Cost of watercooling.

[Distracted]

I started planning my watercooled build and figuring i would be going hardline i assumed i wouldnt need any fittings beside the bare minimum.

Moving on after buying the hardline stuff and bare minimum i have now bought angles and soft tubing for behind the scenes stuff and draining / filling the loop. I have bought an extra external radiator and have to get all the fans that go with it.
I need ball valves and splitters and all sorts of other bits to complete the simple loop and all the while my mind is pushing for more.
"Look how cool and stable the system is with just a 360! Imagine what it will be like with a billion 360s!"

This is not a rant, I'm not unhappy with how things have turned out. Just an observation that watercooling is considerably more expensive than i had anticipated. Even without all the unnecessary extras I have since added, the price of the bare minimum was quickly piling up.

So, beware. Water cooling sucks you in!

But it is incredibly satisfying.

 

[Distracted]

Oh yeah, all the extra metal plus the water adds a lot of weight. Mine is going on the wall once it is done

As for cost, I can't check the total right now, but I know that I had a couple of orders for a few fittings that were over 70 pounds each. And I was searching around for, not the cheapest, but reasonable value when buying. So it could have been much worse. I chose EK fittings, but if I had gone with a no name brand off eBay, or imported something Chinese I could have probably saved lots but I kept reading that cheaping out on fittings in particular would come back to bite me so I went with a known brand. I haven't been disappointed by the EK fittings yet.

If I had chosen Bitspower it could have been much more expensive!


Those orders weren't the only ones for fittings and don't include the cost of the radiator, pump, res, tubing, water (distilled or deionised), blocks for both GPU and CPU, as well as biocide and inhibitor. That would be the bare minimum for a full gpu/cpu loop.

For my own loop I have to add the cost of going with the Formula XI so I could add the VRMs to the loop, as well as the additional cost of my going with both hardline and soft tubing as well as buying an external rad because I have no self control.

It all adds up really quickly. I just popped to my nearby computer store, which is reasonably priced compared to online, and left with my wallet over 100 pound lighter when I decided to switch to soft tubing as a temporary fix to test my blocks and other components in the loop while I was still figuring out (and working up the courage to do) my hard tubing. That trip was for the absolute bare minimum in fittings, plus tubing to make the loop work.

Like I said in my previous post however, I don't regret this. I'm really enjoying it and I am very excited to get it all finished and start benchmarking and overclocking. In fact, I think I will be a little disappointed when it is all finished because I'm enjoying the build so much. But it is considerably more expensive than I was expecting.

That said, I didn't need to buy the formula or the extra rad or the exact blocks and res and whatnot that I did, so it could have been much cheaper. The cost of the bare minimum (without those extras) is still a shock, but I think if you go into it with eyes wide open and have a clear plan of what you want it is possible and easy to stick to a budget. Plan, plan, plan.

Or YOLO it.

 

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I would fully recommend barrow fittings off the bay. I have loads including bits power and EK and the barrow fittings feel just as comparable as bits power.

Rate both over EK for fittings but between bits power and barrow the latter is great fornthe price you get a very solid fitting . and you don't have the seahorse stamped on all the fittings. I know some people slate barrow making a like for like fitting, but when I save nearly a grand on fittings alone, YOLO. EK for blocks though.

I looked at Barrow and seriously considered them. They have a really nice looking res as well.

Unfortunately i was trying to get everything done in one weekend so i found myself relying on an online shop with a next day delivery service and my local computer store.

Both of which had EK and Bitspower but no Barrow. My wallet chose EK over Bitspower.

I don't know what the quality of anything besides EK and thermaltake fittings is like because those are the only ones I have tried. I certainly wouldn't have classed Barrow as 'cheap' in terms of quality from what i have read, inexpensive compared to others perhaps, but they seem to be well regarded as a brand.

I do know there are fittings out there that you can get very cheap and to be honest they look fine. But everything i read about fittings said if i went with the no name stuff on the bay i would regret it. Those are the type i was referring to in my other post.

 

[Distracted]

A quick update on my water cooling progress.

I have now abandoned the idea of hardline due to the need to be able to get access to the CPU and other components for swapping or upgrading or simply remounting etc. I did not factor this in to my plans when I started this journey, but during the months I have been putting things together I have come to the conclusion that flexible tubing is a must right now for practical reasons. Originally I was planning on wall mounting my case and then forgetting it, allowing me to use the PC and work or enjoy some games. Instead the building bug has hit me hard and I find myself constantly tweaking and changing things, and hard tubing sucks a lot of the fun out of this due to the additional time it takes to move anything in the loop vs soft tubing.

As well as switching entirely to soft tubing I have abandoned my plan for a compact self contained build.
Working in the Lian Li Pc-o7 I was buying all sorts of specific parts to make a decent loop fit while making the bare minimum of modifications to the case. In fact my target number of mods was zero. So when I was forced to drill several holes in the case it broke must have broken down some imaginary barrier I had created in mind and opened the flood gates of modding possibility.

Madness ensued.

I drilled larger holes and mount points for aesthetic reasons and swapped out the compromise kit I had originally bought for 'better' parts that fit with the newly modified case.
Then several parts arrived and they wouldn't fit without some drastic modding which I obviously felt was a step too far so I put that on hold while I approached the problem from another perspective.
'What if i mounted a rad next to the case, I bet that would look awesome on the wall all lit up together...'
That's when I bought a Mo-Ra3 and the various tubing and fittings that I needed to add the external rad to the loop, and I have been trying to figure out how to power and control the fans I have yet to buy ever since.

