Water Cooling

[road-runner]

I'm a complete noob to water cooling. I have no idea how to choose parts. Can someone show me a system that can cool better for a similar price or less? Or can anyone give me a guide about choosing WC parts? If not, can you make one?

 

BTW, I was just using this setup as an example.

 

There are really no guides on water cooling, it takes some reading and just keeping up with all of it. Here is some testing that was done, its about a year old though. I think the heat killer cpu block is king right now or was awhile back. I have not been keeping up with it lately...

 

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=206712

 

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=202394

[ccokeman]

Radiator $70

 

 

Caldera cover for memory x 2 $29 x 2

 

 

GPU block x 4 $47 x 4

 

 

 

Screw Kit for block x 4 $20

 

 

 

CPU Block $65

 

 

Pump D5 $80

 

 

Tubing $25

 

 

Comes to $488 and leaves a little for shipping and clamps and fittings. This should do well as long as you dont go big on the volts and you could add a second Rad if you need to.

[Hyper]

Radiator $70

Caldera cover for memory x 2 $29 x 2

GPU block x 4 $47 x 4

Screw Kit for block x 4 $20

CPU Block $65

Pump D5 $80

Tubing $25

 

Comes to $488 and leaves a little for shipping and clamps and fittings. This should do well as long as you dont go big on the volts and you could add a second Rad if you need to.

 

Im using that pump/cpu block/rad on my i7 and it seems to do the job. I have a seperate loop for my vid's though..

[sirloganthestud]

Would this setup cool all 3 components better than high end air with all overclocked (to some extent)?

[DeAdLy_MaNgO]

If I were in your shoes, the best feasible answer to me would be:

 

Ditch the 2 4870s, pick up a 5870 and a full coverage block. 2 4870x2s should really be run on a separate loop due to the ginormous amount of heat they dump.

 

But that's just me.

[sirloganthestud]

If I were in your shoes, the best feasible answer to me would be:

 

Ditch the 2 4870s, pick up a 5870 and a full coverage block. 2 4870x2s should really be run on a separate loop due to the ginormous amount of heat they dump.

 

But that's just me.

 

 

I just used those compontents as examples.

[sirloganthestud]

Would it be smarter just to cool the CPU with a Corsair H50 (with a fan slapped on) and then use the water loop just to cool the GPUs?

[Overclocker16]

Would it be smarter just to cool the CPU with a Corsair H50 (with a fan slapped on) and then use the water loop just to cool the GPUs?

 

Depends what you want to do. If you want to OC, then CPU is a better idea. If you want your video cards to run a lot cooler + OC them, then that is a better route, or do both.

[ccokeman]

Would this setup cool all 3 components better than high end air with all overclocked (to some extent)?

 

I use the same setup except the rad (MCR 240) to cool my wife's rig. SHe has an I7 920 running at 3.0 and a GTX 260 that fold for most of the day and the temp stay in the low 50's Celsius under load depending on how long I let her go before cleaning the dust bunnies out of it.

 

I use the same setup with better fans to keep my 965 at 4GHz in the low 60's Celsius under Prime 95 load with no video cards in the block. Thats an average after about 3 days of 100% load.

[sirloganthestud]

Would adding a second rad make a significant difference when cooling all components overclocked?

[Danny_75]

If its was me,I would loose the GPUs you have buy a 5870 or a 5970.This way you wouldnt need to Oc the GPU and would save on the Water cooling setup.

[Puck]

I would not run the GPU and CPU on the same loop with one rad. Put a rad in between the blocks, or just give them each their seperate loop.

 

The swifty rad is nice for the price and does good with low rpm quiet fans, but with high performance fans rads like thermochill and feser are better.

 

I run that swifty and to be honest I am looking to sell it and purchase dual thermochills instead, since they will make a better match with my high cfm deltas. In my loop the water entering the res right after the rad is 4c over ambient after 10 minutes of full load, measured by a thermal probe in front of the res input nozzle and another outside the case. Toasty 28c ambient, water 32c, cpu 64c(4.3ghz, 1.4v). With a better block(using ghetto enzotech block), and dual thermochill 3x120s to replace the single swifty 3x120 I hope to drop into the mid 50s at 4.3ghz...

 

The pump is a massive AC Eheim fountain pump, big dual 5.75" DD res, fans are Delta 142CFM tri blades, and full 1/2"ID tubing. Who thing was under 200 bucks thanks to a local electronics surplus store .