Waste my time and yours

moremoney: you will always earn respect with even the most jaded forum-ite as you've actually put some effort into identifying what you may (or may not) need. :D

The MCP655 will cope with three blocks without a problem: ever since that pump hit the market (together with the DDC), achieving the right head ceased to be too much of an issue. I would actually suggest going for a DDC-Ultra with the reservoir top as it is smaller than the 655 and you can pop whatever barbs/connectors you want on it. And reservoirs are simpler to use than T-lines, but that's just my opinion...

If my reading is correct, you may probably well be fine with a dual TFC radiator: they seem pretty damn good and should to the busiess for your hardware. Believe it or not, but your components aren't the hottest in the world (I can't see a Core i7, P4D or Athlon 6400 in there, so...) and so should be served pretty well by the 120.2 rad.

Blocks? as I've posted in another thread on here, you have to try really hard to buy a rubbish one, nowadays. Whilst Thermaltake continue to be renowned (unfairly or otherwise... you decide) as poo, there are a lot of blocks out there that will serve your purposes without hiccup.

Barbs? I believe the Swiftech pump has 1/2" barbs, so you may well want to go with them throughout the kit, together with the 7/16" Masterkleer tubing (no apparent need for hose-clips using this stuff - not used it myself, so I can't comment). However, with modern WC pumps, most rigs will get away with even 8mm ID tubing, bringing in the range of compression fit connectors. Having used these myself, they seem fine and so much less of a pain than barbs and hoseclips. But that's my personal preference. 1/2" will always look cooler... :(

And for the love of all that is overclockable: do not waste your money on feser coolant. It is pointless. Distilled water with a little Zerez/Purple Ice will do the same job and be much cheaper. And besides, if your system leaks, you haven't plumbed it properly anyway, meaning you shouldn't have started watercooling in the first place. ;)
 
@mrthingyx.
Believe it or not, but your components aren't the hottest in the world (I can't see a Core i7, P4D or Athlon 6400 in there, so...) and so should be served pretty well by the 120.2 rad.

Not my m board or chip, but i want to get my w/c going first.
Plus lots of new chips CPU and GPU coming out in new year.
 
Great block. you won't have a problem unless you mount it badly.

As for a graphics block, I'd just get the cheapest one possible. 'Core only' blocks like the Swiftech MCW50/60 or whatever, DangerDen Maze 5, DTek FuZioN (again, or whatever) are probably the best for actually cooling the card and getting the best performance out of them, but you need to buy RAM sinks for the rest of the - err- RAM...

Full cover blocks look pretty but aren't as good at cooling the cards as the former type. However,r you may well be able to get good deals on 8800GTX blocks now, as they're considered by idiots to be stone age.
 
I had a quick look around last night for reduced 8800 GTX blocks, but wasn't able to find any. Cheapest I could find was ThermalTake. The great thing about this block is it's got a fan on it. Jesus. Seriously though, any other full cover block :P

I'd cool the VRMs though, as well as the ram, the components have a much longer lifespan at lower temperatures.
 
Sorry if im stating the obvious - is there much point (other than noise reduction) to spend all that money to get the best performance when the overclokcing potential of your system is severely bottlenecked by your mobo?

Wouldn't it be better to spend the cash on better components?
 
Sorry if im stating the obvious - is there much point (other than noise reduction) to spend all that money to get the best performance when the overclokcing potential of your system is severely bottlenecked by your mobo?

Wouldn't it be better to spend the cash on better components?

I am going to upgrade my computer eventualy but it runs great at the moment so there is no urgent need yet.

I wanted to get into water cooling and now seemed like as good a time as any


This is all going to take some time to get done, what with it being the holiday period and all, but when it gets done i will post pics for all to see.
 
Last edited:
If/when you take the stock cooler off the 8800 GTX be careful what you unscrew. I was struggling to pop mine off (it's never comfortable applying force to an expensive bit of kit) so I unscrewed some more screws, just in case.

There's a fan inside the stock cooler and once you unscrew it, it's a pain to get back together. Was only reminded of it today when I was sorting through the boxes of crap in preparation for this next build.
 
Back
Top Bottom