Upgrading from H50 to custom loop?

Strawberry

Strawberry

Strawberry

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29 Dec 2009
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649
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Germany
Hey.

The next step I'm taking with my rig is upgrading from my Corsair H50 to a custom watercooling loop.

What I'm aiming for: CPU block (Socket 775), GPU block (HD4870, trying to replace its awful fan), and maybe a block to cool the northbridge (P45 Neo-F, it gets quite hot at 473 fsb).

I'm new to watercooling, and wondering about the price range.
How much do you think I should expect to pay for a water loop with similar performance to the H50 (my cpu is overclocked by 42%), including cooling for the GPU and NB?

I'm hoping to finally get my system silent as well, so it would help if the pump isn't too offending. If it helps, I also have a Noctua NF-S12B FLX attached to my H50's radiator. Furthermore I'm looking for something that won't die on me / be unsafe, since if my current system dies I'm screwed. Corsair has a nice warranty on their H50 that lets me get my system repaid if it leaks.

Also, if it would be cheaper, is there a way to get a *separate* pump/block/radiator similar to the H50, for my GPU? That way I don't have the hassle of building it.

Thanks in advance for any replies.
 
If you want cheap but effective, if it doesn't need to look too pretty my personal recommendation (based on limited experience, I might add) would be to get your waterblocks (don't know which, sorry), a central heating pump (:D) as they're quiet and push huge quantities of water, and some sort of reservoir (no need for a radiator) with >20l water in (for example, a jerry can), and the connecting pipes. The volume of water is so large that it never warms up more than a couple of degrees; the flow rate is easily large enough to handle multiple waterblocks on a single loop; and it'll be relatively cheap - the most expensive things will probably be the waterblocks.
A friend of mine did this recently with his and I'm currently very tempted to do so myself. :)
 
Anybody who has seen my rig can say with certainty that "looking pretty" is not what I'm looking for in a system. ;)

Are you sure a reservoir without radiator is enough? Keep in mind I have my system running 24/7 with every single component overclocked by as much as 40%. What about during the summer, with hotter ambient temps?

Also, I'm having some trouble finding watercooling components near where I live. Is a Zalman ZM-WB3 Gold cpu block (26 pounds) decent?

Edit: Is it possible to have OCUK's shop ship to Germany without too much cost, and pay in Euros?
 
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Ah yes, I'm looking through the OCUK shop right now and that's the one I picked as well.

I'm just not sure what pump/reservoir I should use. Can you help me out? I don't know where to draw the line between price and performance, since I want to stay away from cheap products that might fail.
 
Res either of these...
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=WC-050-SW&groupid=962&catid=1551&subcat=
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=WC-006-XS&groupid=962&catid=1551&subcat=

Pump
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=WC-001-OC&groupid=962&catid=1522&subcat=

Ofcourse, u can get a pump/res combo, but the one the shop lists is abit weak.

You would need to get a Laing DDC 1-T and and after market res top for it, but not cheap compared to the above, but is a better pump.

I will be using that bay res, same pump, same waterblock with a thermochill 240 rad in my new build.
 
1x EK HD 4850 Acetal Full Cover VGA Water Block- £60.99
1x OCZ Hydro Pulse Water Pump 500 - £32.99
1x EK Supreme LT Acetal CPU Water Block - £22.99
1x XSPC Single Bay Reservoir - Silver - £15.99
1x Thermochill EC6 Non Conductive Coolant - £5.99
3x 7/16" Tubing Clear - 1m - £1.47

How's this for now? I'm new to this, so is anything on my list not compatible / overpriced / inadequate?
Also the graphics card block seems incredibly expensive. Isn't there anything better?
 
Yeh full cover gfx blocks are not cheap, but they can easily go over £100 so thats not to bad really.

Radiator wise
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=WC-010-TO&groupid=962&catid=1523&subcat=1525

but preferably something of this size, if planning on cooling more then cpu
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=WC-002-TO&groupid=962&catid=1523&subcat=1526

Now im only linking thermochill ones as they are cheaper on the shop, any make will do aslong aslong as its the thick ones (55-60mm).

Now if u where to go thermochill u would need 2 of these http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=WC-174-OK&groupid=962&catid=1529&subcat=

Barbs wise i would say any 1/2 high flow stuff will do, the OCuk value stuff is good, does the job well, but are not flashy.

As u are using 7/16th tubing u won't need to bother with clamps, as they fit really tightly on 1/2" barbs just warm the ends with hot water and over the barb they go.

you could allways try and source this for gfx and use heatsinks on the memory of the gfx, XSPC X2O VGA Single Core Waterblock, just OCUK don't really stock many blocks for other stuff really.

And again this for the NB, will have to be sourced else where too XSPC Delta Chipset - Acetal
 
miniyazz said:
[...] get your waterblocks (don't know which, sorry), a central heating pump (:D) as they're quiet and push huge quantities of water, and some sort of reservoir (no need for a radiator) with >20l water in (for example, a jerry can), and the connecting pipes. The volume of water is so large that it never warms up more than a couple of degrees [...]
Click to expand...

Do you reckon I should add a rad?
 
his idea is ok, but personally most on here would allways advice to add a rad, it just makes more sense, especially when cooling 3 things, especially gfx's cards.
 
