Exactly how hard is it to water cool your CPU and GPU?

[SpudMaster]

Is there anyway to avoid taking the loop apart all apart and cleaning it? Like if you replaced the liquid every 6 months say? I really want to do this for my next build wether that’s doing it myself or a pre build or getting someone to do it. Just taking it apart scares me

Never used them myself but Mayhems sell Blitz System Cleaning kits for cleaning water loops. Again never used it myself but I think your supposed to drain your loop, add the cleaning agents from the kit to your loop. Run it for a while and then flush it out and refill with coolant.

Reason I've never used a Blitz kit is one cost and two I prefer to dismantle my blocks and clean by hand, that way I can see if its cleaned thoroughly and check for blockages etc.

 

[Toasty]

Mayhems blitz is two part and requires taking the loop apart as just for copper/ brass radiators it’s not to be used with plated stuff like blocks.

If going soft tubing I would use ZMT tubing as anything else leeches crap into the loop overtime

 

[von Humboldt]

Just out of interest, what would the life expectancy be for a good AIO cooler?

 

[SirConfused]

Just out of interest, what would the life expectancy be for a good AIO cooler?

Never used one myself, but a good place to start is the warranty period. Arctic give you 6 years so that says they expect the vast majority of their units to survive past that point, and if yours doesn't then you can just get a shiny new one for free .

 

[LePhuronn]

Personally I`m not a lover of distroplates, they make all the builds look the same

That's more to do with everybody uses the same case with these commercially available distros. Every distro build uses some flavour of the Lian Li O11 with one of 2 EK distros and the same EK blocks to ensure everything lines up.

Distro plates are still a big thing in the modding community that popularised them, and you'll never see the same thing twice.

 

[Hawk Tuah]

I've got a 240mm AIO on the CPU and a 120mm AIO on the GPU. So, pretty easy.

 

[Tetras]

I do have a further question and this may be a case of it's an unknown but for example AMD are moving to the LG socket, if I got a CPU block for a 7950x lets say, would all the chips that come out use the same block or would say the 8950x (example) need a different block? Obviously I know if I go Raptor Lake it's the last of this type of chip so there won't be any upgrade path for CPU.

As long as it has the cooling capacity for the upgrade you should have no problems for at least a few years (probably 5 or more), AM5 very unlikely to be changed unless there's something disastrously wrong with the design (which I'd imagine they would have found out by now).

 

[Haz123]

I did my first (and only) custom loop just over a year ago. I have a distro plate and an O11 so it is not original in anyway but I am very happy with the outcome and will not hesitate to reuse the vast majority of this kit when I upgrade and swap things around. With the mistakes I made and not really knowing what I was doing it most likely cost around £700 over just getting an AIO. Mobo died after 6 months so I had to take it apart and rebuild the entire thing on Christmas eve and it took me the best part of a day to do it.
Things I will do in the future is add another rad, at the moment I have the gpu in vertical orientation but I will most likely need another rad with a more powerful gpu so will have to scrap that idea and do it normally. Add an inline temp sensor like pastymuncher mentions. I will most likely change the fluid later this year but there is no real maintenance and just needs a dust now and again.

For me it was a huge learning curve but it is very much like building your first PC. Once you have done it you realize it is not rocket science and you just need to take your time and work around any issues that come up. I would also recommend an air pressure tool to check if the loop is air tight.

There are no real performance benefits to a custom loop in this day and age but I like how it looks so I am happy with the result.

 

[V F]

That's more to do with everybody uses the same case with these commercially available distros. Every distro build uses some flavour of the Lian Li O11 with one of 2 EK distros and the same EK blocks to ensure everything lines up.

Distro plates are still a big thing in the modding community that popularised them, and you'll never see the same thing twice.

Though, when distro plates has the tubing lined up perfectly level, they're gorgeous.

 

[von Humboldt]

Looks smart alright. Unfortunately for me, my PC has to go under my desk so there isn't much point in prettifying it. A plain old flexible tubing set-up would at least save me some coin.

 

[Bugbait]

If going soft tubing I would use ZMT tubing as anything else leeches crap into the loop overtime

I can also recommend Mayhems Ultra Clear. Mate and I have been using it for years and there is zero leeching that we're noticed.

 

[LePhuronn]

Though, when distro plates has the tubing lined up perfectly level, they're gorgeous.

Fully agree, which is what annoys me even more about all these O11 builds because rarely are people committing to the correct components. So many times I've seen people get some flavour of the O11 and whichever EK distro they want, but then DON'T get any of the Matrix7 EK blocks and have all manner of janky mess with offset fittings, double 45 rotaries and snakes, tubes that aren't actually straight or have offset bends in them to line up.

Honestly, it feels like every Tom, Dick and Harry saw a JR23, HPS or Maki Role custom build from a decade ago and said "yeah, we want that as well" but without the skillset to actually pull it off.

And now JR23 is lead designer for EK........


Rant over, I shan't derail this thread any further lol

 

[Disco_P]

It's not hard per se but it definitely can be. To keep it easy, use a good case, plan everything and keep it simple.

