Thank you! The Fractal Torrent is a really sexy case and I had to work hard to maintain the two 180 mm fans at the front that I love so much, literally cutting into it. :D
Loop order in a custom water loop doesn't matter. I guess that's something I could've added to the initial post. Maybe I'll do an addendum section.
The water within it moves too fast, at best assembling the loop in an "ideal" order of rads following components buys you maybe 1 to 2 °C. I think people often equate a custom PC water cooling loop to a car engine but they aren't really comparable because the temp delta in a PC is much smaller and as such the order matters much less.
If your water is over 50°C your loop is already running extremely hot and you're likely missing rads. The actual temperature differences are too small for order to be significant.
If I could exemplary a post, I would! This is a great overview.
It’s surprisingly tricky to get consistent information on custom loops if you haven’t built one before because the wider internet has a lot of info that’s being parroted from the much jankier setups of 10-20 years ago and either isn’t relevant any more or we’ve just collectively learned more and realised it wasn’t the best advice even then.
I’ll throw in a couple that I’ve learned along the way:
If you’re using a D5 pump, you probably don’t need to worry about flow rate. They can push through five blocks and 20 quick disconnects at 70% power no problem, but I see a fair number of people worrying that even a single minor restriction in a normal one or two block loop might cause problems.
As long as you don’t mix materials with vastly different galvanic potential (i.e. don’t put aluminium in your loop), corrosion inhibitors are mostly for aesthetics. Most loops will have at least a couple of different metals (copper, nickel, brass, maybe stainless steel), so there will be some galvanic reaction - it almost definitely won’t burn through any functional parts, even over years, but it will leave a visible patina on shiny surfaces almost instantaneously. Inhibitors keep everything looking fresh and new (which is a totally legitimate reason to use them in the loop you’ve just spent hundreds on!), but they won’t stop functional corrosion with aluminium unless you use a terrifying concentration (which I’ve heard some AIOs actually do), and they’re almost never a strict necessity if you’ve got a loop with the other standard metals.
Some premix fluids are nasty. I was getting blinding headaches after filling a loop with Aquatuning’s own brand stuff, turns out that’s a known possible side effect on the MSDS for one of the ingredients.
If you’re going DIY fluid, distilled water with a tiny concentration (as in, parts per million) of cheap benzalkonium chloride is plenty to keep things clean and flowing. You can use that as-is, or add inhibitors or other additives from there if you like, and it lets you keep a closer eye on what you’ll be working with if that’s something that concerns you.
If you’re using a D5 pump, you probably don’t need to worry about flow rate. They can push through five blocks and 20 quick disconnects at 70% power no problem, but I see a fair number of people worrying that even a single minor restriction in a normal one or two block loop might cause problems.
This is very useful to me because since I need to pull apart my system anyway again to fix my GPU, I plan to put in 3 quick disconnects around the cpu and gpu to make future upgrades easier. I mean, with the rubber standoffs, my D5 pump can run at 100% no problem and it's still completely silent, so I don't mind much either way.
Nice! Quick disconnects are incredibly worthwhile IMO, being able to isolate a component or part of the loop in the same way you'd unplug a power connector makes a huge difference to how likely you are (or at least I am) to actually bother fixing and maintaining things.
The example wasn't hyperbole BTW, I do literally have that many blocks & disconnects in a single loop (server build) that I was expecting to need to pair with a more powerful industrial pump or multiple D5s - tested it with a single D5 to get a baseline and it's been running fine for over a year at this point, those things have way more headroom than any of the conversation I've seen elsewhere would suggest.
Strong recommend on Koolance QD3s, too, which I imagine you'll have seen mentioned basically everywhere. They really are built like they're designed to be the last line of defence sealing out a submarine hatch or something. Admittedly they're priced to match, but against the cost of components you really don't want water leaking onto I figure it makes sense. And their customer service team literally got someone at the factory in Korea to go out and Fedex an order to me directly when they were having freight issues, which got them a place on my vanishingly short "will shill for free on unrelated internet forums" list!
Honestly I had no idea either before I tried it - that's partly why I figured it was worth getting the info down somewhere searchable. You're welcome, random person desperate enough to go to the seventh page of google in 2032 ;)
And yeah, like 80% of my parts are Alphacool too and I've never had a problem there, so with you on that decision!
Not that Im going to do this, but I thought galvanic corrosion only happened when metals had an electrical connection, something cooling liquid tries very hard to avoid? If your using soft tubing as well, wouldn't that remove all electrical connection, preventing corrosion? (Not an expert here, asking what part I have wrong in my mental model rather than asserting that you are wrong.)
caliper | 21 hours ago
Pics or it didn’t happen!
[OP] Grzmot | 19 hours ago
Sure!
