Water Cooling Set Up

[virdee2]

Hey people! Hope you're all having successes with your rigs

I'm looking to put together my first water cooling set up and below are the components i have in mind.

Im a student so i have to think about cost effectiveness therefore some of these may seem 'cheap' to you enthusiasts out there. If thats the case, could you just suggest better replacements please.

As its my first set up im only concerned with the CPU but want to maintain the possibility for future upgrades.

Let me know what you think

Your basket

Product Name Qty Price Line Total

XSPC Tubing Clip For 1/2" Hose £0.49
(£0.58) £2.94
(£3.48)

DangerDen ClearFlex60 1/2" Tubing - 1m £2.99
(£3.51) £5.98
(£7.02)

EK 1/2" Hose fitting £1.99
(£2.34) £7.96
(£9.36)

Feser One UV Reactive Coolant 1 Litre (Blue) £6.99
(£8.21) £6.99
(£8.21)

XSPC Bay Reservoir & Pump - Clear £21.99
(£25.84) £21.99
(£25.84)

Alphacool NexXxoS Xtreme lll Rev2 Triple Radiator / 3x Yate Loon D12SM-12 120mm Case Fan Bundle £37.97
(£44.61) £37.97
(£44.61)

Swiftech Apogee GT Waterblock (Socket 462/754/939/940/AM2/LGA775) £24.99
(£29.36) £24.99
(£29.36)

Sub Total : £108.82

Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £8.95
VAT is being charged at 17.5% VAT : £20.61

Total : £138.38

 

[Martynt74]

Not really sure about any of the components as not kept up to date but have you thought about buying 2nd hand? Could get great bargains and save student beer money

 

[WJA96]

OcUK doesn't have the best range of bits and bobs for water cooling, although they are trying.

There are two things you should concentrate on - The CPU block and the radiator. If the CPU block is no good, you won't transfer the heat away from the CPU and if the radiator is no good, you won't take the heat out of the system.

The CPU block you have specified is OK, but the cheaper XSPC block is actually better as it's a new design, made cheaply in China. If you have a hot dual-core, or a quad, it will be much better all round.

For a radiator you want a Thermochill. You really do. Yes, they are a lot more expensive to buy, but they are that much better, and they hold their value when you want to upgrade. You need the specioal 3/8" BSP threaded barbs though as everything else is G1/4. I would far rather have the PA120.2 Thermochill than the 360mm Nexxos. For a CPU loop, the PA120.1 will be plenty anyway, and a lot quieter too as you're only running 1 fan instead of three. And, as you can use the exhaust fan from the case, you'll probably be reducing your fan count by 1 assuming you have a 120mm fan on the CPU and a 120mm case exhaust fan at the moment.

If you use Masterkleer 7/16" tubing with 1/2" barbs then you don't need to use tubing clips. Just dip the end of the tube in near-boiling water to soften it, then slip it over the barb, and when it cools, it shrinks back very tightly indeed. No clips required.

Pumps and reservoirs are very much a personal choice, but there is nothing inherently wrong with the one you've chosen. I would have a D-Tek DB-1 and a Swiftech MicroRes myself in this price range, but again, it's personal choice.

I would also definitely suggest buying second-hand if you're on a budget. You need 250 posts and 3-months membership to get into Member's Market, but you'll easily get a proper set-up on there for £100 Incl. delivery as loads of people are always upgrading their water-cooling to the newest and best. A complete Swiftech Apex Ultra kit (CPU and Graphics) went on there last week for £90 Incl. and you can pretty much guarantee it will be as new, because most of us look after our stuff really well on here.

Post early, and post often - but don't spam to get 250 posts!

 

[virdee2]

WJA96...that is the best reply i've read on this these forums so far, lol!

Thanks for all the advice. The only thing about secopnd hamnd that scares me is that if something goes wrong i only have myself to blame warranties etc may provide some comfort in the long run or does that not really matter?

