Watercooling 1st time setup advice please

nabroc

nabroc

nabroc

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Long time lurker first time poster , tho ive been buying from OCUK for about 10 years now.

I currently have an i7 920 with a Gigabyte UD5 board , 5850 radeon , and am cooling this with a h50 corsair cooler in a Silverstone ft02 case.

I have had this kit for about 18 months now but am now thinking of upgrading my gfx card to a 580 possible and am starting to become more interested in overclocking and now have the desire to try watercooling.

I am aware that the FT02 is an air cooling case (and a very good one at that i think) so thinking i might sell it and switch to a Corsair 650D.

Heres my question ive been looking at setups and videos and reading up a little, and im wondering what you guys think of putting the EK H3O Watercooling Kit - Supreme LT 240 with a Corsair 650D, second follow up question if i change my card to say a 580 im aware id need to buy the gpu block but would that suffice to cool the i7 920 / Nvidia 580 with them clocked for performance and gaming , as that is what i do most of the time on my rig.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
 
Welcome to the forums!

These kits are really only for processors. So the 240 should be fine for your processor, overclocked or at stock.

If you add in the graphics card you are going to want a larger radiator esp if your chip is o/c'd, perhaps upwards to a 480 (maybe two smaller rads, the corsair takes a couple of 140.2?).

You do need to be clear what you are aiming for with this upgrade, you could end up spending a fair chunk of cash and not getting much in return (quieter rig/increase in cooling capacity - higher o/c - what is the goal here?).

(For me) If you are looking at changing case to accommodate water cooling then you should get the best possible solution for the case you are getting - that would not be this. Yet these kits do look a good way to dip a toe into watercooling, so if the bug bites expect to get your wallet out again.
 
Thanks for the welcome.

Well i was originally thinking of only cooling the cpu , atm i have it overclocked (done this weekend actually following a guide found on here iirc) altho its only a 3.2 clock with 1.25 volts which i believe is kinda a standard clock. With my current cooling (the FT02 case fans and the h50) it runs at 68 degrees under full load in prime95, this would be my aim for the watercooling to start with (altho a lower temp).

If i were to change to a 580 and get a gpu block adding an extra 120 rad on the back of the 650D with the 240 in the roof wouldnt be enough ?

I should mention id be selling off my FT02 and h50 to help fund this venture, someone had suggest just removing 2 of the fans from the bottom of my FT02 and putting a 240 rad in there and watercooling in this case, but im a little unsure of the room for it.

Thanks for the advice.
 
It is possible to watercool the FT02 just requires a longer than normal loop really than normal and good planning.
Personally i would try and go for a paralle loop.

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Wow those both look very classy and not as cramped as i thought it might be, thanks.

I shall try looking into cooling my current case as well then, i dont suppose those 2 examples were posted on here with build logs were they ?.
 
Both look really nice and well thought out, i would go for a similar setup to thoes, i.e. a 360 rad and possibly a 120 and i would cool the cpu and gpu, thoes kits are pretty good and they do a 360 rad option but depending on your budget i would be tempted for a custom loop.
 
I guess what i really need to know is if they require case modding , if its just whack out the 2 fans in the base then i should be ok, but as its my first time setting up a watercooling loop and i havent done any case modding before id prefer to not have to mod it right off the bat.

I was thinking id pick up the EK or the XSPC kit with the 360 rad for now and cool my cpu , then i think once ive got the grips with that i could add on a 120 ontop and a gpu block ?. Does that sound like itd cool sufficiently at a fairly basic clock on an i7 920 ?.
 
Tbh thoes kits require pretty much the same skill and knowledge to install as a custom loop, only real difference is parts selection and u will probably get a manual or sonething giving advice on the install which pretty much anyone on here including myself could advise on anyway, it's worth looking at pricing and seeing if the kit will save u cash, the cpu blocks and the pump on thoes kits are normally low end and while they won't be that much difference in performance it is worth looking especially if u want to add the gpu into the loop.
Watercooling is a massive jump to most ppl that have never done it and can be very daunting but with the right research and planning it can be fiarly easy and trouble free.
 
