Water Cooling - Buyers Guide

Wow, I have to say as a first impression, I'm impressed with the CoolIT Systems Domino A.L.C.S.! It dropped my intel burn test over 25C in performance (auto) mode from nearly 90C (yikes) to 64-65C. You can't even hear it. I've been running Prime for nearly an hour OC at 4ghz with the cooler set on low and my core temps with Real Temp are 49-48-50-49. I post up some pictures of the install once I clean them up and shrink em down to a postable size. :banana:

 

thinking about getting the XT too and the RESERATOR 2.

exact same question. for me the problem is that the market is kinda scarse over here and secondly i'm in no mood to build the entire wc from separate components (unless i have no other choice) especially if there is something like the XT. given the fact it actually works? or how well? and is there anything similar anyone would recommend over that one?
also are any of the zalman water blocks any good?

one other thing i'd like to know is how good idea is the wc in general for 24/7 systems compared to ac?

 

Hi, in a couple of weeks, im gona order my watercooling kit.... I have decided that I can't get what I wanted into my V1000 so im goning to get a Lian-Li PC-A77, is this a good choice? I can't justify the £200+ for a TJ07.

Have a look over my choice and please comment...

Swiftech Apogee™ GTZ

EK-FC285 285 GTX SLI (on reading on here and XtremeSystems forum this should fit my GTX260 55nm?)

EK-Mosfet ASUS 3a (X38) x2

EK-NB S-MAX

ThermoChill PA120.3 (im going to mount it in the 5.25 bays of the PC-A77)
3x Noctua NF-P12 fans

1/2" tygon

DDC-1T Ultra w/EK V2 DDC X-TOP + EK Multioption RES 150 Rev2

1/4" BSPP - 1/2" Hose Tail (EK) fittings

Thanks

P.S. I was thinking of routing the flow as follows: pump-cpu-mosfets-NB-GPU-rad-res.

 

looks like a well thought out loop. i would shoot ek a email just be sure your gpu block will be good to go(better to be safe..). i like the lian li but i cant say how things will fit in it. it certainly looks tall and wide enough up front to mount your rad there.
the only thing i might drop would be the mosfet blocks but thats just personal preference tbh. most mosfet blocks are very restrictive and im a flow junky
enjoy!

 

Thanks for the feedback Maxfly. Looking at them and they do look very restrictive. Another option would be to use Thermalright HR-09 S/U type 2 Mosfet Cooler? EK have a new block EK-FC260 (55nm) http://www.ekwaterblocks.com/shop/index.php?cPath=21_31_42

 

the hr-09s are a solid choice. i used them on my last build and was very impressed with them. you could tell they were really pulling the heat away from the fets. youll need solid case flow for them to really shine tho. which can be hard to achieve with watercooling. either way its your rig so my advice is go with the option that satisfies your needs and be done with it your ddc should have no problems even with mosfet blocks in the loop imo.

 

hello,

yust to say realy wish i had found this forum al lot faster (before i got to know TT ) this guid realy helpt me a lot

but know i have some question's this is my setup atm

case: TT armor +
psu : be-quiet 1200 watte
mobo: gigabyte GA-MA790GP-DS4H
cpu : AMD phenom2 940
gpu : point off vieuw 9800GX2
ddr : 2x OCZ ddr2 2x1gig XTC extreme edition 1066 MHZ
HDD : 2x 150 gig velocity raptor raid0
1x 1T samsung 32mb

liquid cooling
TT bigwater 760i
TT aquabay M1
TT radiator TMG1

cpublok: D-tek FuZion V2
gpublok: inovatek cool-matic 9800 gx2 double S
tube : tygon 3/8
rad : Black Ice GT 240 (chrome)
fan : silverstone 1100rpm
fancont: zalman ZM-MFC1+

i did some reading and d-tec has a nozzel kit WTF is it and what do it do
realy whont to get that TT b*llsh*t out off my case do you have good solution's

running @ 3.797 prime 95 stable @1.55v 57C (test run over 3 hour ) but if i game over 5 hour it get like 48C

