Watercooling - a realistic price?

[Darren S]

Chaps (Scone, Gareth, Munson, in particular) - what would I be looking at in terms of expense switching from air to water for cooling?

I've got an i7 (LGA1366) sat on an Asus Rampage III Extreme, which iirc, is the same board that Gareth uses? I'm currently running two GTX460s as well and would definitely like the ability to cool down the RAM on here (all six slots).

Just ball-park figures here guys - I'm not holding you to anything - lol!

Cheers,
D.

 

[Silent_Scone]

Soooo much choice mate. Id suggest one of the kits available as a first timer. Maybe the HKS one? Or one of. Realistic price, I'd say anywhere in the region of 200-300 for a decent setup

 

[Gareth]

I'd say more tbh, to do it properly I'd budget £500.

CPU Block £53.98

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/ek-s...block-intel-77513661155-56-amd-939754940am2-3

Radiator £49.90

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/xspc-rs360-radiator-black-(g1-4-threaded-ports))

Reservoir £30.08

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/ek-multioption-res-x2-250-basic-capacity-285-ml

Motherboard Block £100.67

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/ek-fb-re3-plexi-en-(nickel)-for-asus-rampage-iii-extreme-motherboard

Pump £76.40

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/alphacool-laing-vpp655-d5-pump-t12-(1-2-barbed-connectors))

GPU Block ( x2 ) £125.42

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/ek-fc460-gtx-nickel

You've then still got connectors which soon add up, tubing, liquid so I'd add another £100 odd atleast for those.

If you wanted RAM doing as well:

RAM Block £31.75

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/ek-r...dominator-and-corsair-dominator-gt-ram-series

You could probably save money by buying an all-in-one pump/reservoir but all the stories I've heard about pumps packing in have tended to be this type and I prefer the seperate pump / reservoir look.

 

[Darren S]

Cheers guys. I'd MUCH prefer to hear from people who've been there and done it, rather than having several dozen opinions off various websites.

I take it that once you've got the kit though, moving forward with new components is literally just a case of replacing the GPU, CPU and RAM blocks/connections?

Realistically, I'd be doing this piece-meal rather than all in one hit, over the course of several months. I prefer the sound of your recommendation as well Gareth about a seperate pump & reservoir.

D.

 

[Gareth]

Yeah that's right Darren, it's definitely an initial outlay but you can reuse the fittings, radiator, reservoir, pump etc as said.

 

[Munson]

Don't know enough to comment. I'm using a shitty all-in-one liquid CPU cooler at the moment, and that's as far as I've ventured. It does actually give really cool temps though. My 2600K runs at 4.8Ghz as cool as a cucumber. Reckon I could easily go 5Ghz+ on it.

 

[Silent_Scone]

Chipset cooling is OTT as far as water goes, especially for someone who's starting out lol. Unless you plan on doing some hefty overclocking, and even then you rarely get temps high enough with passive coolers. Apart from the new x79 boards, having serious issues dispatching heat for the MOSFET on mine. Trading it in for the Asus.

Also the only pump/res combo I would consider is the dual bay XSPC one. The pump is a 750ltph. The rest aren't up to much, and the single bay XSPC one is s**t couldn't pump a nats **** around a grain of sand.

 

[Darren S]

Chipset cooling is OTT as far as water goes, especially for someone who's starting out lol. Unless you plan on doing some hefty overclocking, and even then you rarely get temps high enough with passive coolers. Apart from the new x79 boards, having serious issues dispatching heat for the MOSFET on mine. Trading it in for the Asus.

Also the only pump/res combo I would consider is the dual bay XSPC one. The pump is a 750ltph. The rest aren't up to much, and the single bay XSPC one is s**t couldn't pump a nats **** around a grain of sand.

Flol!

What's the trick with the pumps and radiators? Is it better to have a faster through-flow, or have colder water and not flowing as quickly? I guess there would be pros and cons to each?

