Water Cooling - Buyers Guide

Discussion in 'Die-hard Overclocking & Case Modifications' started by Preachergeek, Feb 7, 2007.

  1. maxfly

    maxfly Ancient Guru

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    sorry guys havent been keeping track of this thread.
    @YuKsS glad to help.what did you go with in the end?

    @borisof007 hopefully you havent pulled the trigger yet.i would suggest either a EK or DangerDen block for your 9800(if you can find one).

    @KiLO looks good,let us know how you fare with the install.
     
  2. KiLO

    KiLO Member Guru

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    All went good, temps are at 27C idle and appear to be 33C at full load (instantly cooled donwed almost!), parts went in good, the CM Cosmos S is not designed, well is designed but very poorly! Mounting the radiator internaly was a nightmare only four screws and a very sctrong velcro tab keep it screwed in place three fans on it but only four of the 12 holes for the radiator lined up with the cases :biggun:

    Apart from that is all good, have enough flex on the resevoir to be able to take it completely out of the case for easy filling and emptying ;)

    filled perfectly, bled the radiator till the liquid flowed out of it the the rest of the tubes filled up and a little tilt of the resevoir cleared the remaining bubbles from the tubes, all good stuff :)

    My loop goes this way, Pump > Radiator > CPU > Resevoir > Pump. The swifttech N/B chipset block didnt fit my board the mounts where way off so that hasnt been added yet but when i do the tubing will be reduced down to the next smaller size 3/8 I think :S

    All red uv, just my black light tubes have a weird plug on that I havent figured out yet so i might mod them later and put some sort of molex/3pin connection on then, also found a nifty little chip from maplin, a kind of fan controller with 4x12v, 4x,7v, & 4x5v, outputs on it so Ive rigged my front case fan and rad fans to that for ease, I have also nearly completly removed every PSU cable from the inside of the box :nerd:

    [​IMG]

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    EDIT: At Idle RealTemp shows, Core0 30, Core1 30, Core2 25, Core3 25.
     
    Last edited: Sep 2, 2008
  3. maxfly

    maxfly Ancient Guru

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    well done man.the res idea is a good one.thats one of my requirements for a loop,easy to purge and refill.
     
  4. KiLO

    KiLO Member Guru

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    Yeah is definetly worth it if you have space, 1/2 tubing isnt ideal for it but I definetly recommend being able to move the resevoir above and below the case for easy filling/empyting 8)

    fitted two black lights, heres a piccy, I need two more I think but the connections are pathetic I have to use some voncverter that states it changing the 12volt current in to a 680v so I cant even re-wire them the way I originally planned! :(

    Those can wait though cause Ill play with the two I have already and see if I can get a better result, as it comes to about £30 in total for two cathodes and the converter :rolleyes:

    oh & some temps :p

    [​IMG]

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  5. borisof007

    borisof007 Member

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    Ty for the advice so far Max,

    What would you suggest for a radiator? I don't know anything about radiators(implementation and quality) and was hoping for a little nudge in the right direction.

    For a pump, I was thinking of a Swiftech 220 or a Danger Den D5. Also, does the DD 9800gx2 waterblock come stock fitted with 1/2 connectors? Can I choose which connectors come installed from purchase? How should I implement my water flow? I was thinking Pump > GPU > Radiator > Resv > Pump. And what about a resovoir?

    Thanks!
     
  6. maxfly

    maxfly Ancient Guru

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    if money is no object i highly recommend the thermochill 120.2/120.3<---best of the best.
    swiftechs mcr220/320 has very good price to performance.
    for a gpu only loop i would go with the 120.2 or mcr220.if you plan on implementing the cpu eventually i would go with the 120.3 or mcr320.not that the 120x2 rads couldnt cope but more for future upgrades(nb,another gpu).

    i would go with the DD d5,swiftech655(both are rebranded laing D5s)or a laing ddc 3.1/3.2,aka mcp3.1/3.2,dd 3.1/3.2 with a xspc top or petras top.personally i would go with the cheapest of the aforementioned.they will all handle a multi block,dual rad loop easily.so youll have plenty of headroom for future upgrades with them all.

    yep you can choose which size barbs you want when you order the 9800 block.that configuration looks fine.tbh you can set the loop up any way you want as long as the res is at the highest point(for easy filling/bleeding/purging the loop.
    for a res i would go with the swiftech microres.it is very quiet,easy to mount and cheap :)
     
  7. borisof007

    borisof007 Member

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    Ty for the awesome recommendations!

