New to watercooling... HELP!!

Swagger187 · 7 Mar 2015 at 20:48

Hi guys,

I am looking at water cooling my PC for the first time, crapping it and looking at parts I think I might need. This is what I have come up with and basically, will it work?

YOUR BASKET
1 x EK Water Blocks EK-D5 Vario X-RES 140 (incl. pump) £107.99
1 x EK Water Blocks EK-FC980 GTX - Acetal £79.99
1 x EK Water Blocks EK-Supremacy EVO - Acetal (Original CSQ) £49.99
1 x EK Water Blocks EK-CoolStream PE 360 (Triple) £49.99
1 x MagiCool Copper Radiator - 280 mm £31.99
1 x XSPC Razor GTX 980 Backplate £21.98
1 x Mayhems X1 UV Green Premixed Watercooling Fluid 1L £7.99
10 x EK Water Blocks EK-ACF Fitting 12/16mm - Black £3.79 (£37.90)
2 x XSPC 7/16" ID (16/11mm) High Flex Hose - Clear (1m Length) £2.99 (£5.98)
Total : £403.43 (includes shipping : £8.00).

I have brought a EK mounting 120MM bracket to mount the pump/res to the 360mm rad

Any help would be appreciated.

MrMD · 7 Mar 2015 at 21:12

Two things of note is the tubing,XSPC tubing have issues with plasticizing,espspecially with Dyed coolantsSwitch out to Primochill and you will be fine.
Also the fittings you picked are for acrylic tubing,and arnt compatible with regular tubing

You also dont that much rad space,you would only need the 360 rad for what your cooling.But no real reason other than the additional cost not to have the 240mm aswell tho

Swagger187 · 7 Mar 2015 at 21:19

Thanks for the reply mate. I have 3 x 120mm and 2 x 140mm Alpenfohn Wing Boosts 2 so I wanted to make the most of them

.

Was after compression fittings mate so which one would you suggest?

MrMD · 7 Mar 2015 at 21:31

As good a reason as any ^

Assuming you want to keep same ID/OD tubing

YOUR BASKET
1 x Monsoon 16/11mm (ID 7/16 OD 5/8) Free Center Compression Fitting Six Pack - Matte Black £24.95
1 x Primochill Primoflex Advanced Tubing 16/11 - Clear £5.99
1 x EK Water Blocks EK-CSQ Fitting 16/11mm G1/4 - Black Nickel £5.99
1 x Monsoon 16/11mm (ID 7/16 OD 5/8) Free Center Compression Fitting - Matte Black £4.99
Total : £46.91 (includes shipping : £4.16).

Based on being in stock atm. Either the EK/Monsoon ones ^^
The XSPC ones are out of stock atm for this tubing id/od

Monsoon fittings have a whole bunch of different colors you can pick from,and buy in 6 packs aswell as one at a time.They are pretty good,just built my loop using them

Swagger187 · 7 Mar 2015 at 21:41

Thanks mate. Monsoon look tidy actually. So along with everything else I had replaced with that tubing and those fittings, all good?

EDIT: LOL apart from the back plate, put the wrong one in...

Final.................

YOUR BASKET
1 x EK Water Blocks EK-D5 Vario X-RES 140 (incl. pump) £107.99
1 x EK Water Blocks EK-FC980 GTX - Acetal £79.99
1 x EK Water Blocks EK-Supremacy EVO - Acetal (Original CSQ) £49.99
1 x EK Water Blocks EK-CoolStream PE 360 (Triple) £49.99
1 x MagiCool Copper Radiator - 280 mm £31.99
1 x EK Water Blocks EK-FC980 GTX Backplate - Black £22.99
1 x Mayhems X1 UV Green Premixed Watercooling Fluid 1L £7.99
2 x Primochill Primoflex Advanced Tubing 16/11 - Clear £5.99 (£11.98)
10 x Monsoon 16/11mm (ID 7/16 OD 5/8) Free Center Compression Fitting - Matte Black £4.99 (£49.90)
Total : £422.44 (includes shipping : £8.00).

MrMD · 7 Mar 2015 at 21:46

Swagger187 said:
Thanks mate. Monsoon look tidy actually. So along with everything else I had replaced with that tubing and those fittings, all good?

