After the description of our preparation, the goodbye to "hitzestau one" and the cleaning of all components, this is our report of assembling the benchtable system. This last part has become quite extensive and features many pictures. But it would have made no sense to split it up into two parts.

We hope, you enjoy reading it and scrolling down anyway...




First Steps
The very first thing we did, was to assemble and attach the fan mount. This must be done before installing a radiator below, otherwise you won't be able to reach the screws of the fan mount.




The PCI card holder was next.




In the lower level of the benchtable, we started with the PSU.





Installation of the Aquaero
The mounting of the Aquaero had already kept us busy during the preparation. The solution we had come up with was to use a 5.25 bay cover from the old Lian Li case. We drilled the holes into the benchtable case and the bay covers, before we installed the above mentioned parts. After drilling, we carefully cleaned the benchtable.







As you can see, it is easy to plug in cables at the back, while the angled display is well readable from the front.

This is the Benchtable after these first couple of work steps. The mounting plate for the pump is lying where the mainboard will be situated later.





Installation of the radiators
But before starting with the pump, we turned to the two radiators. The benchtable offers no special accessories for mounting radiators.

Included with the Alphacool radiators are the copper-colored screws displayed below. They come in two different lengths (30/35 mm). The Noiseblocker fans had the black screws, flat washers and the rubber buffers included. That was the material we had available. We had already come up with a way to install the radiators during preparation. Here is what we did:




We used the shorter copper colored screws to fasten the left and right fans directly on the radiator. Thereby, the black rubber buffers prevented the screws to slip through the holes of the fans. The longer copper colored screws are too long to be used with 25mm thick fans, they would damage the fins of the radiator.

We used the black screws with the washers to mount the radiator to the benchtable case. Viewed from the side, it looks as shown below. Unfortunately, the positions of the four copper-colored screws do not exactly match up with the holes in the case. The washers are mandatory, so that the screws do not slip through the holes in the side wall.




The black screws are the same length as the longer of the copper-colored ones, but because you have to add the washer and the thickness of the case here, there is no risk of damaging the fins of the radiator. The assembling is best done with a pair of helping hands, since the middle fan is only fixated by the black screws.

The installation of the radiators and the Aquaero are two examples that you always have to look for individual solutions when working with a benchtable.

And it fills up slowly...





Installation of the pump
The pump was bolted directly to the accessory plate for the pump mount. For decoupling, we use decoupling screws from our old system. On the top, there is a Monsoon fitting already in place with a temperature sensor.




In the next picture, you see the pump already installed inside the benchtable. We switched the 45 degree angled fitting with a 90 degree angled fitting to make it easier to connect pump and radiator. We also replaced the angled fitting on the radiator with a standard Perfect Seal fitting. It is quite normal to make changes or improvements while assembling a watercooling rig.




Next, we turned to the cables and the motherboard spacers.





CPU and waterblock
Before we could mount the motherboard on the top of the benchtable, we first had to fit the CPU and its waterblock. In the picture below, you can see the backplate of the CPU cooler. We continue to use the CPU waterblock and its backplate from the old rig, because socket 1156 (old) and socket 1155 (new) are compatible. It is always nice, when you can take over components from an older system. Last year's investment in the CPU waterblock has really proven worthwhile.




The processor and the water block are already coated with thermal grease.




The water block is securely bolted with four screws.




This is another view of the CPU waterblock with the RAM in the foreground.




There is not much room between the audio connectors of the mainboard and the PCI card holder.




Besides the reservoir, everything else is in place now.





Installing the Tubes
For the reservoir, we use the 5.25-inch drive bay, which we still had to mount at the lower level of the benchtable. We did not want to fixate the reservoir, but simply to slide it in or out if necessary. Therefore, we have spread the sides of the drive bay slightly apart, so that the reservoir is not scratched or gets stuck.

Finally, we could start with the tubing. First, we prepared the new tubes and quick-release couplings for the MORA.




Then we continued step by step. Here are some impressions:







The tube between the pump and the radiator is really very short. In the picture you can see that it was better to use a 90 degree fitting on pump top.





Filling and startup
The filling looks a bit adventurous, but was quite simple actually. One reason was the large reservoir, so that we could fill a fairly large amount of liquid. The entire filling took about ten minutes. We made the tubes at the reservoir a little bit longer, so that we can pull it out of the lower level of the benchtable. We lifted up the entire benchtable as you can see below, so that the water could flow into the pump.

For the entire filling process, we connected the pump to an external PSU, so that there was no electricity on the other components. As you can see, we covered all components with paper towel as a precautionary measure.




We continuously poured in water into the reservoir, until the system was full. As usual, there were a lot air bubbles in the loop that we could observe very well thanks to the transparent tube.










After the filling, we put the reservoir back in its place. To prevent vibration and not to put it on the metal directly, we underlayed it with a piece of foam. It took almost two hours until most of the air was out of the loop.

After that, we reconnected the pump to the built-in power supply and started the system. Everything worked right away – the ROG logo appeared on screen. We were pretty relieved.


Subsequent Adjustments
But of course there are still a few details that we want to change and have done so already. The mps flow 200 flowmeter indicates a value of about 190 liters / hour, which startled us a little bit, is this correct? The Aquastream XT in our old rig reached just about 90 liters / hour. Therefore on the following day, we also installed our old flow meter, which indicated only around 160 liters. After asking for some advice in the Aquacomputer forum, we will add a more suitable flow meter in the coming days.

Originally, the pump was connected directly to the PSU and it operated at 4200 rpm (12 V). In order to regulate it, we connected it to a poweradjust instead. Now, it runs at around 3500 rpm (10 V) and is virtually inaudible. The Aquastream XT (4800 rpm at full power) was definitely louder. Nevertheless, the DDC is still quite remarkable: The mps flow meter shows 145 liters per hour, the old flow meter at least 120. In addition, we added an internal USB hub (NZXT IU0) to connect the two flowmeters, the poweradjust and the Aquaero.

What are your experiences with the DDC regarding the flow capacity?

And besides that, there are certainly still a few more improvements to come. One point is the tubing of the two internal radiators. With additional quick-release couplings, we want to ensure that we can remove both radiators from the loop completely, so that we can test additional radiators.








What's next
The project "hitzestau one reloaded" will continue as well, the Shinobi XL from BitFenix is already standing by as a temporary case. Therefore, we will review it in a separate post soon.

And this is where the paths of the benchtable and "hitzestau one reloaded" split up again. With our test system as a basis, we will write our own reviews in the future. The first products will be the benchtable itself and the main components.



Besucht auch unseren Blog:
www.hitzestau.com/

@rewarder: Why no tap water at all? By connecting a radiator or a waterblock directly to the tap, we can produce a lot of pressure to wash out all kinds of residue. And we always finish with destilled water.

We have made very good experiences with this method.


Besucht auch unseren Blog:
www.hitzestau.com/

That's a really nice guid about how to clean a watercooling loop.

Btw. I think I would only do it with distilled water. I wouldn't use tap water at all.

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/

Nice. Now all we need are moooooooore pics

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/

Quote:

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...

Quote:

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

Very nice project and thx for using english!