We are a team of two watercooling enthusiasts from Switzerland, our names are Archangel and Monk-Trader. This is our first English thread here in this community, the other build log for our "Red Devil"-project is in German. But nonetheless, we are happy if you take a look at it… The name of our team is the German word "hitzestau", which means "heat accumulation". And that’s exactly what we are trying to avoid in our computers. Therefore, we started to attack all heat spots inside a computer case. That's how we started to build our first water-cooled rig last year.

The project we are starting today picks up right where we finished last year. We go back to our roots, because it's time for a complete overhaul of the case and the hardware: Therefore, the project is called "hitzestau one reloaded".

Project Idea
We want to keep the case (a Lian Li V2110), because we like its simple style. For designing purposes, Monk-Trader from our team has transferred the entire case into a 3D-file for working with SketchUp. Even if it is not accurate to the last fraction of an inch, you can clearly see how we imagine our idea for the case modding:



Click here for full screen view

The PC should be recognizable as a water-cooled PC at first sight. Therefore, we have put the reservoir in a prominent position at the front. We now use a aqualis XT from Aqua Computer. The reservoir (previously: EK multi option res X2 250 Advanced) moves from its original location between the mainboard and the 5.25-inch drive bays to the front so that it is visible from the outside. Since we want to have more depth available for the GPU(s), the reservoir no longer fits in at its old location. You can see many great stealth mods out there, that also look cool. But with this construction however, we just wanted to go in a different direction and use the space of the drive bays for something else.



Click here for full screen view


The aquaero is directly below the reservoir. The whole 5.25 inch drive cage is removed and completely re-designed and built from scratch. The back will be perforated to ensure air circulation to the back of the case and it also fits well with the Lian Li-style. At the bottom around the reservoir, we plan a circle of plexi LED lights. In the front, there is space for three poweradjusts, two for the pumps and one for the fans on the MO-RA, our external radiator.

The centre tray, through which we drilled pretty heavily for our first watercooling, is replaced and converted into a cable conduit. Next to the PSU, there will also be a cable conduit. This allows us to let pretty much disappear all the cables inside the case.

The second major change concerns to the colour scheme. Here, we want to work with stain colours. The case is white on the outside, the interior is black / anthracite grey. Together with the hardware, this results in a red-black colour setting for the interior. We have chosen white, because we wanted a change after all these years. A dark interior black fits better with the components and the cables. In addition, the mainboard is to be visible through a side window.

The element of the aqualis mount and the front panel consists of three separate parts, as you can see below. The aqualis is standing on the bottom plate and is screwed in.




Click here for full screen view




Click here for full screen view

Hardware and watercooling
We are still putting together the hardware for the project. The board in the draft is just a placeholder, but we are planning with a ROG mainboard from ASUS. From the old system, we continue to use the MO-RA3 as an external radiator. The MO-RA has proven its value and its cooling capacity is sufficient for the new system. In the coming weeks, we will also be busy with the additional watercooling hardware and the tubing of the system.

Call to the Community
Our design is not carved in stone. In order to bring the project forward and to begin the case modifications, we ask for your opinion on our new design. Tell us what you like best. As with the "Red Devil" project, we are looking for people who want to help us improving the design further and building the whole thing eventually.


Besucht auch unseren Blog:
www.hitzestau.com/

Sounds like a really interesting project I'm more than happy to follow your posts!

I'm a big fan of the Aqua Computer parts! The new Aqualis res is amazing and I really like how you are featuring it prominently in the front of the case...Should be a fun build to follow!

Very nice project and thx for using english!

@LRT: Thanks, I hope we also have fun building it Are you using Aquacomputer parts yourself?

@LucaRocchi: well, we trying our very best here.



Besucht auch unseren Blog:
www.hitzestau.com/

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Finally, you guys are getting some more response here in English

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I've used several Aquacomputer parts through the years. My current build uses an AQ5. My next full size build will be using a lot more of their parts though...

We already introduced our project "hitzestau one reloaded" a couple of weeks ago. Since then, not much has been going forward to be honest. Nevertheless, we have something new to share with you today: Our first own benchtable is part of the "hitzestau one reloaded" project. From our first watercooling system "hitzestau one" we are using some hardware components: the Aquaero, a flow meter, the CPU block and the GPU including the waterblock. In addition, the benchtable serves as a temporary PC for Monk-Trader, until we have the entire new hardware in place.

