Water cooling Kit
- Thread starter barrymacp
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Soldato
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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 Diamaeter (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.
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 Diamaeter (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.
barrymacp said:
You would be far better asking this on the forums of a specialist water-cooling supplier. OcUK list some decent stuff, but they don't actually seem to stock most of it and most serious water-coolers I know buy most of their stuff elsewhere.
Without knowing the case you want to install it in, the level of overclock you want, etc. etc. it's really hard to do anything more than MikeTimbers has in his post.
The current 'opinion' though is that Thermochill make very good radiators. D-Tek, Swiftech and EK make very good CPU blocks, something with Laing in the name usually passes muster on the pump front and Masterkleer 7/16ths tubing on 1/2" high-flow barbs doesn't require any clips to keep it firmly fixed in place.
On that basis you might try;
Thermochill PA120.1 with 7V Yate-Loon fan and cowl (google "yate loon 120mm case fan uk" for a fan supplier
D-Tek FuZion CPU block
Laing Ultra Pump with Alphacool Reservoir Top
1/2" High Flow Barbs throughout
About 6' of Masterkleer 7/16ths tubing
12mm Jubilee Clips if you insist
1l of Feser One Fluid (colour to your taste)
And, if you don't like a load of faffing about;
An extra 12" of Masterkleer 7/16ths, a 1/2" T-piece and a DangerDen Fillport to fill it up with.
That lot will fit in most cases with a rear-mounted 120mm fan and it will easily keep an overclocked Core2Duo cool. It will be a good bit quieter than a standard system as you have completely removed the CPU fan.
It's definitely not a cheap system (almost £200 delivered) but it is probably the highest performing easy to install and near-invisible system.
I'm running a 3.7GHz E6600 with a similar (slightly cheaper "Flow" radiator and XSPC pump) system and it idles at 28C and full load is 44C so it is in the ballpark to get you a good drop in temperature, but if your integrated heat spreader (IHS) is dished then it might not help as much as you'd think.
The newer Swiftech Apogee CPU block comes with a special o-ring that essentially bulges the block out so it works better with dished IHS chips. You might want to research that too.
It's REALLY hard to make recommendations as ultimately I could suggest something brilliant for me but pants for your requirements as it may not fit in your case.
The newer Swiftech Apogee CPU block comes with a special o-ring that essentially bulges the block out so it works better with dished IHS chips. You might want to research that too.
It's REALLY hard to make recommendations as ultimately I could suggest something brilliant for me but pants for your requirements as it may not fit in your case.