First time watercooler.

47Uber

47Uber

47Uber

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Joined
16 Nov 2012
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Location
Fife/Scotland
Hi all

Been building and gaming for way to many years now and looking at upgrading and taking the plunge into watercooling :eek::eek: Here is the list of my components and was wondering if someone could spec me a watercooling setup please.

Motherboard = Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H LGA1155
CPU = Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivy Bridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor
Ram = 16GB Mushkin Enhanced BlackLine Frostbyte #993995 (4x4GB) 1600 (PC3-12800) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM CAS 9-9-9-24 1.5V
GPU = 2x MSI twin frozr II HD 6950
Soundcard = Soundblaster X-FI Titanium Fatality
Case = Corsair HAF-X

I was looking at the XSPC RayStorm Twin D5 AX360 WaterCooling Kit for future proofing but unsure about cooling the gpu's and which way best to route the loop.

As I said im totally new to this and any information would be greatly appreciated:D:D:D:D
 
XSPC RayStorm Twin D5 AX360 WaterCooling Kit, looks a good kit.
as of cooling g card,
card, 2 connections, spare tubing & your are ready. kit well good enough to cool both cpu & gpu.
i see u putting it in a haf x, u will loose the top drive bay spaces if that bothers you with 360 rad. if only using 1 dvd cd ect, this will not be any problem.
 
I can't comment on the AX360 kit but the RX360 kit is brilliant.

The AX360 is over kill tbh as you don't need 2 D5 pumps. I recommend you get the RX360 kit. A D5 pump is one of the most/if not the best pump you can get.

You will be fine with a 360 rad with the cpu and the gpu's. However, another 120/240 rad wouldn't hurt.

I have no idea/information about the haf x, but cases like the NZXT 810 switch is a brilliant case to water cool. Get a nice thick 360 up top and a nice 240 thick rad at the bottom without modding etc.

You may need to get some angle fittings (45 & 90 degree) on hand to make things easier for you to get your tubing right.

I was fine with 2m of tubing, but that was being carful, so getting another 1m of tubing would be a good idea.

You will need 2L of fluid, and that's a must! I've gone through roughly 1.5L.

Any more information you need, give us a shout!
 
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Just so you know the 6950 TFII is based on a 6870 PCB, so you'll need 6870 waterblocks, you'll probably have to order those direct from EK as they're quite hard to get hold of in the UK unfortunately.
 
Many thanks for your help so far, been having quite a lot of issues of late after buying a second hand xfi fatality soundcard. Had to reformatted around 8 times after driver issues crashed my windows install. Will be putting watercooling on hold till new year, will get funds from selling old kit. Once again thanks for all the help so far.
 
Right I have sold most of my old pc equipment and now looking to get some watercooling done, here is what im thinking of getting so need to make sure it's right.

Your basket
Product Name Qty Price Line Total
XSPC RayStorm D5 RX360 WaterCooling Kit ** WITH FREE WOW EXPANSION ** £289.68
(£241.40) £289.68
(£241.40)
XSPC AX120 Single Fan Radiator (Black) £54.98
(£45.82) £54.98
(£45.82)
EK-EKoolants Blood Red £5.99
(£4.99) £17.97
(£14.97)
EK-PSC Adapter Rotary 90° G1/4 Black Nickel £3.59
(£2.99) £10.77
(£8.97)
EK-PSC Adapter Rotary 45° G1/4 Black Nickel £3.59
(£2.99) £10.77
(£8.97)
Sub Total : £320.13

Total : £396.16 inc vat and shipping.

Would this be any good, also will be getting a new g/card so not looking to watercool that till later. Oh I maybe stupid but can anyone tell me what the "free WOW expansion" is :)
 
Free World Of Warcraft expansion pack, if you don't play WOW just sell it ;)

OcUk are nice like that, always giving away freebies.

Looks fine but you WILL need an extra two fittings for that AX120

That also gives you enough radiator to get your new GPU under water too :)
 
Sounds good, as above the D5 is basically the best pump used atm, so you can't go wrong.

Personally I'd go with an EK kit, but that's just me. :)
 
Ok another wee question for you good watercoolers out there, just bought and installed a MSI lightning 7970 boost edition g/card and as such I would be looking to watercool it as well. Now do I go for something like this- EK-FC7970 Lightning - Acetal+Nickel as it says it has been designed for the lightning card or as im going with the XSPC kit would I go for this - XSPC Razor 7970 GPU Waterblock (Raystorm Style). I personally would like to go for the XSPC waterblock but im worried it wont cool the whole card. Can I have some assistance if you could please.
 
You 100% have to use the ek block designed for the lightning, try force a regular block on you'll end up with an expensive paper weight.
 
Hi all and a Happy New Year to all

Ordered my watercooling set-up but the 7970 lightning block is out of stock, so instead of waiting on the block arriving then building my system im going to push on and build the single cpu loop first and get used to fitting and running the system. I will post back on my progress with some pics of thats ok with you all.

A wee tad super exited :) :) :)
 
Well recieved my kit on thurs 3rd Jan but was working till last night and made arrangements to fit today the 5th Jan. Stripped down the pc totally cause I wanted to runs my cables differently. All going well and got the rad fitted and fans but went to trial fit the pump/res but wait ohhhh noooooo there aint no pump in the kit, looked 4 times through the delivery box but nope still not matierialised. Give overclockers there due and once I telephoned them one is coming straight away to me but not got me computer till next week :(:(:(
 
That sucks :(

At least it seems you had good customer support though!

Don't forget though, depending what kit you have actually gone for - if you watercool the GPU as well you'll probably need more radiators!
 
The gpu cooler (MSI Lightning Boost Edition) im looking for is still out of stock, Once this comes in I will be fitting an additional 240 Rad in the bottom of my case. Yes im thinking overclockers is one of the better shops to deal with.
 
Addicted said:
That sucks :(

At least it seems you had good customer support though!

Don't forget though, depending what kit you have actually gone for - if you watercool the GPU as well you'll probably need more radiators!
Click to expand...

If I am reading his spec list correctly he is going to have a triple and a single radiator in the loop giving him the equivalent of a 480 radiator in the loop. Why would he need more than that, even allowing for him adding his gpu in to the loop. With that amount of radiator he could probably go for a xfire/ sli set-up and have reasonable temps.

Obviously the more radiator surface area the better, and I am very much a noob when it comes to the subject, so I will bow to your experience but everything I have read would suggest the op has ample cooling potential.

I am going for a single 360 rad (external) to cool my i7 920 @4GHz and a hoping for a fairly high overclock on my 7970. Will see how I get on. Can always add a single or a dual in to the loop inside case if need be if temps aren't best.
 
Ahh, bummer, nothing worse than waiting for a delivery, it'll take forever lol, i hope they chuck some free haribo in for your troubles :)
 
480 is plenty to handle an oc'd i5 3570 and 7970. Of course more rads is better (to a point) but practicality comes into the equation.

Considering the AX120 is a med/high fpi radiator, paired with a good static pressure fan, it will allow you to crank up the fan speed for extra cooling capacity when you want it. You can then turn it down when not gaming/benching. You could automate it using a pwm fan and connect to the cpu header and configure a profile so that it speeds up on load or at temp.
But youl likely find with your 24/7 oc that at the quieter rpm's, 480 is enough while gaming etc anyway.
 
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