Watercooling.

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Joined
18 Aug 2009
Posts
15
Hello guys...

I would like to do a watercooling setup on my i7 920 & asus rampage extreme 2...
Any tips on what pump/radiator? never done a watercooling setup before so i would need some of your tips :)

Thanks !!
 
Sure, we'll be happy to help. You need to give us a lot more information than this though. Why do you want to watercool, esp why do you want to cool the motherboard, and what budget you are assigning

How do you feel about external radiators, what is your case and how do you feel about cutting up your case?

It boils down to connecting everything together in series in any order you like, as long as you've picked vaguely sensible components it'll work out ok. Combined reservoir/pumps are popular.
 
Case: Antec1200
CPU : I7920
GPU : Gtx285 BFG
Ram : Corsair dom 6gb
PSU : Tagan 900w modular
Mobo : Asus rampage extreme 2

I want it for better temps on 3.6 ghz overclock atm would wanna push it to 4.2 once i get on watercooling also i think it looks nice aswell.
Budget? as much as it costs for a good setup.

Wouldnt mind an external rad but would prefer to have it inside.
 
You dont have the right case for that I'm afraid. To put the processor only under, which is the most sensible approach, you either use the corsaid h50 system or need to fit a 240 radiator somewhere. This will be a bit over 240mm by 120mm by 60mm in size. I don't know where you'd fit this in your case, possibly in the front instead of all the optical bays. Ideally you would use a triple radiator, but this will be harder to fit.

Cooling the motherboard is unlikely to help. Certainly it will offer little over aiming a fan at the heatsinks already on the board. It'll cost around £100 to cool the motherboard, which is probably too much money for so little gain.

For the cpu, heatkiller 3.0 is the 'best' block. I use the ek supreme which is also rather good. There are other options.

Pump I suggest the 10W laing ddc with xspc reservoir top. The 18W is worth considering but probably not worth getting for a small loop.

Basically your next step is to measure parts of your case and look at other watercooling builds in the antec 1200. I advise fitting radiators wherever you can, the blocks and pump don't take up any significant space. Powerful fans can be used to make up for too few radiators, but this will hurt the quiet aspect of water cooling
 
You have an antec1200 man! There is practically no gain in going out and spending decent money on water cooling kit for the not much lower temps.

For your CPU can go out and buy a Corsair h50/coolit domino (suppose these are out of fashion cos of Corsair though) and mount where rear 2 fans are or fit titan fenrir/Thermalright ultra/noctua cpu coolers. Your NB, SB and VRMs wont like you for taking out the intake fans. To compensate you would need to add a decent 120mm fan to side panel which negates the quiet part to a certain extent.
 
sell case and get a haf 932 or if you can afford it a lian li case and then do your watercooling,it be much better looking and you will have the room to build it
 
Before you rush into anything and spend huge amounts of money - please do some research. Water Cooling is very involved, expensive and it's easy to get very little improvement for a massive spend if you're not careful. You'll be much happier long-term if you start off buying the right stuff.

I always recommend you buy your first water cooling kit second hand, primarily because it's much cheaper, but also because it doesn't tend to lose any more value once it's used, so you can generally sell it for what you paid for it and trade up to what you really want long-term new afterwards.

Once you have 250 posts and 3 months membership you can access the Member's Market on here and there is always lots of very high quality used water cooling kit being bought and sold on there.

And do please also join a specific water-cooling forum. There are several about.
 
Before you rush into anything and spend huge amounts of money - please do some research. Water Cooling is very involved, expensive and it's easy to get very little improvement for a massive spend if you're not careful. You'll be much happier long-term if you start off buying the right stuff.

I always recommend you buy your first water cooling kit second hand, primarily because it's much cheaper, but also because it doesn't tend to lose any more value once it's used, so you can generally sell it for what you paid for it and trade up to what you really want long-term new afterwards.

Once you have 250 posts and 3 months membership you can access the Member's Market on here and there is always lots of very high quality used water cooling kit being bought and sold on there.

And do please also join a specific water-cooling forum. There are several about.


Thanks for the tips... i will take it slowly and do some research.. but in the meanwhile i think i should sell my old case and get a new one which fits better for watercooling. I know that it takes a lot of hassle with watercooling setups and the temps wont drop a lot but i still want to give it a try and see how it is.. :)
 
Thanks for the tips... i will take it slowly and do some research.. but in the meanwhile i think i should sell my old case and get a new one which fits better for watercooling. I know that it takes a lot of hassle with watercooling setups and the temps wont drop a lot but i still want to give it a try and see how it is.. :)

If you want to change your case then (in no particular order) you probably ought to be looking at the Mountain Mods U2-UFO, SilverstoneTek TJ-07, HAF-932, Corsair D800 and anything large from Lian Li. The first four will all take at least one radiator without cutting. The Mountain Mods will take at least 3, sometimes 5 depending on configuration, the Silverstone will take at least 2 without modification and the others will accept one 360mm radiator without modification. As far as I'm aware, all the Lian Li's need cutting to take a big radiator, but they are lovely.

If you can afford it, then the Mountain Mods is the way to go. You'll never need another case. You may need an extension to your house though...:D
 
WJA96 I may not have been posting on here when the coolit was released but I remember there was a lot of excitement regarding its release and the supposed temps it was getting.

publicseries; slow down, sell your case when you are ready to start watercooling, anything you buy would be a step backwards until you build a water cooling loop
 
WJA96 I may not have been posting on here when the coolit was released but I remember there was a lot of excitement regarding its release and the supposed temps it was getting.

There have been literally doxens of these 'fit and forget' water cooling systems over the years. They all fail to live up to the hype one way or another.

The CoolIT actually performs worse than several top-end air coolers costing half the money. The H50 appears to be doing much the same, but for £25 less. Given that Swiftech made a 'proper' kit that featured a Laing DDC and a GTX block base and they couldn't make it sell, then I can't see how Corsair have suddenly modified the old AseTek IceQ Siberian Tiger design and made it into a world-beater.

It just doesn't stack up.
 
WJA96 - you speak the truth; there is also a definite safe lifespan with these closed loop systems that often gets overlooked.
 
Public Series which mountain mod case as I was thinking about buying one for my next build (with water loops ironically enough) saw a pic in the case gallery of a clear cube that looked a lot like one and it looked good.

Build is a while away though as have to get the usual expenses out of the way with 1st :(
 
well its kinda silly to buy a mointain mod case because its like buying 1.5 cases due the shipping being almost the half price of the case =/

Budget? as much as it costs for a good setup.

I think this is where the real 'no budget in a Ferrari sense' cuts in. You either want the best or you compomise. Almost anything other than a MM is a compromise as trying to wedge two 360mm radiators into anything else is very, very difficult indeed.

I think you have to look upon the Mountain Mods as an investment - if you keep it a year it's a lot of money, three years and it's not quite so expensive. Over 5-10 years it's pretty cheap actually.
 
well its kinda silly to buy a mointain mod case because its like buying 1.5 cases due the shipping being almost the half price of the case =/

Parcels2Go will collect it and ship it to you for $75. You will also incur about £40 in import duties though.

Expect to pay £350 by the time you get it customs cleared on your doorstep with all your options fitted.
 
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