Water cooling advice

Kaelsin

Kaelsin

Kaelsin

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Joined
7 Aug 2009
Posts
333
Hello all,

Recently been looking into water cooling as currently living in a shared house so my computers in my room and quite loud at times. I also have a interest in overlooking and just bought a P8p67 deluxe, I5 3.3ghz k SB, 6970. This arrived yesturday which I set up and installed in a corsair 800D. I bought the case back in september as I planned to move to watercooling in the future.

I have been looking at some guides and project logs but still a little unsure on what brands and what components are best to buy. I would like to water cool as much as possible within a budget of around £200.

Looking for what people would recommend I buy or point me in the right direction.

Thank you
 
Hello there,

Are you going to be water cooling your 6970 as well?, if so I would save up a little more cuz you will be looking at £300 + more maybe... If you are going to do this then you do rite the first time, don't cut cornors cuz you will reget.
I'm going to water cool my Pc very soon and so far I've spent just over £300 and still need few more bits cuz I want to do it rite.
 
£200 will only just about cover the cpu being decently watercooled, sure it can be done on this budget but anything more and you'd definatly need more monies mate

CPU block, radiator, pump, reservoir, fans, tubing, barbs, fluids, screws and all other fixings all add up very quickly
 
I do want to do it right first time, I've read that the gpu block is usually pretty expensive. I can up the budget if that's what's needed. I could leave the gpu for now and add that in later down the line. I suppose just looking for what will be the best set up for me and the price im looking at. It seems EK? Blocks are popular to use?
 
my first i did a water cooling build i cut costs everywhere and still spent a small fortune.

My suggestions is save up like the other members have said, and do it right first time.

I have so far replaced my pump, my res and one of my rads, and still wanna replace my tubing size / fittings and my main rad.

Seriously the best advice I can give you is save and get decent kit to begin with. EG, no Black ICE Stealth rads.. and the XSPC dual pump and res... not the best choice :P

Also a personal choice for me Compression fittings over Barbs =)
 
Solemn said:
my first i did a water cooling build i cut costs everywhere and still spent a small fortune.

My suggestions is save up like the other members have said, and do it right first time.

I have so far replaced my pump, my res and one of my rads, and still wanna replace my tubing size / fittings and my main rad.

Seriously the best advice I can give you is save and get decent kit to begin with. EG, no Black ICE Stealth rads.. and the XSPC dual pump and res... not the best choice :P

Also a personal choice for me Compression fittings over Barbs =)
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Thank you. Any reason against the black ice rads? Seen them recommend a few times round these parts?
 
Because they are so thin (which I admint is useful when trying to fit them into a smalling and more restricting case) they dont cool nearly as much as the thicker rads do.. Best thing to do is get a case big enough for the rads you intend to use =)
 
Solemn said:
Because they are so thin (which I admint is useful when trying to fit them into a smalling and more restricting case) they dont cool nearly as much as the thicker rads do.. Best thing to do is get a case big enough for the rads you intend to use =)
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Thickness has nothing to do with cooling ability, a rad with a thickness of "1" and a fin density of "2" will perform identically to a rad with thickness of "2" and fin density of "1".

The main issue with black ice rads is that they are a lot more restrictive than most rads, but it's not too much of an issue.

Having said that I would recommend the OP goes for a swiftech MCR320/XSPC RS320 (they are virtually identical), they perform pretty much identically to the stupidly expensive low FPI thick rads (within a couple of %) and cost a fraction of the amount.
 
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Get a decnt pump, res and rad first time and you'll find they will last you forever,and there will be no need to upgrade these at all, i still have my d5 pumps and Black Ice rads from coming up to 4 years ago now still running strong with amazing results still...spent a bomb on these first time round. You may even find getting a kick ass cpu block will last ages too, just obviously buying different mouting plates for different socket types when upgrading.

Only thing you need to ever replace is blocks when i get new hardware. fluids will be constantly being replaced hopefuly at leats every 6 months to a year maybe tubing and such

and go for 7/16th tubing over 1/2 barbs
 
Speaking of barbs, I see a lot of people saying use compression/barn with out any real justification. Is this just down to personal preference or are there real big differences?
 
Kaelsin said:
Speaking of barbs, I see a lot of people saying use compression/barn with out any real justification. Is this just down to personal preference or are there real big differences?
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No difference in terms of flow, its just a matter of personal preference. I prefer compressions as they look better and give a snug fit and give me peace of mind, but I also use a couple of stubby barbs to link my GPU blocks.
 
teh XSPC RASA kit if a nice starter kit

I would learn watercooling that way and then get yourself more serious addons when you are going to Cool your card- it would be an expensive mistake
 
mnc fear said:
teh XSPC RASA kit if a nice starter kit

I would learn watercooling that way and then get yourself more serious addons when you are going to Cool your card- it would be an expensive mistake
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no, no, no.

read a lot about it, work out what kit you need and will most importantly do the job properly, read a bit more, then when you're comfortable, go for it.

take your time and do it properly <--- best advice you will get.

don't buy kits; i did, and changed it within a few weeks to a proper set of parts which was about 10x better.
 
Looking at quite a bit of kit at the moment, just knowing what to get. By that i mean i understand i need a rad/pump etc but whats any good and whats not.
 
Barbs are mainly chosen on aesthetics, though if you do go compression make sure u get them nice and tight and definatly leak test with no components in the loop :)

DOnt go for a pre assembled kit or packages, working out for yourself what you need, reading reviews and building up your loop yourself is all part of the fun and will make it so much more satisfying

EK blocks are just pretty and amazingly built and perform brilliantly at a great price i'd heavily recomend them. Though don't just limit yourself to EK, the heatkiller cpu block are probably the best out there too
 
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