Watercooling - rads and that

Chris Beard

Chris Beard

Chris Beard

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Joined
17 Apr 2006
Posts
2,240
Location
Hampshire
Hi All,

So I'm pretty sure I want to go water cooling. Mainly because I'm sick of having to buy new coolers all the bloody time. I just want a kick ass cooling system I can strap onto anything for the next 5 years rather than collecting defunct coolers. I count at least 3 gpu coolers I'm not using and 2 cpu coolers I've given away in the last 3 years alone.

I'm in an MATX case currently on socket 775 but with a view to upgrade the socket in '11. The case is modded to allow 2x140mm fans (with 120mm mounts) to be in and out. I'd like to do a loop with:

Pump
DB1

Blocks
XSPC XP20
XSPC Delta V3 CPU

Rads
2x SR1s 140 (one for back and one for front)

Res
XSPC Single Bay Reservoir

Tubing
8mm ID silicone tubing in blue

Thoughts?

Cheers,
Chris.
 
Is there any guarantee that the current waterblocks will support future sockets? changing heatsinks is a lot easier than changing waterblocks.
 
How noisy is the mcp355 - I'm a sucker for a PC I can't hear. I have 500rpm fans a passive PSU and a 2.5" hard drive inside two layers of silencing enclosure...
 
Chris Beard said:
How noisy is the mcp355 - I'm a sucker for a PC I can't hear. I have 500rpm fans a passive PSU and a 2.5" hard drive inside two layers of silencing enclosure...
Click to expand...

Was running Titan Fenrir on my setup.
Now the loudest thing in my pc is a xigmatek 120 fan.
(I have 3 Arctic cooling F12s in the front - 2 of the bottom ones are fixed to the RAD.2 Antec stock fans at lowest setting on pull configuration at the back of the RAD, xigmatec at the side window, 2 antec stock fans at the rear, one big boy at the top.)
I can some times hear the F3 drive crunching away!
SO very silent comparing the fenrir!
 
Has anyone got any experience with 'quick release' connectors? It would be cool if I could set the loop up, drain it, test it and then just quick release and attach the blocks.

Would make changing blocks dead easy as well.
 
mmj_uk said:
Is there any guarantee that the current waterblocks will support future sockets? changing heatsinks is a lot easier than changing waterblocks.
Click to expand...

The only problem i can see is 1366's replacement. At 2011 pins the socket area could be much larger. I would imagine that 1155 and AM3+ will use the same spacing as the current sockets. The EK Supreme HF fit's all current sockets and EK are good at releasing updated brackets.
 
Well my original EK supreme from 2007 is still able to support the latest CPU sockets (although it would require a new mount bracket for a couple of quid), so there's no reason you can't expect a water block to last a good few years.
 
That sounds good - I think WCing is going to be the right route for me. Does anyone know roughly how much heat the spec I've put in my first post would deal with? I'm not looking for chilly temps, massive overclocks or anything like that, just silence at stock.
 
I've been water-cooling since the early noughties and have lying around (I'm not even thinking of the stuff that's installed!):

a Swiftech MCW5000
a Swiftech MCW6000
an original WhiteWater
a Swiftech 8800GT fullcover block
an Eheim 1250
a Swiftech mcp355 with a Petra top
a Swiftech MCR120 with radbox
spare barbs, tubing, fluids of various types, fans and more fans

You think water-cooling will mean you have less change? Wrong.

And every change is much harder than just changing your heatsink, taking longer and often costing far more.
 
No, you misunderstand. Those are spares. I've been through so many variations. In fact, since I wrote that post all of 50 minutes ago, I've removed a 9800GX's full-cover block with a Corsair 120.1 and a Swiftech bay-mounted pump/res (basically a MCP350 integrated into a bay reservoir).

You won't have less spare parts by going to water-cooling and the idea that your block can simply be matched with another mount is not guaranteed.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy water-cooling but am realy questioning why I bother. That 9800GX2 needed water-cooling to work but its replacement (460GTX) needs no additional cooling and is quiet. A good heatpipe-based cooler like a Megahalem does nearly as well as water and costs less and is easier to manage.
 
I get obsessive about these things. I want things to be quiet - like very very quiet - in an MATX. There's not room, the stuff doesn't work so it gets replaced, things burn out. It's just a lot of hassel. GPU specifically is a LOT of hassel. Bloody ATI moving their cores around.

Water just seems a good way of using space efficently, keeping RADs, pumps and (possibly) blocks between changes in hardware and knowing, because it's what you used last time, that it'll be quiet.
 
Radiators and pumps can be re-used but blocks often can't be, especially with graphics blocks. The manufacturers change for no apparent reason, evidenced by the fact that one or two S1366 boards and a couple of S1156 boards had two sets of mounting holes allowing S775 coolers to be re-used. So, there was no valid reason why Intel changed where the holes were supposed to be. Might they have been encouraged to do so, or did they perhaps offer to do so in exchange for something? Why else? I can't think of any reason at all.
 
pastymuncher said:
The only problem i can see is 1366's replacement. At 2011 pins the socket area could be much larger. I would imagine that 1155 and AM3+ will use the same spacing as the current sockets. The EK Supreme HF fit's all current sockets and EK are good at releasing updated brackets.
Click to expand...

well afaik you're wrong about 2011 using different mounting to 1366 based on ES mobo's
 
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