And thanx to you too MARVT74, i can always use extra beer money for when playing COD4 against the boys

 

[virdee2]

Here's an updated basket with some changes as suggested. Regarding the pump/resovoir specifically, do you think it would enough to cool a GPU block aswell in the future? Or would i need a more powerful one?

Your basket
Product Name Qty Price Line Total
XSPC Tubing Clip For 1/2" Hose £0.49
(£0.58) £1.96
(£2.32)
EK 1/2" Hose fitting £1.99
(£2.34) £7.96
(£9.36)
Feser One UV Reactive Coolant 1 Litre (Blue) £6.99
(£8.21) £6.99
(£8.21)
XSPC Bay Reservoir & Pump - Clear £21.99
(£25.84) £21.99
(£25.84)
XSPC X2O Delta (Socket A,754,939,AM2, 478 and LGA 775) CPU Water Block £21.99
(£25.84) £21.99
(£25.84)
Thermochill PA120.1 120mm Radiator £42.99
(£50.51) £42.99
(£50.51)
Thermochill 3/8"BSP to 1/2" Barb £1.99
(£2.34) £3.98
(£4.68)
Masterkleer 7/16" Tubing - 1m £1.49
(£1.75) £2.98
(£3.50)
Sub Total : £110.84
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £8.95
VAT is being charged at 17.5% VAT : £20.96
Total : £140.75


Thanx again for any comments

 

[GunRunner]

WJA96

I have always watched with interest at comments made about water cooling! Tell me, at what stage given the the outlay that one makes for hardware, is it cost effective to go to water? By that I mean does it not make sense to sell the original processor and jump up 2 levels of processor and use a good air cooler and get comparable results? I am not try to start any war of words here, it is that I just fail to see any advantage given the range of processors on the market now. To me if you look back over some years it seemed to make sense when the range was quite limited but I am not so sure now.

 

[virdee2]

i totally agree with what you say GunRunner but for this water cooling project is rather a way of appeasing my urge to buy something lol

i have been working on this rig for the last 6 months now and each month i usually add something to it and now i've got to a point where all i can really substantially add is this water cooling loop.

i also want to have that look of extra effort and style through my see through window. its largely about my own desires and not completely about the performance (even though that is an added bonus given that my cpu has 1.55volts passing through it right now

i notice you have your e8400 at 4.1, how hot does that run on load? have you altered the volts on that too?

 

[GunRunner]

i totally agree with what you say GunRunner but for this water cooling project is rather a way of appeasing my urge to buy something lol

i have been working on this rig for the last 6 months now and each month i usually add something to it and now i've got to a point where all i can really substantially add is this water cooling loop.

i also want to have that look of extra effort and style through my see through window. its largely about my own desires and not completely about the performance (even though that is an added bonus given that my cpu has 1.55volts passing through it right now

i notice you have your e8400 at 4.1, how hot does that run on load? have you altered the volts on that too?

That was a quick reply! I fully understand where you are comming from. It is much a learning process and gaining experience, as I am tarred with the same brush even at my stage in life.

Temperatures and volts.

Everything is in an Antec 900 case with top fan on full and the rest on low:

Using CPUID Hardware monitor.

CpuVcore........1.34volts

At idle
CPU#0............45 C
CPU#1............44 C

Under load (Prime for 6 hours)

CPU#0............69 C
CPU#1............68 C

 

[virdee2]

lol, i spend way too much time reading posts etc on these forums

thats a nice overclock...does the big fan on full make the difference then? i have all mine on low and expect that when i get the water cooling in i could perhap move one or two on to the radiator so as to minimise the fans i have running.

 

[matt100]

@ the op

that 2nd spec list looks fine to me, I'd probably suggest a laing DDC 10w or 18w pump with an aftermarket top and a stabdalone bayres rather than the xspc combo, I've been using the DDC for years now and they are totally silent if you put a bit of rubber underneath them, I worry the xspc pump might not be well insulated, plus the DDC is one of the best performers.

