** Official OcUK Watercooling Reference Guide and FAQ **

Commissario
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This is the Official Watercooling Guide from OcUK.
This thread is designed to support our Watercooled Systems, Cases, Graphics Cards and Kits.


For a brief introduction into the world of performance PC cooling, check out our intro page HERE


The advantages of watercooling include silence, performance and aesthetics.
Overclockers UK provides a range of watercooling products that allows everyone to watercool their system, from the seasoned expert enthusiast to the watercooling beginner.
There is a price point that will appeal to all. Well chosen, value for money components alongside ultra high end fittings from companies such as EK and Bitspower.

Watercooling is a realistic option to everyone, the fear of putting liquid inside a PC is always the first step that people have to overcome.
A watercooling system is sealed and safe and required minimal maintenance. Watercooling is also impressive to others, and shows your friends that you have serious kit.

Watercooling works by having a pump which moves fluid around a closed loop inside your PC, the pump moves fluid into a metal block on a hot component, the block has a restriction plate in or fins that distribute the liquid over the cooling plate to cool the component down.
This process heats up the liquid slightly, the liquid then moves onto the radiator and is cooled down

For a great guide on how to watercool a PC. Check this very informative thread out.


Watercooling Basics
When designing a watercooling system, consider the complexity you require.
A beginners watercooling system is nearly always a simple CPU loop. This is watercooling for just the processor.
All watercooling systems need the following:
  • A Pump
  • A Reservoir
  • A Block for the main component
  • Fans
  • Radiator
  • Tubing
  • Fittings
  • Fluid

Whilst this sounds like a lot of stuff, it really isn't. you just need to know what to look for.
To cool down a cpu you need to assess what heat output it has. A hot running overclocked i7 CPU will give out a lot of heat compared to a cool running overclocked i5 cpu. Heat output is always relative and it would be best to start a thread to ask the forums about the specific requirements.

It is best when starting a SPEC ME thread to include details of your full system and highlight the components you want to cool. That way, other forum members can provide you with better advice.

As a rule of thumb, the more heat generated by your watercooled components, the more radiator capacity you will need.

Here are some examples as a rough guide:

  • An overclocked Quad Core CPU - would require a single [120.1] radiator
  • An overclocked hex core or multithread CPU - would require a double [120.2] radiator
  • A high heat output CPU and a Single high end graphics card - would require a triple [120.3] radiator

Obviously use this for reference. The more complicated the loop gets, the more cooling power you will require.

I will be presenting each component with an explanation of what it does.


The Pump

The pump is the most important component in your watercooling system. If it fails, the watercooling system will not work and you risk damaging your other components.

Consider where your pump will go. it needs to be lower or attached to your reservoir. Generally most people mount their pump at the bottom of their case and sometimes use foam to absorb some of the vibrations from it to ensure silence.

There are three main types of pumps:

LAING Pumps - This includes D5 style and DDC style. The D5 pump is a high performance pump that offers huge flow rates that you can adjust to suit your needs. The DDC pump has a smaller footprint and is less capable of changing speeds to suit but still provides reliability.
These pumps tend to be rebranded by Swiftech and Alphacool so look out for that.

DCP Pumps - These pumps are generally very good value for money and the relative newcomer on the market. They are less established but generally a lot cheaper than the LAING pumps. The flow rates that these pumps provide are average and are enough to power a CPU AND GPU loop with a low restriction radiator.
These pumps tend to be rebranded by EK, DangerDen, D-tek, OCZ and Phobya so look out for that.

Reservoir/Pump Combo
- These generally sit in the drive bays of a case and are an excellent beginners starting point. The pump is built into the reservoir, these solutions are cost effective but the performance is not suitable for very high end systems.

Pump Tops - High end pumps benefit from a pump top as it increases the head pressure and flow rate. Pump Tops also add more options to your pump as it allows you to use standard watercooling fittings on your pump. OcUK offers a D5 Pump and DDC Pump with Preinstalled Tops that have been pre-tested by our technicians.


