Such insight and wisdom from a bear of very little brain. Spot on with the observation.
Ergonomics,
Welcome to my new default answer.
Firstly, may I welcome you to the water-cooling fraternity. Secondly, may I direct your attention to the excellent sticky on Cooling at the top of this
forum and the
Watercooling Gallery which for some bizarre reason is
not a sticky.
As for your question, I shall answer by specifying the components, not the brands or specific part numbers since half the fun of Water-cooling is to select
your own choices after due diligence and research. Once you have "cherry-picked" your parts, many here will delight in rubbishing them and offering their own suggestions - a game I can no longer be bothered to play.
You will need:
#water-blocks for each item you wish to cool.
These can include blocks for RAM, hard disk, even Power Supplies but more normally for cpus, gpus and chipsets. Some blocks do not include barbs and these should be avoided for the beginner. get blocks that come supplied with barbs.
#pump to push the water.
There are pond pumps (e.g. Eheim) running off 240v and more commonly now, specialist WC pumps running at 12v. The main manufacturer is Laing and these pumps are re-branded by many specialists but generally retaining the model numbers e.g. D4, D5, DDC, etc.
#tubing to route the water.
avoid cheap tubing. 7/16" Inner Diameter (ID) is the fashionable compromise between large bore and flexibility. Masterkleer seem to be the main supplier of such tubing but Tygon also make it.
#
hose clamps to hold the tubing safe and to prevent leaks
#reservoir to trap air and provide a fill-point
basically a water container. should really be a direct feed to the pump. many prefer to use a
T-line
#radiator to cool the water.
Buy as big as you can easily fit in your case and avoid aluminium. Different radiators achieve different cooling rats so do some research and bear in mind the types of fans used in any tests as some radiators only perform well if used with loud fans while others may have been designed to be used with quiet fans.
#fans to cool the radiator
remember that all "loudness" ratings from the manufacturers are statistics and therefore lies. Do not buy fans which have been quietened by using resistors as that means you can't do that again, whereas a "normal" fan can be reduced to 10v or 7v or even 5v should you find them too loud. Buy the best you can afford.
#additives
This is generally marketing. If you have not used mixed metals (i.e. aluminium and copper) in your loop, you do not need any fancy additives. Some iodine to kill biological contamination and deionised water will do as well as anything. Remember that few liquids cool as well as water at room temperatures.
Good luck and post pictures in the gallery when you're finished.
