Liquid cooler installation help

[BlitzJG]

So I ordered parts for my first-time PC build, and unfortunately my liquid cooling unit is arriving last... now I assume my PC will run fine without it as long as I don't overclock, is there any reason why I should wait before building it? I do plan on overclocking then although I need help doing that as well.

Also all the guides about building a PC I looked at made no mention of additional cooling units so I was hoping someone could point me to one or advise me? Here is my build and I bolded the cooling unit I am getting:

1 Mushkin Enhanced Chronos Deluxe MKNSSDCR120GB-DX 2.5" 120GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

1 Western Digital Caviar Black WD5002AALX 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

1 Corsair Carbide Series 500R Black Steel structure with molded ABS plastic accent pieces ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

1 ASUS P8Z68-V PRO/GEN3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS

1 XFX HD-695X-CNDC Radeon HD 6950 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity

1 Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 3000 ...

1 CORSAIR XMS 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)

1 HP 24X Multiformat DVD Burner Black SATA Model 1270i LightScribe Support

1 CORSAIR H100 (CWCH100) Extreme Performance Liquid CPU Cooler

1 CORSAIR Enthusiast Series TX750 V2 750W ATX12V v2.31/ EPS12V v2.92 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC High Performance Power Supply

 

[Rabbit01]

CPU gets hot while it's running, even when it's not over-clocked. You can use the stock cooler until the H100 arrives. Before replacing the stock cooler w/ the Corsair, you'll need to remove residual thermal compound on the CPU. Looks like the H100 has thermal compound pre-applied.

There's a brief installation video on Corsair's site, have you checked it out?
http://www.corsair.com/hydro-series-h100-extreme-performance-liquid-cpu-cooler.html

 

[raybay]

Thre is no reason to wait, other than the aggravation of installation... some components might have to be removed to do the install, then reinstalled... But it will work fine in the meantime... Sometimes it can be nearly as much work as the original install.

 

[BlitzJG]

Ok so I have the 500r case, and from the really abridged and basic instructions that seem to be in every box I can't figure out how to fit the cooling system in the case. The instructions show the radiator being put inside the case, followed by the fans, being installed on the radiator. With this orientation there is not enough room, the fans are blocked by both the 8 pin power supply to the MB and the RAM sticks...

Now this case has a spot for two fans atop the case, so I am wondering two things, sans the proper hardware, is it just as effective to have the fans on the outside of the radiator rather than on the inside? Or maybe I could put the radiator in the top of the case fan spot, and have the fans in the inside attached to the radiator that way?

Neither of these setups were offered up or demonstrated in either the video or manual so I am skeptical, and the hardware might not allow this...

Please help!

 

[BlitzJG]

nvm, apparently the radiator is supposed to go on top, but that makes connecting it to the case, and then the fans on the inside rather awkward...

 

[Rabbit01]

Found something on Corsair's forum: http://forum.corsair.com/v3/showthread.php?p=543347

 

[BlitzJG]

Great thread, thank you for finding that, here is what I did last night:

Setup One (Pull air from the outside going in)

Grill -----------------------------
Radiator ===================
Case ----------------------------
Fans vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv (arrow is direction of air)



This arrangement was not mentioned in the thread, but someone said that it might not be good because it is sucking in dust... although theoretically isn't any fan moving this direction doing that?

I also have a hard time with knowing whether it is pulling or pushing, is there an easy way to tell or how can I get used to it? I think my rear fan is blowing out ATM, i didn't mess with any of them from how they came

 

[Leeky]

Rear fan will be exhausting, that is the default setting in 90% of cases sold.

Your either going to collect dust from inside the case, or from outside the case heading inside. Having the fans set to intake (e.g. suck outside air into the case) will provide the coolest configuration for your processor. Setting them to exhaust (e.g. suck the hot air inside the case to the outside) will be slightly warmer due to residual heat inside the case from other components.

Either method is fine, but make sure that your component temperatures and airflow does not suffer due to it. I'd also try the fans in the opposite direction to see what difference it makes to temps inside the case. Also, remember your front mounted case fans will already be set to intake air. So ideally you want more than rear fan exhausting to maintain airflow.

I find the best setup with my Corsair cooler is as follows:

1. Front fan intake (I need it to cool my 7 hard disks!)
2. Rear fan with cooler in push/pull exhaust (as I find the temps are like 2-3'C higher than set to intake which is fine)
3. side fans intake (blow air over GPU area)
4. top fans set to exhaust

Push/pull relates to the location of the fans in regards to the radiator. If you one (two for H100) mounted either side of the radiator you are running in push/pull. E.g. one fan pushes air into the radiator, the other pulls it out of the radiator. It goes without saying that both fans should be blowing air in the same direction.

Here is mine fitted to my HAF 912+

 

[Rabbit01]

I also have a hard time with knowing whether it is pulling or pushing, is there an easy way to tell or how can I get used to it? I think my rear fan is blowing out ATM, i didn't mess with any of them from how they came

There should be a small arrow on the fan's body to indicate the direction of air flow.

 

[BlitzJG]

There should be a small arrow on the fan's body to indicate the direction of air flow.

I saw the arrow, there were two, a horizontal and vertical, I'm guessing that refers to the direction of spin and consequently air flow...

So reversing direction of the air would basically require flipping the fans?

It was quite a difficult install because I had everything still put together and it was a really tight spot to get the screws through the fans and screwed into the radiator on the opposite side... couldn't tighten screws with a screwdriver because of the limited space and had trouble lining up the screws with the holes...

How can I tell whether or not my current setup will be sufficient enough in terms of temp and airflow?

I also was interested in overclocking, either or both my CPU and GPU... but my settings are having no problem running TOR on high accross the board as it stands... should I even bother?


Also, Leeky, why so many HDDs?

 

[Leeky]

I saw the arrow, there were two, a horizontal and vertical, I'm guessing that refers to the direction of spin and consequently air flow...

So reversing direction of the air would basically require flipping the fans?

Correct. You flip them around to change the fan flow orientation.

How can I tell whether or not my current setup will be sufficient enough in terms of temp and airflow?

Benchmarking mainly. You will want to check the computer is functioning correcly before overclocking anyway.

Basically it involves downloading temperature monitoring tools (like HWMonitor) and benchmarking/stress testing software (like Prime95, OCCT etc) and then stressing your computer for a predetermined time to see how it handles load in relation to temperature. That's where you will see a difference in temperature with different setups.

I also was interested in overclocking, either or both my CPU and GPU... but my settings are having no problem running TOR on high accross the board as it stands... should I even bother?

If performance is already more than adequate there is no need to overclock in my opinion. Some people do it because they enjoy it, others because the extra performance provides more usability. If your happy now I'd leave it alone tbh.

Also, Leeky, why so many HDDs?

Well my SSD runs W7. I have a WD Black 160GB running Linux, a WD Blue 320GB for my VMs, 1x 1TB Samsung Spinpoint F3 for games and 2x 2TB Samsung Spinpoint F4's in RAID1 for data storage. I also have a 250GB 2.5" I use for storage of source files and backups relating to my Linux install.

I really should hurry up and get my file server running to liberate all these disks as it doesn't help airflow in my case! :haha:

 

[Rabbit01]

More pics: http://forum.corsair.com/v3/showthread.php?t=101060