BTW sorry for the typo from belgium hope you understand me thx in front

 

http://www.candccentral.co.uk/acatalog/XSPC_Bay_Pump_Reservoir_Clear.html

http://www.candccentral.co.uk/acatalog/XSPC_RS360_Black_360mm_Radiator.html

http://www.candccentral.co.uk/acatalog/EK-FC295_GTX_SLI.html

would this combo work? i have a haf932 so would install the rad with three 120mm fans at the top.

i wouldnt be cooling the cpu so would was thinking the three 120mm will still pull the hot air up even though the radiator will be in the way as it were...

 

moved

 

I wouldn't recommend the Koolance system as it has an aluminium radiator and would limit you to using aluminium blocks.

If you're looking for a quiet setup, radiators with wide fin spacing are optimised for low rpm fans, but are generally a lot thicker and more expensive.

 

Excellent detail to know about your radiators/blocks/reservoirs. Mixing different metals is inherently dangerous even if you're using special liquid (does gold-plated metal eliminate this perhaps?).

http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?p=3089355#post3089355
Been thinking about the same thing, comparing Thermochills, Black Ice, and Feser. Without retyping what's in the thread I just linked, all three perform equally as long as you're using either low (<1800ish) OR high (>1800ish) fans. Black Ice radiators loose performance edge at lower rpms and gain performance at higher rps, but also make sure your fans have a high static pressure (they "push" air more). Thermochills are less densly-finned radiators and result in a quiter noise with equal performance untill you get into higher rpms. Feser apparantly modeled their fin design after Thermochill so they fall into the same boat, but Feser does have 4x120mm and 4x140mm fan options and Thermochill doesn't have any 4-fan radiators that I know of (but I'm still looking!)

 

I recently took my first step towards watercooling by getting a Swiftech H2O-220 Compact kit ( http://www.cluboc.net/reviews/super_cooling/swiftech/H20-220Compact/index.asp ). I'm somewhat pleased with it but can't help but to think there's something I can do to improve its performance. Right now my idle temps are 38,39,35,33 C, @ load they hover around the upper forties/lower fifties. I'm using fan voltage adapters which lower the voltage from 12v to 7v thus making the fans spin slower. With 12v the fans are way too loud without much or any impact on the temps. My processor is a q6600 oc'd @ 3,15mhz with 1,325 volts and mobo is a Inno 3d 680i sli. One thing I noticed is that my northbride heatsink fan is blowing hot air straight to the Swithech Apodee drive ( http://specialtech.co.uk/spshop/files/detail/apogeedrive.jpg ) which is attached to my processor. Could this have a significant effect on the cpu temps? I have been thinking of replacing the stock northbridge cooler with one from Swiftech ( http://www.jab-tech.com/Swiftech-MCW30-Chipset-cooler-pr-3251.html )that can be added straight to my wc kit. But the current stock cooler is attached to the southbridge heatsink with a heatpipe ( http://images.tomshardware.com/2006/12/19/intel_or_nvidia/evga-boardbig.jpg ). Am I able to just remove the northbride heatsink and the heatpipe and leave the southbridge heatsink where it is? I ask this because there is only barely enough room for my graphics card as it is and adding a bigger/taller southbridge cooler would cause my vga to not fit. Also if I were to add the Swiftech northbride waterblock, I would have to drain the current wc system before I could add the nb block. How exactly would this go about? Also can I store the coolant in a bottle or a pot of somesort for the duration and then refill the wc system again with it or would I have to use new unused coolant? How important is hygene in these matters (can the coolant be kept in a clean cooking pot for a shortwhile for example?) I also have a question concerning the current coolant i'm using. With the kit I received a small bottle of coolant which were to be mixed with 0,5 liters of distilled water. Our local pharmacy only has sterilized water instead of distilled so I went with the sterilized option. Is this something I shoud be worried about? Alot of questions from a watercooling noob I know, but this is one of the reasons I joined this great forum in the firstplace. I know there's some great people here whom I hope can help me with these issues. So any advise is greatly appreciated!

