Water cooling on a budget

[britain4]

I’m in this hobby on a tight budget generally as I have plenty of other expensive ones to suck my money away lol. Therefore my current rig I’ve just (re)built roughly resembles a top of the line one from 3-4 years ago. One thing I am into is overclocking but the coolers I have are holding me back.

Now I do have a Corsair H60 for the CPU which is really good for what it is but won’t let me go much higher on voltages than I am now without hitting the 90C mark under full load. The GPU is a reference 780 ti so gets pretty toasty and loud even at stock speeds.

Bearing those two factors in mind I have had 2 ideas for cooling - first one is to upgrade the CPU cooler to a 240mm AIO and fit the H60 to the GPU using the bracket.

Second idea is to pick up a low cost water cooling kit for both CPU and GPU a la the “Glowry” kit available from a well known online retailer

With the first option I would obviously need space for 2 rads which would be a squeeze could be done, and I’m at the mercy of Corsair (or someone) to bring out a new bracket for whatever GPU I upgrade to in the future

Second option would hopefully see me set up with a reasonable loop and 1 rad and would be neater but the very low cost kind of casts doubt in my mind about the quality of the parts? But then again what is there to go wrong more so than a £50 AIO cooler like a Coolermaster Seidon?

Third option is just to get a 240mm AIO for the CPU and get a better air cooler for the GPU but that doesn’t seem worth it on a £100 card if I can’t transfer it when I upgrade it

 

[britain4]

i'd go with your gut on that one... the low cost, especially for the fittings and pump quality, would really put me off

when it comes to liquid cooling, you don't want to scrimp when it comes to the fittings... 90% of the time, if a leak is going to happen, it's going to happen with them.

you'd probably be best going for an AIO to start with, but you could go for something like the Alphacool Esibaer 240 that will allow you to extend it with other radiators / equipment down the line for a more customised loop.

Yeah thought so. I could test it out and see how the fittings go on and replace them with better ones if I need to, likewise the pump, and it’d still work out hugely cheaper than getting all “branded” parts... I’m guessing the tubing is much of a muchness but does the quality of the rad/water blocks matter to a huge degree in terms of reliability?

I would much rather save up the money to do proper water build with all decent and new parts. Water cooled isn't something you can always do well for cheap unfortunately.

So would I but if I saved up enough money to do that I’d end up spending it on something else it’s kind of a secondary hobby

If I’m not going down the route of the cheap kit anyone have any suggestions on the best cooling solution for a £100 GPU that is either very cheap or transferable to the next one when I upgrade? (Corsair currently only make brackets for up to the 980 so I don’t fancy relying on that)

Arctic do some nice air coolers but it’s spending £45 on something that’ll only fit what is now a 4 year old card...

 

[britain4]

Not massively familiar with water cooling with GPU... not something I have done myself yet. I'm full water cooling my next build. Sorry bud, there will be others on here that can answer your question though

No problem thank you anyway!

yes, reliability is definitely a factor with blocks

got to think that everywhere there is a screw in for a fitting... between tubes, 2 on the blocks, 2 on the pumps... each one is a possible point of failure or leak

cheap blocks can have quality issues or cheap threading which could lead to leaks more often than more reputable blocks.

when it comes to putting that much liquid in your computer and directly over your CPU / motherboard, paying the extra for decent quality will see you much better in the long run than cheap parts that cut corners to meet the budget

Fair enough I won’t take the risk then. Idea of full loop is dead in the water then (like my PC if I installed the cheap kit by the sounds of it lol)

If I would need to spend a lot of money I would rather not go with a custom loop as I would rather just put the money towards something else. Then there’s the factor that I don’t have room for more than a 240mm rad and I’m not sure that would really be enough...

 

[britain4]

The EK kits don’t seem like bad value at all... might try pricing that up, don’t think that GPU block will fit on my card...

What puts me off the “Glowry” one apart from anything else is that sounds like one of the generic brand names they put on the super cheap no-name Chinese products rather than an actual company

Maybe I should consider the route of upgrading from the H60 on the CPU and using that on the GPU but then when I upgrade the GPU theres no guarantee I’ll be able to get a bracket so I’ll have a bracket and a H60 I can’t use and a GPU with no water cooling....

I’ll have a look into the EK kits like I say, they seem pretty good value really...

 

[britain4]

I had considered the air coolers when I first got my H60 but I thought that the comparable performance air coolers looked so obnoxious i went for the H60 for looks rather than having a massive chunk of metal hanging off my motherboard

I’m not that fussy about many things aesthetics wise but the gigantic air coolers aren’t for me sorry! Plus they must put a lot of stress on the board which can’t be good for anything. I can’t hear the pump in my H60 at all even with my head next to it, had to make sure it was definitely running lol.

I’m definitely ready for the performance of a proper watercooling loop now though but I don’t want to throw a lot of money at it and I’m seriously apprehensive about using cheaper parts in such a thing, my PC isn’t worth a lot compared to most on here but I’d be gutted if anything got zapped due to a shonky water cooling system.

 

[britain4]

I quite like the heatspreaders too lol, mainly for aesthetics, never looked into whether or not they do anything for cooling but it would be nice if they did for overclocking purposes

That is an idea just doing the GPU for now... putting the CPU block in would probably end up waiting until the first coolant change lol...

Since the 902 isn't designed with water cooling in mind at all and I'm too tight to buy a new case it would probably end up being a 360mm rad at the back jobbie which I sort of don't mind the look of and it seems better for cooling than putting it inside the case anyway

So what would we advise in my shoes.. get the air cooler for the GPU and eat the £40 cost.. fit the H60 to the GPU and eat the £30 cost of the bracket with no guarantee I'll get a bracket for my next GPU... or just go for a full EK loop (I'm not going any further than that with it cost wise)?

 

[britain4]

It's your choice at the end of the day.

The question is do you have the funds for a custom loop because ultimately that is what will provide the best cooling and (imo) look the best.

Yeah absolutely just curious what others would do in my shoes. I think I might have to just bite the bullet and go for the water cooling. Plus I could reuse and add to a lot of the gear I buy now when I upgrade components rather than it becoming obsolete which is a big thing for me.

I agree on your two points and also it looks like a lot of fun!

 

[britain4]

Yep I’m looking forward to getting stuck into it. As advised I will avoid the very cheap stuff though, sounded too good to be true but I had to make sure. Will be refreshing to not have to worry about temps so much for a change and hopefully have something that looks nice too

 

[britain4]

I'd ignore the gpu chilling unless it's getting really hot and just go with an AIO or decent air cooler on the cpu which appears to be the issue. I'd personally go air chilled on the cpu as it has the additional benefit of blowing air over the VRMs if they are located near the cpu which all boards I've seen appear to be. Don't be put off by big air coolers, they don't put ant strain on the motherboard unless you drop the base unit. Motherboards are incredibly strong.

If you insist on cooling for the gpu what about the ocuk tech labs kraken kits? At worst you'd need to get a new kraken bracket for a new gpu down the line and the rad/pump part of the kit can be reused there.

The GPU is getting hot and making a lot of noise, it’s limiting the voltage I can put through it and it’s distractingly loud

My board has a big heat sink on the VRMs which has kept them sufficiently cool thus far. Point taken on the straining of the board but I still don’t like the look of them.

I wouldn’t mind picking up an AIO bracket for the GPU if I could be 100% certain of getting a new one when I get a new GPU - otherwise I’ve then got 2 redundant AIOs I’d probably end up replacing with a full loop anyway. Probably doesn’t sound like a big deal to some but I like to futureproof my purchases lol.

Then I’ve got to find space for 2 radiators in my case which could be done but more difficult than just having an external rad in a custom loop...

 

[britain4]

I'd ignore the gpu chilling unless it's getting really hot and just go with an AIO or decent air cooler on the cpu which appears to be the issue. I'd personally go air chilled on the cpu as it has the additional benefit of blowing air over the VRMs if they are located near the cpu which all boards I've seen appear to be. Don't be put off by big air coolers, they don't put ant strain on the motherboard unless you drop the base unit. Motherboards are incredibly strong.

If you insist on cooling for the gpu what about the ocuk tech labs kraken kits? At worst you'd need to get a new kraken bracket for a new gpu down the line and the rad/pump part of the kit can be reused there.

The GPU is getting hot and making a lot of noise, it’s limiting the voltage I can put through it and it’s distractingly loud

My board has a big heat sink on the VRMs which has kept them sufficiently cool thus far. I’d only get another AIO for the CPU if I could be certain I could get a bracket for a future GPU down the line...

 

[britain4]

isnt AIO considered as a budget?

Yeah... you’re right actually, I could pick up a 240mm AIO for around the £50 mark and a bracket for my GPU and call it a day until I get my next GPU and they stop making the brackets for them lol.

Single big rad and a custom loop would just be easier to accommodate in my case... and more fun and expandable and probably better at cooling... maybe a more water cooling friendly case and another AIO would be the most “cost effective” way? In the short term anyway... I wouldn't like to add £30+ to the cost of a £100 used 780 ti that I can't transfer to my next card.. (even assuming there is a bracket available for the new one) then I might as well have just spent the extra £40 and gone for a 1060 lol

This came to mind when I read the words "watercooling on a budget".

LOL if I could do that I would!

Is that one of the mineral oil ones?

 

[britain4]

got an AIO cooling the CPU and an AIO cooling the GPU with a kraken G12. If you want a custom loop then save up for it. I don't care what the inside of a case looks like but the AIO's allow easy reach to the motherboard and no clearance issues. If you have a problem with temps or noise the now then I wouldn't wait.

Yeah temps and noise are both an issue with it really, more so on the GPU but if I had better CPU cooling I could probably go further with my overclock so it’d be good all round.

Wonder if just re pasting the card would help while I’m deciding - 4 years of running toasty can’t have done it much good

I don't know! It might be an actual fish tank. The blurry yellow things might well be fish. But mineral oil would work! Not sure the fish would appreciate that though....

Oh yeah I didn’t spot the blurry things... now I’m confused lol, surely there would be harmful metals etc in there...?

 

[britain4]

I'm going to skip on the AIO idea as my current one is 6 years old so I'd say it was about due for replacement anyway so I'd have to buy 2

Probably going down the custom loop route with a single 360mm rad in either a budget friendly choice or a Fractal Design R6 (depending on how much I decide to spend) - the only two mid towers I can find that'll fit a 360mm rad in the front and 2 3.5" drives and still have a PSU shroud!

 

[britain4]

Yeah that's what I'd be hoping to do, I'd like to think this stuff's going to last me a while once I make the investment. Used sounds like a good option, I like to keep my eye on Facebook for that since eBay seems overpriced a lot of the time

I have seen car coolant tubing used which is black but cheaper, more flexible and less likely to leak than standard clear tubing

 

[britain4]

The Eisbaer sounds quite interesting but I wouldn't like to be restricted to (probably) expensive proprietary blocks... definitely one to look into though as its best of both worlds...

Yeah I know it's not expensive but I've heard the other two points mentioned... it's not pretty but it tends not to leak

 

[britain4]

can run any GPU blocks you wish - get grab the QDC kit and you'll have two hoses with QDC and 8/11 compression on the other end . I mixed silent loop and phanteks GPU block together though had to 'cut' bequiet's close loop and add the block in . Eisbaer just easier to use but isnt pretty

That sounds like an interesting way of doing it, maybe a 360mm AIO plus one of those QDC kits and a GPU block would see me right... how do you go about filling and replacing coolant etc in one of those setups, do you have a link to some more info on them?

 

[britain4]

Cant link Alohacool , you'll have to Google it .

There's a fill port on the unit as well as the hoses connected via proper compression fittings. Can just undo then to empty

Ah ok cheers anyway, I did google but their site isn’t the most helpful haha

That actually sounds really good and a lot less hassle than a traditional custom loop...

 

[britain4]

OK cheers I’ll have a look into it then. Sounds like a really interesting concept and potentially ideal for me in terms of not messing about with it

 

[britain4]

Well I did it again yesterday - after a malt or two I might have bought the watercooling gear that's been sat in my eBay basket for a couple of weeks...

I picked out some Chinese blocks and pump but only parts I could find positive reviews on - as I have been advised in this thread the pump and fittings are the main parts you shouldn't cheap out on so I'm not sure whether to try this one or go straight to a better pump. Might give it a try and make sure I've got a failure alarm on it.
Corsair SP120 fans - 6 generic packaged ones for £14! I already have two of them so I've got 8 good fans now for whatever push pull combo and case fans I should need.

I gave the cheap aluminium rads the swerve as I don't want to be dealing with mixing metals and will be going for something like this https://www.overclockers.co.uk/magicool-g2-slim-radiator-16-fpi-360mm-wc-024-ma.html
I also need some fittings and I won't be using the cheap ones so something like this https://www.overclockers.co.uk/bits...flow-7-16-fitting-shiny-silver-wc-128-bp.html

Needless to say the blocks are my main concern as far as leaking goes so will be running for 24 hours outside the system and if I have any doubts about the quality of them after stripping down and reassembling then I'm abandoning the idea. Got a feeling if there are any issues it won't be anything PTFE tape and/or liquid gasket can't fix but we'll see. The rad and fans will be the biggest expense so even if the cheap blocks and pump turn out to be junk I haven't wasted much money and I can start shopping for some better ones... I guess... I have to stop making drunk eBay purchases but hopefully this will all work out! Always wanted to watercool a PC!

 

[britain4]

Bit late now, but if you're water-cooling on the cheap the first thing to drop is the the GPU block. In my experience it's not worth it if you are interested in performance, minimal o/c gains to be had. Should be a lot quieter and a lot cooler (30+ deg in my experience) but none of this translates into performance.

And unless you're buying a 1080ti which has no obvious upgrade available, any money you spend on better cooling for your GPU would be better spent just buying a better GPU in the first place. Applies whether your buying used or new.

I definitely get where you’re coming from. I’m fully aware there are minimal performance gains but it’s frustrating being limited by temps when I think the card could clock slightly further.

More relevantly to why I want to do it though it sounds like a jet taking off and sits at 80 degrees + in games.. can’t be doing the card any good and it’s very bloody loud. Quieter and cooler is what I’m going for and any more OC would be a bonus.

I’m also doing it because it looks fun and I like taking on a project now and again!