Venturing into the Realm of WC? Help Please.

I finally got everything yesterday. I thought it was pretty cool that Petra's had a hand written thank you note in it.

The pump that i got from dangerden was hilarious. The warranty time was whited out, and "two" was written in place of "one" lol.

And to add to the excitement...I was cleaning everything out, and as i was cleaning up i found out that the bottle was "Spring Water" not "Distilled" water. So yea, gotta pick up some Distilled water tonight and clean everything all over again. lol

Originally Posted by Zoson

The only place I've found that is doing meaningful comparisons of watercooling equipment is Skinee Labs:
http://www.skinneelabs.com/

Unfortunately they are engineers, and not journalists and publishers... So the material tends to be very dense.

Zoson,

I really, really, really appreciate your detailed responses. I just checkd out skinneelabs, and yes, their material is pretty dense, but I'm a numbers guy myself, so that's OK.

lol @ Skinnee providing good information.

A lot of people used to have respect for him before his Feser/Primochill fiasco.

Martin's liquid labs is the place to be

Originally Posted by Zoson

Anyway, my parts suggestions are:
CPU: Enzotech Sapphire (can be had at newegg as a combo with i7 mounting for only $35!)
NB: Whatever EK or Bitspower makes for your motherboard
SB/Equivalent: From what I've seen x58 NB coolers include southbridge cooling. If not - Swiftech MCW30
GPU: Swiftech MCW60 with full coverage extruded aluminum heatsink.(Keeps mem/pwm cooled by air, but core cooled by water)
Power: I have Enzotech forged copper heatsinks. I like them more than the Thermalright offerings...
Pump: MCP655
Rads: HWLabs SR1 series
Fans: Enermax Magma Twister(top speed of ~1600RPM pushing ~70CFM at very low noise, responds to undervolting very nicely)
Res: Swiftech MCRes Micro v2
Barbs/Tubes: Get everything with 1/2" ID 5/8" OD
Clamps: Don't forget these. Herbie clips will do the job, but I recently switched to bitspower compression clamps(not to be confused with compression fittings). Herbie clips are a pain to remove and work with in general.

Good reccomendation but you know I am a Swiftech MCR whore so OP if you don't mind a 1c loss in performance the Swiftech MCR rads can be had for about half the price. Also, 7/16 over 1/2 barbs won't come off and takes bends better.

Oh and the CoolerMaster R4's look pretty sweet too.

Originally Posted by lollerskater69

lol @ Skinnee providing good information.

A lot of people used to have respect for him before his Feser/Primochill fiasco.

My what?

(cough) http://www.realredraider.com/vbullet...ad.php?t=11038

Originally Posted by lollerskater69

lol @ Skinnee providing good information.

A lot of people used to have respect for him before his Feser/Primochill fiasco.

Martin's liquid labs is the place to be

Last I checked, Martin and Skinee were working together, out of the same website, and martinsliquidlab.com had become a parked domain with little to offer.

Originally Posted by Main

(cough) http://www.realredraider.com/vbullet...ad.php?t=11038

This was responded to, here:
http://www.hardforum.com/showpost.ph...8&postcount=54

While it would be nice if his reviews were flawless, I didn't say they were. I just said it's the only place I've found meaningful comparisons. If you have a better source of information, by all means share it with us.

Otherwise, do like the rest of us do. Analyze the testing methodology and data, then make your own conclusion.

Originally Posted by Zoson

Otherwise, do like the rest of us do. Analyze the testing methodology and data, then make your own conclusion.

A lot of people fail to do that.

I'll never claim to be perfect or that my tests and reviews should carry more weight than anyone else's. I'm learning things as I work through the test procedures and methods I have and I guarantee those will change over time as I contine to test.

The problem I seem to have is that their are members of the community who would rather accuse me of shady things and throw personal attacks. I just don't see the point or have time for all the squabling. I'm continuing to test and write reviews, I'll spend my time there.

Getting a lil heated in here...I didn't plan on this thread to attack people. It's meant to help noobies (me included, im learning though ).

