Please help me spec my setup, wc noob here!

dirtychinchilla

dirtychinchilla

dirtychinchilla

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Afternoon all,

As the title states, I'm a watercooling noob and would appreciate some advice on the component's that I'm going to need.

I have, on order, a Fractal Design Arc Midi R2, which I'm incredibly excited to receive for a few reasons, one of the main ones being that it will allow me to use 2x240 rads in a midi case.

As far as parts to watercool go, I have an i5, currently overclocked to 4GHz (using a Corsair H50, which I won't be using), and 2xGTX 480s, both already having EK blocks attached with backplates (what difference does having a backplate make??).

So, I want to be able to cool these three components.

As I've already said, I want to use 2x240 rads. Would 60mm rads be unnecessarily thick? I'm bidding on one on eBay shortly, so I'll have at least one, which I guess I will use with the GPUs, and the other for my CPU (even though that's obviously overkill).

Here's where I get a bit stuck...I'm going to be reading loads of watercooling before I really get started, but would appreciate you clever people's advice on the rest of the components.

I'm thinking of getting an Alphacool Cyclone R2 because I really like the look of them, and I love the generally innovative attitude of Alphacool, so would like to use their components where possible. I think this is where experience will go a long way as I've really got no idea which pumps to buy with this, whether I need one or two, which tubing I need etc!

Any advice on this would be greatly appreciated. I'm aiming for an incredibly quiet system with fairly high performance, although I realise that I'm limited a little by the general spec of the PC.

One additional question actually: I could use 280 rads, would this also be overkill?

Thanks in advance,
dirtychinchilla
 
G'day,

Bigger radiators means either lower temperatures or slower fans. Both are good. If your case will fit thick 280mm radiators, preferably with 25mm or so shroud, then the fan - that'll be best in terms of performance. If you have thinner/smaller radiators, you'll still be OK. There isn't that much in it.

Thermally there is an appeal to putting both gpu's in one loop, with one radiator, and the cpu in a loop with the other one. The only drawback is the cost of a second pump, and finding somewhere to put it. Otherwise one pump will work - your cpu will be hotter and your gpu's cooler than with two loops.

The Laing D5 and DDC are the most popular, though there are cheaper options out there.

The cyclone looks like the tube reservoirs ek have been selling for years, not sure what I'm missing there. You don't need a reservoir if you don't want one. Tubing/fittings don't affect performance significantly.

Watercooling is pretty straightforward really. Just plumb everything together in a line.
 
Afternoon Jon,

Thanks for the reply :) lots of useful info in there for me to digest.

With regards to the radiators, what is the purpose of the shroud? The case can fit 1x280mm radiator, and 1x240mm radiator I believe, so I'll probably be using one of each, and getting some nice quiet fans, hopefully at a relatively low speed.

I agree with you on how to set up the loop; I was planning CPU on one rad and GPUs on another, seems logical I guess. I'll be getting a Raystorm for the CPU. Having two pumps for this isn't really an issue, I'll do what I have to, just need to work out where to put them.

I was thinking, though, my motherboard has always been the hottest part of my pc. Although it's rather expensive, I'm considering cooling the motherboard too. Heatkiller produce MB cooling blocks for my P8Z68-V, although they really seem to be the only fellows who do.

I really like the look of the tube reservoirs, though where I get them from doesn't really matter, so I'll definitely be using one. interesting that it's not needed though...I had no idea!

So, I'm now planning to buy:

  • Raystorm
  • MB blocks for P8Z68-V
  • Cyclone or similar radiator
  • 2x pumps
  • Radiators
  • tubing
  • fittings
  • fans

Christ...adds up doesn't it!!
 
Hmm I've just been looking at pump prices...man they're expensive!! Motherboard cooling is definitely off the menu.

Is it realistic to think that I could loop the CPU and GPUs through 2 radiators with just one pump and still achieve decent temps?

