watercooling

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im thinking its time to take the plunge ( lol ) into watercooling.

im a complete noob so ive read around for hint tips etc.
however, theres only so much reading you can do, now its time to take action.
rather than stress about what parts to get, im hoping someone can tell me if its worth getting the watercooling kits supplied by ocuk ?.

also , as its my first time, would i be better going just for the cpu cooling or cpu/gpu?.

my specs are:

corsair 800D case
i7 920 D0 o/c 3.8 ( cooled atm via H50 )
Asus AEH 5870 (standard clocks , standard cooling )
7X apache black fans connected to a neotec fanmax controller
6gb patriot ram
120gb SSD
1Tb HDD
1xdvd writer
1xblu ray reader
 
watercool what you think you will be comfortable with..

the best thing to do is to get an outline of what you want to cool and the capacity of your chassis.

in fairness you could do your 5870 and 920 of a good triple radiator in that 800d case.

i would reccomend a good pump such as a D5 or a DDC 18W for both

get full cover blocks for the gpu and a good cpu bblock such as a supreme or heatkiller.

then you will need a reservoir for easy fillling.

maybe look at the bay reservoirs, they are always easy to fill.

get 2 barbs for each component in the loop [one in and one out]
try to look at 1/2" barbs as they allow you to use 7/16th tubing which is a nice tight fit.

use cable ties to tighten the tubing on. then pick whatever fluid you like the look of because it makes no difference.

choose some good performance fans such as gentle typhoons or sharkoon 1000rpms

best thing to do is to do research, the best part of watercooling is that it looks totally sweet so make sure you like the look of the hardware that you choose.

our watercoolign kits fit the bill well too. choose one of those if you dont want to go to any hassle.

feel free to ask any more questions if you get stuck, there are plenty of knowledgable people on here who can help out
 
I started out with a complete swiftech kit (when OcUK did em) then at least you know you have all the parts to make it work. Once you have done that you end up knowing the pitfalls and how to modify it to suit you, then you get hooked and buy better bits and bobs, blocks, rads, etc...

One word of warning allways check components are water tight, I bought an EK GPU full cover waterblock and the alun key bolts holding it together were loose, it leaked onto and short circuited my motherboard. It worked fine once I tightened all the alun bolts but had to replace my motherboard :(

I love my watercooled PC, its totally silent and I can overclock the hell out of it.

Good luck on your build.
 
well, so far if i was to buy separates, i would go for this
(please advise if you think theres a better solution, im not too worried about cost )
also, ive noticed both the kits and separates on the ocUK site dont carry coolers for the Asus AEH 5870 series card ( unless the 5850 blocks fit it?)
so ive left it out for now, until im advised.

10pvns4.jpg


or should i get this:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BU-052-OE&groupid=962&catid=1532&subcat=
 
^ there is no way you need a triple rad for just a CPU, heck even a double rad can handle a overclocked GTX 480 with ease and that output about double the heat energy compared to a 4GHz i7 920

also never use coolant, use distilled water plus PT nuke or a silver coil instead

thirdly don't use driver bay reservoirs, they are probably the worst idea when it comes to water cooling, use a MCRES instead

finally don't use plastic clips, use proper jubilee clips or those metal koolance ones
 
^ there is no way you need a triple rad for just a CPU, heck even a double rad can handle a overclocked GTX 480 with ease and that output about double the heat energy compared to a 4GHz i7 920

also never use coolant, use distilled water plus PT nuke or a silver coil instead

thirdly don't use driver bay reservoirs, they are probably the worst idea when it comes to water cooling, use a MCRES instead

finally don't use plastic clips, use proper jubilee clips or those metal koolance ones


rjkoneill qoutes: "in fairness you could do your 5870 and 920 of a good triple radiator in that 800d case" .. so i was just going with what he recomended.

as ive already said, im not going with just the cpu, i want gpu too.. i just havent included it on the list as ocUK doesnt stock one for the 5870 ( unless ive missed it :confused: )

advise taken on the distilled water and pt nuke, same goes for jubilee clips ( but i quite like those koolance ones ) ;)

MCRES ? .. could you give me a little more insight into these please ?

thanks for the input everone, its really helping :)
 
Last edited:
well, so far if i was to buy separates, i would go for this
(please advise if you think theres a better solution, im not too worried about cost )
also, ive noticed both the kits and separates on the ocUK site dont carry coolers for the Asus AEH 5870 series card ( unless the 5850 blocks fit it?)
so ive left it out for now, until im advised.

10pvns4.jpg


or should i get this:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BU-052-OE&groupid=962&catid=1532&subcat=

that is spot on.

go for a 5870 block from us if we have them or just go to EK direct

the SR1 radiator is one of the best on the market at the moment. you simply cannot go wrong with it. you have gone for everything i would personally suggest.

avoid the tubing clamps and just use cable ties. much cheaper and neater in my opinion.

the bay res pump combo is somethign that slipped by me, that is a good idea and keeps the loop nice and neat.
they are not the 'cool' thing to use but are functional and hardly ever go wrong.
brief insight: the one in your basket has one of our lowest return rate of ANY watercooling pump we have ever sold

you may want some good non conductive TIM

may i suggest MX3?

it is doing a great job of keeping my 480 under control :D
 
ok thanks for confirming my choices rjkoneill , seems i might just be a little bit better than "water- noob" after all :p

one thing that does concern me, the Asus EAH 5870.. its this one purchased from ocUK a few months ago

i need to know if this is a reference card or a v2 .. it seems theres a difference for the type of block to buy.
couldnt see any blocks on ocUk for this card so will need to order direct from ek

k3vi1k.jpg
 
well if You are a water noob then i must be a uber water noob! do you get 3x120 with the rad? going for some bits that are not in stock but will be worth it i think
 
Go for the 360 rad, even if you do not cool your gpu at this point, its there when you decide too. I use the xscp dual 750 re/pump combo, can't fault it.

I use Akasa Viper fans can't vault them at all, my rad is mounted on the rear of the case externaly even at 1700rpm, l can just hear them and my case is right next to me, get a PWM splitter cable for your rad fans + l used compression fittings.
 
Go for the 360 rad, even if you do not cool your gpu at this point, its there when you decide too. I use the xscp dual 750 re/pump combo, can't fault it.

I use Akasa Viper fans can't vault them at all, my rad is mounted on the rear of the case externaly even at 1700rpm, l can just hear them and my case is right next to me, get a PWM splitter cable for your rad fans + l used compression fittings.

nice advice thanks :)
glad to hear from someone who is using the xscp dual 750 re/pump combo,its now firmly on my list.
i recently fitted a load of apache blacks,they are connected to a controller.. i was hoping i could use these ?.
good news about the rad, i was wondering if it was too much to just control the cpu, but youve cleared that up for me .
as ive got the corsair 800D, i take it i should be fine with this inside the top of the case without modding ?.
 
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