you as far as buying computer parts goes. I'm not far from you (Amherst) and there is literally no where to buy decent components locally. I've been considering ditching my H100 and going with a full blown WC setup. I like the clean look of the res/pump combo.

[sswilson]

Originally Posted by NSdeadly1

Very nice. I'm in the same situation as you as far as buying computer parts goes. I'm not far from you (Amherst) and there is literally no where to buy decent components locally. I've been considering ditching my H100 and going with a full blown WC setup. I like the clean look of the res/pump combo.

Strangely enough, if you look back at the early "welcome to the forums" thread (2007 I believe... :) )you'll see a visit from somebody in HFX who wanted to upgrade to a custom loop, but couldn't find any Canadian sources for parts... the rest is history. :)

[sswilson]

Ran fine overnight, no leaks, system seems to be bled (filling the res to the brim made a huge difference to getting this bled). The bubbles you see on the front aren't flowing (not in the loop), but instead are micro bubbles which have attached themselves to the interior of the plexi.... hopefully they'll work themselves out, if not I may have to take more drastic action..... :)

This really is what I should have had originally. There are still some access issues with the rad install, but now that the large tube res is gone it doesn't feel cramped working in the case. IMO, the shorter runs look a lot better, and 1/2" is a must for a case this size. 45deg angles worked well, and the 1/2" compression fittings were a lot easier to use than I thought they were going to be.

I'd definitely recommend folks consider using one of the many bay res w/ pump mount kits that are out there, but I'm not sure if I'd recommend this particular kit. I'd buy another one for my own personal use, and in all honesty didn't mind the extra thinking involved in installing it without a manual, but folks who want an easy install with step-by-step instructions should avoid it.

Now that that's done... guess it's time to get that lower Twin Frozr RMA'd for the second time.... same issue, the rear fans for some reason keep seizing up.

[LetterKilled]

to be honest, I am very happy you went with a bay resi. This looks way cleaner and more pro in my eyes.

as for your video card that has the faulty fan...that's just it saying that it wants to be WC too!

in one of those pics are you putting some soap into your resi?

[lilmoja]

Well done! ******* well done!