I would likely have a 280 rad and a 240 rad, fairly thick (hopefully). I'm not sure which would be better to run each component through...

Edit: I'm wondering wether I could, in fact, get this, http://www.xs-pc.com/products/pumps/x2o-200-single-bay-reservoir-pump/ and then have an additional pump. It eliminates the cyclone, but does reduce the cost.

Or, even better, two of these, http://www.alphacool.com/product_in...acool-DC-LT-Keramik-12-Volt-Pumpe---bulk.html and one of these http://www.alphacool.com/product_in...ol-Repack---Laing-DDC---5-25-Bay-Station.html
 
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If you have two radiators coming from one reservoir, presumably the pumps just work in series to pump the fluid at a higher flow rate initially, but then if you have one loop going to one radiator and the CPU, and the other going to one radiator and the two GPUs, do you need another fitting to get both loops to go back into the reservoir. Sorry if this is a stupid question!!

Please help :)
 
Yo. You want fairly uniform airflow through the radiator, so all the little channels contribute to the cooling. The airflow from a fan is spinning, has a large dead spot in the middle behind the hub, and is vaguely circular while the radiator is usually squarish. A shroud between the fan and radiator lets these problems sort themselves out, so the radiator is used more effectively. Martin's lab concluded that fan + shroud worked better than two fans, one either side of the radiator. If they fit, shrouds are good things :)

I don't think the xspc res/pump thing is likely to be very good, but it'll probably still move water through a couple of blocks. Slowly, but it'll move. The £40 ish EK one seems to be popular on here.

Two radiators, two blocks, one pump - definitely works with one pump. Rather well if it's a decent pump. The drawback is that a hot graphics card now heats up the cpu. Two fast graphics cards is a lot of heat to dump into the water cooling the cpu. So it'll work, just not optimal. Maybe build it, try it, buy another pump if loading the gpu's destroys the cpu temp?

I've been planning to cool my motherboard for years. Either buying blocks or making them. Haven't got around to it yet, but I'm sure I will next time! Blocks seem to be between £20 and £80, so definitely doesn't help keep cost down. Second hand, e.g. members market, is a very convincing way of reducing the cost though. Otherwise yeah, expensive game. Still, the parts are convincingly reusable, they'll pass on from computer to computer until you sell them or throw them away!

Two loops tend to use two reservoirs (or no reservoirs, equivalently). It's just much easier if the loops are completely separate. You can do things with Y fittings, but it starts to get messy, and you (somewhat) lose the thermal isolation.

I'd guess it's starting to look a bit more coherent now? You're not asking stupid questions!
 
JonJ678 said:
Yo. You want fairly uniform airflow through the radiator, so all the little channels contribute to the cooling. The airflow from a fan is spinning, has a large dead spot in the middle behind the hub, and is vaguely circular while the radiator is usually squarish. A shroud between the fan and radiator lets these problems sort themselves out, so the radiator is used more effectively. Martin's lab concluded that fan + shroud worked better than two fans, one either side of the radiator. If they fit, shrouds are good things :)

I don't think the xspc res/pump thing is likely to be very good, but it'll probably still move water through a couple of blocks. Slowly, but it'll move. The £40 ish EK one seems to be popular on here.

Two radiators, two blocks, one pump - definitely works with one pump. Rather well if it's a decent pump. The drawback is that a hot graphics card now heats up the cpu. Two fast graphics cards is a lot of heat to dump into the water cooling the cpu. So it'll work, just not optimal. Maybe build it, try it, buy another pump if loading the gpu's destroys the cpu temp?

I've been planning to cool my motherboard for years. Either buying blocks or making them. Haven't got around to it yet, but I'm sure I will next time! Blocks seem to be between £20 and £80, so definitely doesn't help keep cost down. Second hand, e.g. members market, is a very convincing way of reducing the cost though. Otherwise yeah, expensive game. Still, the parts are convincingly reusable, they'll pass on from computer to computer until you sell them or throw them away!