There are lots of things that affect temps, rad is one and WJA96 is bang on to say go for a thermochill, the second is how fast you can get the waster moving through the rad and for that you need a decent pump, especially if you ever get round to putting extra blocks (gfx/chipset and you probably will, watercooling is addictive!) in it. If you do you'll come up against resistance and a lowered flow rate which can harm your temps, the DDC 18w will definitely help you avoid this.

I'd also echo the masterkleer tubing over 1/2" barbs, I have 2 loops of the stuff with no hoseclips and its been absolutely flawless, no leaks.

WJA96

I have always watched with interest at comments made about water cooling! Tell me, at what stage given the the outlay that one makes for hardware, is it cost effective to go to water? By that I mean does it not make sense to sell the original processor and jump up 2 levels of processor and use a good air cooler and get comparable results? I am not try to start any war of words here, it is that I just fail to see any advantage given the range of processors on the market now. To me if you look back over some years it seemed to make sense when the range was quite limited but I am not so sure now.

fair point, the truth is if you think that way watercooling is NEVER cost effective

I have £300 (possibly more) of the stuff in my pc and my Q6600 runs beyond QX9650 speed. However the cpu cost me £200ish and I could have very nearly afforded an extreme cpu with the total outlay.

However, and here's the key point.. If I had the QX9650 I'd probably be well over 4GHZ so in many cases the higher up the range you go, especially extremes, you NEED decent cooling to extract the full performance.

Plus, as and when nehalem or whatever comes along, I can re-use my watercooling, I've had water setups on various pcs.. until recently I had components I'd had since my s478 P4 adventures.

And the killer... noise. If you stick a waterblock on a gfx card its like your ears have stopped working!

Admittedly my setup is somewhere near the top of whats achievable with watercooling but I can run it passive (tested for days now Walter ) so watching films (or the end of S4 of LOST which is coming up this afternoon ) is a joy.

So, cost effective, no... never. Worth it? Absolutely I wouldn't be without it.

Horses for courses, you can get 90% of the performance, remove maybe 70% of the noise with maybe 30% of the cost with high end air but it'll look 5% as cool

Oh and cheap watercooling is NEVER worth it (aside from 2nd hand decent stuff, swiftech apex kits and maybe the swiftech compact thing in certain circumstances)

i totally agree with what you say GunRunner but for this water cooling project is rather a way of appeasing my urge to buy something lol

i have been working on this rig for the last 6 months now and each month i usually add something to it and now i've got to a point where all i can really substantially add is this water cooling loop.

i also want to have that look of extra effort and style through my see through window. its largely about my own desires and not completely about the performance (even though that is an added bonus given that my cpu has 1.55volts passing through it right now

i notice you have your e8400 at 4.1, how hot does that run on load? have you altered the volts on that too?

If you have the itch, scratch it.. just don't do it with cheap bit because you'll get the bug and then have to junk everything you've bought for decent cooling.

 

[matt100]

oh and Marv.. I thought you'd died?

Anyway.. NO-ONE LISTEN TO MARVT74!!!

He MADE me buy all these things then deserted me and went off having "fun" and having "friends".. bad show

 

[virdee2]

lol, i think i already have the bug just from shopping for parts

thanks for the imput Matt100. i agree with what you say about the performance of the cpu under water cooling.

being reusable and more quiet than many HSF at max performance is a big reason why i want it

 

[matt100]

I guess you need to decide what you want to achieve too, its pretty well known I'll sacrifice performance for silence and I'll sacrifice both for looks

 

[GunRunner]

thats a nice overclock...does the big fan on full make the difference then? i have all mine on low and expect that when i get the water cooling in i could perhap move one or two on to the radiator so as to minimise the fans i have running.

To be honest it was the Arctic Freezer cooler that made all the difference to the core temperatures in this setup. It is set on maximum in the BIOS and is still quieter than the stock fan. The large 200mm fan on the antec IMO is the one that makes the difference. On the higher setting yes it makes a little more noise, but it is shifting a lot more air out of the case.

With regards to the overclocking, I had been toying with an E6600 for a long while (10 moths) and then a Q6600 for a short time and I got to 4.1ghz and the quoted voltage in 4 tries. Lucky really! The problem is that I cannot get it above this, as it always hangs in the BIOS even using higher Vcore voltages. Has anyobody with an E8400 got any higher changing the other voltages?

 

[WJA96]

WJA96

I have always watched with interest at comments made about water cooling! Tell me, at what stage given the the outlay that one makes for hardware, is it cost effective to go to water? By that I mean does it not make sense to sell the original processor and jump up 2 levels of processor and use a good air cooler and get comparable results? I am not try to start any war of words here, it is that I just fail to see any advantage given the range of processors on the market now. To me if you look back over some years it seemed to make sense when the range was quite limited but I am not so sure now.

It makes no sense at all unless you want extreme performance with quiet. I generally only run passive cooling nowadays - no fans at all, but still with extreme overclocks. That's when water comes into it's own. In my next house build I'm going to mount a 60" radiator on the garage wall with a big pump, and I'll plumb in my office so I can have all my PCs passively cooled off one gigantic radiator. It'll save me a forune compared to running the air conditioning I have now.

Oh - and @ the OP - I'd bodyswerve the Feser if you're on a budget. 5l of deionised water from Lidl is about £2 and it won't stain or make the carpet UV reactive when it leaks.

 

[virdee2]

lol, you fill me with confidence when you say

"it won't stain or make the carpet UV reactive WHEN it leaks"

i hope it never leaks

 

[GunRunner]

It makes no sense at all unless you want extreme performance with quiet. I generally only run passive cooling nowadays - no fans at all, but still with extreme overclocks. That's when water comes into it's own. In my next house build I'm going to mount a 60" radiator on the garage wall with a big pump, and I'll plumb in my office so I can have all my PCs passively cooled off one gigantic radiator. It'll save me a forune compared to running the air conditioning I have now.

OK. Understandable! But how does one get rid of the fan noise on something like the 2 BFG 8800GT's when gaming? Mine run at 81 C and 83 C constantly when flying IL2 Forgotten Battles (1920 x 1200) with AA @ SLI 64 x S (16xS SSAA + 2x SLI SS (OpenGL) and AF @ 16X?

 

[1kiwi]

OK. Understandable! But how does one get rid of the fan noise on something like the 2 BFG 8800GT's when gaming?

Watercool the GFX with a second loop?

@ the op
Horses for courses, you can get 90% of the performance, remove maybe 70% of the noise with maybe 30% of the cost with high end air but it'll look 5% as cool

Good point. My antec 900 is so loud! I think the best thing about watercooling is being able to maintain an extream overclock with minimum noise.

WJA96

I have always watched with interest at comments made about water cooling! Tell me, at what stage given the the outlay that one makes for hardware, is it cost effective to go to water?

As above, but i think it's more about taking the next step. I.e., doing all the research and buying something that you can build from the ground up. I can't wait to start

Just gotta save for my mountain mods UFO and then start buying all the kit. Will probably cost around 400ish once i'm finished

 

[WJA96]

OK. Understandable! But how does one get rid of the fan noise on something like the 2 BFG 8800GT's when gaming? Mine run at 81 C and 83 C constantly when flying IL2 Forgotten Battles (1920 x 1200) with AA @ SLI 64 x S (16xS SSAA + 2x SLI SS (OpenGL) and AF @ 16X?

That's an E8400, the Northbridge on a LanParty X48-T2R and two X1950 Pro's all passively cooled by a pair of Zalman Reserators in series. No noise.

 

[WJA96]

lol, you fill me with confidence when you say

"it won't stain or make the carpet UV reactive WHEN it leaks"

i hope it never leaks

Eventually you will have to drain and break into the loop. And you will spill some. It's almost unavoidable. I use Ice Water from Qualitex Chemicals. It's Distilled Water that's then been micropore filtered and deionized and then they put a splash of Formalin in it to keep any beasties at bay. It's almost completely non-conductive and it's crystal clear. I don't think it's currently available in the UK.