Interested in Watercooling

traveyb · 10 Oct 2013 at 15:38

Hi,
Never really thought it before, however recently the thought of a quiet and efficent setup makes me want to try it.
Have been reading some of the articles on here, so I have an understanding of how it all works however I have a few questions regarding my case etc.

I'm running the following rig:

Corsair Carbide 300R
Intel i5-3570K @ 4.5Ghz
Gigabyte Z77-D3H
Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB PC3-12800C9
GeForce GTX 560Ti 448 Edition 1280MB
Cooler Master Silent Pro Modular 700W

I'm pretty happy with my setup so will probably look to cool the CPU and GPU (the GPU fan noise is insane).
I've been looking at the OC Techlabs V6/V8 kits, would something like these be ok in my case? What is the ideal rad size I should be looking at?

Thanks in advance!

Avenged7Fold · 10 Oct 2013 at 16:37

I think the OCuk WC kits are incredibly good value for money and a great place to start water cooling. Your case can take a 240mm radiator on the front if you take the hard drive cages out. Whether it can go on the top will depend on the size of your motherboard heat sinks, if they stick out a lot they might go in the way of the radiator/fans mounted there.

For your current GPU and CPU, a single 240mm from a decent brand will be fine. Consider a Hardware labs ice radiator if you are planing on mounting at the top (due to how thin it is). If you instead plan to mount it on the front of the case, any of the Radiator options will do, the default XSPC is only 36mm thick and wont be too bulky, leaving an insane amount of room for long graphic cards.

I do not recommend water cooling your current gpu due to its worth. Cooling it will cost you as much as the GPU itself if you include extra fittings and a water block for it. If i were you, i would invest in a newer more silent GPU instead of adding it to your loop and just water cooling your CPU for now or soon enough you might find yourself lagging behind in GPU power and you will end up needing to replace both the GPU block and the GPU. You can get a universal GPU block and RAM heatsinks for the card. This way you can keep the block and use it on the next card you buy.

traveyb · 10 Oct 2013 at 17:18

Ok thanks very much, think I may look at the larger corsair cases then as I don't really want to butcher this one

That's fair enough, probably due a GPU upgrade at some point but may just leave that out of the loop for the moment. Guess aslong as I have everything else I can re do the loop when I get a new GPU

Avenged7Fold · 10 Oct 2013 at 18:03

I dont think you need to butcher your case, i think you can unscrew the cages by hand and slide them out.

I currently have a 650D which can take a 360mm radiator and a 200mm phobya radiator. This case has served me well as a watercooling case but as i am going to sell it and replace it with a Corsair 540 to accommodate a 360mm radiator and a 240mm radiator which have been collecting dust. I also love how the PSU and extra wiring is kept out of sight in the 540.

I think it is probably best to leave the GPU out of your loop and add it later when you upgrade it. Though your current case isn't ideal for WCing, you can definately get away with two 240mm rads without permanent modification, which is more than enough for a CPU and GPU.

traveyb · 10 Oct 2013 at 21:56

Ok thanks, will take look to see what others have done to the 300R.
I too love that case, just so nice to have everything out of the way

Thinking about it, I might look at that case, either the OcUK custom 540 with cooling bits or the case and one of the OcUK tech bundles

YOUR BASKET
1 x OcUK Tech Labs - Corsair 540 Custom 240mm Watercooled Case £265
1 x Mayhems Pastel - Ice White Coolant 1L £14.99
1 x Corsair Carbide 540 High Airflow ATX Cube Case - Black £116.99
Total : £411.07 (includes shipping : £11.75).

traveyb · 15 Oct 2013 at 12:38

Ended up buying the OcUK 750D bundle, whilst I love the 540 design, it's a bit wide for where I have my PC.
Will look at my graphics card in a few months and consider adding it to the loop at some point

YOUR BASKET
1 x OcUK Tech Labs - Corsair Obsidian 750D Windowed - 750 EX360 Watercooled Case £280
1 x Mayhems X1 UV Blue Premixed Watercooling Fluid 1L £7.99
1 x Intel Bracket Fitted £0
Total : £300.59 (includes shipping : £10.50).