The Reservoir

The Reservoir is the part of the loop that feeds fluid to your pump. There are loads of options so choose one that is designed for use with your pump or use a reservoir that fits in your case.

The most popular reservoir designs are:

Tube Reservoir - A tube reservoir usually provides a lot of options for flow directions and is useful for putting a lot of fluid into a high flow pump.

Bay Reservoir - A bay reservoir provides easy mounting and filling opportunities as it sits where your optical drives go in your system. The benefit of a bay res is that you can see your coolant at the front of your system which some people like

Pump Combo Reservoir - Combination reservoirs are designed to fit directly onto your pump and often provide excellent flow into your pump thus giving the best performance level. There are a lot of res combos available that are specific to certain pumps so check your pump model for res availability.


Waterblocks

Waterblocks are the key component to cooling your hardware. I will go through three types of blocks to explain the various differences.

CPU BLOCKS - This block is the main block in your loop and an area where you should consider spending some money. the overall effectiveness of your watercooling system depends on the capability of this block at transferring heat from the CPU to the liquid.
Nearly all water blocks are multi socket compatible and fit Intel and AMD sockets. but some are specific to a certain socket or may need an additional mounting kit so watch out for that.

A good starter CPU block would be an EK Supreme LTX as its low price and above average performance make it ideal for beginners. the EK Supreme HF is a step up again and offers better performance as well as multi socket compatibility.

A CPU Block mounts the same way as most aircooling heatsinks and is often easier to install.
All CPU blocks come with full mounting instructions to assist you and some higher end blocks come with a small tube of high performance thermal paste.

GPU BLOCKS - This is a little more advanced as it takes a lot more expertise to disassemble a graphics card. Graphics card blocks work on the same principle as a CPU block but generally cover all of the hot parts of the card. You can get 'full cover' blocks that are specific to the exact card you have, or 'core only' blocks that look a little like the cpu block but only cool the GPU itself [you have to install additional heatsinks for the VRAM etc]
They all come with full installation instructions and a guide on how to take your stock cooler off.
Most graphics cards become a lot more overclockable when they are on water, plus it removes the noisy fan which is a main factor in contribution to overall system noise.

Graphics cards vary a lot in design and reference design cards are usually not easily available if your card is older. To make sure your card and full cover block are compatible, check the EK Waterblocks Cooling Configurator Site which will allow you to check what blocks fit your hardware.

Bear in mind that most graphics card manufacturers will class the card as Warranty Void if you remove the stock cooler so do it at your own risk.

Motherboard & Other Blocks - most motherboard blocks fit to motherboards where the stock heatsink arrays go. They tend to cool the Voltage Regulators and the chipset but can also cool any other heat producing chips on the board. Motherboard blocks really add little in the way of extra performance and can add a lot of heat to your loop. a motherboard block is only really required if you want it for aesthetics or if the airflow in your case is very poor.
technically you can watercool anything in your loop that produces heat and there is a block made for it, Hard drives and fan controllers can be watercooled, there are even watercooled power supplies but most of this is very niche and unnecessary in most cases.


Fans

most watercooling radiators use a standard of 120mm for their fans size. This means that you may already have enough fans to put on your radiator. It is generally fine to have whatever fans you think look the best, perhaps even put them on a fan controller to give you a way to balance silence/performance.
many water coolers use the quietest fans they can find as this adds to the benefits of a watercooling system. It is best to look for a fan that provides a lot of static pressure against the radiator in order to make sure as much cold air as possible is going over the radiator fins. Fans are very specific to radiators.
It is best to ask on the forums for specific fan advice as you will no doubt require a specific fan for your application.
The most suggested fan for watercooling is the Gentle Typhoon as it gives excellent performance on watercooling radiators.


Radiator

The size of your radiator depends on the space inside your case. most higher end cases have room for a watercooling radiator.
Radiators are categorized into how many fans you can fit to them. This is usually an indication of how it would fit inside your case. A radiator size is determined by its fan size then the quantity of fans per face. so a triple 120 radiator that fits 3 fans would be 120.3. some specialist radiators are available in 140mm fan sizes but are usually more difficult to fit into a case so watch out for that.
The more you have to cool, the more radiators you will need.
A CPU and GPU loop would ideally need a triple radiator and would be best suited to a case like a Corsair 800D which has the fitments for such a radiator built into the roof.
A CPU only loop would usually only require a double [120.2] or a single [120.1] radiator which can be fit in most cases with 120mm fan mounts.