You should be fine m8,as long as you have something to jump your PSU and cut your hosing you will be good to go

Hope your able to get everything you want while its in stock lol,that was half the battle on my loop

Edit:You should grab two 6 packs of fittings,only a few pence more and you will have 2 extra fittings should you need them at a later date

Swagger187 · 7 Mar 2015 at 22:00

Hmmmmm, don't have anything to cut the tube, will pop out an grab a Stanley knife

.
Simple PSU bridge will do right?
Yep done that mate for that reason and also there is only 9 fittings in stock haha.

Disco_P · 7 Mar 2015 at 22:50

I use a paper clip to short my PSU. Many guides on which pins to short and will save you a quid.

Knife will do fine for cutting tubing, just make sure to cut straight through rather than an angle.

And a correction to MrMD; EK-ACF fittings are for flexible tubing and not for acrylic. They are a new line just introduced. They are also a lot cheaper than Monsoon but OP can decide which ones he wants.

MrMD · 7 Mar 2015 at 22:53

Disco_P said:
And a correction to MrMD; EK-ACF fittings are for flexible tubing and not for acrylic. They are a new line just introduced. They are also a lot cheaper than Monsoon but OP can decide which ones he wants.

Really? i thought these for Acrylic only,my bad.

Whats up with the odd dimensions then 16/12 rather than 16/11?

Swagger187 · 7 Mar 2015 at 23:06

From my guessing 12 was the outer diameter and 11 inner?

Disco_P · 7 Mar 2015 at 23:23

I think it weird rounding. In the description it says "supported tube: ID/OD 7/16" - 5/8" (roughly equals to 12/16mm)"

So it will support standard tubing.

Swagger187 · 11 Mar 2015 at 13:41

So my 980 water block turned up. I removed the original heat sink. No problems there. The thermal pads are still on the card in all the right places. Would I get away with using these ones are should I refit with the ones supplied?

andybird123 · 11 Mar 2015 at 17:19

Use the supplied ones, water blocks and reference coolers sometimes have different clearences, you can keep the old ones for if you ever need to refit the stock cooler

Swagger187 · 12 Mar 2015 at 09:52

Thanks man, I did end up swapping them over in the end. Thought it was best.

Sarah469 · 13 Mar 2015 at 09:27

you may want to consider adding a drain port to the loop, someone specced a good one in this thread http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18659429

Dirk Diggler · 13 Mar 2015 at 10:26

Which bracket have you bought that allows you to mount the reservoir onto the rad?

Swagger187 · 13 Mar 2015 at 14:10

Sarah469 said:
you may want to consider adding a drain port to the loop, someone specced a good one in this thread http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18659429

Yeah have been thinking about this, thanks.

String said:
Which bracket have you bought that allows you to mount the reservoir onto the rad?

I brought some Alphacool 60mm clips and was looking at the bitspower, http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=WC-339-BP&groupid=962&catid=2133&subcat=2135 but it was out of stock. I therefore brought http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=WC-090-WC&groupid=701&catid=2331&subcat=795 grabbed some washers and attached the clip to this. Fits perfect and its solid.

Swagger187 · 13 Mar 2015 at 14:22

Thought I would post some pics to give you an idea of where I am at.

The layout is Pump/res > 360 Rad > CPU > 240 Rad > GPU

Its amazing what the camera pics up the eyes don't the rad looks in a mess

. Also the tube is securely on the GPU yet looks like it is coming off. think it is the bend in the tubing. Unfortunately the pump/res turned up damaged so I am having to return that. I have a couple more 90 degree fittings turning up to sort out the area around the input into the 360 rad to limit the amount of tubing

paulstung · 13 Mar 2015 at 20:15

You should be Ok with the XSPC tube mate, it is only the Mayhems pastel range that causes the leaching problem.

Disco_P · 13 Mar 2015 at 21:04

String said:
Which bracket have you bought that allows you to mount the reservoir onto the rad?

EK sell a pump bracket for 120mm fans that work with their pumps.

http://www.ekwb.com/shop/reservoirs-and-acc/reservoir-acc/ek-uni-pump-holder-120mm-fan.html

I use one in my H440 build and it has helped me save a huge amount of space.