Some pieces are already here, including the motherboard (ASUS Maximus Extreme VI) and a temporary case (BitFenix Shinobi XL).

Thus, the benchtable also means saying farewell to our first watercooling system "hitzestau one", which has been running since summer last year without major problems for many hours per day. Therefore, we take the opportunity to share with you a few "farewell pictures", just as the system looked like before dismantling, i.e. including all the dust:































But let’s focus on the benchtable: In this and the following posts, we will walk you through our steps in assembling the benchtable system.


Preparations
The last couple of weeks, we invested a lot of time for preparing everything. That is why there hasn’t been that much new content on the blog. Beginning during our blog holidays, we photographed all hardware components, since we need product images for the reviews later. We will review all major hardware components separately, including the benchtable case itself.

We also had to cope with some delays, as we actually wanted to assemble the system much earlier. We initially planned the entire watercooling system based on 19/13 tubes with corresponding Monsoon fittings, because at the time of our initial ordering at Aquatuning, 16/10-tubes were not available. During one of our photo shootings, we realized that there was a problem: The Monsoon fittings did not suit on some of our waterblocks, because they were too large. That meant a new order from Aquatuning, this time with 16/10 tubes, that were in stock again and barbed fittings (Perfect Seal), like the ones we had already used in our first project "hitzestau one".













It also took us a few visits to the local hardware store: Among other things, we needed screws, different tools and some cheap tubes for cleaning purposes. To the delight of our neighbours, we also purchased a compressor that will allow us to clean radiators, fans and other components more easily in the future.

Just when the new parts from Aquatuning had arrived, Monk-Trader became sick. When he finally got better and his frustration level had gone up accordingly, we decided to put everything else on hold for a few days and focus on the benchtable.

During our photo sessions, we also installed some hardware components for testing purposes. One question that came up was how to properly install the Aquaero. The benchtable has a triple 5.25 inch drive bay. With the dual 5.25 bay reservoir, it already seemed too cramped, since we wanted easy access to both the reservoir and the Aquaero. Therefore we needed another solution, this was one idea we came up with:




We will show you our actual solution in a later post.
So, last week we finally assembled our bench system.


Our hardware
The system is currently based on the following hardware:
Case: Phobya WaCoolT Benchtable Black (Aluminium Edition)
MB: ASUS Maximus V Extreme
CPU: Intel Core i7 3770K, 3.5GHz
GPU: Gainward GTX-570 Phantom
RAM: HyperX Beast, 2400MHz, 32GB
PSU: Enermax Platimax 1200 W
SSD: Samsung 830 Pro 512 GB

Pump: Laing DDC 12V 1T Plus
Reservoir: Phobya 5.25" Dual Bay Reservoir Black
Radiator: (2 Stück) Alphacool NexXxoS UT60 Full Copper 360m
Fans: Noiseblocker NB-eLoop B12-2 Bionic
CPU Block: HEATKILLER CPU Rev3.0 1155/1156 Ni-BL + Backplate
GPU Block: EK-FC5X0 GTX GW
Flow measure: Aquacomputer mps flow 200 / Aquacomputer Durchflusssensor "high flow"
Fan control: Aquacomputer Aquaero 5 Pro
Tube: Masterkleer 16/10 transparent
Fittings: Perfect Seal Black
Quick Disconnect Coupling: Koolance 16/10 QD3 Black

We also integrated our reliable MORA 3 as an additional radiator.


What the benchtable means for us
It has been our goal for some time now to have a separate testing system. For our blog, we want to produce more watercooling content in the future, i.e. product presentations and reviews. And for our two projects "Red Devil" and "hitzestau one reloaded" we want to select and test the watercooling components. The benchtable gives us more freedom for testing hardware components.

Next, we show you the dismantling of "hitzestau one" and the careful cleaning of all components.


At this point, we also like to thank our supporters: Aquatuning, Intel, ASUS, Kingston, Enermax


Besucht auch unseren Blog:
www.hitzestau.com/

Nice. Now all we need are moooooooore pics

We finally got started. This also meant to say goodbye to our first watercooling system "hitzestau one". In a sense, it was a double premiere: It was our first dismantling of a watercooling rig and it was after all, our very first watercooling system. The big question was how the watercooling components would look like after over one year in operation?


