Filling a monster watercooling loop for PC with 3 radiators! Twin Core P5 gaming PC mod

Link: http://darwinpc.co.uk/build-complete-...

Project p5yche is complete. Thanks to Thermaltake and all the sponsors for inviting me to this competition and making this case mod possible. Project p5yche is a twin Core P5 mod featuring X99, Intel 5820K CPU, SLI ASUS GTX 980 STRIX and 32 GB AVEXIR Blitz memory. All cooled by three huge 480 mm radiators and 24 Riing fans from Thermaltake.

--------- FAQ ---------
- Why not put components in this order within a watercooling loop?
This is something that is oft-repeated, and on the face of it may seem logical. However, order of components makes very little difference to temperature of the coolant at any point in the loop, and therefore to individual component temperatures. The rate of flow in a watercooling loop is so high, that each part of the coolant has very little time to pick up little heat at the heat sources (CPU and GPU) and likewise to lose heat at the radiators. Overall this means there is at most a few °C difference at any point in the loop. In terms of numbers, a 300W GPU would raise the temperature of a litre of water by about 4.5ºC. If a typical loop has a flow rate of 4 litres/min, the coolant would increase by about 1.125ºC after the GPU.
The only important part of loop layout is that the reservoir is immediately before the pump. This is to remove air before coolant reaches the pump, preventing damage from the pump running dry.

- Why construct a serial watercooling loop and not parallel loops?
It is a common misconception that parallel loops perform better than a single, serial loop. Compared to a parallel loop, a serial loop allows the total radiator space to dissipate heat more efficiently, rather than for example having one radiator dissipating 300 watts from a GPU, while another dissipates only 75 watts from a CPU. A serial loop also removes the need for multiple pumps and reservoirs, and allows for a cleaner look, with less tubing.

- Why have two pumps in serial?
Having two pumps in serial gives a higher pressure in the loop, which is good for moving coolant around a large loop. Also, with two pumps in series, if one pump did fail, it would have redundancy so the loop would continue to flow. Having pumps in parallel would increase the flow rate, rather than the pressure, but with any decent pump, the flow rate is more than adequate already.

- Why keep one reservoir sealed while you fill a dual (serial) reservoir loop?
In a series loop, for filling it is simpler to seal the first reservoir by tightening the fill cap. This means only one reservoir needs to be filled as the coolant is moved into the loop by power cycling the pump(s). Once the loop is full of coolant, both fill caps are tightened, and coolant moves through the whole loop including both reservoirs.

--------- Hardware ---------

CPU: Intel Core i7-5820K 3.3GHz 6-Core
Motherboard: Asus SABERTOOTH X99 ATX LGA2011-3
Memory: Avexir Blitz 1.1 - 32GB (8x 4GB) DDR4-2400Mhz
Storage: Samsung 850 Pro Series 512GB 2.5" Solid State Drive
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 980 4GB STRIX
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 980 4GB STRIX
Case: Thermaltake Core P5 (2x)
PSU: Thermaltake Toughpower DPS G RGB 1250W Titanium
Cables: Custom sleeved E22 Teleios

--------- Watercooling ---------

Radiator: Thermaltake Pacific RL480 (3x)
Reservoir: Thermaltake Pacific T33 (2x)
Pump: Thermaltake Pacific P1 Black D5 Pump w/ Silent Kit (2x)
Fittings: Thermaltake Pacific Chrome
Fans: Thermaltake Riing 12 RGB (24x)

--------- Links ---------

Full build logs at Darwin PC - http://darwinpc.co.uk

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