water cooling for beginners

bigjimmyauk

bigjimmyauk

bigjimmyauk

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anyone point me in the direction of some good reads or guides.

Total water noob myself just looking into the prospect of it but all this bay and res talk made my head hurt.
 
Taken from my build log.

I read the ocuk advanced overclocking sticky
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17803239
Trawled the xs forums
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=70
and the stickies there
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=202394
and then discovered skinnee and martin, two of the best reviewers of watercooling gear. This is where delta temps and watercooling clicked in my head, the graphs and tables didn't mean much to me at the start now i go straight to them to see how many watts can be disapated at XXXrpm fan speed
http://www.skinneelabs.com/
http://martin.skinneelabs.com/
Be clear on what your goal is. Silence, performance and aesthetics and match your hardware to your needs. Think about your future cooling needs as it will probably save you money in the long run and most of all be patient. I steadily bought a component every week or 2 until i was ready and did my big order for the rest of the parts. Was nice to be able to familiarise myself with the new hardware.
 
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JeffyB said:
Taken from my build log.
Click to expand...

Thx very much i'll have a trawl through this week,

I was thinking maybe starting small maybe just with cpu cooling but getting big enough rads etc etc so that i can add to it in the future, I work a lot with external fish filters so know about flow rates and matching them, does the same apply to water cooling do the blocks have a maximum/minimum flow rate for heat dissipation...
 
Flow rates for blocks are well documented in reviews, provided you use a decent pump flow rates are not massively important unless you have a lot of blocks creating high restriction.

My loop started out as cpu only and i added my gpu about a month later. Allowed me to learn on a simplified loop and drain a simpler loop to add the gpu, flipside is that it's easier to do it all in one go.
 
JeffyB said:
Flow rates for blocks are well documented in reviews, provided you use a decent pump flow rates are not massively important unless you have a lot of blocks creating high restriction.

My loop started out as cpu only and i added my gpu about a month later. Allowed me to learn on a simplified loop and drain a simpler loop to add the gpu, flipside is that it's easier to do it all in one go.
Click to expand...

Ok while your here i have a HAF 932 so have room for a triple rad at the top or 2 double rads on the side panel any you can suggest so i can look more in depth at them....
 
Page 4 is probably your best bet, look at what rad gives you the best performance at your chosen fan speed, keep reading it'll make sense eventually :)
 
JeffyB said:
Page 4 is probably your best bet, look at what rad gives you the best performance at your chosen fan speed, keep reading it'll make sense eventually :)
Click to expand...

oh i see well i like my 120mm fans at no more than 1200rpm because then it gets too noisy as it's 1 foot away from my ears.
 
The TFC rads have been discontinued now so you won't be able to get one brand new.

However looking at this graph in the 1000-1400rpm range the XSPC RX rads or the thermochill PAs look to achieve the lowest temperature deltas. In reality in the performance difference between all 3 different types of radiator is negligible, so it doesn't really matter which one you choose.
 
Pa120.3 or rx360 would serve you well unless you want to use a 140 rad or want to wait for the PA's replacement the TA series. a lot of the rads perform so similarly, so go with what fits your budget, what one you like the build on or that fits your build best. I opted for a sr1-420 as the hwlabs finish is probably the best of any rad out there and i run my fans (140mm) at 600rpm for silence :)
 
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JeffyB said:
Pa120.3 or rx360 would serve you well unless you want to use a 140 rad or want to wait for the PA's replacement the TA series. a lot of the rads perform so similarly, so go with what fits your budget, what one you like the build on or that fits your build best. I opted for a sr1-420 as the hwlabs finish is probably the best of any rad out there and i run my fans (140mm) at 600rpm for silence :)
Click to expand...

Think i would have to go for a 360 http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=WC-030-BX&groupid=962&catid=1523&subcat=1526 because the fan space at the top of the HAF932 is for 3x120mm fans, what size tubing do you use i seen some of the different sizes available and some rads use a 3/8 fitting which seems a perculiar size so is it better to saty with 1/4
 
Tube size has miniscule difference to cooling so choose what you like the look of for your build. Some like primochill LRT have amazing bend radius' before they kink but other than that it's a much of a muchness.

Thermochill use g3/8 fittings on thier rads, adapaters are cheap (about £1) or you can simply buy a g3/8 barb/compression for the rad. The soon to be released TA series will use g1/4 like every other rad.

<3 the sr1 but i'm biased :D
 
Go separate pump and res, either a d5 and tube res or ddc with a tube res or a res top. The xspc bay/res/pump combos are pretty weak and i hear they can be noisy.
 
JeffyB said:
Go separate pump and res, either a d5 and tube res or ddc with a tube res or a res top. The xspc bay/res/pump combos are pretty weak and i hear they can be noisy.
Click to expand...

What do you mean by a res top? I know by tube res you mean the small cylinder things(do they have fill ports on them can't see how you get the water in from the pics)
 
I don't think ocuk do them but a res top's are usually for the ddc series. It's an aftermarket pump top (improved flow rate and pressure compared to stock) with a res on top. Pump tops/res tops are also good as they allow you to use tubing other than 3/8 as they have standard g1/4 threaded inlets allowing you to use any fittings you want compared to the stock ddc with 3/8 plastic barbs pre moulded onto the pump top.
Ek res top for ddc
ddcxres140a.gif


Xspc restop for ddc
xspcddcres2l.jpg


Tube res' have inlets on the top for filling :)
 
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Just looked at your build log very impressive right i'm off to bed with fresh ideas before my eyes bleed, thanx for all your help it's certainly given me more confidence to delve further into the bottomless pit called PC cooling:D
 
Glad you liked the log, still got a bit to do on it. It can rapidly spiral as i found out lol, great fun though :)
 
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