I'm currently thinking through building my first watercooled PC to replace my current air cooled one, so if anyone could take a look at this and let me know what they think it would be appreciated.
I probably won't build this for 6 months or so (after I graduate and get a job!).
The main reason for watercooling is that I think getting really silent air cooling is going to be more and more difficult in future. As a result, I'm not really thinking in performance terms, but in accoustic terms in designing this system.
The basis of the plan is to watercool the CPU, Graphics card and Chipset. The radiator will be at the front of the case (behind a very un-restrictive front inlet), and a duct behind the radiator will suck air through it to a 120mm fan mounted on the floor, blowing air out of the bottom of the case. This is both for looks reasons (keep the back of the PC clear, not cut up the sides while evacuating hot air from the case), and so that any noise from the fan is at least slightly muffled by the carpet.
The main reason to dump the warmed air out of the case is that I intend to use one of the ultra-quiet thermally controlled power supplies, which often ramp up if the case temperature rises.
I would be reckoning on getting a 30cfm air flow from a quiet fan through the radiator - giving something like a 10 deg C rise in air temperature at full load, 1 deg C at idle.
I'm currently thinking of using an AquaTube reservoir mounted in the top surface of the case - I just think it looks superb, and would fit well with my plan to have an aluminium case.
Current thinking on the pump is to use an Eheim 1048 - from what I have read so far, this seems to be the largest pump that could truly be called silent. The idea is to run it off a relay so that it is totally silent (off!) when the computer is off, but I can't forget to turn it on.
The waterblocks is the area I am most unsure in, although I suspect for a system like this it may not be critically important. My current thinking for the CPU is to use a DangerDen RBX, with the GPU and Chipset each being cooled by one of the outlets.
I'm guessing that the best arrangement for flow/cooling is:
Pump -> Radiator -> CPU -> GPU/Chipset -> Reservoir -> Pump
I've got quite a few questions though:
1) What would be the typical effect on the amount of air pushed by a fan of putting a radiator in front of it?
2) Are there any brands of fan that seem to be partcularly quiet when coupled to a radiator? Conversely, are there any that are good normally, but make a racket when attached to a radiator.
3) Is the 1048 the best pump for the job, or are there others that are noticeably quieter?
4) Is it worth fitting a special valve in the base of the system when the time comes to drain it and change the coolant, or is this not a problem?
5) Are there any major problems with running the GPU/Chipset in paralell?
6) How much difference is there between waterblocks for this sort of application?
7) Is the water flow sequence the right way around? I've seen a lot of photos of systems where the pump seems to pump straight to the reservoir, but surely this wastes most of the pump head?
I'm trying to figure out all potential problems out in advance - it's far more fun than doing "flow induced sound and vibration" problems
Thanks - Paul F