Water Cooling a 680i in an Antec p180: build log and guide

[magictorch]

yes ill have a look SSwilson...i wonder if theyll improve on that?...seems strange to think of it all immersed-PSU as well?!.... but with the right stuff could be good..they must be able to do better... I've used mineral oil in the lab. on microscopes, never thought you could do that with it! wonder how you pump and cool the solution, guess it wouldnt be much different than a chilled fishtank and filter which is certainly a lot less noisy than my rig!!

[magictorch]

well if you want to do it in a fish tank and your a bit mad!

YouTube - Mineral Oil Submerged Computer

[Skyguy]

Very nice setup!! I had long debated about installing a 360mm rad in my P180 but decided against it due to 2 toddlers running around the house and probably trying to stick their fingers into the fans......

So I had to go with a completely internal design for mine. For anyone who's looking at an internal setup, perhaps this can give you some ideas.......there's alot of stuff packed into the case.........

Setup:
-Swiftech 350 (I know, I know.....3/8" does just fine, not to worry)
-Apogee GT
-2 x MCR120's
-Micro Reservoir
-distilled water with HydrX
-3/8" Clearflex, Smartcoils (yes, blue and pink....colours for my son and daughter LOL)

Loop:
Res > Pump > Rad1 > CPU > Rad2 > Res

There are certainly other products, but for a variety of reasons (budget, space, timing) I went with these. Using a 655 pump instead of a 350 and going to 1/2" tubing will create more space issues inside the case, so keep it in mind if you want to go more hardcore.

Specs:
-C2Q 6600 @ 3.45 ghz
-Gigabyte 965P-DS3
-4 x 1gb Crucial Ballistix Tracer PC2-8500
-EVGA 8800GTS 640
-Seasonic Energy Plus 650w
-2 x 74gb Raptors
-2 x 250gb Barracudas
-2 x DVD/RW
-Thermaltake Extreme Spirit II NB heatsink cooler
-Zalman fan controller
-a bunch of Noctua 120mm fans @ 1200 rpm
-OCZ XTC RAM cooler


Pics:

Overall. Added a bunch of additional noise dampening foam to the interior areas of the P180:

Side. The "extra" smart coils you may notice if you look carefully.....are not part of the loop.....they're used to disguise the USB cables and maintain a consistent aesthetic LOL. And no, the CPU > Rad hose is not kinked....it's just the angle of the pic. Next pic shows a smooth bend.

Upper chamber. Noctuas, more noise dampening, cable management.

Lower chamber. Tight fit but works alright I think. High output fan is connected to fan controller.



Front. Added 2 intake fans, 1 each for upper and lower chamber to increase airflow to the rads. Very minor modification.....some rubber grommet for clearances, some noise matting for separation.

My upper rad is an exhaust configuration right now. Temps seems pretty good considering it's venting the case air and my Quad is above 3.4ghz. I'm gonna try flipping the fan to make it an intake and compare temps. Then for whichever is better, I may do a push-pull on the rad with 2 fans instead of just one.

Hope that helps give some ideas!

[sswilson]

Great job fitting all that into that space!!!!

I would have been a bit concerned with internal case temps as there isn't a whole lot of room for airflow, but if you're managing to squeeze 3.4 out of a quad with that setup, and it isn't shutting down on you during load you must have some kind of airflow going over the board.

[3.0charlie]

Great job! The great aspect of the 350 is the small size, compared to the 655. It can be fitted anywhere! I had to have a second look to find that pump...

Gotta love the P180.

John

[Skyguy]

Ya, I have 2 - 120mm fans in series blowing onto the GPU and Rivatuner to keep the temps good there. And since the pics were taken I've made the top-mount 120mm fan as an intake to blow across the mobo, then the rear exhaust. Everything is running heavily in a front-to-back wind tunnel LOL. I've got alot of 120mm fans going and the 60mm RAM fans blow across the mobo too, so that helps.

Mind you, the Quad at 3.4 is not the coolest when 100% load and my CPU and case temps do jump alot, but I live on the edge LOL Actually, the Quad rarely gets fully pushed except when rendering 3Ds.....3DS sucks up every ounce of resource it can.....it's a frickin black hole!! LOL. Other than that, it stays within spec and liveable temps for me.

I will likely back down the clocks in the winter since the furnace vent is near my case and then temps will go even higher in the case/CPU......probably just 3.0ghz.

Though I am waiting for the Freezone Elite to be released and then compare that to the Swiftech and see what temps I get..........

[Babrbarossa]

Nice and neat! I wish I had that kind of an eye for detail. My 680i memory controller fried about a month ago and I've just gotten around to swapping it out tonight for an asus commando I've had sitting around here so now it looks like my p180 barfed up a bunch of wires.

I've also ordered as quad core and a swiftech stealth tonight, so it'll most likely remain in ruins until I'm ready to put it all together properly with the RMA'd board.

[sswilson]

Hey!!!!!!

Babrbarossa's back!!!!!!!!

Been a while!

[Babrbarossa]

Yeah, Hi wilson!- Tonight I've been surfing as frantically as is possible on dialup to try to catch up on stuff in the hardware world- I've was really excited to find out about all the new developments I missed since I went AWOL, but I was quite surprised to see that there haven't been any big eurekas in the last two months; although for the pc gamer it would seem we're entering nirvana. There's some goodies coming up soon and how 'bout that bioshock!!- I've only had the chance to play it about three times, but I love it and can't wait to waste most of tommorrow drooling over the spooky eyecandy.

[Cptn Vortex]

Hey, bringing up an old post, but I wonder, how well does that Southbridge cooler work? I am watercooling my Northbridge, so leaves the southbridge bare. I have a spare HR-05 SLI kicking about, but with a second GTX, it blocks my lonely PCI slot, meaning no Soundcard for me. I have just "Glued"(arctic silver thermal adhesive) a heatsink from an old Mobo I had lying around, which is just slightly smaller than, for comparisons sake, an Intel 965 stock northbridge heatsink. Think this will perform passive? I think it should do the trick. It is about 1.5"x1.5"x1.5" in size, about 50 or so "fins". Cooling comes from the TJ-09 middle intake fan.