Advice on first time GFX & CPU loop, please.

nick-fury

nick-fury

nick-fury

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Howdie,

I'm after some advice on creating my first watercooled loop please.

I guess my main query is, would a single radiator be enough to cool an i9 9900K and a 2080ti?
I should note nothing is overclocked, hell, I can't even put the side of my case on at the moment because the graphics card runs so hot.

I'm looking at these components so far:

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £290.39 (includes shipping: £10.50)​
​

GFX Card Waterblock: https://www.evga.com/products/product.aspx?pn=400-HC-1389-B1
That's the only one I could find that lists compatibility with my card which is the EVGA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti XC BLACK EDITION.

My case is a Corsair Carbide Air 240 and motherboard is MSI MPG Z390M.

Any advice is greatly appreciated as this will be my first time.

Cheers.
 
Agree with String. That's the hottest Nvidia GPU and the hottest consumer Intel CPU available this year. 3-4 fans worth of radiator might work but won't necessarily be the coolest or quietest. For reference I have an i5-4690k (4 cores no hyperthreading, <100W) and a GTX 1070 (<180W, two tiers below the beefiest GPU). I have 4x120mm worth of radiator space and it's quiet under load with temperatures approaching 55°C. Which is pretty warm for custom water.

Considering your CPU is 8 cores hyperthreaded, and your GPU is almost double the consumption of mine, I'd aim for 4-6 fans worth.
 
By the way, your card uses a reference PCB design so most blocks will fit. I believe the XC edition is just a rename for the older SC which were reference cards.
 
Really appreciate the insight guys, thanks a lot.

Looks like I'm going to have the change the case as I'm going to struggle to fit multiple rads into it.
 
Hey guys, could you cast your eye over this basket please to see if there are any glaring errors...

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £541.06 (includes shipping: £12.30)
​

I'd use 2x 120mm EK Vardar and 2x 140mm EK Vardar fans on the rads.

Is the pump "big" enough?

Thanks.
 
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D5 is a great choice, quiet but pretty powerful.

Have you sourced an appropriate block for the GPU yet?

I'd also recommend a look at the sundries you'll need - fluids, a funnel, a fitting and spare tubing. Also a T-splitter and ball valve ideally.
 
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My initial thoughts are to mount the EK-CoolStream CE 280 on the front and the EK-CoolStream SE 240 on the top.

I'd probably mount the pump at the rear, where you can see the fan in the little picture above.

In terms of flow, I was thinking Pump -> GPU -> CE 280 -> SE 240 -> CPU -> Pump. Is that ok?
Pull air in through the front, push it out the top.

The t-splitter and ball valve, would they go at the bottom of the case before the CE 280 for drainage? Is that the thinking?

I haven't sourced the GPU block yet, I did look on the EK website but they didn't list compatibility for my card.

Thanks again for the help guys.
 
nick-fury said:
The t-splitter and ball valve, would they go at the bottom of the case before the CE 280 for drainage? Is that the thinking?

I haven't sourced the GPU block yet, I did look on the EK website but they didn't list compatibility for my card.
Click to expand...
Indeed, drain from lowest point (with an opening near the top to let air in)

I'd look into the EK blocks because they should have a reference block to fit your card.
 
nick-fury said:
I'd probably mount the pump at the rear, where you can see the fan in the little picture above.
Click to expand...

I'm not seeing any picture?

Edit:

You mean like this?

gFehYhIh.jpg
 
I originally thought to put it where the rear case fan is, but I guess it would work better as shown in that picture as it would be easier to fill?

How would you introduce an opening at the top of a setup like that to let air in?
 
nick-fury said:
I originally thought to put it where the rear case fan is, but I guess it would work better as shown in that picture as it would be easier to fill?

How would you introduce an opening at the top of a setup like that to let air in?
Click to expand...
Generally you can open the top of the rad initially, and once some air is in you could pop a fitting off the top rad.
 
Get a multi-port 240 for the top so that there are fitting points facing downwards but also upwards. For filling, you open the upwards ports and using a funnel, fill the loop. When draining, you use the t at the bottom of the loop to the ball-valve, opening the top and the ball-valve into a bottle or jug.
 
You can mount the pump in the back above the psu assuming you remove the SSD rack,lets you have a cleaner looking build.And then put your drain on the front mounted rad.

With your hardware i would deffo consider a 360mm rad instead of a 280 for the front,9900k+2080ti is a lot of watts to dissipate
 
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