After some research and discussion I decided to dive in and water cool my newest rig. Having just refitted my older rig with a Sonata case for the wife, I enjoyed the benefit of a quiet PC for the first time and decided to quiet down my current rig.
Here is what I have to work with: Lian Li PC7A plus with 1 120mm intake and 1 80mm exhaust--CoolMax Taurus Silent 480 PSU with 1 140mm exhaust--Asus P4P800SE running a Prescott P4 3.0E at 3905 Mhz--2 WD 250 SATA iHDDs in RAID 0 residing in CoolDrive3 5.25 drivebay heatsinks--Asus QuieTrack DVD/CDROM--Memorex Dual layer DVD/CDRW--ATI AIW 9600 (passive HS).
The watercooling parts I have bought and paid for are: G4 block as put in produciton by SwifTech; an AquaXtreme 50Z-DC12 from CoolTechnia; and a Black Ice 80mm Micro LE (rated for 275 watts).
My objectives are to have an even quieter PC than aircooling can provide and to lower and stabilize the CPU temperature so I can push my processor past 3905 Mhz. In addition I hope to learn as much as possible doing it by experimenting with different configurations.
Am I in the right place?
The first iteration will be a simple CPU loop. I want to get familiar with what the loop will handle--and experiment with different coolants before further iterations.
I could easily modify the Lian Li case for ducted flow to an external rear-mounted radiator. I think space requirements for the pump and resevoir will be no problem; the 500 gig RAID array lives in 2 5.25 Bays above the Opticals leaving the HDD bay empty.
The case is engineered with 1 120mm front intake and 1 80mm rear exhaust with provisions for an 80 mm blowhole. I had considered a top mount or front mount radiator duct box, but without some kind of airflow interior temps would pobably get pretty high.
So I am thinking to mount the radiator over the 80mm rear fanhole (sans fan) and use a 4" PVC elbow as a duct to the side panel where I already have a hole and mount a 120mm Nexus to an acylic 120mm to 92mm adapter I already have in place to push exterior air through the radiator. Externally mounting the radiator with no exposed hoses should work out regarding space requirements. I might put a "crash bar" around the radiator to protect it.
By mounting the radiator to the exterior of the case I hope to lower internal temps somewhat. I will probably fabricate an acrylic resevoir to fit the HDD bay and mount the pump on isolators behind it. I had considered using aluminum for the resevoir as well.
I sure could use some input about this build. I have questions about coolant and loop configuration and hope to learn enough to put it together for optimal results by the time the parts arrive...
Thanks in advance--I've gotten quite a bit from reading posts in this Forum and look forward to the oncoming learning curve.
CyberDruid