Emptying the watercooling loop
But first things first: Here we have already taken the MORA down from the wall and disconnected it from the rest of the loop with the quick-release couplings.




To remove the liquid from the PC loop and the MORA, we used a compressor with a standard air blow gun.




The threads of the compressor gun are G 1/4, exactly the same size as those of the fittings.




We screwed a Prefect Seal fitting directly to the air blow gun und attached a tube to it. We used the quick-release couplings to connect the tube to the loop of the PC and the MORA.







If you empty a watercooling loop or a radiator this way, you must be very careful. The compressor should be set only a low pressure and the handle of the air blow gun should be released cautiously. We ran the watercooling liquid into a special canister, because it contains toxic substances that should not be emptied into the kitchen sink!


Dismantling "hitzestau one"
After that, we removed all the watercooling components and all the hardware step-by-step.








Cleaning the watercooling components
And then it was already time for the cleaning of all components. Our plan was to continue to use the CPU waterblock, the GPU with its waterblock attached and the MORA. The new components had to be cleaned as well, before we could rig them to the benchtable.

From our experience, the cleaning of all components is something very important, when you build a new watercooling rig. The fabrication can leave grease and metal residue inside the components. These must be removed first. If this residue mixes with the cooling liquid inside the loop, it can damage a waterblock or another component. In addition, it can also slow down the flow.

If you use to a cleaning agent that is to aggressive, you can do a lot of damage. We made this unpleasant experience last year: We cleaned a GPU block with cleaning vinegar and citric acid. The result were rusty screws and the inside of the block looked like this:




Therefore, we decided to do a rather simple job this time. We flushed the radiators with a mixture of water and Cillit Bang, for all other components, we used dishwashing liquid.


How did we proceeded exactly?
1. Rinsing with tap water. With a coupling from the Gardena system, we connect a tube directly to the tap of the bathtub. With a sequence of hot / cold and high / low pressure, a water block or a radiator is flushed for several minutes. In the case of the GPU and the waterblock, we decided not to take it apart for cleaning and wrapped it with plastic to protect it from splash water.




This was not only meant to protect the electronic circuits. The outside of the waterblock should not get wet, as we had problems with corroding screws last year, as mentioned above.




We also saw no reason to open the sealed block since the open CPU block had looked very clean as you can see below. It would also have meant to separate the GPU from the waterblock and to reassemble them again later.

The new radiators from Alphacool were cleaning accordingly.




2. Detergent. To press a mixture of detergent and water into a radiator or a water block, we revived a proven method from last year. With a pressure spray bottle, normally used for insect repellent, we rinse through the components under pressure and let it take effect for a few minutes. Here you can see our setup with the MORA as an example:




3. Rinsing with tap water. The detergent is followed by a second rinse with tap water from the tap of the bathtub to remove the remains of the detergent. To loosen any residue, you should let the water run in both directions for a couple of minutes.

4. Rinsing with distilled water: In order to leave no hard water in the components, the cleaning process always ends with distilled water. For this, we use a second spray bottle. For detergent and distilled water, we used two separate spray bottles.

Small components like fittings or the top for the Laing DCC pump were briefly cleaned in a small plastic washbasin with detergent, then rinsed with distilled water and dried.


Only little residue
In the components from the old watercooling rig, we have observed only very little residue. As we already said, we did not open the GPU block, but we did open the CPU block from Watercool. This is how it looked like from the inside after being in operation for 15 months:







Surprisingly little residue in the fins of the copper plate of the CPU block:




Monk-Trader did a great job polishing the copper plate with a special copper polish to make it shiny again. After that, we cleaned the plate with a brush and detergent to remove the residues of the polish. We assembled the block again and subjected it to our cleaning procedure described above. The waterblock also had to proof itself as a fountain:





The MORA and the fans had to be cleaned from all the dust. Unlike in the past we have used our compressor for this for the first time, which made the job much easier.

The cleaning of all components of a watercooling loop prior to the actual assembly takes a lot of time. A good cleaning job can prevent possible problems later on, so there goes our recommendation: Take some time to clean everything thoroughly before you assemble your rig.

When all the components were cleaned and dried, we were ready to start to assemble the benchtable. This is what we are going to show you in the following article.


Besucht auch unseren Blog:
www.hitzestau.com/