WC Advice

leedjc

leedjc

leedjc

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Joined
10 Dec 2009
Posts
4
Good evening all

Looking for some advice! Fairly new to WC, so could do with some recommendations for the following spec:

i7 920 OCd to 4GHz
Twin GTX 295s
Also need a Northbridge cooler

any suggestions please :)

Thanks
 
Could realld do with a bit more info than that really for speccing water cooling. Its not a case of "you have this so must get this". What do you want it for? Im guessing best cooling performance from your spec, rather than the quietest it can be? And what case are you doing this in? That has a massive impact on what you'll be buying as you need to make sure everything is going to fit. And what sort of budget you looking at? your probably going to be spending around £200 on blocks alone for a machine of that spec, before adding pumps/rads/fans etc.

You happy with modding your case a bit yourself too? Watercooling often needs the case to be modded slightly to get everything to fit right.

Answer those and we'll have a better idea of what to suggest for you :)
 
Ducky Spud said:
Could realld do with a bit more info than that really for speccing water cooling. Its not a case of "you have this so must get this". What do you want it for? Im guessing best cooling performance from your spec, rather than the quietest it can be? And what case are you doing this in? That has a massive impact on what you'll be buying as you need to make sure everything is going to fit. And what sort of budget you looking at? your probably going to be spending around £200 on blocks alone for a machine of that spec, before adding pumps/rads/fans etc.

You happy with modding your case a bit yourself too? Watercooling often needs the case to be modded slightly to get everything to fit right.

Answer those and we'll have a better idea of what to suggest for you :)
Click to expand...

Thanks -

The case is an Alienware, so large and plenty of room. I'm removing the stock sealed watercooling unit as it's not big enough for the job. The requirement isn't so much for quiet running, but for cooling ability. It's for gaming/flight sim.

Modding the cas also isn't a problem :)

Budget isn't too much of an issue either, obviously want to keep this within reason though!

To be honest, it doesn't need to cool the 295s yet, as they're not in there. The system has twin ATIs. But am looking at adding 295s in the near future with the view of watercooling them, so need the setup to be big enough to handle these when added.
 
If you're going to have SLi graphics cards watercooled then I would highly reccommend dual loops. One for the GFX cards and another for the CPU and anything else that you'd want to watercool (mobo for example). Have you checked that you can actually use SLi no your motherboard as recently I don't really know of many motherboards that support both crossfire and SLi.
 
What Alienware PC is it? An Area 51? If so I think that comes with a H50 anyway, or a system thats basically the same so not much point going for that if your looking at adding graphics cards in to it as well. But as neo-omega said, make sure your board can support SLI as well as crossfire (think it should but best to make sure), wouldnt be fun buying those 2 295's to find out they wont both work in there!! :o

As he said as well, dual loops may be a good idea. Will cost a bit more and be a little more complicated, but offer much better cooling performance. Those 295's will be putting out a lot of heat so maybe best to keep them in they're own loop for better cooling. Would also mean you could get your CPU/NB loop set up now, and then just add another loop for the cards when you get them, rather than modifying the current loop.


EDIT: is it this case?

alienware-area-51-design5.jpg
 
Last edited:
Ducky Spud said:
What Alienware PC is it? An Area 51? If so I think that comes with a H50 anyway, or a system thats basically the same so not much point going for that if your looking at adding graphics cards in to it as well. But as neo-omega said, make sure your board can support SLI as well as crossfire (think it should but best to make sure), wouldnt be fun buying those 2 295's to find out they wont both work in there!! :o

As he said as well, dual loops may be a good idea. Will cost a bit more and be a little more complicated, but offer much better cooling performance. Those 295's will be putting out a lot of heat so maybe best to keep them in they're own loop for better cooling. Would also mean you could get your CPU/NB loop set up now, and then just add another loop for the cards when you get them, rather than modifying the current loop.


EDIT: is it this case?

alienware-area-51-design5.jpg
Click to expand...

It's extremely similar to this case:

alx-cc-3.jpg


The current system is a sealed unit like the h50, but is mounted under the HDDs, unlike the image above.

Dual loops seem the way to go. The mobo is a Gigabyte EX58. I've seen this block for the mobo, but it lists it as an X58 block, however, it looks the same as the EX58 standard heatsink (size and shape wise):

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=WC-045-EK&groupid=962&catid=1521&subcat=1537

There is a large amount of room under the HDDs (where the current system is, or rather, was), and also a fair amount of room between the HDDs and mobo - agood spot for reservoir?
 
If your interested in modding / overclocking and generally spending lots of money on barbs and shiny compression fittings I would say build your own bespoke system.

Start reading the forums to get a good idea of what you need, sorry there is no quick route to custom water cooling as it takes a long time to plan / build a system from scratch (you can of course copy someones custom loop but where is the fun in that)

If you do not want to go down the custom route than get an H50 as they are very good for an "off the shelf solution" and would work well for you.

I would not bother with the 2x GTX295's for moment as in the new year you will be seeing new models from Nvidia.
 
Trying to think where you could mount some decent rads in there. Could get single rads on the rear exhaust and the front intake below the HDD's, but unsure about the rest. Maybe one in the roof infront of the PSU, and not too sure about the front. Its not a case Im familiar with. Like Deadman said, it may be a good idea to look around for ideas of how to sort your loop out. Main problem will be rads, as your going to need more than 2 120mm rads to cool all that!
 
He said earlier that its a Gigabyte EX58.... I'd guess a UD5 is the most likely option, possibly a UD7 if its a very top of the line sort of machine.

Tried finding a spec sheet for this (is it an Area 51 X-58?) but any I found stated it as having an Asus mobo, so I may just be looking for the wrong system :(
 
It might be worthwhile changing the case, if you have toe budget for it that is, for one better suited to watercooling. Since they are desgined with that in mind you will find things like pipe-routing and finding space for your radiators significantly easier than in your old one. Then again it is a lot more work than simply plonking on a waterblock and fitting it in as best you can.

As an aside if you are going to run dual looks then you might want to consider THIS as it will deal with the problem of trying to find space of a separate pump as well as simplifying the loops.
 
i would change the case...but then i wouldn't have bought a premade Dell machine in the first place especially if i was planning to upgrade.

there are some great water cooling speced cases out there and there are sites that offer a premade/modded cases with water cooling fitted, this might be your best bet if you have the money to spend.
 
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