Watercooled Loop

TheyCallMeAndy

TheyCallMeAndy

TheyCallMeAndy

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Joined
20 Dec 2013
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566
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West Sussex
Hey All,


Im thinking this time next month to setup a watercooling loop, and i would like some advice from you guys i would have a budget of around £175 to either do a CPU Loop or a GPU Loop then i would expand that loop to whatever was left :)
Parts:
Intel i5-4670k
Powercolor R9 290 PCS+

I would be looking at a new case also so any recommendations are appreciated :)

Thankyou!
 
Avenged7Fold said:
Do the CPU first as the PCS+ is a great cooler.

Case i will recommend Carbide air 540.

Start with a 240mm loop for the CPU, mounted on the room. When the GPU comes into the loop, you will have space for a 360mm. Budget is enough for a fairly high end loop without including the case.
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Any suggestions in parts would be appreciated :)
 
Avenged7Fold said:
This is slightly over budget and money can be saved by going to s 2.2 pump but its worth paying the extra considering you will expand the loop.

YOUR BASKET
1 x EK Water Blocks EK-Supremacy Clean CSQ - Acetal £49.99
1 x EK DCP 4.0 Pump (12v) £39.98
1 x EK Water Blocks EK-CoolStream PE 240 (Dual) £39.95
1 x Alphacool Reservoir Repack-Cooling Slot-In Black £21.98
2 x Primochill Primoflex Advanced Tubing 13/10 - Clear £5.99 (£11.98)
8 x EK Water Blocks EK-CSQ Fitting 10/13mm G1/4 - Black £2.99 (£23.92)
Total : £187.79 (includes shipping : ).



Best Value for money set IMO. There is a lot of choice in other blocks with the same performance if you dont like the look. The block is high end and offers pretty much the same performance as other high end blocks.
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Thank you very much for, this would it be possible to get like a tube res with my budget or is that not possible?
 
Avenged7Fold said:
With your budget itl be tight and wont offer you any advantage over a decent set of fans. I have never used Enermax fans for radiators but if you link them i can tell you my opinion on them. I don't use PWM fans, i just use standard 3 pin fans on a fan controller.

I have stuck with GT's or SP120's for 120mm type radiators, as they can operate well on even the denser fpi radiators. TBH for a custom loop, i wouldn't bother with Push/pull, if you had the extra cash for push pull you would see much better performance spending it on a better radiator or more radiator rather than more fans.

Is your max budget still 175 or can you go higher?

Can try and spec another loop with a tube reservoir instead and try to include fans a fluid to give you an idea of the total cost. Itl likely come in around 200-210, depending on preferences.
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I could go to £300, this would include fans though thanks for all the help btw!
 
Avenged7Fold said:
Keep it, the case can house enough rads internally for CPU + two GPU's!

Got the case myself and love it.
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Alright but what would you recommend with the £300 budget, both cpu & gpu or just either again?

I think this looks amazing and might have to go for the switch 810 and do the same sorta thing :P

gzQVT2n.jpg.png
 
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deFiniLoGy said:
I don't think GBP300 will be enough for a full loop.

The 360 and 240 rad will swallow up ~100GBP already, and fittings also cost a bit of cash.

You should be looking at getting a decent CPU block, rez+pump combo and fittings at the current stage.

Then expand your loop further when you have more cash in hand :D

Remember, all these fittings, rads and reservoir (and possibly pump) are quite long lasting :) So I think you would be better off getting good quality products which lasts until you can expand the loop instead of getting cheap parts now and replace all of them in the future!
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Yeah would agree, want it to look something like that picture i put there :D
 
Avenged7Fold said:
Well for CPU only, you can fit it in but if you want CPU and GPU your looking at £400ish maybe more, maybe less with bitspower fittings. I dont usually spec them because they are expensive, dont know what their current prices are.

Is the £300 to include the GPU?

Have you had a look at Monsoon fittings?
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Alright lets go full out,i got paid like today decent pay rise this month so ill put that towards this i have £1200 to spend, lets go full out £1200 for the loop, 1-290 1-i5-4670k if you think i should add more components just say aha.
 
Avenged7Fold said:
haha, I think i would struggle filling that budget up. Maybe double up on the GPU, considering your signature says you have a fair few on the way!

Not much point in adding more blocks unless you like the look of RAM blocks and such.
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Ill defo put another GPU In, RAM Blocks Imo are kinda stupid id have to buy good ram seeing as got good cheap ram (Crucial) but just see what you can get it up too :)
 
Avenged7Fold said:
For a 540 case, this is what i would choose with a near unlimited budget:

YOUR BASKET
1 x EK Water Blocks EK-D5 Vario X-TOP - Acetal (incl. pump) £89.99
2 x EK Water Blocks EK-FC R9-290X - Acetal+Nickel £85.99 (£171.98)
1 x XSPC RX240 Dual Fan Radiator V3 £64.99
1 x EK Water Blocks EK-Supremacy Clean CSQ - Acetal + Nickel £52.99
1 x EK Water Blocks EK-CoolStream PE 360 (Triple) £49.99
1 x Bitspower Z-Multi 250mm Water Tank £39.98
12 x Bitspower Connection 1/4 to 16/10mm - Deluxe White £8.99 (£107.88)
1 x Bitspower BP-CLTAC-S2 Crystal Link Tube Set For 2-Slots £6.98
2 x Primochill Primoflex Advanced Tubing 16/10 - Clear £5.99 (£11.98)
2 x Bitspower Deluxe White Multi-Link Adapter £5.59 (£11.18)
Total : £617.53 (includes shipping : £8.00).


Bitspower crystal links to connect the GPU, although they are the wrong size as i could not find the bigger ones on OCuk. Also could not find the right pastel purple, as OCuk seems to just stock the darker raspberry purple pastel. Chose the PE rad for the front mount, as it is one of the best performing radiators which is thin and does not require a hurricane to keep things cool. For the roof i chose the Rx v3, the best radiator you can just about fit in the roof.

Stayed away from angle fittings, as that depends on how you want to plan your route. I chose the 250mm tube reservoir with a 6cm diameter as i own one and have managed to fit it on the left hand side of the window with mounts screwed into the grill. Pictures are in my build log if you are interested. Having the tube res so close to the windows makes the thing look huge, which is what i wanted, but may not be the look you want to go for.

The bitspower rotary angle fittings range from 10 to 14 quid depending on which you want, so though you might not hit your £1200 budget, id imagine you will end up spending a fair amount even with just a few of them! You don't need bitspower rotaries for their fittings though, any 1/4" threaded angle fitting will do the job.
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Thankyou so much ordered all of this right now, hopefully the girl doesn't find out she might be dissapointed guess ill have to treat her too :)
 
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Avenged7Fold said:
NP. Will mention again that the Bitspower crystal links I put in the basket are actually a smaller size to the rest of the tubing. It will work but it might look odd.

Will be far easier to plan your route and order the right angle fittings once the components are in front of you.

Pictures when done!
Click to expand...

Of course will do ill decide once its all here and installed :)
 
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