New Setup here tommorow... few questions.

[justjon]

Hi All,

Just wondering what everyones opinions are these days on watercooling? I have just ordered the following;

Asus GeForce GTX 285 1024MB GDDR3 PCI-Express Graphics Card
Intel Core i7 920 D0 Stepping (SLBEJ) 2.66Ghz (Nehalem) (Socket LGA1366)
Asus Rampage II Extreme Intel X58 (Socket 1366) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard
Coolermaster RC-1000 Cosmos Silent Full Tower Case - Black (No PSU)
Corsair Dominator 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C8 (1600MHz) Tri-Channel
Coolermaster Silent Pro Modular 700W Power Supply
Western Digital Caviar Black 500GB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM
Samsung SH-S223B/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black)

I was planning on ordering a full watercooling setup next month to go with it, rather than aircooling, but is it really worth it? I could get 4ghz out of this and still be at a nice C temp with w/c, right?

Oh, and btw - great service from overclockers, purchased my last rig from them and both times have been a friendly, brilliant service, so thanks!

 

[Ducky Spud]

Well you have a nice big case so you should be able to fit some water cooling in there without much hassle which is a good start

You ever built a watercooling loop before? I would suggest starting with a cpu only loop and spending at least £150 on it. Should get some nice temps with that and hit 4GHz easily

If you have the spare money, then I love water cooling However nowadays there are some great air cooling solutions (TRUE, Megahalems, Fenrir etc) which to be honest will probably still be able to get you to 4GHz and be a lot cheaper

 

[justjon]

Ah, thanks for the reply!

To be honest, i've never even really attempted mega overclocks before, let alone water-cooling.

I kind of want to give water-cooling a try just for the hobby aspect of it, but also as it's quieter aswell. The rig i managed to get setup with pump etc for just a CPU loop came to about £250 (with a swiftech pump which was £50odd)... so yeah, completely new.

I love the cosmos case but the size also attracted me to it

Any hints on what w/c parts to get would be appreciated, never purchased before so have NO idea on good brands!

Thanks,

JJ

 

[Ducky Spud]

Just have a read around the forums, you tend to get an idea of what parts are good by what other people are using. Check out a few build logs in the case section too

But a rough idea:

CPU blocks: Heatkiller 3.0, Swiftech GTZ and EK Supreme blocks are all good

Pump: Pretty much the most common is the Laing DDC, the 10W is quieter but not as powerful as the 18W version

Rads: Get the biggest you can fit in your case!! Thermochill, TFC and XSPC RX rads are all good

Res: Your gonna need a res but what you get is upto you. EK Multioption res's are pretty good and as the name suggests, gives you lots of options for inlet and outlets. Or if you get a DDC pump, a res top for one of those will also be great!

As for tubing, small tubing (3/8") is easier to work with but larger tubing (1/2") tends to look better. People debate about the performance difference but the conclusion tends to be that there is none or very little. Just get what you prefer! Its also quite common to use 1/2" barbs with a slightly smaller 7/16" tubing. This makes the tubing have a very tight fit over the barb and so clips dont need to be used to hold it on. Does mean you tend to have to cut the tubing off though which can be a pain.

Im sure others will argue some of my points, but its a start for you

 

[Dr Who]

My System is:

Ek Supreme Block

Black Ice Stealth Rad, twin Noctua NF-P12 fans

XSPC Bay resorvoir

Laing DDC 18w Pump with XSPC top

All connected up with 10/8mm compression fittings.

Running 4.2ghz rock stable 33 idle 49 degrees load