New to OC from the US (Water Cooling Noob)

abice

abice

abice

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9 Jun 2013
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Hi everyone I'm glad I found the site, although I'm in the US the information and knowledge is the same. I'm completely new to building PC's, however, I've really put a lot of research into it and have watched hours of build videos and product videos to expand my knowledge. I'm confident in the build process now so I will be building my first PC as soon as I can put some money together.

I thought liquid cooling was a simple process like slapping another fan in the case to cool things down, it can be but it can be much more complex. There are some crazy water cooling setups out there but I'm not into that extremeness it is cool but not feasible or realistic for me to attempt, also I don't know how much return I would get out of it being so inexperienced. However, I am confident that I could understand a diagram and complete a build, being inexperience doesn't mean I'm incapable of learning or completed a build.

My first example is from a case that I found while looking into a new case for my PC

817-CJl4d2L._AA1500_.jpg



From this build I want to know is this a kit, or is this a custom job based off of a couple different kits?

I think the fittings and hose or aftermarket, but I think the pump and reservoir on the bottom and the radiators on the top and side come from kits, but how would I piece a job like this together? What kits or parts should I be looking for and will somebody please explain the Video Card liquid cooling that is happening. I mean this looks like one big circular cycle of the liquid, I think there are two reservoirs but I'm not sure. I am confident I could put something like this together, I understand what it going on, I just don't understand what parts to buy and what parts to know how to buy based on mounting locations.

Thanks guys in advance
 
This is a custom loop.

Looks like a single reservoir at the bottom (mounted sideways) directly on top of the pump.

It'd take a day and an age to explain everything here and how the builder could have picked out components.

There's a pretty good watercooling series from a similar retailer to OCUK, based in Canada, on youtube. Go check it out. As everyone's needs and environments are individual to their own, it's difficult to just spec everything out for you unforunately :(
 
Yes Yes I know it can be difficult to spec everything, I just wanted to discuss the basics behind this system or a system like it, I found this website called FrozenPC and it had a ton a of liquid cooling products and a couple custom cases that I used to kind of look at and analyze what is going on.

I'm really interested in this one though because I think I will be purchasing this case, what it looks like from this situation is that there could be 2 reservoirs, but it really only looks like on radiator unit on the bottom maybe the triple fan on the top but it must be connected in the 5.25 bays because I can't tell from that angle. It looks like they routed one of the tubs, whether it is an in or out, behind the motherboard tray.

Would this be considered a double loop or is it more like a complete loop? From the bottom res at least it looks like it is either flowing up through every GPU or flowing down from the top res.

I had pulled up another example that used only one dual bay, dual pump, split outlets and that to me made sense 2 outs 2 ins, 1 in goes to CPU then to the radiator and then back, and then the other loop went into the GPU then to the next GPU to the radiator and back to the reservoir. That to me seems like a pretty simple complex and diagram. It seems basic but how different can the variations being, without getting too extreme of course. I also did find some RAM blocks for liquid cooling. I would think if you had three components you wanted cooled and you continued off a continuous loop that it wouldn't be efficient, because don't you need a radiator to cool the water or exhaust the heat from the water? I think there is some basic concepts to the whole process. reservoir to pump to cpu to radiator to reservoir and the loop would be complete. Can you add to the loop and instead of going right to the radiator after the cpu could you go to the GPU's and then to the radiator and back to the res? Do the GPU cooling docks have their own radiators which would allow for flow of water to still be cooled during the process?
 
The only product that I would like to know out of this set up is the Hose's and fluid. It looks like a black fluid or is it black tubing, If I went with black tubing is it semi-transparent where if I placed a UV fluid inside It would create a different color effect? Do I have to have LED's in order to get it to glow (fluid or tubing) or is it like a glow in the dark type of thing? How many LED's would I have to have inside if it is LED Based?
 
UV fluid only glows in UV light. LED or cold cathod ray tubes are the primary way to decorate your case with UV lights and are fairly cheap. The picture has black tubing which is completely opaque. You don't need to put lights inside the reservoir or liquid to get it to glow, its much better to mount a single blacklight LED strip or cold cathode ray tube to the inside of the case.

From your posts, i think you seem to be over thinking on the principles behind watercooling, all loops are fairly simple.