D.

 

[Munson]

I think you'll find that the water won't be as cold if it's flowing slower? You could have a great flow rate, but if the rads can't take the heat away, the water will start getting hot. I'm no expert, but I guess you need a balance of the two? I also imagine the water block design is critical for maximum thermal transfer.

 

[Silent_Scone]

the blocks are actually much of a muchness I've not seen much variation in temps with different brands. Key is to have the shortest route possible and to have as big a radiator as you can muster in the case

Theres no real science to it tbh, even if you **** it up it'll be better than air. lol


Currently with this new BIOS on the gigabyte board (stock clocks as it's going back to the shop) I'm sitting at 24c idle... It's actually running an under volt at the moment, but for a 6 core **** on heat that's pretty impressive... lots of head room for overclocking


360mm rad and XSPC dual bay res/pump..

 

[Munson]

My case has provision for a triple rad in the top, and masses of internal space. I intend to keep it for several years, so I reckon I will be going bespoke water as part of my next upgrade.

 

[iain187]

Are water cooling systems something you can largely move from 1 PC to another - i.e. if I spend £500 odd on a water system, when I decide to upgrade my PC again I generally use the same case and donate old parts I'm not keeping to family/friends that want something.

Therefore I wouldn't want to invest £500 again so could I take stuf with my pretty easily, always fancied water cooling but never really bothered.

 

[Munson]

Don't see why not. The idea is really to invest the money in a case and WC system that should last for years. Then you just periodically upgrade the internals.

 

[Silent_Scone]

same case won't be a problem but you'd need to invest in a new water block for your CPU /GPUs if you're planning on changing them.

 

[SharkyUK]

*watching / reading thread with interest* Cheers!

 

[G3 NYX]

Don't bother with the full system unless you are going to seriously overclock everything.

If you want everything separate you also going to have to have a big case, I'm using the corsair 800d with 3/4in tubing and it's a struggle to fit lol (no right angles because that creates a bottleneck.

I can get you most of the parts you need slightly cheaper if you like.

Don't bother watercooling ram or hard drives, watercooling works in the same way as anything else, the key is great contact which with ram is impossible, good airflow will be fine even with moderate overclocking.

As for hard drives just buy an SSD.


EDIT: Also get universal gpu water blocks so you can use them on any gpu to come

 

[G3 NYX]

My universal gpu water block


My full system outside the case


That's the 360mm rad, and lol at my anti kink coils I'm better at putting them on now!

For you nerds out there this is my ps3 I'm currently working on:

 

[Silent_Scone]

nice, watercooled a 360 once with the EK kit I think it was? Great mod

 

[Gareth]

I hate anti kink coils with a passion.

 

[G3 NYX]

I hate anti kink coils with a passion.

I love the look, can't stand putting them on lol

 

[Darren S]

What about the cooling of the gfx memory though? Those things get seriously hot and naturally would get worse if the gfx card was OC'd?

D.

 

[Silent_Scone]

Depends on the card, personally I wouldn't fancy running a 580GTX like that...

 

[Darren S]

Depends on the card, personally I wouldn't fancy running a 580GTX like that...

I personally wouldn't want to run any card like that - lol!

Had issues way back before in the 7900GTX and 9800 Pro days. Crappy passive cooling on them - replace and restick and everything's happy. Having air running as well would help, but doesn't that kinda defeat the exercise?

D.

 

[Gareth]

Either do air cooling like everyone else, or do water but do it properly IMHO.

 

[G3 NYX]

Depends on the card, personally I wouldn't fancy running a 580GTX like that...

I have a dedicated fan for that, didn't fancy spending 6 times as much for a full cover and backplate!

 

[Silent_Scone]

fair enough, if the temps are ok lol. Gareth, does that include 90 degree fittings?

 

[Gareth]

I don't have a problem with 90 degree fittings, its the 45s I'm not keen on!