How much for complete water cooling?

dan958

dan958

dan958

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14 Oct 2012
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1,449
Hi,

Watercooling is something I would probably want to do in the future, just for a quiet PC. How much would a complete set-up put me back?


My current rig is;


YOUR BASKET
1 x AMD A10-5800K Black Edition 3.80GHz (Socket FM2) APU Trinity Quad Core Processor **FREE SIMCITY PC GAME** (AD580KWOHJBOX) £99.95
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD £74.99
1 x Gigabyte F2A85X-D3H AMD A85X Chipset (Socket FM2) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £68.99
1 x Patriot Viper "Black Mamba" Generation 3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (PV38G160C9K) £49.99
1 x BitFenix Shinobi "Core" USB3.0 Gaming Case - Black £46.99
1 x XFX Pro 450W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £39.95
1 x Cooler Master 12cm Sickleflow Red LED System Case Fan - (CM-R4-L2R-20AR-R1) £6.98
1 x VTX3D HD 7870 Black Boost Edition 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £155.99
1 x Silverstone Argon SST-AR01 CPU Cooler - 120mm (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1150 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £28.99

 
the shinobi is VERY limited for watercooling, I shoehorned 2 240mm radiators into mine, but it involved removing most of the top panel (and sitting the radiator on a suspended grill!), and removing the hard drive cages (I now just have two solid state drives velcro'd behind the DVD bay)

pictures in here:
20130620_223409_zpsc1d7a367.jpg

top view of suspended rad


20130620_223432_zps1a3ec277.jpg

bottom view


20130621_161820_zps08c39629.jpg

front rad was slightly too big, so the bottom of the drive bays had to go as well!


20130621_210708_zps5ac93365.jpg

everything hosed up and filled, but not fully cabled up yet (during leak test)


regarding cost, mine was:

pump and tubing (2nd hand) £26 (soon to be replaced by a DDC)
top rad £35
CPU block £40
compression fittings £20ish

so a full loop was around £120, CPU only

and the thick rad at the front along with the mayhems pastel fluid, I won in a competition on these very forums :D I didn't realise until after I'd bought the thin rad, hence the decision to put both in!
 
Last edited:
As already mentioned, the case is going to be the limiting factor.

It looks as if a 280mm rad in the top should be possible (albeit with some case modding) as well as a 240 in the front. If you went with low profile rads, it might not be too painful, but the main challenge is how tight to the top of the case the motherboard tray goes.

In my build I ended up using the Koolance 480 mm radiator fan shroud so I could strap a 480mm rad in the top of my case. It depends how happy you are taking a dremmel or jigsaw to your rig...

So rough prices for fairly high end water cooling?

Hardware Labs Black ICE Radiator GT Stealth 240 £35.99
Hardware Labs Black ICE Radiator GT Stealth 280 £45.98
OcUK Tech Lab - XSPC D5 Vario Pump & EK-D5 X-RES 100 CSQ Value Combo £104.99
EK Water Blocks EK-Supremacy - Nickel £56.99
EK Water Blocks EK-FC7870 Full Cover Waterblock - Nickel £79.99
2 x XSPC 7/16" ID [16/11mm] High Flex Hose - Clear [1m Length] @ £2.99 = £5.98
2 x 140mm Noiseblocker black silent pro PK2 @ £11.99 = £23.98
2 x 120mm Noiseblocker black silent pro PK2 @ £9.98 = £19.96
Fittings working on 2 x compression fittings for each component at a average price of £4 each... Probably £40-£50
Some sort of fan controller Aqua Computer Aquaero 5 LT USB Fan-Controller £56.99
Mayhems X1 coolant £7.99

Total £488.84

A lot of these components could be cheaper, i've put in fairly high end options throughout, but given how my build ended up, it does tend to spiral cost wise, I ended up spending the best part of £800.

E-I
 
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