Loop order doesn't matter, as long as the reservoir is before the pump and higher than it, having 4 blocks in a row and then a radiator is fine. The flow of the water in the loop should be fast enough that the temperature of the water is roughly the same all round the loop and it is because of this that the component order doesn't really matter. I myself at the moment have my pump going to a radiator then to the RAM block, CPU block and VRM block and finally back to the reservoir.

The loop you mentioned with dual pumps sounds like just two separate loops with a reservoir which is divided. In the vast majority of builds, it is best to just use a single loop in series.

If you are planing to watercool for performance reasons, just go for CPU and GPU block. RAM doesn't really get hot enough to need cooling and unless your doing some high clocks on a really high voltage CPU, your VRMs wont need active cooling. When i added my RAM block, the temperatures of my CPU under load actually lowered because not only was my RAMs heatsink not hot enough to add to the loops temperature but they were actually cool enough to help dissipate a little heat.

All blocks are very similar in how they work, so you will need to add radiators to your loop if you don't have enough for both your CPU and a GPU if you decide to add a GPU to a loop. A sensible amount of radiator per component has often been quoted to be 120mm of radiator per component you cool in the loop and then an added 120mm to the total. Some components run hotter than others, so for a high power CPU that you plan on overclocking (something like fx 8350), though a 120mm radiator from a decent company would be sufficient to cool it, it would be considerably better to have a 240mm. RAM/VRM/NB/SB blocks don't really need extra radiator, since they don't add much heat to the loop.

As for which fluid to get, i would recommend Phobya's UV range as i have found them to be the brightest. For other fluid, its Mayhems all the way. Not only is pre-made fluid comparatively cheap compare to your components but it already contains biocides and anti-corrosives which is all you need, so you can conveniently use it out of the bottle without having to wonder whether your loop will have gunk in it due to not putting enough of this or that.
 
Avenged7Fold said:
UV fluid only glows in UV light. LED or cold cathod ray tubes are the primary way to decorate your case with UV lights and are fairly cheap. The picture has black tubing which is completely opaque. You don't need to put lights inside the reservoir or liquid to get it to glow, its much better to mount a single blacklight LED strip or cold cathode ray tube to the inside of the case.

From your posts, i think you seem to be over thinking on the principles behind watercooling, all loops are fairly simple.

Loop order doesn't matter, as long as the reservoir is before the pump and higher than it, having 4 blocks in a row and then a radiator is fine. The flow of the water in the loop should be fast enough that the temperature of the water is roughly the same all round the loop and it is because of this that the component order doesn't really matter. I myself at the moment have my pump going to a radiator then to the RAM block, CPU block and VRM block and finally back to the reservoir.

The loop you mentioned with dual pumps sounds like just two separate loops with a reservoir which is divided. In the vast majority of builds, it is best to just use a single loop in series.

If you are planing to watercool for performance reasons, just go for CPU and GPU block. RAM doesn't really get hot enough to need cooling and unless your doing some high clocks on a really high voltage CPU, your VRMs wont need active cooling. When i added my RAM block, the temperatures of my CPU under load actually lowered because not only was my RAMs heatsink not hot enough to add to the loops temperature but they were actually cool enough to help dissipate a little heat.

All blocks are very similar in how they work, so you will need to add radiators to your loop if you don't have enough for both your CPU and a GPU if you decide to add a GPU to a loop. A sensible amount of radiator per component has often been quoted to be 120mm of radiator per component you cool in the loop and then an added 120mm to the total. Some components run hotter than others, so for a high power CPU that you plan on overclocking (something like fx 8350), though a 120mm radiator from a decent company would be sufficient to cool it, it would be considerably better to have a 240mm. RAM/VRM/NB/SB blocks don't really need extra radiator, since they don't add much heat to the loop.

As for which fluid to get, i would recommend Phobya's UV range as i have found them to be the brightest. For other fluid, its Mayhems all the way. Not only is pre-made fluid comparatively cheap compare to your components but it already contains biocides and anti-corrosives which is all you need, so you can conveniently use it out of the bottle without having to wonder whether your loop will have gunk in it due to not putting enough of this or that.
Click to expand...

Really helpful post thank you. I won't be building this PC until fall so I think I will wait for the new FX9000 series CPU to come out which is clocked at 5.0 stock and I will probably do a minor overclocking, regardless I will want to have a block on that. In addition, I am going to go with 2 GTX770 GPUs so I think it would probably be nice to put a block on them also, since this is most likely the case I will go with I was thinking a double fan radiator on top, with a single 120 on the bottom like this. I would rather go with a bay radiator so that I can see the levels from the front of the case, from what you are saying it probably would be best to just go with a dual bay res but not split outlets so my path would be res>cpu block>top radiator(2x120)>GPU1>GPU2>bottom radiator(120)>res

davido_labido said:
thats just a basic single loop its going rez-pump-120ml rad -mobo -ram - cpu - 360mm rad

nothing special about it tbh
Click to expand...

I thought there was a Ram block on there I had missed the quick connect going from the CPU to Ram Block



So this unit looks like it has only one res on the bottom and two radiators one on the top and one on the bottom?
 
Speaking in the case of the top fans with the radiator:
How do the radiators work I have seen double sided fans (which i think is the case on the bottom) and single sided fans (which I think is the case on the top).

If there were no liquid cooling I could have cool air pulling from the front and bottom and hot air being exhausted out the rear and top, if you place radiators on the top and bottom, does that block air flow for those vents, only allowing for front and rear pull and push air flow patterns?
 
abice said:
Speaking in the case of the top fans with the radiator:
How do the radiators work I have seen double sided fans (which i think is the case on the bottom) and single sided fans (which I think is the case on the top).

If there were no liquid cooling I could have cool air pulling from the front and bottom and hot air being exhausted out the rear and top, if you place radiators on the top and bottom, does that block air flow for those vents, only allowing for front and rear pull and push air flow patterns?
Click to expand...

Radiators wont block the air, just think of them as fat dust filters. For your double GPU and single CPU loop, i recommend to get quad fan worth of radiators. The 770's aren't all that hot but that CPU definitely is. You can set your radiators to wherever you want, the rate at which hot air rises is negligible compare to the work the fans do. You want the fans for your radiators to be good enough to blow air through them, you could if you wanted, put a radiator on every place you can fit them.

Radiators don't have fans fixed to them, usually you buy them separately and screw them on. Some people prefer to put a fan on either side, however, this makes them much nosier and the performance boost is very little if you chose the correct fans in the first place. Performance wise, you are better getting a thicker radiator and just having a single set of fans, rather than a thin one and fans on either side.


If you have a bay pump/reservoir combo, your component order doesn't matter, just go for the neatest route.

I also saw you decided on getting the fx9000 CPU. I have an fx8150 and two fx 8350s atm, with all three of them under water. The 9000 is not a new CPU but rather a higher clocked 8350/8320. I am pretty confident that with enough cooling, most of the 8350's can reach a 5GHz clock (have got one of mine to 5GHz 24/7 stable and another to 4.9GHz for 24/7 (passed half hour of prime at 5.3GHz). The fx9000 will no doubt be released with a premium price tag despite being the same CPU but speed binned. So if i were you, i would save yourslef some cash if you were planing on OC it anyway and buy a 8350. If your PC is going to be for gaming, drop AMD and grab yourself a Haswell CPU, people may say they run a little hot but that is compared to Sandybridge and some Ivys, compared to the fx9000 it will be a spring breeze (this will make 360mm of radiators more than adequate for your set up).

If you would like i can spec you an example of what you would need for your loop. Do you prefer thick tubing or thin tubing (no performance difference)?
If you use a reservoir/pump combo in the case you listed and plan to get the fx9000, you can go for a 120mm at the back, 240mm on top and 120 at the bottom. If you are worried about case air flow (which shouldnt be a problem), stick a high performance Corsair AF 120 fan at the front of the case. I know it doesnt look like another radiator will fit there due to the rad mounted at the top but that radiator is super thick and they also have 2 sets of fans. If you go with EK 47mm thick XT radiators or the 35.5mm thick XSPC radiators, you will have plenty of clearance.
 
Avenged7Fold said:
Radiators wont block the air, just think of them as fat dust filters. For your double GPU and single CPU loop, i recommend to get quad fan worth of radiators. The 770's aren't all that hot but that CPU definitely is. You can set your radiators to wherever you want, the rate at which hot air rises is negligible compare to the work the fans do. You want the fans for your radiators to be good enough to blow air through them, you could if you wanted, put a radiator on every place you can fit them.

Radiators don't have fans fixed to them, usually you buy them separately and screw them on. Some people prefer to put a fan on either side, however, this makes them much nosier and the performance boost is very little if you chose the correct fans in the first place. Performance wise, you are better getting a thicker radiator and just having a single set of fans, rather than a thin one and fans on either side.