Two loops tend to use two reservoirs (or no reservoirs, equivalently). It's just much easier if the loops are completely separate. You can do things with Y fittings, but it starts to get messy, and you (somewhat) lose the thermal isolation.

I'd guess it's starting to look a bit more coherent now? You're not asking stupid questions!
Click to expand...

I'd wish I can make 1000 post in one day!
Really need to go through to the members market to get an EK block for my 7970 lightning :(
Regretting so much for getting non-reference card now...
 
That single bay res pump combo is designed for a cpu or gpu loop only, I had the dual bay version and as soon as I added a second block it made one hell of a noise. If you like the idea of a bay res, you can get a dual bay, for 2 D5 pumps. That other pump is also really only for a small loop. A good pump, from test actually one of the best is the Koolance PMP 500, it is smaller than the D5, comes with a built in heatsink, and a high preasure top. The only thing that lets it down is that it is 2 decibels louder than the D5, which in my opinion is nothing to worry about. Plus it is a sexy looking beast. I bought one to replace my bay res, I just cant wait to try it out when my loop is finished, on Tuesday.
 
Hi guys,

Sorry I didn't reply sooner, I've been considering what to do.

Taking into account what you've said, I think I'll just have a powerful pump...my basket looks like this atm:

YOUR BASKET
1 x XSPC Laing 18W DDC-Pump 12V DDC 3.25 - ULTRA PERFROMANCE - 900lph £68.99
1 x XSPC RayStorm CPU WaterBlock (Intel) £51.98
2 x XSPC EX280 Dual Fan Radiator £44.99 (£89.98)
1 x Bitspower Z-Multi 250mm Water Tank £39.98
1 x XSPC Razor SLI Flow Bridge £8.99
2 x Akasa AK-VMC01-BK VGA RAM Heatsinks £3.6 (£7.20)
2 x XSPC 7/16" ID [16/11mm] High Flex Hose - Clear [1m Length] £2.99 (£5.98)
1 x XSPC PSU Bridging Connector (24 Pin) £1.3
Total : £285.79 (includes shipping : £9.50).



Anything missing?
 
Change of plan...I think I'll just be getting a corsair h100 and then watercooling the 2 GPUs.

Could anyone spec me what you think I'd need? As I said in the OP, I have the wc blocks for the GPUs.
 
 
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which gpus?

edit 480s. It will be a bit warm id have thought 480s run hot from memory, tbh though for the cost of the h100 id just add a second rad and a raystorm block to that list unless you already have the h100 that is, also youl need fittings there arnt any barbs or compressions in that list
 
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In the case youve got your stuck with 2 240s without going outside the case now if you didnt have the h100 id have said 2 240s for the cpu and gpus would just about be enough but the 480s your trying to cool 500watts at stock on a single 240 rad 60mm thick or not I think it will be too much for it
 
Sorry, the OP isn't up to date.

I've got 2 480s which I'm going to cool, nothing else. The rad is a 280, but I guess the situation will still be the same? At worst I could add a single rad into the loop for the GPUs...would this need a better pump or anything like that, though?
 
A 280 with decent fans at a 10c deltas will net you around 3 to 350 watts cooling performance which is somewhat below the tdp of 2 480s. Now if you were to scrap the h100 and run 2 280s one top one front with a raystorm block youd be looking at 6-700 watts rad performance which with around 500 lost to gpus would leave you plenty of headroom for your i5 to breath an additional rad might cut it assuming another 140mm your going to be looking at around 450 to 550 watts but theres no real headroom then
 
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It's so expensive though...seems I'd need two radiators, two pumps and two reservoirs? Could you spec me what you think I'd need for that setup with the Raystorm anyway? I can get away without the raystorm in all honesty...got a corsair h50 and just bought an h100, but I can always sell the h100 on. So if I can get away with two 280 rads, with one pump and one reservoir, I would be ok with that, I guess!!
 
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