    One more quick question, since I have an NZXT Zero case, which has two 120 mm fans, should I be going with the 120.2? How would I install the 120.3 on an NZXT Zero case, or is it not even possible?

    Thanks!
     
  8. maxfly

    maxfly Ancient Guru

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    a 120.2 may be the best option for that case.altho modding it to fit a 120.3 internally is always a option but that can turn into a ton of work.
     
  9. KiLO

    KiLO Member Guru

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    Your loop should go, ideally, Pump > Radiator > CPU > NB > GPU > Resevoir > Pump.

    Pumps will pump boiling water if you want to they dont care either way, cold or hot :nerd:
     
  10. d1fferent

    d1fferent Maha Guru

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    What is the best kit for money for my quad core or graphics card looking for best bang for buck with good performance,

    thanks,
     

  11. Skiddywinks

    Skiddywinks Ancient Guru

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    No such thing as "best" kit; only "least worst" kit :p
     
  12. KiLO

    KiLO Member Guru

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    Need a little help & advice, been trying to get an northbridge block for my Asus P5N-D 750i motherboard but havent been able to find one yet if anyone can help me out?
    Ive tried the swifttech universal block for the 650/680i and last night I tried the EK NB 780i block but it didnt fit. The dimensions for the holes are l/75mm, w/55mm, d/95mm that last block was just out by about two or three mil to the left once you laid it out on the board, unlucky..

    Second thing, I have the dtek fuzion cpu block and have these two inserts, which do I use? I have a quad core processer, the first in the picture is supposedly designed for them. I had the second in for awhile not knowing and core 0&1 where always higher temperature than the other two, I took it out completely last night as like I said I was trying to add a N/B water block, Ive left it out and ran it to see what its like and again the first two cores are slighly higher temperature than the other two, the computer idles at 18(core 0/1) 15(core 2&3) now which is lower than before and under load I tested this encoding a video file it was low 20's, think it tickles 26 for a second or two. Would putting the quad core fitting in the block help solve the reason this happens, and can I leave it in even when I add more to my loop?
    Or has taking the one out that was in pretty much given me the best performance that i would get from it :stewpid:

    [​IMG]

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    Last edited: Sep 11, 2008
  13. YuKsS

    YuKsS Guest

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  14. KiLO

    KiLO Member Guru

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    That didnt help much sorry :(
     
  15. Cov238

    Cov238 New Member

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    What are the cons on watercooling? and when do you need something like watercooling
     

  16. Skiddywinks

    Skiddywinks Ancient Guru

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    Cost, effort involved, possibility of it pissing on to your motherboard and/or other costly components etc.

    You don't ever really need water cooling, but if you are looking for some greatly decreased temperatures and noise levels, it is the only way to go.

    Also, it looks totally awesome :D

    But beware, you have to spend a big chunk of change to see temperature improvements significantly better than high end air coolers will get.
     
  17. KiLO

    KiLO Member Guru

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  18. maxfly

    maxfly Ancient Guru

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    looks good ;)
    have fun and enjoy!

    and grow another set of hands for installing your slied gpus lol.
     
  19. KiLO

    KiLO Member Guru

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    LOL! Know what that comment means now! :p

    [​IMG]

    Thats my baby now:banana:

    Not the best photo and was taken whilst I was filling her up still so dont point out the massive air bubbles in the pipes please :$

    Full water cooling, Mosfets, CPU, SPP, MCP, SLI cards, consists of two rads, a thermochill pa 360, and a blackice stealth 120, used 3/8" tubing throughout accpet on the pump inself, if you look its actually 1/2" bit ;)

    Temps are actually more or less the same, at idle (no OC) 28/29 for CPU, cards are at 38/40, when OC'd CPU is at 30/33 and video cards are at 42 and thats a 3.6Ghz overclcok to CPU and the Gfx cards hiked up to 800 core 1200 memory 8)
     
  20. maxfly

    maxfly Ancient Guru

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    looks good ;) and those temps are very nice.
     

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