First foray into water cooling - Advice required.

GAZ_XB9R

GAZ_XB9R

GAZ_XB9R

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I am currently running the rig below in my signature at stock but have had 3.8 relatively stable on air.

I intend upgrading my graphics card. Probably to a single Nvidia card. Possibly the OcUK Extreme H2O Nvidia GTX 580 1536MB GDDR5. Maybe even twin GTX 570's in SLI.

My intention would be to water cool the GPU, CPU and MB chipset. I am quite happy to go for a custom build with possible twin loops.

I have read through the guides but they seem a bit outdated.

I would like to know some info on the best rads / res / pumps / blocks available.

Or does anyone have a link to an up to date guide to water cooling that I can reference?
 
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Hi, your doing the right thing by reading up, check out skinneelabs he is quite upto date about watercooling. There is no need to cool the NB as this just bumps more heat into the loop and you don't really gain anything watercooling them, all i did was put a small 50mm fan blowing onto the NB which helps keep it cool, saving you money which you can spend on better components for watercooling the CPU or GPU. A single loop will be fine for cooling your CPU + GPU, for cool'nt just use de-ionised water which you can get from Halfords quite cheap about £4.00 for 5ltre's + silver coil just google it.

http://skinneelabs.com/articles/
 
I would only cool the gfx and CPU. Take a look at the lunk in my sig and that'll give you an idea of what you can do regarding placements of everything.

IMO, the best blocks are EK nickel ones.
The res would be an EK multioption advanced 150/250/350
And for rads, the Hardware labs black ice SR-1 or GT extreme series would be my choices.
Finally, I would get a laing D5 pump. (either VPP655 or MCP655)

Also, your sig is two lines too big ;)

EDIT: some links you may be interested in;
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=WC-027-OE
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=WC-051-EK&groupid=962&catid=1519&subcat=
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=WC-098-EK&groupid=962&catid=1520&subcat=
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=WC-004-SW&groupid=962&catid=1522&subcat=
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=WC-030-BX
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=WC-008-EK&groupid=962&catid=1551&subcat=
 
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Cleeecooo said:
It should be a minimum of £300 IMO
Click to expand...

GPU block is gonna be about £80
CPU block around £40
MB block around £100 but depends on what board.
i personally wouldnt bother unless you really have to

the pump is going to be about £70
a good reservoir will be £30+
decent fittings will be about £3 each
radiators are expensive but buy the best ones.
depends on space but a good brand quad radiator is going to be upwards of £100 then £65ish for a double if you want more cooling.
 
rjkoneill said:
GPU block is gonna be about £80 60
CPU block around £40 50
MB block around £100 but depends on what board.
i personally wouldnt bother unless you really have to

the pump is going to be about £70 80
a good reservoir will be £30+ 40
decent fittings will be about £3 each £20 total
radiators are expensive but buy the best ones.
depends on space but a good brand quad radiator is going to be upwards of £100 then £65ish for a double if you want more cooling. £90 for quad SR-1
£70 for triple
£20 for fans?

rjk's total: £320ish
my total: £340ish
Click to expand...

Quad rad in haf 932?
I was thinking more triple/dual!

I said £300 as a bare minimum and was excluding cooling the mobo as IMO, it's pointless. I've added what I think to be a good price in green above.

I always over spec a bit :D
 
I'll spec' up what I was thinking and post later to see what you guys think.

The reason for the MB chipset cooling is to get rid of the small high RPM fan whick makes a racket.

I'll be trying to spec this up as a quiet gaming rig for medium OC's.

Still trying to get info on matching silent low RPM fans with a rad with the right fin density to give me the performance required. If I have to I may go for a multi rad system.
 
GAZ_XB9R said:
I'll spec' up what I was thinking and post later to see what you guys think.

The reason for the MB chipset cooling is to get rid of the small high RPM fan whick makes a racket.

I'll be trying to spec this up as a quiet gaming rig for medium OC's.

Still trying to get info on matching silent low RPM fans with a rad with the right fin density to give me the performance required. If I have to I may go for a multi rad system.
Click to expand...

If you want to use very low RPM fans then the SR-1 rads are easily the best. I would recommend the enermax apollishes as they look great and are literally silent. MB cooling is really really really pointless IMO. The HAF 932 has pretty good cooling and just the standard fans will easily keep the RAM, HDD's and mobo cool enough. The gfx card and CPU are the only things you need to cool - the rest is just for show
 
Do you advise running with no cooling on the MB chipset other than the case fans?

Can't remember off hand but seem to remember the NB being quite hot when I was running OC'd.
 
I'm going to agree with the majority here and say that chipset cooling isn't needed or worthwhile.

However, if you really want to go the whole hog and watercool the chipset and mosfets you're going to be looking to add another £100 to your budget for the EK 'all-in-one' block or about £65 for the separate chipset and mosfet pack.

I've recently set up my own loop, taking in 2 x 6950 full cover blocks and the CPU, the gear required came in at just over £400.
 
GAZ_XB9R said:
Do you advise running with no cooling on the MB chipset other than the case fans?

Can't remember off hand but seem to remember the NB being quite hot when I was running OC'd.
Click to expand...

Yep, the case fans are fine.

My liquid cooling poop will cost £450 and that's with only one card!
 
So regarding the chipset cooler and fan set up on my EVGA X58 SLI motherboard.

Do you think that I could replace this with a passive cooling set up such as this?

Assuming it will mount ok that is.
 
GAZ_XB9R said:
So regarding the chipset cooler and fan set up on my EVGA X58 SLI motherboard.

Do you think that I could replace this with a passive cooling set up such as this?

Assuming it will mount ok that is.
Click to expand...

Honestly, there is no need! Nothing will be putting heat into the system after you liquid cool so the NB will stay pretty cool.
 
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