 

Hey guys, I need some opinions about the first costum CPU only watercooling kit I'm assembling for my current system.
So far, I have:

Radiator:
Thermochill PA120.2 or PA120.3
Does €20 extra for the third fan really matter or should I just go for the 120.2

CPU block:
D-Tek FuZion Universal v2 or Swiftech Apogee GTZ
They're priced the same, which one would be better for quad cores?

Cooling Paste:
Arctic Silver 5 or Arctic MX-2

Concerning the pump, should I go straight for the Laing D5 or are there other alternatives besides Laing?
What size of tubing is recommended?

Reservoir:
Swiftech MCRES-Micro Rev2 Reservoir

And finally:
What do I miss?

 

PA120.3 for futureproofing. It's worth €20 more. Apogee GTZ - The Fuzion 2 lacks support from the manufacturer. MX2: no curing time and better heat conductivity than AS5. The D5 is a great pump. It's silent and extremely sturdy. With the D5 you don't have many other options than 1/2" ID tubing or 7/16" ID tubing since it has fixed barbs, unless you mount a custom top on it. The MCRES is great, I'd get that if you want a reservoir.

 

Thanks, John

Just this one thing about cooling fluid:
Feser Ultra Pure distilled water with some anti-corrosion would be good, right?
And how much water is needed for this simple loop?

 

Pure destilled water with some copper sulfate (PT Nuke) is good enough, you don't need anti corrosion in there since you only have copper and brass parts. Feser liquid is wastly overpriced... you can get a bottle of battery water on any gas station for next to nothing, and this will be deionized as well. Destillied water can be had many places and it's cheap.

You'll need a little less than a liter of liquid I would think. The radiator fits about 5dl, add the reservoir to that and a desiliter or two for the tubing.

 

I have been looking into watercooling for a while now and have researched a lot but I am still pretty confused.

I have my eyes set on the GTZ and the MCR 220 radiator because they're reasonably priced. I already have the pipes but what I don't understand is what barbs are and how I choose them.

From what I understand barbs are fittings that attach the pipes to the block, pump and radiator. Am I correct?

How do I find out what the size of my tubing is? Do I just measure?

How do I ensure that the pipes don't come off?

Sorry guys, I'm a right noob when it comes to WC but really need to do something about the heat here. It's not even summer yet and my PC is already shutting down from time to time, the AC unit is a little defect and there's no fix in sight.

 

Yes barbs are fittings that attach the pipes to the blocks / radiators ect...

You have any information about the tubing such as brand model no ect? But yeah you could easily measure the ID of the tubing.

When the tubing goes over the barbs it's normally a very tight fit and needs some hot water just to make it fit. But you should probably invest in a few Jubilee clips over the contact point. It's pretty easy.Such as these

http://www.coolercases.co.uk/acatalog/Hose_Clamps.html

 

To be honest I have no idea what the name of the tubes is but they're the ones that come with the TT watercooling sets. They yellow over time and are hard to bend but I have metres and would rather save some money as this set is already going to cost me an arm and a leg.

I have no idea what the width of the pipes is but I will measure them and then buy barbs here in one of the the many hardware shops.

 

Probably 3/8" I.D. tubing. Although I'd recommend going with some 7/16" I.D. tubing over 1/2" barbs for a nice watertight connection, Masterkleer or Swiftech tubing is inexpensive and bends fairly tight without kinking.

I believe the GTZ ships with both 1/2" and 3/8" chrome barbs so you'd just need barbs for the rad and pump(?). You'd also need a T-fitting or reservoir for filling, unless you're grabbing the MCR220 with the built in reservoir.