First time watercooling

trejo.

trejo.

trejo.

Associate
Joined
29 Jun 2014
Posts
68
Hi Ladies and Gentlebeans,

I'm after some advice from those of you who have dabbled in to watercooling for a while.

I'm looking at migrating my current system over to a Parvum case and want to build a watercooling loop to cool the CPU and Graphics Card. I'll be getting a 980ti to replace my 970.

Is there any preference on what the loop should be cooling first or does it really not matter? Also what size rad should I realistically be looking at? The biggest I can fit? or is that not really how it works?

I've only ever used closed loop CPU coolers in my last two builds but want to tinker around a little. Also if any of you have any advice on a first build, anything I should be aware of?
 
The tried and tested method for rad size, or so many people say is a 120 rad per component cooled and then add another 120 for headroom.

Ive used that method before and it worked well.

When I had my matx gaming / htpc I had a clocked i5 2500k at 4ghz and a 7970 all cooled by a 240 rad and it worked. Temps were not the best however so I added a single 120 rad to the mix and it made a big difference.

Is the parvum a matx case or atx?

Your loop is always better off running res to pump then take it wherever you want it to go.

My current loop goes pump/res combo > 240 rad > 360 rad > gpu > 120 rad > cpu > pump / res combo

Ive overkill on the rad frontage at the moment but I'm looking to go sli when I can pick up some cheap 980ti's when people upgrade for the new NVidia offerings
 
Overkill on rads is always a good idea. More rad (either length or thickness) will give more cooling. This gives you headroom but also means you can get away with running your fans slower and hence quieter - which for me was the aim.
Remember that you have to add fans to one side (or two but there's much less gain) which adds usually 25mm to thickness.
You also have to make sure that if top mounted it won't occupy the same space as your RAM.

Loop order not so important as after a short time the whole loop settles to equilibrium anyway. Important thing (as mentioned) is to have res before pump so that it is feeding the pump with coolant. Preferably uphill of the pump too or you have issues getting the pump primed (try and fails to pump air and doesn't draw in coolant).
 
I'll be going to as smaller case as possible so yes mATX. I need it to be portable for LAN Parties etc. I'm aware that as a beginner it's somewhat not the best idea to build a loop in a small case as it probably requires a little more thought but i'm up for the challenge.
So at a minimum i'm looking at a 360 rad or 240 & 120 or two 240 rads if they can be squeezed in.

It's probably worth me getting the case ordered first by the sounds of it so I can do some measurements and work out where best to put things.

Are there any fans you'd recommend that work well with rads? What are you running in respect to this? do you run them in to a fan controller or is your mobo taking care of things in that respect?
 
Definitely wise to order case and then measure up - preferably mock up with cardboard or something to get an idea in 3D. Manufacturer specs for cases are sometimes a little exaggerated and maybe you can get A or B in but not both as implied.
I use an Aquaero 6 as it lets me control pump & fans and monitor various temps and flows. Good but pricey. The Aquaero 5 LT is a cheaper option with no screen and it will only do one PWM channel and three volt controlled vs the 6's four PWM channels. Also lower max power so may not be able to handle a pump. If you want enough volt control (not PWM) power for a pump a PowerAdjust 3 works and does not require and Aquaero.
I've got Noctuas on my current rig and they're good.
Recently used some Corsair SP120 Performance version fans on rads and they were also good and much cheaper. Loud at full speed though so only use if you're going to have speed control. Note there are both PWM (4 pin) and non-PWM (3 pin) versions available. Also worth noting that a lot of 4 pin motherboard headers don't actually do PWM but only voltage control.
 
the matx parvum case should take 2 360mm rads in the bottom from looks of the website specs. i am seriously thinking about buying one of them cases after seeing how 8pack can make them look i think i can do atleast 60% as good as he did :) but ive only just done my build so will wait until after xmas.

the problem ordering before you have your parts is you can make adjustments to the parvum case ie. customisations so everything fits better. also someone on these forums ordered in February and still hasnt received their case.
 
For fans I've used ,vipers and corsair sp's and af's. The corsairs are good fans shift plenty of air with decent pressure but they can be loud at full pelt.

I run all my fans in push on a Lamptron fan controller. Keeps things nice and simple and my pump is on a molex connection to the psu
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom