First w/c setup, advice, spec, help etc. needed!

jambus

jambus

jambus

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Ok, so I'm taking the plunge and am going to watercool my system. You can see my rig at the moment in my signature. It might help to know I have an Antec P182, which has the two holes at the back for watercooling pipes (or at least that's what I've always figured they're for!). OK, I'll sort of list my queries etc. Bear in mind I have read the beginners articles for watercooling. I'm just going to be extra thorough as I'm quite nervouse about making this move.

1. I want to watercool the entire system, GPU, CPU and northbridge. What parts will I need to do this? I'm guessing, waterblock for the CPU and GPU, radiator, resevoir & pump and tubing. What will I need to cool the northbridge? Another waterblock?

2. What pump would you recommend to cool all of this?

3. What is the best waterblock for a cpu currently on the market

4. Is it the radiator which recools the liquid?

Money is no object for this. Basically, a thorough detailed response would be awesome, many thanks in advance for taking the time to help :)
 
It might help to say, I plan on upgrading fairly soon to the i7 hardware too. Will this affect my decision of waterblock for the CPU?

Also, do radiators come with the fans or must you add them?
 
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1. I want to watercool the entire system, GPU, CPU and northbridge. What parts will I need to do this? I'm guessing, waterblock for the CPU and GPU, radiator, resevoir & pump and tubing. What will I need to cool the northbridge? Another waterblock?

Yes each part u want to cool will need a waterblock. To cool an entire system ur looking for at least a 240mm rad.

2. What pump would you recommend to cool all of this?

Well u have two choices really either a D5 (which is rather large and might be hard to fit) but is quite powerful. DDC is the other option smaller but less powerful but both would be able to handle that loop.


3. What is the best waterblock for a cpu currently on the market

as u want i7 u just neeed a block that supports i7 aswell. E.g. EK supreme is a good choice.

4. Is it the radiator which recools the liquid?

Yes that what a radiator is just remenber in physics hot always move to cold. So a radiator in ur house is the same as a wc radiator it moves the heat from the rad and moved it out into the air (in the case of a wc rad the rad is having cold air passed over it to increase the amount of heat removed from the rad).

Also rads dont come with fans u have to buy them urself. Suggestions are noctua, sharkoon, sflex etc.
 
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Ok, many thanks for that! Will take this all into account! What VGA block would you recommend for a 3870x2... is there even one being sold on ocuk?
Also, can anyone recommend a waterblock for my northbridge? MB is in my signature, can I just use any waterblock like one of the ones for the CPU?
Or do I have to use one of the blocks under the "misc. blocks" tab on ocuk? Many thanks once again for time taken to help here :) X
 
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there are many different types of waterblock. for a northbridge or southbridge a block from misc blocks will fit (check on ur motherboard to see if the heatsink has a 2 pin connector to the motherboard). There are two types of waterblocks for gpu full cover and half cover. Full cover says what it says covers the whole gpu but is normally only designed for one gpu. The other type is half cover where it only covers the gpu chip and then heatsinks are attached to the memory on the chip this does mean that the waterblock will be compatible with more than one gpu.

Swiftech MCW30 Chipset Waterblock will do as a mb block.

When it comes to ur 3870 x2 ur going to have a nightmare trying to find a full cover block for it (u wont be able to use a half cover block because it wont fit). So really ur going to have to search for that one maybe try ebay or something but u really will have trouble finding one thats the disadvantage of dual gpu graphics cards

I would probably swap the rad for a thermochill p120.2.

Also what case are u using cause that matters a lot.

Also u can have up to 4 120mm fans on that rad but not many ppl have more than 2 on a 240mm rad (e.g. 120mm rad fit one or two fans, 240mm rad fit 2 or 4 etc)

Depending on ur size of ur case i would also suggest maybe using a ddc combined with a res but just depends if u have the space to have them seperately. As the D5 is big a lot bigger than it looks.
 
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you could fit it in ur case however the rad and res would have to go outside and also u should definately get a ddc combined res instead of d5 and res as u really are going to struggle with space.

Going for a bigger case will make ur life easier e.g. TJ07 silverstone or a lian li with the bottom compartment.

The p182 is a great case just u will struggle with space serioulsy so maybe getting a new case would help u two just make sure u ask on here or somehwere before u buy.
 
OK, if I go for the TJ07, will the d5 be ok then? If so, the setup I'd then be getting goes as follows

Case : Silverstone Temjin TJ07B-W Aluminium Tower Case with Window - Black

Pump : Swiftech Laing D5 Vario MCP655 12V DC Pump

Radiator : Thermochill PA120.2 120mm Double Radiator

CPU waterblock : EK Supreme i7 Acetal

NB waterblock : Swiftech MCW30 Chipset Waterblock

Resevoir : EK Multioption Reservoir 150

Fans : Noctua NF-S12 800RPM 120mm Silent Case Fan

I'll give ebay a rinse for a VGA block, otherwise I'll just have to stick with having it on air for the moment, untill I get a 295 when they come out
 
if ur going to get a tj07 then i suggest an P120.3 so a triple rad as cooling all those things with a two slot dual pass wont be enough.
 
Not if u plan to cool a graphics card later on as wont have enough cooling ability. P120.3 will work fine and only just a little bit more expensive
 
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and fits perfectly in the bottom section as well :)

Can get a quad rad in there i believe, and mod a triple into the top
 
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The EK Supreme seams pretty good, if you have a windowed case you might wanna get the clear top version, it looks nice:

EK%20Supreme%20WB.jpg
 
Awesome, thanks so much for all of your help so far! Is there any other radiator you might recommend? As the 120.3 and .2 are both out of stock EVERYwhere I look :(
 
personnaly i would say wait till its available but then i have a lot of respect for thermochill. They are like the jedi masters of wc been around for so long also. getting urself a P120.3 for the moe will be the best bet and then later when u add a second loop u could place the rad at the top.

Also u dont ahve to get a tj07 u can get urself a lian li if u like they both have the same feature (a seperate compartment for harddrives and psu).

Lian-Li PC-V2110B Aluminium Super Ful Tower - Black (No PSU)
Lian-Li PC-V2010B Aluminium Full Tower - Black (No PSU)

both have the same setup as the tj07 just really.

But the reason ppl say thermochill is pretty much its the best rad some come close but thermochill have had along time to sort temps out. Just remenber when buying ur fans that the thermochill is designed for fans up to 120cfm.
 
Awesome, on the looks basis I'm going to go with the tj07. OK I'll wait for the .3 to come back in stock. I'm just wondering though what's the point going watercooling when you need at least 2 fans running at 120 cfm which isn't quiet... seems to negate the idea of watercooling really :( Unless your just trying to go really cool whereas I'm more just looking for stealth ;)
 
Who says you need two 120mm fans at 120cfm? It's designed for fans up to 120cfm but is optimised for much lower-flow fans like Yate Loons.
 
Yea think u got the wrong end of the stick there jam like mike said these rad are designed for slower spinning fans(thats why it said up to 120cfm as another above 120cfm will sound really noisy like a thermaltake tornado and means that ur radiator wont benefit from anything higher than 120 cfm). I would say get urself some sharkoon silent eagles 1000 (my favourite atm they push about 30cfm each and are only 19 db's). Mind u if u chuck a fan controller into the system there will be very little noise coming from ur system anyway. Hope that helps jam
 
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