If you have a bay pump/reservoir combo, your component order doesn't matter, just go for the neatest route.

I also saw you decided on getting the fx9000 CPU. I have an fx8150 and two fx 8350s atm, with all three of them under water. The 9000 is not a new CPU but rather a higher clocked 8350/8320. I am pretty confident that with enough cooling, most of the 8350's can reach a 5GHz clock (have got one of mine to 5GHz 24/7 stable and another to 4.9GHz for 24/7 (passed half hour of prime at 5.3GHz). The fx9000 will no doubt be released with a premium price tag despite being the same CPU but speed binned. So if i were you, i would save yourslef some cash if you were planing on OC it anyway and buy a 8350. If your PC is going to be for gaming, drop AMD and grab yourself a Haswell CPU, people may say they run a little hot but that is compared to Sandybridge and some Ivys, compared to the fx9000 it will be a spring breeze (this will make 360mm of radiators more than adequate for your set up).

If you would like i can spec you an example of what you would need for your loop. Do you prefer thick tubing or thin tubing (no performance difference)?
If you use a reservoir/pump combo in the case you listed and plan to get the fx9000, you can go for a 120mm at the back, 240mm on top and 120 at the bottom. If you are worried about case air flow (which shouldnt be a problem), stick a high performance Corsair AF 120 fan at the front of the case. I know it doesnt look like another radiator will fit there due to the rad mounted at the top but that radiator is super thick and they also have 2 sets of fans. If you go with EK 47mm thick XT radiators or the 35.5mm thick XSPC radiators, you will have plenty of clearance.
Click to expand...



Thank you, that would be really helpful. I would prefer thicker tubing so i could get a little more color, I was hoping that black tubing was a little bit transparent, but I really like that tubing shown. I think compression fitting and quick connects are they best way to go.


I will either go with the 8350 or the 9000, I originally wanted the 4770k, but I think I want an octa-cores, but at this rate it looks like the 9000 will be higher priced than the 4770k so that opens the door I guess, I was going to go with 2 7950 graphics cards but for like another 60 dollars I can get 2 770's which is by far better, and I think I prefer NVIDIA over Radeon anyways. I'm going with 32gb of memory from corsair, I'm going with the 3rdgen Asus Sabretooth board (that will change of course if I go intel), I will run my operating system off an SSD of course and then have I think 2tb of storage I will only have one optical drive so that leaves room for a dual bay reservoir which i think is necessary, but adding fans and radiators I think is where I need the most help because it can go a number of ways and there are a lot of variation.
 
OP,

I am going for a very similar sort of build that is shown a few small tweaks here and there but essentially it's the same. The plan behind this rig is to build something that is almost silent while providing some good overclocks.

To give you a run down of what is involved, I have incuded my take-off parts needed to watercool this rig.

Case
1 x NZXT Phantom 820 Enthusiast Full Tower Case (Black) - £199.99

VGA
1 x EK Water Blocks EK-FC7970 - Nickel Plexi CSQ - £79.99
1 x EK Water Blocks EK-FC7970 DCII Backplate - Black - £20.99
Gfx Card I already have so will be recycled

RAM
1 x Samsung Green 16GB (4x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz - £123.98

Motherboard
1 x Asus Z87 DELUXE Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard - £221.99

CPU
1 x EK Water Blocks EK-Supremacy - Full Nickel - £64.99
1 x Intel Core i7-4770K 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £269.99

Radiator & Fans
1 x Hardware Labs Black ICE Radiator SR1 360 - £69.98
5 x Prolimatech Blue Vortex Blue Wings 120mm Fan - £54.95
1 x Hardware Labs Black ICE Radiator SR1 240 - £55.98

Pump/Top/Reservoir
1 x OcUK Tech Lab - 18w DDC Pump & EK-DDC X-RES 140 CSQ Value Combo £105.98

Water/Tubing/Fittings
1 x Mayhems Fine Silver Kill Coil - £4.50
2 x Mayhems Ultra Pure H20 Watercooling Fluid 1L - £9.98
1 x XSPC HighFlex Hose 1/2" ID, 3/4" OD, 19/12.7mm, 2m, Blue/UV Blue - £6.98
3 x EK-CSQ Adapter 45° G1/4 Nickel - £23.97
9 x EK Water Blocks EK-CSQ Fitting 10/13mm G1/4 - Nickel - £26.91
4 x EK-CSQ Adapter 90° G1/4 Nickel - £31.96

PSU:
Already have a 850w PSU so this will be recycled.