Tubing and Fittings

Tubing comes in many different sizes. The most popular is 7/16 as it fits over the slightly larger 1/2 barbs to provide a tight fit.
Due to the variety of tubing and fittings, it is best to ask on the forums what tubing and fittings you need.

You will generally need two fittings per component in the loop. one as an inlet and the other as an outlet so account for that.

This handy chart shows you the type of fittings to use with each tubing type.

compatibility.jpg


Size Translation Chart
(3/8 - 1/2) 13/10mm
(3/8 - 5/8) 16/10mm
(7/16 - 5/8) 16/11mm
(5/8 - 1/2) 16/13mm
(1/2 - 3/4) 19/13mm

FLUID

There are many people that will tell you that Distilled water is all that is required for your loop. They would be right. but if you want coloured fluid then that is available too.
Dye in watercooling fluid does NOT clog up your blocks. it may stain them slightly over a long period of time but can be cleaned.
A simple CPU loop will generally be ok with one litre of fluid.

To add to your fluid, you can use some methods to stop micro-bacteria building up.
Adding a few drops of Biocide or a Silver Kill Coil into the reservoir of your loop should ensure that there is no build up of nasties over time.




Assembling your Loop

The Watercooling Sticky Provides a good guide on how to build your loop.

All EK Watercooling Kits come with full instructions that can be found at the bottom of this page for reference.

All OcUK kits come with a guide specific to each component but there is no official guide as yet.

All watercooling components in our kits come with great instructions and if you ever get stuck then ask on the forums :)





Maintaining your Loop

The beauty of watercooling is that it is fairly hassle free after initial install. Your watercooling loop should require maintenance in steps.

every week - check your coolant level to ensure that you have enough in your reservoir.

every three months - use an air duster to blow dust out of your radiators to ensure optimum airflow.

every 12-18 months - empty out your reservoir and drain as much fluid as you can from your system, flush the system out with plain distilled water [you will need roughly 5 litres] by filling it, running it and emptying it. repeat until the loop is clean. then refill with fresh fluid.
some users like to put fresh tubing on too to to give their system a clean look.


Useful Links

EK Watercooling Configurator - A compatibility checker for your hardware
Skinnee Labs - A Brilliant review site for watercooling hardware


Watercooling Instruction Manuals for EK Waterblocks
The below instruction manuals are intellectual property of EK Waterblocks and are intended to support their products.
The manuals are intended for personal use and advice given within them applies only to EK Products.


EK H30 Watercooling Kit Instructions


EK CPU Waterblock Instructions

EK 6970 Waterblock Instructions

EK GTX 580 Waterblock Instructions

EK GTX 680 Waterblock Instructions

EK GTX 7970 Waterblock Instructions

Graphics Card Backplate Instructions [Applies to all EK backplates]

EK Full Cover Bridges & Links Instructions



Watercooling Manuals for XSPC Products

Available Here


Watercooling Manuals for OcUK Products

View attachment 308
 

rjk

rjk

Caporegime
Joined
8 Aug 2007
Posts
25,381
no problem, its well written and explains how to install custom kit.

this is aimed at customers as more of an educational tool as well as providing support links for customers. :)
 

rjk

rjk

Caporegime
Joined
8 Aug 2007
Posts
25,381
facepalm

the inlet is the sleft side of the block.
it will come with a detailed instruction manual that explains it better than I can on the forums.
 

rjk

rjk

Caporegime
Joined
8 Aug 2007
Posts
25,381
That is not what the forums are for. If you want to watercool your system, do some reading...
 
Hitman
Associate
Joined
29 Sep 2009
Posts
1,070
Great - a guide to get me started!

Will give me more insight into how a system works and whats what if you know what I mean!

Thanks!
 
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