Spec me potential watercooling setup :)

madindehead

madindehead

madindehead

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Help me spec a potential watercooling setup

Hello,

I am seriously toying with the idea of watercooling my PC. I don't have a budget set out currently, as I want to see what you guys can come up with. I want something good, but a setup that doesn't break the bank.

I have a Coolermaster ATCS 840 case (I know it can be used for watercooling, I have seen setups with it), an overclocked i7 which I want to cool, and potentially, watercool two GTX 470s in SLI. The rest of my current build is in my sig (GTX 470s hopefully coming soon, hence the idea behind this).

I know that at least a dual rad (possibly even a triple can be fitted in the roof, and one in the floor. I have 5 free 5.25" bays, so feel free to fill those :) The case also has a fan in the bottom, and I know there are fan mounts designed for Swiftech pumps, so that could also possibly be mounted there.

Could you also potentially spec me a watercooling circuit just for the 470s in SLI, which could in future be expanded to include the CPU? CPU temps are very good currently, but want to try and cool the graphics first (space saving and better cooling and overclocking potential)

So, off you go, and advise away :) If you need more info, just ask :)
 
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first I have to ask is the reason why you're water cooling for less noise, lower temps or higher overclock

if it's either of the latter 2 then don't bother, it's a waste of money, the processors can take the temps and the most extra OC you're likely to get out of it is maybe 50-100MHz, not worth the £300-400 you'll be paying for it
 
Can I say all 3 :p

But seriously, given that 470s can get pretty hot with stock cooling at load (80-90C if I recall correctly) and a custom spec is going to cost 3 slots worth, I thought, it would be worth seeing what could be achieved by watercooling, at a reasonable price. Not top of the range everything, just stuff that is good, and does what it's meant to. My current system (in sig) can generate a LOT of heat. I want lower temps on my kit, as it's better for it :p

Even if the processors can take it, 90C on a graphics card isn't nice. And as for overclocking and overvolting, that always generatex extra heat, so it's wise to deal with it.
 
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Whats with all the "spec me a loop coz I can't be bothered to do the legwork myself" requests lol.

You will need:

Cpu block (EK Supreme HF is my preferred)
poss 2 x gpu blocks for SLI, (EK, Koolance, XSPC good stuff. I use EK)
pump (Laing DDC or D5 Vario are my preferred options. D5 out of the two for me)
reservoir (personal choice depending on how you want to config your loop)
radiator (I stick with Thermochill PA120.3 but there are plenty other good uns out there)
barbs, fans for the rad, coolant, tubing and a fan controller too if you like.

I water cool for silence (is there really any other reason to?) so a fan controller is a must for me. I also do it coz its fun. In fact the fun bit is the research stage as thats how you'll build your knowledge base. And building it too of course.

There are a multitude of build logs out there to help you with component selection. I for one would be happy to offer advice once you had brought something to the table to work with.

Personally I wouldnt go multigpu and water cool, it just complicates things and if you don't have a premium top end water cooling case it has a tendency to look rather naff.

I also see little point in building a multigpu only loop. Huge expense for little gain. You spend all that money on WC and gpu blocks and you still have a noisy air cooler in your case. Madness.
 
Haha sorry, didn't mean to make it look like I was being lazy :p I just wanted a bit of help, as I really know very little :(

I am currently looking at some parts, and reading some stuff to find out about watercooling etc :) will post what I find here, and see what people think

Thank you for your offer of help :) I will definitely do a bit more reading myself, and looking around to understand what is available
 
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mike gunnz said:
Start here:

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=70

Have a look through the Liquid Cooling Worklogs to see what the hard core set are doing. This will give you all the inspiration and ideas you will need and some idea of the budget required. Also check out the specialist water cooling sites and their forums, some of which are competitors so can't be named.
Click to expand...

