External watercooling benchtable (i7 + 1080)
Posted: Fri Feb 22, 2019 3:17 am
Another iteration of my Lian Li benchtable, this time watercooled.
Idea was to move all noise generating parts away from the pc, and still have hardware exposed for aesthetic purposes.
Big 9x120mm radiator and D5 pump attached to it (all through vibration isolation). Not all fan slots are populated as there is simply no need, pump also can run @ low gear, high flow doesn't really make enough difference to make a difference. Fans (enermax magma), are turned off by default, speedfan launches them based on gpu temp sensor, they operate @650 rpm, and go up with temp increase, but because temp can't really go up past 42-43C on gpu, they just stay at minimum speed.
Radiator is about 3 meters away from PC, and slightly blocked by furniture, from that distance it is completely inaudiable in blind test.
PSU inside case is seasonic fanless.
Of course there is still coil whine during load from pc components, so whole rig isn't entirely silent.
Advantage of that setup is, that it is very easy to clean, as there is no heatsinks and fans on top of bench case. There is no fans to accelerate dust buildup inside heatsinks that are more difficult to clean. Fans mounted on radiator are turned off 99% of the time, there is hardly any dust there, even after almost a year of operation.
Overall I'm really happy with this version. It has all the advantages of watercooling (great temps, possibility scale up radiator size and get away with extremely low fan rpm) and elimiates its flaws (cancels pump noise/vibration by moving it away from the setup, isolating it from the computer case that tends to vibrate, also there is no issue with computer case ruining the airflow for radiator, same surface of radiators, inside of quiet pc case, their performance is greatly diminished by blocked airflow).
And on top of all that I get to see hardware better than in any windowed case, benchtables are impossible to beat in that area, as everything is exposed from every angle. In comparison to same concept but aircooled, this one is also much easier to clean, as you don't need to deal with dense heatsinks being clogged with dust, that you can't really comfortably vacuum without unmounting fans to get better access to heatsinks.
radiator in the background
all pics: https://imgur.com/a/JIGPQka
Idea was to move all noise generating parts away from the pc, and still have hardware exposed for aesthetic purposes.
Big 9x120mm radiator and D5 pump attached to it (all through vibration isolation). Not all fan slots are populated as there is simply no need, pump also can run @ low gear, high flow doesn't really make enough difference to make a difference. Fans (enermax magma), are turned off by default, speedfan launches them based on gpu temp sensor, they operate @650 rpm, and go up with temp increase, but because temp can't really go up past 42-43C on gpu, they just stay at minimum speed.
Radiator is about 3 meters away from PC, and slightly blocked by furniture, from that distance it is completely inaudiable in blind test.
PSU inside case is seasonic fanless.
Of course there is still coil whine during load from pc components, so whole rig isn't entirely silent.
Advantage of that setup is, that it is very easy to clean, as there is no heatsinks and fans on top of bench case. There is no fans to accelerate dust buildup inside heatsinks that are more difficult to clean. Fans mounted on radiator are turned off 99% of the time, there is hardly any dust there, even after almost a year of operation.
Overall I'm really happy with this version. It has all the advantages of watercooling (great temps, possibility scale up radiator size and get away with extremely low fan rpm) and elimiates its flaws (cancels pump noise/vibration by moving it away from the setup, isolating it from the computer case that tends to vibrate, also there is no issue with computer case ruining the airflow for radiator, same surface of radiators, inside of quiet pc case, their performance is greatly diminished by blocked airflow).
And on top of all that I get to see hardware better than in any windowed case, benchtables are impossible to beat in that area, as everything is exposed from every angle. In comparison to same concept but aircooled, this one is also much easier to clean, as you don't need to deal with dense heatsinks being clogged with dust, that you can't really comfortably vacuum without unmounting fans to get better access to heatsinks.
radiator in the background
all pics: https://imgur.com/a/JIGPQka