I haven't taken one in it's completely assembled state, but here it was nearly done and running:
https://u.cubeupload.com/monarch/signal20260514174420.jpeg
https://u.cubeupload.com/monarch/d60signal20260514174420.jpeg
Just imagine a big glass side panel and on the top a simple plastic covering. The case in question is the Fractal Torrent: https://www.fractal-design.com/app/uploads/2021/07/Torrent_Black_RGB_TGL_16-Left-Front-Above-810x810.jpg
I guess my WIP pics actually show where I had to cut into the case to make the front rad fit! :D
caliper | 18 hours ago
Really cool!
[OP] Grzmot | 17 hours ago
Thank you! :3
Deely | 3 hours ago
Oh, I really love how it looks! Big glass side panel is a must, yes.
[OP] Grzmot | 2 hours ago
Thank you! The Fractal Torrent is a really sexy case and I had to work hard to maintain the two 180 mm fans at the front that I love so much, literally cutting into it. :D
streblo | 5 hours ago
Just curious, how come you go block -> block -> rad -> rad -> pump?
I guess that setup gives you the biggest thermal delta on the GPU?
[OP] Grzmot | 2 hours ago
Loop order in a custom water loop doesn't matter. I guess that's something I could've added to the initial post. Maybe I'll do an addendum section.
The water within it moves too fast, at best assembling the loop in an "ideal" order of rads following components buys you maybe 1 to 2 °C. I think people often equate a custom PC water cooling loop to a car engine but they aren't really comparable because the temp delta in a PC is much smaller and as such the order matters much less.
If your water is over 50°C your loop is already running extremely hot and you're likely missing rads. The actual temperature differences are too small for order to be significant.
Greg | 16 hours ago
If I could exemplary a post, I would! This is a great overview.
It’s surprisingly tricky to get consistent information on custom loops if you haven’t built one before because the wider internet has a lot of info that’s being parroted from the much jankier setups of 10-20 years ago and either isn’t relevant any more or we’ve just collectively learned more and realised it wasn’t the best advice even then.
I’ll throw in a couple that I’ve learned along the way:
[OP] Grzmot | 13 hours ago
This is very useful to me because since I need to pull apart my system anyway again to fix my GPU, I plan to put in 3 quick disconnects around the cpu and gpu to make future upgrades easier. I mean, with the rubber standoffs, my D5 pump can run at 100% no problem and it's still completely silent, so I don't mind much either way.
Greg | 12 hours ago
Nice! Quick disconnects are incredibly worthwhile IMO, being able to isolate a component or part of the loop in the same way you'd unplug a power connector makes a huge difference to how likely you are (or at least I am) to actually bother fixing and maintaining things.
The example wasn't hyperbole BTW, I do literally have that many blocks & disconnects in a single loop (server build) that I was expecting to need to pair with a more powerful industrial pump or multiple D5s - tested it with a single D5 to get a baseline and it's been running fine for over a year at this point, those things have way more headroom than any of the conversation I've seen elsewhere would suggest.
Strong recommend on Koolance QD3s, too, which I imagine you'll have seen mentioned basically everywhere. They really are built like they're designed to be the last line of defence sealing out a submarine hatch or something. Admittedly they're priced to match, but against the cost of components you really don't want water leaking onto I figure it makes sense. And their customer service team literally got someone at the factory in Korea to go out and Fedex an order to me directly when they were having freight issues, which got them a place on my vanishingly short "will shill for free on unrelated internet forums" list!
[OP] Grzmot | 5 hours ago
Oh that's sick as fuck! I just went with a pump reservoir combo. No clue D5s were this strong.
Personally I went with Alphacool, they seem to have a fine reputation, but I'll keep Koolance in mind if I need more stuff.
Hopefully at this point I don't though. I've spent so much money. 💀
Greg | 47 minutes ago
Honestly I had no idea either before I tried it - that's partly why I figured it was worth getting the info down somewhere searchable. You're welcome, random person desperate enough to go to the seventh page of google in 2032 ;)
And yeah, like 80% of my parts are Alphacool too and I've never had a problem there, so with you on that decision!
goose | 21 hours ago
Care to share any pictures of your hard work?
[OP] Grzmot | 19 hours ago
Of course, idk why silly me didn't do so in the first place. I shared pics of the (almost) assembled build in my response here: https://tildes.net/~comp/1u6h/what_i_learned_building_my_first_custom_water_loop#comment-hvoe
Toric | 2 hours ago
Not that Im going to do this, but I thought galvanic corrosion only happened when metals had an electrical connection, something cooling liquid tries very hard to avoid? If your using soft tubing as well, wouldn't that remove all electrical connection, preventing corrosion? (Not an expert here, asking what part I have wrong in my mental model rather than asserting that you are wrong.)
[OP] Grzmot | 2 hours ago
Not an expert either, it's just common advice to not mix the two because of galvanic corrosion. I guess the electrical charge is optional?