First Time Liquid Cooling Questions

[Ostris]

I just got my new case(Kandalf LCS) in yesterday, put it all togeather and seems to work great. Havn't had a chance to install the OS yet though. I have never done any sort of liquid cooling before so this case seemed like a pretty good place to start. However I had some questions about expanding my liquid cooling system. Currently I only have a cpu block and I am not planning on overclocking till I complete my liquid cooling system, so no worries about overclocking yet.

 

Overview of liquid cooling system:

3 x 120mm Radiator

500l/h Pump

350cc Tank

3/8" Tubing

 

For exact specs:

http://thermaltakeusa.com/Product.aspx?C=1...mp;ID=1412#Tab1

 

Questions:

 

I would like to expand my liquid cooling onto both my 9800gtx graphics cards.

-What would be the best water block to use on these cards?

-Is my radiator good enough to cool both cards and the cpu?

-Is the tubing good enough to handle the heating needs?(thicker tubing?)

-Is the pump good enough to handle the heating needs?(higher l/hr?)

-Would it be better to loop the Graphics cards after the processor(one long loop) or use some kind of splitter from the tank and into the radiator and put the GPU and processor on seperate loops?

-Would I need to change equipment for either of those plans?(new pump, tubing, tank?)

-What would be the best equipment to get to make either of these plans doable.

 

I was also thinking of expanding the cooling system to the motherboard. However, this is something I am not in a rush to do so don't really need to much info on it. However, if your bored feel free to answer the same questions for cooling the motherboard as the graphics cards above. Keep in mind that my priority is CPU, Graphics Cards then motherboard so if I cool the motherboard the CPU and Graphics Cards will also already be on the cooling loop.

 

 

Thanks in advance for any advice offered. I'm really new to all this stuff so all advice is appreciated.

Edited April 1, 2009 by Ostris

[Verran]

If you want to add two video cards to this mix, you're probably going to need a new pump. I would also be skeptical that the included radiator is up to the task. I think what you'll find with some testing is that those pre-packaged Tt water kits are not that much better than good air cooling. If you start upgrading that kit, you're going to end up replacing all of it because none of it is really top-end stuff.

 

You'll get a new pump, then a new radiator, then you'll want to go to 1/2" tubing to take advantage of that new pump so you'll probably get a new CPU block and next thing you know there's nothing left of the Tt kit except maybe the reservoir.

 

Since you already own it, just take the Tt cooler for what it is. If you want anything more than that, I would seriously consider just replacing it entirely.