Need Some suggestions - Watercooling beginner!

toon_mad

toon_mad

toon_mad

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Bear with me for a moment please :o

All week I have been debating what watercooling option I should go for, this is the last deciding factor before I order my parts (new build).

I have no problems building pcs's but have always done so with aftermarket heatsink and fans.

The trouble I am having deciding was with these options:

- All In One Liquid Cooler such as the Corsair H100i
- OcUK Tech Labs 240mm Fathom
- Custom Watercooling

The case will be the Corsair 540, I will be overclocking the i7-4770k, my budget for cooling will be as close to £200 as possible (I have not considered GPU watercooling yet), I want the order doing tomorrow so today I need to get as much advice and suggestions as possible please.

I like the idea of custom watercooling as I would imagine better cooling performance, plus I really love how they look especially with the clear tubing and stuff :p

I have no idea what parts I would need though and understandably leaking is my biggest concern.

I started picking out these parts but I have no idea if they are good/compatible and what else I need.

Radiator:
Hardware Labs Black ICE Radiator GT Stealth 240

WC-004-BX_29868_350.jpg


CPU Block:
Aqua Computer Cuplex Kryos Delrin for 775 / 1155 / 1150 / 1156 / 1366 - G1/4"

WC-027-AQ_50916_350.jpg


Reservoir:
Bitspower Z-Multi 150mm Water Tank - Ice Red

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This is all I have so far (IF I DECIDED CUSTOM).

I think I would need a pump and other things like tubing but I am lost already. I am sure once I do my first it will get easier but right now I am absolutely lost! :o :o :o

I would greatly appreciate some advice from the watercooling gods :D

Thanks!!
 
Personally i would go for the

EK Water Blocks EK-Supremacy Clean CSQ - Acetal £50

The

EK Water Blocks EK-DCP 4.0 PWM X-RES (incl. pump) £75

Is a bargain setup but less powerful (and cheaper) than the ddc or d5 pumps)

I have no experience with the black ice series but have with these

XSPC EX240 120mm Radiator - Black £38

If you can use a triple and like silver or are good with a paint can.

XSPC AX360 Triple Fan Radiator (Silver) £47

is a steal and would allow the addition of a gpu easily.

I would recommend the use of coloured tubing over dyes and fancy coloured mayhems stuff (the mayhems does look good though but requires changing frequently). Use 1 or 2 silver kill coils in it to control nasties. Also demineralised water from halford or tesco is a good and cheap alternative to mayhems ultra pure water etc.

Use the fittings of your choice either compression or barbs of the size to fit your tubing choice.
 
Last edited:
Cheers for posting dfour but I was actually just about to say I decided finally to go with the Fathom 240 with the Advanced Black Ice radiator and Red UV:

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I really wanted to do it myself and jump in the deep end but I need more time to plan and get a understanding of what it required do a full custom water cooling. As I am short on time I will go for this as it would be in between the H100i and custom, I just hope these are built well and dont leak as some of my components I will be buying not from OcUk.

Thanks for replying though ;)
 
The fathoms do look nice but are getting into the realms of full custom loops. I would love to see if they could run with a gpu block on and what temps you would get.
 
dfour said:
The fathoms do look nice but are getting into the realms of full custom loops. I would love to see if they could run with a gpu block on and what temps you would get.
Click to expand...

Well I would be doing a build log for this one and temps on the CPU before and after overclocking.

As for the GPU, again I don't really know what that involves, I assume you would take the stock fans off and put some kind of water block on or something. If the Fathom could be able to do this that would be even better but I am not sure how well the pump etc would work for CPU/GPU.

I do like the looks of the Fathom like especially in sexy red :D
 
dfour said:
you would need to add a gpu block and possibly a small res to the loop but im not sure if the pump would cope to well with the extra load but would be interested to see hint hint :p
Click to expand...

I don't feel too crazy enough right now to be doing that sort of thing :D

I would like to see what temps I get first if I did feel crazy to modify it a bit but likely would leave it as it is, and seeing as there is only like 1 review for the kit I feel it is my duty to review it myself - without changing anything.

But if anyone else wants to lead the way and try it might inspire and give me the confidence to do it myself :p
 
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