Getting ready for watercooling

[Baulten]

Okay, so I made a post earlier this summer about getting ready to go water cooling, and things fell through and I had to put it on the back burner till I had the money. Now I do. So, I'll keep this short. Here's the list:

 

Radiator:

Swiftech MCR 320 QP

 

CPU Waterblock:

Watercool HEATKILLER CPU REV3.0 LT

 

Reservoir:

EK-Multioption RES 100mL

 

Pump:

Swiftech MCP655 12VDC Pump

 

Tubing:

10 feet PrimoFlex Pro LRT UV Red Tubing

 

Fittings:

6 Bitspower True Silver 1/2 in Compression Fittings

2 Bitspower Black Sparkle Rotary 90* Fittings

 

Radiator Fans:

Scythe Gentle Typhon 120mm 1850RPM

 

Case:

Corsair Obsidian 800D

 

I'll be using straight up distilled water from Wal-Mart. The fittings are silver plated and seem to be perfectly sufficient for a biocide (talked to people running just four with distilled, I probably don't need 6 but they are SHINY). If anyone knows of some "darker" red tubing I would actually prefer that, but PrimoFlex seems to be the best I can find. The fans come presleeved (going with red sleeving and black heatshrink) from Performance PCs, and I'll eventually be sleeving some cable extensions in red with black heatshrink. The case is not open for change!

 

Seem sufficient to everyone? I'll probably be putting an HD 5870 on it in the future, but I think the radiator will be sufficient; if not, a 140 mm on the back should augment the build nicely I think.

[gotdamojo06]

http://www.frozencpu.com/products/7186/ex-...l?tl=g30c99s172

 

From the pictures this looks like a little darker tubing. I have never used it, so I cannot say anything about the actual color of the tubing nor the UV properties.

 

I love that res, I have the 250ml version and it helps out.

 

Everything else looks pretty good, I have never used the block you are getting, but it should do fine...might want to see what some other people say that have used it first

[Baulten]

I've looked at the Feser tubing, but I don't really like the look. I was hoping to find something as dark as this: http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/ind...oducts_id=23924, but in red. If not it's no big deal; just thought I'd ask in case someone else knew of some.

 

The block is supposedly best on Market, at least for i7, so I can't imagine it being much worse for Phenom II.

[Water_Hazard]

I am using the feser red uv tubing now and it looks ok but it does glow reddish orange. It seems that most red tubing has this problem from the reviews I have read.

[Baulten]

I am using the feser red uv tubing now and it looks ok but it does glow reddish orange. It seems that most red tubing has this problem from the reviews I have read.

 

Mmm, thanks, I was afraid of that. I'll give the Primochill a try and see how it works.

[Puck]

Mmm, thanks, I was afraid of that. I'll give the Primochill a try and see how it works.

Do yourself a favor and save a TON of cash by using the Enzotech Saphhire RevA instead of the heatkiller.

 

On back to back identical loop runs it was 1.2C behind of the copper top HK while being less then HALF the price, and even beats the HK LT and the old top dog Fuzion and its V2 counterpart...which it is very similar to internally except it has 8 outlet paths instead of the fuzions 4, making it the least restrictive block out there - great for adding extra blocks and rads to the loop later on.

 

Awesome waterblock roundup.

 

There is no reason to get anything else considering the GIANT price difference for almost exactly the same performance...barely over 1c difference, and that is an average over three runs to reduce statistical errors.

[Baulten]

Nah, I know that there is quite a price difference. But $65 for the best performing block on the market is a perfectly acceptable investment IMO. I was originally gonna go with the full copper-top version of the Heatkiller, but that was a price I couldn't justify. But the LT is worth it for me. I wouldn't call ~$30 a ton of cash.

 

Plus I really dislike the look of the Enzotech Sapphire. Looks tacky as hell in my opinion.

 

Edit: The LT and LC are different blocks. The only difference between the LT and the copper top version is the material the top is made of. The LC actually has a different interior. The LT and CU versions perform identically.

Edited August 25, 2009 by Baulten

[Puck]

Nah, I know that there is quite a price difference. But $65 for the best performing block on the market is a perfectly acceptable investment IMO. I was originally gonna go with the full copper-top version of the Heatkiller, but that was a price I couldn't justify. But the LT is worth it for me. I wouldn't call ~$30 a ton of cash.

 

Plus I really dislike the look of the Enzotech Sapphire. Looks tacky as hell in my opinion.

 

Edit: The LT and LC are different blocks. The only difference between the LT and the copper top version is the material the top is made of. The LC actually has a different interior. The LT and CU versions perform identically.

The full copper version has slightly more heat absorbing capability even though the internals are identical - the LT is just for "Light", and the LC is the cheap one with different guts. To be precise there was a bigger gap between the LT and regular(1.3C) then there was with the Enzo Saph and the regular(1.2C) ! Not to mention it outflows it by a lot, which will equate to even better temps when you start adding more to the loop like a hot restrictive GPU block.

 

If you want to spend an extra 30 bucks for 1c better temps then by all means go for it, but my point is putting that same 30 bucks into better fans would be much more then 1c difference .

 

Good luck with the build, should be a very quiet WC system with some pretty decent temps .

[Baulten]

Er, if you're talking about the review on XS, they only had the copper top and LC versions; no LT version because it's almost identical to the full copper version*.

 

On the topic of fans, it seems like GentleTyphoons are the preferred fans for quieter systems. I don't really have any desire to invest in noisy 2k RPM + fans like Ultra Kazes, Deltas, etc. My current rig is air cooled with several 30-40 dB fans and to be honest, I want to get away from that. The GTs are 28 dB I think, and I'm sure a little bit higher than that when pushing through a rad.

 

* Yeah, I'm sure the full copper version is slightly better since it would transfer heat all the way into the top, but everywhere I've read says it's negligible. If there is a major difference between the LT and CU versions, I'll go with the full copper for the extra $20, but I don't think that there is. On the i7 waterblock roundup it straight up says:

The reason the HK 3.0 LT is not featured is because it's simply the same as the copper Heatkiller I have already tested. Only the LC version actually has different internals and therefore different performance.

Since i7 and Phenom II both use monolithic quad core designs, results should be about the same.

[Baulten]

All of the items are ordered. Unfortunately the case won't get in till next month, but I thought I'd give you folks an update :thumbs-up: