Watercooling a BeQuiet Darkbase 900

Associate
Joined
5 Nov 2003
Posts
320
Has anyone had any experience in adding a water cooling rig to this case? Ideally I want to add both top and bottom (base) radiators with 'out' fans and front mounted 'in' fans (standard). Will be building a new system based on a 3900x and 2080 ti (super?) and intend to water cool both CPU and GPU. As I'm a beginner to wc, I was thinking of going with the EK FLUID GAMING A360G kit. I assume I can add an additional rad to this? Not sure if I actually need a second rad, so may just go with some additional fans in the base to help with overall case cooling.

Thoughts and suggestions very welcome
 
Soldato
Joined
28 Dec 2017
Posts
8,386
Location
Beds
The A360G kit uses aluminium parts which means you'd generally have to find other aluminium parts in future. It's best not to mix aluminium and copper in a water cooling loop but the majority of parts now (and generally the best) are made of copper or brass. I won't comment on performance as they're probably very good, being EK, but you'd be locking yourself into a smaller product market.

I think you'll need more than 360mm radiator space - I have a 360 and a 120 radiator cooling an i5-4690k and a 1070. It runs quiet but you have there a higher TDP CPU, and a higher TDP graphics card than I do. So if you want to avoid excessive fan speeds you might want the second radiator.

In general though a kit can be a great way to start - you have most of the parts you need, they're guaranteed to be compatible and it can be better value. Alternatively do lots of research and find the best parts to suit your plan. Don't be afraid to get some parts second hand too - I've caught some good deals being patient.
 
Associate
Joined
8 Sep 2003
Posts
265
Location
Norway/Coventry
I've no experience with the Darkbase case, but i've got the A240g so I can share my experiences with that :)

It's a great kit which I picked up cheap and its the most fun i've ever had building a pc. The downside it was a gateway drug to make my expensive hobby even more expensive :D

It generally performs well and keeps my overclocked 8700k and 1080ti under fairly good temperatures, but i've noticed under certain heavy gaming it can start to struggle. The gpu can get to 60+ degrees when both the cpu and gpu are getting hammered, Cpu hovers around 65c-70c ish. The air blasting out of the rad feels warm, the tubes feel warm and the water temp reached 48c with an ambient temperature of 24c.

I feel the 240mm rad isn't enough for two overclocked components being pushed hard, unfortunately no one sells the expansion kits in Norway so I'd have to import it direct from EK, which bumps up the price to something i'm not comfortable with.

I've ordered an aluminium radiator from elsewhere, its not EK made but hopefully it will work fine, I'll report back once I've got it if your interested on how its effected my temperatures :)

So to sum up, its a great kit but it will struggle to keep things super cool when overclocked/pushed hard.

I've seen copper kits sell for roughly the same price, minus the gpu block. If you can push the extra cash and go for a copper starter kit id recommend it. It gives you more options later down the road when you want to expand the loop or add flow meters, drainage ports etc or if EK decide not to release a new GPU block for newer cards.

If your on a strict budget or get the aluminium kit at a good price then its a good starter but you will need to expand it with extra rad later imho :)
 
Back
Top Bottom