Disclaimer: This isn't a commercial project so please don't ask me about ROI, build budget etc - I wasn't taking that into consideration at all, just doing it for fun as I like to build stuff. I doubt the money I spent were spent wise LOL. However, I know there are folks around who run watercooled rigs so advice, tips and healthy criticism are always welcome.

It's hot where I live. Hot and humid all year round. So when I saw memory temperatures on my small 3080 rig started climbing up it was time to do something about it. Thermal pads replacement and more fans didn't really help much, cards worked stable but constantly seeing 98-104C temperatures bothered me a lot. Then I bumped into a youtube video where some guy ran 8 or 10 cards rig, watercooled, and was quite happy with results, so that was it, I decided to give it a go.


Major objectives apart from lowering the temps:

- Reliable
- Serviceable and as much modular as I can do, without the need to drain the whole system every time I add or change something.
- Relatively compact
- Ability to move radiators to the outside of the house if I ever decide to do so.

Then I started looking at what's available, I never built custom watercooling loops before. Here's what I ended up buying:

- EK Pro distribution block, https://www.ekwb.com/shop/ek-pro-manifold-2cpu-4gpu-acetal, allows to connect up to 7 cards. I plan to run 6 or 7 3080s in this rig.
- Koolance quick disconnect couplings like this one, https://koolance.com/qd3-ms10x16-bk-quick-disconnect-no-spill-coupling-male-for-10mm-x-16mm-3-8in-x-5-8in-black
- 420mm x 45mm radiator, a friend also gave me another 280mm x 300mm radiator
- Plenty of 140mm fans
- 10x16mm tubing
- XSPC D5 pump with reservoir (also from a friend) plus an XC600 pump as a backup to be connected in series
- Flow indicator, temperature sensor, fittings etc etc.
Sourcing waterblocks was challenging - 3 cards I had in the beginning of this project were all different brands, so I ended up buying 2 EKWB Quantum Vector blocks and a Bitspower one.

Having all that ordered it was time to think of a frame for all this. My usual 20x20 aluminum extrusion rig frames weren't of much use, it would take a lot of effort to mount all the stuff on them, so I ended up looking at wire racks as they give more mounting options. Bought one of those and then designed and 3D printed mounting hardware for it. This is what I came up with -


That's it for now, I started servicing and mounting waterblocks on my cards today, will continue this thread once that is done. As I said before, thoughts, advice etc are welcome.