Hey guys I wanted to try out water cooling for the first time. I saw the Swiftech Apex 218GBP. Just wanted to know if it is good and if I buy this kit will I need to buy something else. What the minimum PSU cos I' m going to buy a GTX285 maybe sli later on
water cooling
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Soldato
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Lol my first ever build with no experience in build computers was a totally custom CPU loop. Its a good thing!
To the OP what you looking to cool? Theres better kits out there.
I consider it a bad thing based on the rest of your posts, and indeed this one, pointing at a refusal to research anything yourself. I'm well aware that this sounds unkind, however I cannot recommend water cooling to someone as inexperienced as you appear to be.
Example. You somehow haven't noticed that the only electrically powered part of a water cooling system is the pump (lets ignore fans). Every pump has a wattage written on it, the 18W laing ddc for example. This rather implies that the pump uses 18 watts. Yet you are asking what minimum psu you need to water cool a system.
Stick with air mate, then in a the future once tired of the limitations of air, consider moving to water. My advice.
Example. You somehow haven't noticed that the only electrically powered part of a water cooling system is the pump (lets ignore fans). Every pump has a wattage written on it, the 18W laing ddc for example. This rather implies that the pump uses 18 watts. Yet you are asking what minimum psu you need to water cool a system.
Stick with air mate, then in a the future once tired of the limitations of air, consider moving to water. My advice.
Soldato
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A good 700-800w should run 2 285's fine.
Could start with looking at peoples sigs and see what they running and then read some reviews, some google for research.
I've been after watercooling for couple of months, just reading up..etc. And once I think I have my setup I post here to ask what people think of the setup just before I buy.
The Heatkiller 3.0 LC is a good performer for the money.
Usually selecting your own parts can gain better performance, kit are better if you just want watercooling. If you after performance then need to research.
I've been after watercooling for couple of months, just reading up..etc. And once I think I have my setup I post here to ask what people think of the setup just before I buy.
The Heatkiller 3.0 LC is a good performer for the money.
Usually selecting your own parts can gain better performance, kit are better if you just want watercooling. If you after performance then need to research.
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For my first attempt at watercooling i used the XSPC Delta V3 water cooling Kit, cost £73 incl delivery and it was awesome 
I think the Ek supreme lt is far, far better than the ocz at the same price
That the tubing would fall off the barbs
That the fans are far more expensive than is sensible
and finally that the pump is inferior to the similarly priced ddc.
I don't like the radiator personally, but swiftech seem fairly popular so I daresay it's fine.
otherwise you're good to go
That the tubing would fall off the barbs
That the fans are far more expensive than is sensible
and finally that the pump is inferior to the similarly priced ddc.
I don't like the radiator personally, but swiftech seem fairly popular so I daresay it's fine.
otherwise you're good to go
Don't know much about koolance. They used to make things out of aluminium, which is not good, but I hear they've stopped doing that now. I like ek blocks so recommend them, the supreme lt is a very good block and costs under £30.
I use second hand feser/tfc radiators which are pretty good. Thermochill also good. Radiators somewhat depend on budget and how many you can fit in your case / willingness to strap radiators to the outside of it. No problems yet but I'm quite new to the scene.
A word on tubing though. You probably want 7/16" inner diameter tube over 1/2" barbs with jubilee clips. That's about as secure as you can get without using compression fittings. If you go for compression fittings, then the tube size and fitting have to match exactly, i.e. 1/2" fitting for 1/2" inner diameter tube.
For comparison, I have a graphics card and a cpu under water. I have a full cover ek block on the card and the ek supreme on the cpu.
Two 120 and soon one 240 feser radiator. Scythe s-flex fans. Hopefully shrouds in the near future. 18W DDC pump with xspc reservoir top. 11/8mm tubing with compression fittings.
I put a reasonable amount of research into that and the only part I regret is the xspc top, so I suspect that's not going to be there forever.
I use second hand feser/tfc radiators which are pretty good. Thermochill also good. Radiators somewhat depend on budget and how many you can fit in your case / willingness to strap radiators to the outside of it. No problems yet but I'm quite new to the scene.
A word on tubing though. You probably want 7/16" inner diameter tube over 1/2" barbs with jubilee clips. That's about as secure as you can get without using compression fittings. If you go for compression fittings, then the tube size and fitting have to match exactly, i.e. 1/2" fitting for 1/2" inner diameter tube.
For comparison, I have a graphics card and a cpu under water. I have a full cover ek block on the card and the ek supreme on the cpu.
Two 120 and soon one 240 feser radiator. Scythe s-flex fans. Hopefully shrouds in the near future. 18W DDC pump with xspc reservoir top. 11/8mm tubing with compression fittings.
I put a reasonable amount of research into that and the only part I regret is the xspc top, so I suspect that's not going to be there forever.
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That Koolance block is good but at nearly £20 more than a GTZ or heatkiller its not really worth it. I have no idea what CPU you have or case so maybe give us your spec and budget and go from there.
you may want to check out http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18007087 for some help...its from yours truly 
my first ever custom water cooling...
my first ever custom water cooling...
I like the radiator very much. I've just bought one of those second hand and it is lovely. Without knowing your spec, I recommend the following, as it is what I chose after several threads and quite a lot of research.
Laing ddc 18W with xspc reservoir top
EK supreme cpu block
EK full cover gpu block
Feser radiators [I have two 120s and one 240, as that's the most I've managed to fit internally so far]
Scythe S-flex 1600rpm [x5 for me]
That covers almost the entire system. Remaining is your choice of connectors and tubing. In the interests of completeness,
11/8mm compression fitting, 15 of them.