Ok after a weekend of posting and talking and reading, i now believe i would only need to remove 2 fans from the base of my case to fit in a 360 rad and wouldnt involve me having to mod my case from what ive learned so far.

So my play is now to try a small loop cooling just my cpu to start with, as i think this will be enough for me to see and feel if it works for me and allow me to expand if i want to.

After talking to some friends and some posts ive read i have 2 options

Option 1

Buy the XSPC 360 kit for around £150 (there is also the option of the slightly more expensive EK 360 kit, but i cant find proper reviews of this unlike the XSPC)

Plus points - Its simple it has everything i need for the loop im planning and its cheap and the components are rated well across the 2 different reviews ive read (one of them being TTLs).

Negative points - From what i understand if i want to expand the loop to include my GPU the pump may not be sufficient and the rad might not cut it even with an extra 120 in the roof (which is what id do). Another small negative point is that the fans are not supposed to be very good so id have to buy new ones anyways.


MY current shopping list and heres where im not sure about posting rules, im not sure if im allowed to link prices and where im getting them from so ill just say its from a site that seems to be trusted well and used by ppl a lot on here.


XSPC Dual Bay Reservoir with DDC Ultra 18W Pump (Bundle Deal)

Hardware Labs Black Ice® GT Xtreme 360mm Triple Radiator : GTX360

EK Supreme HF Easy Mount CPU Waterblock Intel 1366, 1156, 1155, 775, AMD AM3, AM2+, AM2 : Copper Acetal

EK PSC 1/4" Thread Compression Fitting for 3/8" ID - 1/2" OD Tubing : Black x 6

Primochill PrimoFlex Pro LRT 3/8" ID - 1/2" OD (10-13mm) Tubing : Clear 2m

Feser One Non Conductive UV Cooling Fluid for Water Cooling 1 Litre : Blue / Blue

Without fans this comes in at £275 give or take so add on another 20 or so for fans i think.

I belive this to be all very good components that will allow me to add a GPU cooling block to the loop if i add a 120 rad in the roof.

I would love some feedback on whether this is correct as im really going on what ive read and heard from friends and not from experience.

Thanks again.
 
Not sure if i broke forum rules with my list and thats why theres been no reply , but a small update.

I think now i feel like im left with 2 choice in terms of case

1. Corsair Obsidian 800D

2. Fractal Arc Midi

They are the 2 cases i feel can serve what i need and i actually like the look of i know being fussy about looks limits me but what can i say the HAF case just isnt my thing at all neither the NZXT Phantom.

My proposed loop would be the above one , not the kit but the seperate parts i listed above costing around the 275ish mark.

I think what im really looking for is somone in the know the perhaps just give me a nod that the parts ive selected (with a little help) are good quality ones that i wont need to replace if/when i add a gpu block to the loop.

Thanks again guys.
 
the xspc pump combo would not be as reliable as the pump+res in the EK kit which would make one of the EK kits better value.

I would personally keep your fortress. It is a superb case.
the cases you mention above are nowhere near the quality of a silverstone product.
and that includes the 800D

a 920 and a 5850 or any other single high end gpu would be fine on a single 360 radiator.
 
Thanks for the replies, i do like my FT02 dont get me wrong but i really want to go with a watercooled rig for a few reasons, including wanting to try a new project.
From information ive gathered i was pretty reliably informed that watercooling in a FT02 would be a waste of the case and not as effective than in another more suited one.

Maybe somone has a suggestion of another case then if the 2 i mentioned are not good enough.

As far as the pump/res goes thank you for the input there which pump and res might you reccomend if it werent the kit one ?

The kit looks decent but as i was planning in expanding this if i was successful i wanted to get something a little more substatial to start with than the kits which i did look at.

Many thanks
 
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