Cost of set up

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25 Nov 2009
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Hey guys what's roughly the start up cost of getting into water cooling?

Looking at just cooling the cpu
I7 7800k

Getting a bit lost with all the options.

I fancy the idea of just using fittings on the hardline tubing

What do you guys recommend?

Which Decent reliable brands to go for?

360 rad ideally.

Cheers
 
Are you overclocking, as a decent air cooler will be just as effective as an AIO, more so when you factor in cost. I think a decent air cooler will outperform most 240mm AIOs for half the cost.

I believe Acetek are the ones most people go for at a reasonable price point which are effective and reliable though, OCUK do some decent kits of their own using Asetek parts.
 
this is by no means an exhaustive list of what you will need but it will give you a feeling of what is needed and the costs involved.
you also need to add in coolant costs, dyes etc.
cost of connections may go up/down depending on how many you need for the set up you choose.
also factor in cost of tools for working with hardline tubing - heat gun, cutters, chamfer tool etc etc.

finally - time, you need to factor in a lot of time if this is your first venture into watercooling. hardline tubing is much less forgiving than soft tubing. hardline takes a lot of practice and patience. you will balls up the first few attempts, without doubt.

my first foray into watercooling was hardline, given what I know now would I change to soft tubing if I had to start again.....nope, for me hardline tubing looks far superior to soft.
i see so many rigs in the project logs thread that look gorgeous during the build stage but when finished the soft tubing destroys them totally - though that is obviously subjective.

finally, finally, what are you trying to achieve by watercooling just the cpu (i assume that is the case going by your op) noise reduction? better cooling? or simply aesthetics?

if it is purely noise reduction, you're in for a shock - without cooling the gpu you will see very little reduction in noise levels.
if it is for better cooling, then yea you're good. a custom cooled kit will far exceed the cooling capabilities of air or aio.
if it is for the aesthetics, again you're good. have a look at some of the hardline rigs in the project logs or even just google for inspiration.

and finally, finally, finally......plan. you need to properly plan the layout/flow you want. draw it up in something simple like paint and post it up here long before you start for some advice/critique.


My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £326.32 (includes shipping: £10.50)
 
I did toy with the idea of a proper setup like the above, as I have all the EK blocks for my motherboard already, but I've bought the Tech Labs AIO for the GPU only, as the CPU is cooled with a Noctua d14 and despite being clocked from 2.67hgz to 4.4ghz it still never goes above 60 degrees in synthetic bench tests and gaming never above 50. Main aim for this was reduce GPU temps and noise, as running my 1070ti overclocked it gets to 70ish, but the fan is at 100% to keep it there, which is too loud.
 
I did toy with the idea of a proper setup like the above, as I have all the EK blocks for my motherboard already, but I've bought the Tech Labs AIO for the GPU only, as the CPU is cooled with a Noctua d14 and despite being clocked from 2.67hgz to 4.4ghz it still never goes above 60 degrees in synthetic bench tests and gaming never above 50. Main aim for this was reduce GPU temps and noise, as running my 1070ti overclocked it gets to 70ish, but the fan is at 100% to keep it there, which is too loud.
what? I'm replying to the op?! who has asked for an idea of costs etc for getting into watercooling. you've clearly already got the setup you want, so not sure on what your reply is in relation to. sorry if i sound a bit arsey but I'm just confused by your reply!? :p
 
Me too! I've bookmarked your advice though for when I get the balls to do a real water cooling setup, as that's what I was looking for when I first started building mine, I was going to watercool the whole system until I looked at how complex it was!
 
Me too! I've bookmarked your advice though for when I get the balls to do a real water cooling setup, as that's what I was looking for when I first started building mine, I was going to watercool the whole system until I looked at how complex it was!
to be honest, the whole system isn't really anymore complex than just cooling the cpu or gpu. jut more tubing and connectors needed.and time of course!
 
to be honest, the whole system isn't really anymore complex than just cooling the cpu or gpu. jut more tubing and connectors needed.and time of course!

Time for me is one of the main issues. Having a 1 year old means time is pretty much at a premium, by the time he goes to bed, we need to get our dinner and then chill for a bit, so doesn't leave many hours in the day for messing around. The PC I have now I had to bring all the parts into work to build it over a few lunch hours lol. I'm going to attempt to fit my AIO later, I've given myself an hour window, but even then think that might be pushing it!
 
Time for me is one of the main issues. Having a 1 year old means time is pretty much at a premium, by the time he goes to bed, we need to get our dinner and then chill for a bit, so doesn't leave many hours in the day for messing around. The PC I have now I had to bring all the parts into work to build it over a few lunch hours lol. I'm going to attempt to fit my AIO later, I've given myself an hour window, but even then think that might be pushing it!
yea i was in the same boat and think it took me a few months to get it all to sorted!
 
Cheers guys for all the replies
Some Informative and some not so much
.

Im a plumber by trade so a simple loop to the cpu is child's play. I've designed and plumbed hotels.

Just wanted to know roughly the cost.

@Thekwango

Thanks for the information.

At that cost I think I will go with an
Aio cooler.

The new corsair 360mm 150i pro looks good
Or
Be quiet silent loop 360.
 
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