Excellent, thanks very much mate :) I will post again once I have had a proper read of everything

Update: Already managed to find a few guys building cooling loops in ATCS 840s. Which is good news for me :D
 
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Ok, I've done some research, so far just looking at what other people have done with the same case.

Most going for CPU and SLI cooling (some single graphics also). I know they have two rads in there, just not sure if that's two loops or what. Would you be able to cool those off one loop? Or is it more sensible to have two pumps, and use a dual rad for the i7, and a triple rad for the SLI'd 470s? Some of them using triple rad for 470s in fact, so it seems to work. Will read a bit more on that :)

I know I can mount a 120.3 rad in the roof, either on the huge 230mm fans, or replacing them. And I should be able to mount a 120.2 at least on the back of the hard drive bay (guessing radiators in vertical doesn't affect performance?) and possibly even a 120.3 rad there. Will have to have a look at my case properly when I get home and see it.
 
This whole thing, still has to revolve around whether I go GTX 470s in SLI, take one 470, or take a 480 (greater expense however).

Going to draw up a plan for each case, and see what I like the sound of :)

I am thinking (not that I know much yet) that a 120.3 and a 120.2 rad should be enough to cool my board, CPU and at least one GPU (correct me if I'm wrong however please). Still need to read more on that front.

I saw someone on xtremesystems was using a triple rad to cool a GTX 470 and an i7. Not sure if the mobo cooler was on that too.

My CPU cooler isn't really loud, so I might look into cooling the GPU(s) first, and look to expand the build later, once I feel a bit more comfortable (or maybe the other way round i.e. CPU first and expand from there). Money and time will be a factor here. Also, still learning this, so not sure if I want to fly in with a full two loops right away.

I am certainly starting to understand more, about pump tops etc :p It it all very interesting, you are right mike gunnz, this is certainly very fun :p And, it will help me a lot in the long term also!

Update: What I'm doing of doing to begin with, is a simple loop for my CPU, which has capacity to be expanded.

So, we have it as follows: Triple rad in roof > Pump > Reservoir on mobo backplate > (In future mobo cooler if it's worth it) > CPU > Rad

Now, I'm guessing, from what I've seen, I could probably also include one GTX 470 on that, and not cause huge problems? So, having the GPU follow the CPU. If I wanted to cool GPUs in SLI, would I be best to have a seperate loop for them? Or place a twin rad between the CPU and then GPU? Or is that not advisable? Just speculating as to what would work best :)
 
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If you are going to do it in stages then I would reccomend you tackle the CPU first. The cpu is likely to benefit most from water cooling and you get to get rid of whatever ginormous cpu cooler you have at the moment which will only get in the way if you try gpu first.

From my experience though you are even better off cooling whatever you think you will eventually cool right from the start. Doing it in stages sounds good in theory but it also means to have to strip down and redo until you are finished. Its fine if you don't mind this, or are constrained by budget, just bare in mind it not as easy as just unclipping a cooler say. Once things are in place most people generally don't want to touch it again until they are forced to by annual maintenance or a hardware upgrade.
 
Re; Your update above.

Loop order needs to have the res before the pump, this is for ease of filling and bleeding purposes.

Since you don't seem to mind gradually adding to or changing your loop then its not going to be a problem to you to start with a cpu only, then do a cpu + single 470. Then when you get your second 470 you can put everything in the same loop and just see what the temps are like, if its not good enough then you invest in a second loop or an additional rad. If you do find you need another rad then it doesn't matter where it goes.
 
Excellent thanks mate :) As an engineering student, budget is a slight constraint over doing it all at once. But I should have the time to add to it as I go :) I really don't mind stripping it all down as I go and adding to it after a few months. It also gives me time to save :p

So, updated loop order would be this:

Triple rad in roof > Reservoir > Pump > CPU > And back to the rad

Out of interest, would you say it is worth cooling the motherboard with water, or does it not really benefit? No one seems to really comment on it in their builds, they either do it, or not. Again, I could add it later, as I really don't mind doing it in stages :)

Now I just need to research on parts, and get a basic spec together :)
 
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My preferred loop order would be: Rad>CPU>GPU>Res>Pump.

