Bit out of touch with Watercooling but upgrading to Quad - Help

[AFK_Matrix]

Hi,

My rig is in my sig and I have been very happy with the watercooling setup, which cools the CPU, Northbridge and GPU. Now it needs a bloody good cleaning and I thought it would be a good time to upgrade to a Quad core.

So here are the parts I want to get but I have no clue what are good blocks now so all help would be appreciated.

CPU - Intel Core i7 920 D0 Stepping
Motherboard - Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5 Intel X58
GPU - XFX ATI Radeon HD 4890 XT 1GB

Does this motherboard need the Northbridge cooling or will it be fine as is?

Thanks.

 

[Greebo]

Depends on how extreme you plan to overclock but in general the nb on the x58 run a lot cooler than previous chipsets and the gigabyte board has good cooling so long as you remove the stupid blue caps on the heatsinks.

Also the nb heatsink is connected via heatpipes to the rest of the board so you will have to butcher the heatsink rig or buy a full set of waterblocks which will be very expensive so I personally wouldn't bother.

Full waterblocks for the gpu are the way to go and there is little difference between them so just get the cheapest full block.

As for the cpu there's a good roundup here:

http://www.madshrimps.be/?action=getarticle&number=9&artpage=4163&articID=931

Of course, there is no outright winner as with all waterblocks it depends on the rest of your loop and what else you are cooling.

For example, notice the XSPC which doesn't hardly cool any better on high flow on the pump versus slow due to it being a very unrestrictive block. Restrictive blocks benefit from high flow rate/pressure.

So the answer totally depends on your radiator (these vary greatly in restrictiveness), your pump specs and how amny other things you are cooling.

Personally, I went for the totally unrestrictive loop in my rig with the XSPC block and a low restiction radiator. SOme people go for restrictive blocks which has the potential to cool to a lower temp but you need the pump hardware to go with it.

So take your pick unless you would like to supply more info on the rest of your setup?

 

[AFK_Matrix]

Hi Greebo,

Thanks for the response, my Water setup is in me sig but to make it easier I'll list it:

CPU - Dtek Fusion (Cooling a E6600 Conroe)
NB - EK Asus Northbridge block on an Asus P5N-E Sli mobo
GPU - EK block on an 8800GTX
Radiator - Thermochill 120.3 rad with 3 fans
Pump - Laing DCC Ultra with the clear top 18w version
Reservoir - Aquatube (Acrylic cylinder)
Tubing - 1/2 inch

Hope thats enough info for you mate. I am hoping the only things I am gonna have to change are the CPU, NB and the GPU blocks as the rest should be fine.

I'll also have a good read of the CPU roundup you linked to.

Thanks.

 

[Greebo]

Sorry I should have look at your sig before replying

Nice kit there.

You have a nice low resistance rad and a very good pump.

Looking at that I would go be tempted with one of the better cooling restrictive cpu blocks again but may depends if you end up going for nb block/full blocks on the motherboard as you might find you flow rates dropping too much as you have so much stuff on one loop so a non restrictive block might be the best.

The d-tek fusion are good but not that good. I think you can get a mounting kit for the i7 but I wouldn't bother. I went from the d-tek fusion to the xspc v3 on my q9650 and my temps dropped by several degrees.

My personal choice would be the xspc v3 as it's great value for money. If you are fine on the restrictive front I would get the ek supreme but it is recommended to only use that block in a single cpu loop so it's performance might end up being less than the xspc.

If you have the money then the Swiftech GTZ or Koolance 350AC or Enzotech Luna Rev A but whether the extra degree or two is worth twice the cost of the other block is debatable..........

Sorry I can't really definitely say you should get block a or b as it is totally dependant on a persons system. That's why the review I linked to is good as it shows high flow, low flow results. ANybody who just looks at normal cpu block reviews and states that block x is best is just wrong. All they can say is with that radiator and pump in the review is it best, it might not be in your own system.

Hope that all helps.

 

[AFK_Matrix]

Well I was very lucky for my birthday in that I got both the Swiftech GTZ and the EK block for the 4890's. Just a shame the mounting kit for the GTZ for i7 seems to be out of stock everywhere grrr.

So I am now going to purchase the upgrade parts and spend a weekend installing all this kit. But I am thinking of replacing my tubing as tbh I haven't cleaned the system in ages and I know there is quite a bit of carp in there at the mo. I am assuming the Masterkleer tubing is still the best?

I have also had a look at the fluids on OCUK and am thinking of getting the blue coils and then some of the Orange fluid OCUK sells. But to date all i have used is distilled water so with this orange stuff do i just put that in and nothing else?

Also what order would you do my loop as I have a horrible feeling its in the wrong order, i think it goes: RES > PUMP > RAD > CPU > GPU > RES. I am only guessing and will check tonight.

 

[Greebo]

Congratulations. As for the order, so long as you have the res before the pump the rest doesn't really matter.

In general, it might be best to go to the cpu next but over a period of time your loop will reach a temperature equilibrium so it won't matter anyway.