11/8mm compression T, one of, for draining system
G1/4" ball valve, this connects to the middle of the T
M20 to G1/4" adapter, fits in top of xspc reservoir
Black fillport connected to the above adapter
Black Tygon 11/8mm tubing, quite a lot of it
Deionised water
System is very much in pieces at the moment, but will probably do a build log of reassembling it. With luck you can modify the above to suit you
Laing ddc 18W with xspc reservoir top
EK supreme cpu block
EK full cover gpu block
Feser radiators [I have two 120s and one 240, as that's the most I've managed to fit internally so far]
Scythe S-flex 1600rpm [x5 for me]
That covers almost the entire system. Remaining is your choice of connectors and tubing. In the interests of completeness,
11/8mm compression fitting, 15 of them.
11/8mm compression T, one of, for draining system
G1/4" ball valve, this connects to the middle of the T
M20 to G1/4" adapter, fits in top of xspc reservoir
Black fillport connected to the above adapter
Black Tygon 11/8mm tubing, quite a lot of it
Deionised water
System is very much in pieces at the moment, but will probably do a build log of reassembling it. With luck you can modify the above to suit you
It's not about power, it's about pressure head. The ddc pushes a lot harder, so copes better with highly restrictive loops. It'll push water more slowly through a lot of restriction, but it will beat the D5 in almost any situation.
The reservoir top / other aftermarket tops further improve its performance. And it's small.
'Whole pc water cooled' is far too vague, you really need to be more specfic with questions. If that means 3 gpu blocks, mosfet/northbridge/southbridge, cpu block, 3 or 4 radiators, then no, a single ddc isn't going to cope very well. The D5 wouldn't have a chance in hell though.
There are tops which let you use two ddc's together, and it's possible to run them in series. I may be looking into this in the future but don't know that much about this now. The standard solution is to run multiple, separate loops.
The reservoir top / other aftermarket tops further improve its performance. And it's small.
'Whole pc water cooled' is far too vague, you really need to be more specfic with questions. If that means 3 gpu blocks, mosfet/northbridge/southbridge, cpu block, 3 or 4 radiators, then no, a single ddc isn't going to cope very well. The D5 wouldn't have a chance in hell though.
There are tops which let you use two ddc's together, and it's possible to run them in series. I may be looking into this in the future but don't know that much about this now. The standard solution is to run multiple, separate loops.
Google is your friend here. Doesn't seem you're using it.
To be honest it's very difficult to get rubbish custom watercooling parts nowadays, thanks mainly to the efforts of Cathar and his Little River designs and Laing for introducing the DDC to the mass market. The only things somebody who is watercooling need worry about are the radiator and whether or not they can fit a watercooling setup in their case.
When I talk of radiators, I'm thinking more along the lines of size/thickness/fan configuration. If you're wondering what I'm going on about, you clearly need to use Google some more. The stuff is out there - I know, because I've read a good portion of it working with my watercooling efforts.
So generally, get the cheapest stuff that doesn't have a "Thermaltake" badge on it. You can save £hundreds and sacrifice only a couple of degrees with a well-thought out and designed loop.
And don't get TFC Feser fluid or any other non-conductive, branded fluid like that - it's a complete waste of money. Buy some distilled water from your local garage (or Tesco - it's 50p/l from there) and some anti-freeze. Unless, of course, you want a fun colour (and then just bung some dye in therer, too.).
The final element is the most important when thinking about watercooling: testing the setup. Make sure everything is fitted correctly and that it's not leaking BEFORE turining the computer on. Make sure all the blocks are clear of air bubbles. Make sure the loop no longer has any tiny bubbles flowing round it (this will be more serious depending on the amount of air going through your pump in the first instance).
Take the time to setup and test your rig before flipping the power switch, and your efforts will be rewarded. If you don't, you run the risk of annoying the rest of this community by coming back on here and moaning that you've nuked two GTX285s and your motherboard because you forgot to tighten the blocks down or didn't make sure the barbs weren't leaking.
But good luck and be warned: watercooling is an awesome hobby, and you'll throw huge amounts of money at it eventually, just trying to squeeze those last bits of performance/silence from your system. Enjoy!
To be honest it's very difficult to get rubbish custom watercooling parts nowadays, thanks mainly to the efforts of Cathar and his Little River designs and Laing for introducing the DDC to the mass market. The only things somebody who is watercooling need worry about are the radiator and whether or not they can fit a watercooling setup in their case.
When I talk of radiators, I'm thinking more along the lines of size/thickness/fan configuration. If you're wondering what I'm going on about, you clearly need to use Google some more. The stuff is out there - I know, because I've read a good portion of it working with my watercooling efforts.
So generally, get the cheapest stuff that doesn't have a "Thermaltake" badge on it. You can save £hundreds and sacrifice only a couple of degrees with a well-thought out and designed loop.
And don't get TFC Feser fluid or any other non-conductive, branded fluid like that - it's a complete waste of money. Buy some distilled water from your local garage (or Tesco - it's 50p/l from there) and some anti-freeze. Unless, of course, you want a fun colour (and then just bung some dye in therer, too.).
The final element is the most important when thinking about watercooling: testing the setup. Make sure everything is fitted correctly and that it's not leaking BEFORE turining the computer on. Make sure all the blocks are clear of air bubbles. Make sure the loop no longer has any tiny bubbles flowing round it (this will be more serious depending on the amount of air going through your pump in the first instance).
Take the time to setup and test your rig before flipping the power switch, and your efforts will be rewarded. If you don't, you run the risk of annoying the rest of this community by coming back on here and moaning that you've nuked two GTX285s and your motherboard because you forgot to tighten the blocks down or didn't make sure the barbs weren't leaking.
But good luck and be warned: watercooling is an awesome hobby, and you'll throw huge amounts of money at it eventually, just trying to squeeze those last bits of performance/silence from your system. Enjoy!