Total Cost: £1373.11 (excluding shipping) Prices shown above are the total price based on the quantites I am looking to go for. All the above is available from OCUK and to be honest their prices are very good. (I''ve checked :))

A few tips:
Don't mix metals, i.e. copper/nickel as this will lead to cathodic corrosion. Pick one metal type and go with that. Spend time doing your research it will save you time and money for example, I've gone with Samsung Green RAM as it overlocks very well and is a lot cheaper than other offerings with fancy fins and what not. Why pay £100 more becuase it looks cool?

There are some very good watercooling videos on the web it give you an insight on how to watercool. Take a look at this video from Lifehacker

Feel free to PM me if you need anything else.
 
RHS said:
OP,

I am going for a very similar sort of build that is shown a few small tweaks here and there but essentially it's the same. The plan behind this rig is to build something that is almost silent while providing some good overclocks.

To give you a run down of what is involved, I have incuded my take-off parts needed to watercool this rig.

Case
1 x NZXT Phantom 820 Enthusiast Full Tower Case (Black) - £199.99

VGA
1 x EK Water Blocks EK-FC7970 - Nickel Plexi CSQ - £79.99
1 x EK Water Blocks EK-FC7970 DCII Backplate - Black - £20.99
Gfx Card I already have so will be recycled

RAM
1 x Samsung Green 16GB (4x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz - £123.98

Motherboard
1 x Asus Z87 DELUXE Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard - £221.99

CPU
1 x EK Water Blocks EK-Supremacy - Full Nickel - £64.99
1 x Intel Core i7-4770K 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £269.99

Radiator & Fans
1 x Hardware Labs Black ICE Radiator SR1 360 - £69.98
5 x Prolimatech Blue Vortex Blue Wings 120mm Fan - £54.95
1 x Hardware Labs Black ICE Radiator SR1 240 - £55.98

Pump/Top/Reservoir
1 x OcUK Tech Lab - 18w DDC Pump & EK-DDC X-RES 140 CSQ Value Combo £105.98

Water/Tubing/Fittings
1 x Mayhems Fine Silver Kill Coil - £4.50
2 x Mayhems Ultra Pure H20 Watercooling Fluid 1L - £9.98
1 x XSPC HighFlex Hose 1/2" ID, 3/4" OD, 19/12.7mm, 2m, Blue/UV Blue - £6.98
3 x EK-CSQ Adapter 45° G1/4 Nickel - £23.97
9 x EK Water Blocks EK-CSQ Fitting 10/13mm G1/4 - Nickel - £26.91
4 x EK-CSQ Adapter 90° G1/4 Nickel - £31.96

PSU:
Already have a 850w PSU so this will be recycled.

Total Cost: £1373.11 (excluding shipping) Prices shown above are the total price based on the quantites I am looking to go for. All the above is available from OCUK and to be honest their prices are very good. (I''ve checked :))

A few tips:
Don't mix metals, i.e. copper/nickel as this will lead to cathodic corrosion. Pick one metal type and go with that. Spend time doing your research it will save you time and money for example, I've gone with Samsung Green RAM as it overlocks very well and is a lot cheaper than other offerings with fancy fins and what not. Why pay £100 more becuase it looks cool?

There are some very good watercooling videos on the web it give you an insight on how to watercool. Take a look at this video from Lifehacker

Feel free to PM me if you need anything else.
Click to expand...

My problem is I have zero parts to recycle and I don't have any PC accessories (keyboard, monitor, mouse) So this will be a brand new purchase across the board. I really think what I want to do is purchase all my stock components with the included case fans, I want to get the computer set up and running, then I want to assess the situation with actually what parts I will need. Keep in mind in a couple months I may come back to you with a PM for some help choosing my Water cooling set up. I had mentioned FrozenPC.com do you know of any other sites that are good for aftermarket Water cooling parts?

ubersonic said:
Actually its rez-pump-120-GPU-GPU-GPU-360-CPU-RAM-RAM-RAM-RAM-MOBO then back to the pump, theses also a fill line connected to the other in on the base of the pump.
Click to expand...

Very good! I understand this, to me this is easily understandable, I could draw up this diagram easily. I think that part is the easy part, but like he mentioned earlier knowing that certain metals will react different ways with certain fluids is where the complexity comes in.
 
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