I would speculate that a quality 120.3 rad should handle dual GPUs and a CPU.

Speaking from experience cooling the mobo was a waste of time. It did nothing to enhance my overclocks, overcomplicated the loop and added more potential points of failure. And it looked messy with tubing all over the shop.

I would still advocate going for a single high-end GPU if watercooling rather than dualies.
 
mike gunnz said:
My preferred loop order would be: Rad>CPU>GPU>Res>Pump.

I would speculate that a quality 120.3 rad should handle dual GPUs and a CPU.

Speaking from experience cooling the mobo was a waste of time. It did nothing to enhance my overclocks, overcomplicated the loop and added more potential points of failure. And it looked messy with tubing all over the shop.

I would still advocate going for a single high-end GPU if watercooling rather than dualies.
Click to expand...

That is the best order to have the loop in if using a single rad in a gpu and cpu loop. I have also come to the same conclusion about dual graphics setups and may well be selling my 5770's to get a single gpu to put in my loop. I have no problems with the performance but am prefering the idea of a simpler loop and lower cost of blocks.
 
That is also one of the reasons why I chose a 5970 over 5870 crossfire, saved buying an extra waterblock (plus the added expense on top for two 5870 over one 5970)

Mike Gunnz has the same loop order I prefer (and run myself).

Also as you say about cooling the motherboard I can confirm its not worth it, I initially did it for the looks and to help the potential overclock but all it really did was add more heat to the loop :p

Now I run my just my CPU under water and left the mobo out of it
 
Excellent. That does actually sound like a much better loop mike. What would call a "quality" rad? One of the Thermochill 120.3s? I will take in what you said about cooling and SLI config. Is it generally just less hassle?
 
pa120.3 and xspc rx360 are about the best all round rads you can buy, sr1 360 is marginally better with low rpm fans. The ek coolstream 360 rad ocuk have is rediculously good value though.
 
Thank you for all the advice :) I will be looking at parts tonight, and would appreciate any criticism/approval of what I choose. Will do that later. All the advice so far has been great. Thanks for telling me to go research mike :)
 
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Ok. Here is my list of components. Please advise/criticise/let me know what you think in general. I will link to each component in the name, so you can see what I'm going for :)

CPU Block: ek supreme i7 high flowclear top
radiator: ek coolstream radiator xt 360 (120.3)
pump: Laing DDC-Pump 12V DDC-1T (MCP 350) Please say if this is suitable or not :p
Pump Top: EK-DDC X-TOP V2 - G1/4 White Acetal I think this works with my above pump
Reservoir: EK-Multioption RES X2 - 250 Basic
Tubing: Masterkleer 3/8" tubing PVC UV-active white 5 metres of that, to be safe :D
Fans: Sharkoon Silent Eagle 2000 120mm Fan - 3/4 Pin Need 3 of these for my rad
Fittings: I need a hand with these. I know I need 8 fittings for input and output from components, but I'm not sure who makes the best. I hear Bitspower make good fittings?
Fluid: Whatever is best really :) Not quite sure yet, need to read up on that :)

I don't think I have forgotten anything, but please mention if you notice something is missing

Update: Anyone care to comment? :p
 
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If you plan to add sli cards to a single loop then you ought to go for the 18W version of that pump or the D5. If on the other hand you think you may go to two separate loops then the 10W pump you have specified will actually be just the job for just the cpu. Or you could just sell it as and when obviously.

There is no real need to go for that big res. It is natural for watercooling newcomers to think that the higher the volume of water in a loop the better it will perform. Whilst this is factually correct, the actual difference is three fifths of naff all, so a more compact rez will be easier to work with and will do just the same job as the EK250. Only go for the 250 if you like the look of it really.

Fittings wise, barbs are easier the first time.
 
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