Construction on the new PC has begun! Though I’m still missing the primary parts (motherboard, CPU, and RAM) as those still haven’t been released (the current rumor is November 14 for the new LGA 2011 CPUs and X79 motherboards) I can get started on some of the basics, such as installing the radiators, fans, and the fan controller.
Preparing the Case
The first thing I did was to strip everything I could off of my case: fans, drive cradles, top cover, front cover, and the sides in order to make it easier to work with. I then installed an old ATX motherboard I had lying around so I could verify clearances on the top with the radiators and fans.
After this I test fit the radiators and fans to make sure everything fit and to make sure I had enough clearance at the top for the motherboard. Because of how tight the 200mm radiator fit (it is placed towards the rear of the case, behind the 140mm radiator) and because of where its fan ends up it ended up covering the slot at the top of the case that was designed for to route wires behind the motherboard tray. To allow me to route wires behind there I ended up cutting a new slot in the upper rear of the case (you can see it in the first image above). I also had to cut some slots in the back part of the 5 1/4” drive bay so I would have enough places to run all of the fan cables and sensor cables for the fan controller. Finally, after some careful measuring I drilled mounting holes for the radiators in the top of the case.
After all this was done I remounted the radiators and fans to make sure everything fit and the holes were in the proper place, you can see the radiators installed below. The 200mm radiator is the rear one and the 140mm radiator sits in front (and actually extends into the 5 1/4” drive bay, I had to cut off a couple of the support guides intended to hold drives so I could fit the radiator into the case). You can also see the the 140mm radiator is deeper than the 200mm radiator. Currently I only have one fan mounted on each radiator in a “push” configuration, I am hoping that is enough for my needs. If not I do have room to mount an additional fan for each radiator on top, under the top case cover, to give me a “push-pull” configuration and improve airflow.
The Aquaero 5 Fan Controller
Last time I mentioned that I was planning to use the Aquaero 5 fan controller. This controller does just about anything you could want for controlling a cooling system, and is expandable as well – I am adding 3 PowerAdjust 2 USB modules to the system to give me even more inputs and outputs. All told I have 7 fan (or pump) outputs that can be voltage controlled (the voltage is adjustable), 13 temperature inputs, 4 flow meter inputs, a relay output, 2 PWM outputs, and a bunch of stuff I’m forgetting.
Yes, this probably seems like overkill but I have decided to use this for the following reasons:
- As I’ve previously stated this is my first water-cooled PC so I don’t have a lot of experience. Having all the monitoring of water, air, and system temperatures and flow rates will allow me to see exactly how well the system is performing, as well as be able to objectively and accurately determine the effect any changes have (changing fan / pump speeds, adding fans if needed, etc.)
- The Aquaero 5 allows me to set control curves, target temperatures, and so on. This will allow me to run components at less that maximum speed and power, especially when the system is under a reduced load. This will make the system quieter.
- It just looks cool!
So, after installing the radiators and their fans I installed the rest of the case fans (one 200mm inlet in the front, one 200mm inlet on the side, and a 140mm exhaust in the back) as well as the Aquaero unit and PowerAdjust units. This allowed me to route the fan cables to the controller (and to size and make a couple extension cables for the rear and side fans). I also fashioned a couple power harnesses (one for the Aquaero and one for the PowerAdjusts) as well as some communication cables to connect the PowerAdjust units to the Aquaero itself.
Once I had all these installed I set the power supply into place in the case and using a jumper in the included ATX motherboard cable I turned it on. I plugged in my power harnesses for the controllers, verified the voltages with a digital voltmeter, turned the power supply back off, and then plugged in the controllers. I then turned the power supply back on and got to see the fans and controllers working for the first time!
As you can see I’m using blue LED fans for the 3 case fans. I haven’t decided if those will stay or not but they give nice illumination for now.
My first impression with the fans and power supply running was very positive. The power supply is literally inaudible right now (though it has no effective load on it either) and even with all the fans at full power the overall sound level was very quiet, no louder than my current main PC is when loaded. As I expected the Silverstone fan on the 200mm radiator was the loudest though turning it down to 75% power really reduces its overall volume (and even at full power it was quieter than I expected).
Of course I don’t have the pump installed and running yet, that will add some overall noise to the system when I do but overall I am pleased with the low noise levels so far.
Up Next
Next, while still waiting for the motherboard and CPU, I will be mounting the waterblock to the 570GTX video card I have to get it ready. I will also finish sleeving the temperature and flow sensors I have (most of those are done already) and be on the lookout for a SSD for the system. I’ve decided I will probably use a SSD for the OS boot drive and the HDD RAID array as data disks. I also need to finalize the mounting of the pump and decide what to do about the LED lighting for the pump top and water reservoir.
Stay tuned, I will post more as more pieces fall into place!