Closed Watercooling Loop Setup

:: Closed Watercooling Loop Setup - How To ::

This is my latest watercooling setup and I just happened to have a digicam handy so I decided to make a bit of a tutorial with pics on how to setup a closed loop system. Hope it's of some help to people just getting into watercooling.

To start off with you have to have all your bits and pieces :) This is my second setup and I'm using a Cascade CPU block, Swiftech MCW50 GPU block, a 1998 Camry heatercore I got from the wreckers, my Heto 3800 pump I modded to use inline and my new Clearflex 60 tubing and some hoseclamps.

All my bits and pieces.

Next, you need to setup all you bits inside you case, then measure how much tubing you need to connect it all up and cut sufficient lengths of tubing.

Once you have your tubing all ready you can then start connecting up all your bits and pieces outside the case leave the inlet of the pump not connected or else you won't be able to fill it :p

My setup together.

After that you need to get a clean bucket, and fill it with your desired liquid mix you are going to run in your system. For mine I am running de-mineralised water mixed with some of my homemade UV reactive highlighter solution.

Setup ready to go in the bucket.

Next put the pump into the solution and "prime" it which means to have it submerged or have liquid drawn up into the impeller chamber. If you want to get liquid up into it, get the other end of the tubing and suck away :)

Then power on the pump and it will fill up the system, next you have to "bleed" the system which means to remove all air bubbles from the loop. This is done over an hour or more usually to be sure all the air is out. Just leave the pump running and come by every now ant then and give each waterblock and radiator a shake to get any loose bubbles out. Bubbles can sometimes cling to the edges of the tubing and around the ends of the barbs, I found the best way to dislodge them is to grab a dinner knife or screwdriver and give the tubing a wack where the bubbles are with the handle of either implement. While bleeding dust can gather on the water and get sucked into the loop which is bad if you are running impingent blocks with small channels and jets, to remedy this I put some gladwrap over the top of the bucket to try and keep the dust out.

My system bleeding in my bucket.

These impingent blocks sure cut your flow! Still quite good though.

Once you are happy that all the bubbles are out you have to connect up the tubing to the pump intake barb. For this step make sure you do this totally submerged or air will get in! Basically put your hands into the bucket underwater and slip the hoseclamp onto the tubing, connect it up and tighten the clamp up still underwater with a screwdriver.

Next pull the loop out of your bucket and dry it off especially around all the barbs and connections. Put it on a towel or some absorbent paper. Its now leak testing time! It's a good idea to do this overnight or something, give the system plenty of time to show any signs of leaking. If any air bubbles appear or you can actually see liquid dripping out or some sign of it dripping onto the towel or paper then you have some problems. If you can identify the place where its leaking fix it then re-bleed the system and leak test it again. If its all good then you are in luck and can move on!

My loop leak testing on a towel.

Once you have your system all leak free it's time to install it into you case. This will vary from case to case of course so get it in however you do it, connect it all up and then you are done. For mine I have to drop all the blocks and pumps down through the middle hole in my HQ08 and slot the radiator into the top CD-ROM bay.

Installing watercooling loop into my case.

Screw down all the waterblocks and connect up all the bits and peripherals and get it ready to go. I found connecting up the GPU block to the videocard and slotting that in first then doing the CPU block was the easiest way to do it. Now is a good time to double or even triple check everything just to be sure, a few more minutes is certainly warranted in my opinion when you are playing with a few hundred dollars worth of computer equipment! Once you are absolutely sure everything is cool, turn the pump on and then the moment of truth, hit the power button and jump into BIOS. Sit there for a few minutes watching the temperature in the PC Health bit. Once its stabilized and its all good, boot into windows and go about your business, or get those clocks cranking and make use of you new cooling solution or just sit back and admire your handywork!

Block secured to CPU and GPU

Finished product :)

Hopefully this will be useful for some new watercoolers in helping setup their system, I know for a fact it was a rather big leap jumping from air to water. So remember triple check everything and take your time and everything will be fine. In reality a quality, well setup watercooling system is less likely to fail than an air cooling system, just remember pumps have a lower failure rate than fans do ;)

Good luck to all you new watercoolers making the jump!