By now I had a redonculous amount of cooling kit, most untouched, that I couldn't fit in my case and my plans for a clean self contained wall mounted build with subtle lighting and hard tubing were a pipe dream

In a moment of frustration with the space I was working with I ordered a new case and abandoned the dream of a wall mounted build. But all was not lost, my Evolv X arrived and all of a sudden I had a brand new blank canvas and a flood of new ideas came with it.

I've changed everything that I bought for the Lian Li build (which I never finished) and most of the parts intended for the pc-o7 still stare at me reproachfully from the corner of the room, where they sit unused and unloved as a reminder of the money I've wasted.

Skipping forward to where I am now, missing several mind farts and tenuous logical leaps that made purchasing decisions make perfect sense, I now have a Phanteks Evolv X with 3 interal rads and 5 external 1080 radiators (well I already had one so the rest just made sense...) as well as an entire spare set of parts with which i can build another complete loop (with bits to spare). This is instead of the single black square i was planning to mount on the wall. And I have spent considerably more time building planning, stripping, flushing and cleaning and then rebuilding my PC than I have actually using it.

Which takes me back to my original post. I've loved and at times loathed water cooling, but I am so glad I chose to get into it. It has been a massive time and money sink but it has made me realise that it is okay to make mistakes, make a mess and set aside time for myself to really get lost in something and be happy. Even when I really wasn't, the frustration I felt was a driving force rather than a limiting one and that was borne of my own joy and desire to continue doing something that genuinely made me happy.

I'm still not finished, I have to get the external radiators fitted and I am thinking about adding fans to them despite buying them to make the build as quiet as possible.

You know, just in case I need them.

I've also had several hardware issues which are slowing things down, and having just the one PC means if I absolutely have to use it and the loop is in bits, then I need to strip it quickly and pop a noctua on the cpu to allow me to get things done.

But I am happy. I'm glad I went with water cooling and come what may I can look back on this, whether success or failure, and say that I have thoroughly enjoyed the journey.

 

[Distracted]

Yup. I think it has been a bit of an escape from some of lifes worries and trials as well to be honest. Even if I can't build I can plan and and buy what parts I need, or think i need. A snatched moment here and there browsing on the phone can be costly but satisfying.

 

[Distracted]

I'm also keeping mine, at least for the time being. I want to make sure I don't sell anything I might need should I decide to change the setup again.

Plus I'm really keen to build a second pc so i don't have downtime when tinkering. I also want it for rendering while I do other things on the main rig so I might water cool that one as well...

Best of luck with your build. I hope it goes more smoothly than mine, but is at least as satisfying for you

 

[Distracted]

Wow, i only needed 6 compression fittings lol and maybe some soft tubing .

I clearly remember thinking and saying something similar at the start of my build.

It is a lot of fun enjoy. (Don't forget the 90 degree fittings)


(And the stop plugs..)


(And the fill tube/port/bottle whatever...)


(And the drain port / valve etc...)


(And wait.. ram can be watercooled?! Better hop on that too...)

 

[Distracted]

You can watercool PSU's now, what is the world coming to, but yeah i really do only need 6 comp fitting and tube, i already went mad on the Member market and bought a ship ton of things already lol

edit* hmmmm but some 90. fittings would make it look a lot better

And so it begins...


90s are a huge help, even with flex tube they make things much easier and help to prevent kinking or awkward runs.

 

[Distracted]

Damnit, my wife is going to castrate me, but who needs bits when i can have a custom cooled pc

Right?

And get some decent thermal pads for when your gpu block arrives. None of that included-with-the-block nonsense, splash out to really get those temps down.

 

[Distracted]

How'd you know I had a block coming?
.... and what thermal pads would one recommend?

I read the radeon VII thread as well, I was hoping it would be my next card.
I don't know about which pads but from what I gather the included ones are generally bargain basement so something like thermal grizzly pads would be an upgrade. With that said plenty of people use the included ones without issue, so if the family jewels are on the line using the stock pads might not be so bad.

I chose fujipolys because I wanted to have no regrets when trying to overclock or get cool temps. I picked the best I could afford with the assumption that it would get the heat into the loop and away from the card faster. I'm not left wondering if changing the pads will get me the last few points in a benchmark or a nice round number on my overclock. I say that because if I hadn't changed the pads I know I would be buyjng them now anyway to see if they made a difference.

For reference I built a 'budget loop' with the cheapest EK CPU block (£35), 2nd hand GPU block (£60), cheapest rads available (£20 + £40), straight barbs (£40), no drain port or anything. I was gonna use a mixture of fans I already had but they weren't good enough so bought eight Arctic Cooling F12s (£24). Sorta splurged on Mayhems pastel (£10) and Primochill LRT tubing (£15), and properly splurged on a D5 pump res combo (£110). It was surprising the total was still £354 which was more than the GTX 780 + 2500K I was cooling with them.

However, watercooling adds significant inertia to my build which prevents any impulse upgrades cause blocks cost so much and require a few hours to install. I haven't changed anything major in 2.5 years and I still can't be arsed with anything new.

That last bit is part of the reason why I'm not dissapointed with how much the loop has cost. I feel like the investment is letting me get the best of my current components and giving me a reason to keep them longer than I otherwise would. Sure rads and fittings can be reused, but like you say, blocks aren't cheap so I will be putting off the next upgrade for a while.