Alright. I've talked to a friend of mine and he showed me a great place for watercooling in germany. I won't post any links on here due to it being competition, but when done I'll check my list here.

Are there any beginner's guides to watercooling that somebody could link me to? (I'll browse around these forums myself in a sec as well)
Like is there anything I need to pay attention to (clamps, correct tube sizing etc)?
 
It's a bad idea to use a large reservoir and no radiator in my opinion. All a larger reservoir will do is increase the length of time it will take to reach an equilibrium temperature. The heat will still have to be dissipated somehow.

A good quality and large enough radiator is more important than anything else in the loop IMO (assuming you use a reliable pump and blocks etc).

Buy second hand and you'll save a fortune.

EDIT - In germany, 10mm tubing is probably more common with push fittings, so that may be an easier route to take. Alphacool are a good bet and quite big on the continent iirc - though there own rebranded pumps suck. Get a Laing pump of some kind. Avoid aquacomputer etc - all show and no performance.
 
Strawberry said:
Anybody who has seen my rig can say with certainty that "looking pretty" is not what I'm looking for in a system. ;)

Are you sure a reservoir without radiator is enough? Keep in mind I have my system running 24/7 with every single component overclocked by as much as 40%. What about during the summer, with hotter ambient temps?
Click to expand...

Lets do some maths here :)

4.2J = amount of energy to heat 1cm³ by 1°C
J = W/s
so 130W CPU + 150W GPU + ?20W Northbridge (I have no idea how much power a Northbridge uses) = 300W
300/4.2 = ~71.43
So: every second, your components will heat up 71.43 cm³ water by 1°C.
If you have 20l (20,000 cm³), it will take 20,000/71.43 = ~280 seconds to heat the entire reservoir up by 1°C.

The likelihood of you maxing out all your components at one time is pretty slim. You'd have to be running specific benchmarks on all of them at the same time (for example, 100% CPU use with one type of calculation does not produce as much heat as 100% CPU use with another type of calculation). But, for the purposes of this, let's assume 300W of heat was indeed being produced.

So, it'll take 4.5 minutes to heat up the water by 1°C. If we allow the water to heat up by a maximum of 10°C above room temperature, this would take 45 minutes, give or take.

Now consider the amount of heat loss. Ever noticed how when you touch an (unheated) metal object, it always feels colder than the room temperature? That's because it conducts heat well, so your hand (warmer than room temperature) cools down much quicker when touching metal than when only touching air. In other words, if you have a metal jerry can at 10ºC warmer than room temperature, it's going to lose heat fairly quickly. Unfortunately I don't have any specific figures for the level of heat loss, but I very much doubt the water would heat up to 10ºC above room temperature, as obviouly the greater the temperature gradient, the faster heat will be lost.

With my friend's system, he left it stress-testing for a couple of days and by the end of it the water was luke-warm at best. Admittedly, this was only cooling the CPU, so it's not an entirely comparable situation, but the point is that a big reservoir of water will lose enough heat by itself not to need a radiator, especially when you consider that unless you're using your computer for folding, or some such thing, you're not going to be near producing 300W.


TL;DR: A big reservoir will lose enough heat by itself not to need a radiator.


EDIT: Just noticed your CPU is 95W not 130W, can't be bothered to change my calculations :)
 
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Strawberry said:
Do you reckon I should add a rad?
Click to expand...

I don't think you'll need a rad, but there's no harm in sticking one in if you feel the need. :)

jellybeard999 said:
While I'm sure it'll work, a 20L metal reservoir is not practical in most peoples homes tbh.
Click to expand...

This is true - it won't be especially pretty. A 20l jerry can is only about the size of a mid-tower chassis, though.
 
To be honest I think I'll just stick with a radiator and regular sized reservoir instead of going for a 20L. That way my nice Noctua cooler won't go to waste.

I'm still a bit confused about the tubing though. I assume "thread size" means tubing size? And that 1/2 means 0.5"?

If so, I'm not sure what sizes I should be getting. The reservoir I have in my basket is 1/4, and the other two don't even list their size on the product description.
 
Strawberry said:
To be honest I think I'll just stick with a radiator and regular sized reservoir instead of going for a 20L. That way my nice Noctua cooler won't go to waste.
Click to expand...

Fair enough.

If I get round to doing this to my own PC, is anyone interested in a build log of some sort, just showing the setup, cost breakdown and temperatures/overclocking results?
 
Strawberry said:
To be honest I think I'll just stick with a radiator and regular sized reservoir instead of going for a 20L. That way my nice Noctua cooler won't go to waste.

I'm still a bit confused about the tubing though. I assume "thread size" means tubing size? And that 1/2 means 0.5"?

If so, I'm not sure what sizes I should be getting. The reservoir I have in my basket is 1/4, and the other two don't even list their size on the product description.
Click to expand...

The 1/4" is the thread size, so you have to make sure all other stuff uses G1/4 all that means is the connenting part of the barbs has to be G1/4, to attach to rads/pumps/and so on.

The barb itself could be 3/8,7/16 or even 1/2. Depending on the barb size u go for would depend on the tubing, personally id for 1/2" barbs with 7/16th tubing for a really tight fit. Or u could go 1/2" barb with 1/2" tube and use hose clamps.
 
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