Going for watercooling...

Steedie

Steedie

Steedie

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Joined
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Oxfordshire
Right guys, once again I turn to the wonderful residents of OcUK for advice

My room is an absolute oven during the Summer, and my PC temps suffer badly. To compensate I have to ramp up the fan speeds on my Tuniq Tower right up, this then gets quite loud

The temptation has loomed for some time, simply because I quite like the look it can bring if done right, the lower temps and lower sound levels. But now with the hot weather at the moment, it's made me finally decide to go for it

I'm looking to spend about £200, it must cool my oc'd Q6600 and my 8800GTX. If possible my motherboard too as it has a waterblock already on it, but thats not vital

The trouble is, I'm hopeless with this sort of thing. And I fear a custom kit might be a bit beyond my skill level in terms of putting it all together and fitting it. I'd worry a bit about a pre built kit but I think I could just about manage.

The other problem is I currently have a Lian-Li PC7+, now I love this case so ideally would like to keep it, but have resigned to the fact it will probably have to be replaced for the watercooling, so any recommendations there would be ideal. Bonus prize goes to the person who can find a kit to fit in my existing case

Any advice from previous first time watercooling owners would be great, and anyone else too :)

Cheers guys
 
Everyone who has water-cooling must have been a first-timer once!

You don't need to lose your PC7 but you can't epect to put the radiator internally as you should be looking at a radiator that can take 3x120mm fans on it (120.3) and that won't go internally in a PC7 but you could put it mounted on the top (bit naff unless done really well) or on the back (out of sight) or in a completely separate box (a radbox).

Going completely custom is really all that hard. But it's possible to make a mistake unless you do some research and then som more research.

For an overclocked Q6600 you need a D-Tek Fuzion ideally although they seem very hard to find in the UK at the mo. Pretty much any make of block that will fit the 8800 will do a massively better job than its air-cooling solution so get one from wherever you can find the Fuzion. Thermochill make the best radiators but they're also expensive and a Swiftech rad will do nearly as well for half the price. You don't need a reservoir but they make life easier although they take up space so that one is really your choice. If you do decide to get one, get a Swiftech Micro-Res; otherwise do a T-line. For the pump get a DDC. You don't need an after-market top (a top which fits onto the pump and makes it better) although some of the tops available act as reservoirs meaning you don't need another one. Get 7/16" Internal Diameter (ID) Masterkleer tubing.

All the terms I've used are googlable and you should look them all up until you are sure you understand what I just posted. Don't just ask for more explanation here; look it up and learn for yourself. Your research should quickly lead to FAQs, hot-tos, even videos of installations.
 
As your room is very warm I'd deffo mount the radiator externally as if inside it will also be dealing with the heat from your components, especially the 8800 as they get very hot.
I wouldn’t bother water-cool the 8800 unless you get some serious water-cooling, like 2x double 120mm rads, using 1 line for CPU & 1 for 8800. Both these could be dumping 400watts into the water (guys here could tell you exactly).
With a good case you could easily figure out how mount a radiator on the back, I think the Antec Gaming 900 is ok & cool anyway, though too small for 2 water lines.

One trick I use that works well with my dinosaur quad B3 is setting the BIOS for 1 or more fans on the radiator to spin up fast when working hard as mine jumps 30c in 1 second from idle to full load. This way its nice & quiet when idling; most of the time.
 
You should be able to put a thermochill pa120.2 in the pc7 roof internally - plenty of people have. You will lose the top two 5.25" bays I think. I have a modded pre-pc7 lian li modded qith a big 20cm fan in the top so for my water-cooling I attached the pa120.2 externally to the back. Had I not put the top fan in I would have put it there.
 
If you don't want to go custom then you can't go far wrong with the Swiftech Apex Ultra+ kits.

One of the best pumps you can buy and a great double radiator for the money even if the cpu block isn't quite up to D-tek fusion it will be within a degree or two. Comes with 7/16" tubing as well.
 
Spend the your money on an aircon unit. If your room is an oven now, you are going to experience a whole new level of discomfort when you convert to watercooling. :)
Steedie said:
Right guys, once again I turn to the wonderful residents of OcUK for advice

My room is an absolute oven during the Summer, and my PC temps suffer badly. To compensate I have to ramp up the fan speeds on my Tuniq Tower right up, this then gets quite loud

The temptation has loomed for some time, simply because I quite like the look it can bring if done right, the lower temps and lower sound levels. But now with the hot weather at the moment, it's made me finally decide to go for it

I'm looking to spend about £200, it must cool my oc'd Q6600 and my 8800GTX. If possible my motherboard too as it has a waterblock already on it, but thats not vital

The trouble is, I'm hopeless with this sort of thing. And I fear a custom kit might be a bit beyond my skill level in terms of putting it all together and fitting it. I'd worry a bit about a pre built kit but I think I could just about manage.

The other problem is I currently have a Lian-Li PC7+, now I love this case so ideally would like to keep it, but have resigned to the fact it will probably have to be replaced for the watercooling, so any recommendations there would be ideal. Bonus prize goes to the person who can find a kit to fit in my existing case

Any advice from previous first time watercooling owners would be great, and anyone else too :)

Cheers guys
Click to expand...
 
MikeTimbers said:
Why will his room get hotter from the water-cooling?
Click to expand...

I want to know why too. In theory your pc will generate the same heat whether you cool via air or water.

The only additional heat generated will be what is generated by the pump which is minimal.
 
You'd be right in saying that if a PC is consuming 500w of power then effectively that is the energy being generated as heat regardless of whether the Pc was air cooled or water cooled. I had an aircooled Pc with one 120mm casefan chugging away lazily at 1000 rpm. I found summertime room temperatures bearable, component temperatures were high but not excessive. That heat wasn't being dispersed as efficiently as it could have been and one open window was adequate ventilation. I switched to watercooling and a lot more of that heat was being dumped a lot more efficiently so room temperature rose more rapidly. In a well insulated room with no active ventilation my boiling point was reached quicker :)
 
Frank Grimes said:
You'd be right in saying that if a PC is consuming 500w of power then effectively that is the energy being generated as heat regardless of whether the Pc was air cooled or water cooled. I had an aircooled Pc with one 120mm casefan chugging away lazily at 1000 rpm. I found summertime room temperatures bearable, component temperatures were high but not excessive. That heat wasn't being dispersed as efficiently as it could have been and one open window was adequate ventilation. I switched to watercooling and a lot more of that heat was being dumped a lot more efficiently so room temperature rose more rapidly. In a well insulated room with no active ventilation my boiling point was reached quicker :)
Click to expand...

That doesn't really make sense. With both air cooling and water cooling the same amount of heat is being dumped into your room from your components (bar pump heat). It's not the case that a poorly-cooled, hot running component is heating the room less, simply that because the transfer of heat is poorer the component to room temperature delta has to be higher in order for it to tranfer the heat to the room at the rate it produces it (ie it runs hot).
 
Well, that is my experience, same components, same room, same summer. The difference to the room was 24-25 degress Celsius before watercooling and 29 - 30 C after watercooling. I'm sure someone will be along to explain the science bit otherwise I've got a bona fide scientific phenomenon in my back bedroom :) "Lukewarm fusion in a PC watercooling loop"
 
I've had 2 previous water kits & found my current Swiftech the best.
The pipes are real tough get on the nozzles & I had to use hot water to softem them up, though this is good because they're not likely leak then :)
 
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