Fully agree, which is what annoys me even more about all these O11 builds because rarely are people committing to the correct components. So many times I've seen people get some flavour of the O11 and whichever EK distro they want, but then DON'T get any of the Matrix7 EK blocks and have all manner of janky mess with offset fittings, double 45 rotaries and snakes, tubes that aren't actually straight or have offset bends in them to line up.

Honestly, it feels like every Tom, Dick and Harry saw a JR23, HPS or Maki Role custom build from a decade ago and said "yeah, we want that as well" but without the skillset to actually pull it off.

And now JR23 is lead designer for EK........


Rant over, I shan't derail this thread any further lol

What are you on about? Great thing about watercooling is that you can mix parts and build pretty much whatever you want.

 

[LePhuronn]

What are you on about? Great thing about watercooling is that you can mix parts and build pretty much whatever you want.

Well yeah, right up until you use an EK distro plate with anything other than EK blocks. Then you have to make concessions which massively hamper the aesthetic quality of the build, which completely negates the point of using a distro and parallel tube runs in the first place.

Seriously, go look at the plethora of O11 EK distro builds on Reddit and builds.gg. Everything that uses EK Matrix7 blocks are perfect. Swap out even 1 component for non-EK and you get weird pipe bends, offset fittings and port bridges all over the place. Looks horrendous and defeats the entire point.

As many have said in this thread alone, contemporary watercooling is pretty much an aesthetic exercise, so why spend all that money on something that looks like ass?

 

[V F]

Well yeah, right up until you use an EK distro plate with anything other than EK blocks. Then you have to make concessions which massively hamper the aesthetic quality of the build, which completely negates the point of using a distro and parallel tube runs in the first place.

Seriously, go look at the plethora of O11 EK distro builds on Reddit and builds.gg. Everything that uses EK Matrix7 blocks are perfect. Swap out even 1 component for non-EK and you get weird pipe bends, offset fittings and port bridges all over the place. Looks horrendous and defeats the entire point.

As many have said in this thread alone, contemporary watercooling is pretty much an aesthetic exercise, so why spend all that money on something that looks like ass?

Even the original EK Velocity block doesn't line up with the original distro plate that had the stainless steel front covering the pump. I had to use 7mm offset rotaries to get it perfectly level with a mini spirit level.

Watercooled Case Gallery

This is brilliant. What are the specs that are being cooled? Why the tinfoil? Is it quiet? Why switch from lovely blue coolant (antifreeze?) to pee? So many questions! Metallic tape was often used to attach fans to radiators if the radiator was non-standard which many weren't. The image...

forums.overclockers.co.uk

Unless you were supposed to use the Magnitude with the 011D distro plate?

 

[LePhuronn]

I don't think the 1st gen distro plate worked properly with anything tbh. Matrix7 launched alongside the 2nd gen distros, new radiators and Velocity2 blocks.

 

[SpudMaster]

This is why distro plates are rubbish imo. Pay lots of money to reduce performace, have a clone build and be locked into EKs over priced and under performing components (assumings you have an EK distro plate)

 

[PaulC2K]

I've owned one water-cooled PC which I bought as a pre build from OcUK many years ago as the thought of water-cooling scares the hell out of me.

With the new Nvidia cards and CPUs on the way I'm thinking of going down the water-cooling route for my next build, looking at the pre builds OcUK do I just feel for the money I could potentially buy the parts and build a better machine. However, this brings me back to my first point in that it scares the hell out of me.

I know Corsair do some kits but I think I want my GPU under water this time, I'm not a massive overclocker or anything like that just want to keep temps of my components down.

Just how hard is it? Any advice or things you wish you knew before you went down the water cooled route?

Thanks

You mention the Corsair kits, have you seen the one specifically for their 5000 series cases? Not particularly cheap (£1k), but its everything you'd need, and while it is hardline, its pre-bent/cut and even includes the GPU line if you want to add in a GPU block.

I happen to like the 5000D Airflow, and im also fairly apprehensive about going to hardline so it seemed like it got me what i wanted, for the price of what it'd cost individually anyway, without the stress of f'ing up bends etc. I built a WC PC with soft tube around 2005 and then went back to air then AIO, i was never happy with the soft tube results. Now i want to try something different and hardline builds just look more spectacular, more like an artform when done well, and thats what im hoping for in my next build.

However having looked further afield than Corsair, and seeing things i like much more, im now leaning towards an apparently WELL travelled path with the O11 & EK route sorry guys.
Theres every chance i'll join the list of people unknowingly doing it badly though but im planning on spending plenty of time figuring our what i need to do it right, but yeah its fairly daunting but theres so much expertise out there to get advice from, it doesnt have to be a lonely solo journey.

 

[random_matt]

Not difficult, although hard tubing takes a little more effort.

 

[Gavster]

Buy some extra tubing and practice some bends and watch some you time videos too.
Pay particular attention to deburring the tubes once you've cut them, the last thing you want is damaging the o rings in the fittings with tubing that still had some sharp edges.