Sorry for the OT King Icewind

Originally Posted by Zoson

This was responded to, here:
http://www.hardforum.com/showpost.ph...8&postcount=54

oppss

Good show, back on track, cookies all round. Testing is very tough, a really valid methodology is not easy nor cheap. Doing the work is typically no fun. It is what it is. Moving on....

So I finally got around to cutting the holes in the side panel for the brackets. Spray painted the brackets, and going to be more cutting for the pump tonight


Today's my birthday lol

Happy birthday. Following this thread pretty close. I'm looking at making the transition to WC myself soon. I live in Chile though and it's a real pain to import. Electronics are expensive as hell here and I'll probably just load up next time I'm in the states and bring a suitcase full back.

I'm pretty excited to see some pics and hear about the differences you're getting out of it.

yeah i was about to ask for pics.

I took some pics, still need to take some so ill put them up either tonight or tomorrow. I was up until about 1:45 , which equates to about 3 and half hours of sleep lol.

Anyways, It was fun putting it together but real scary at the same time. When I powered it on, the pump started leaking like crazy . Which combined with Antecs brilliantly designed case (the psu is on the bottom) made me freak out. The cpu leaked a little, right on top of the video card, thank god it wasn't on or plugged in. Zip ties just aren't cutting it, was stupid of me not to get hose clamps or such.

Now aside from the scary leaks, there's some very small pockets of air in the tubes that I can't seem to get out. These little pockets are causing my coolant to get fizzy, kinda like pouring soda into a cup. So does anyone have any recommendations to get rid of the pockets or are they just going to eventually work their way out? I've bleed it quite a bit...

Otherwise everything looks good. I ran OCCT real quick and it (the cores) was around 32c on idle, 42c on load. The CPU temp was 18c on idle, 30c on load. Defiantly will be better with the 120 x 38mm fans, as mentioned before. However, I'm stuck with what i have for awhile.

I'll put those pics up soon. It does look pretty BA

Originally Posted by King Icewind

I took some pics, still need to take some so ill put them up either tonight or tomorrow. I was up until about 1:45 , which equates to about 3 and half hours of sleep lol.

Anyways, It was fun putting it together but real scary at the same time. When I powered it on, the pump started leaking like crazy . Which combined with Antecs brilliantly designed case (the psu is on the bottom) made me freak out. The cpu leaked a little, right on top of the video card, thank god it wasn't on or plugged in. Zip ties just aren't cutting it, was stupid of me not to get hose clamps or such.

Zip ties should be good enough if you crank them down real tight. You might want to make sure your barbs are actually screwed all the way down.

Originally Posted by King Icewind

Now aside from the scary leaks, there's some very small pockets of air in the tubes that I can't seem to get out. These little pockets are causing my coolant to get fizzy, kinda like pouring soda into a cup. So does anyone have any recommendations to get rid of the pockets or are they just going to eventually work their way out? I've bleed it quite a bit...

If you got an MCRes Micro by swiftech, they'll eventually filter out on their own. Not sure with other res's.

Originally Posted by King Icewind

Otherwise everything looks good. I ran OCCT real quick and it (the cores) was around 32c on idle, 42c on load. The CPU temp was 18c on idle, 30c on load. Defiantly will be better with the 120 x 38mm fans, as mentioned before. However, I'm stuck with what i have for awhile.

I'll put those pics up soon. It does look pretty BA

What speed are those temps at? And voltages? Try LinX for stressing use all memory when you run it.... And wow... That's some really, really low temps. REALLY low. 18C idle... What's your ambient? 10C? That's really cold...

Originally Posted by Zoson

What speed are those temps at? And voltages? Try LinX for stressing use all memory when you run it.... And wow... That's some really, really low temps. REALLY low. 18C idle... What's your ambient? 10C? That's really cold...

The 18c idle was the CPU temp, not the temp of the cores. Just to clarify . Although I wish it was.

Unfortunately/fortunately this was all stock. I'll over clock it more once I get the leaks and such figured out. They really are worrying me.

Here are some pics, im not fully finished...





Idle...

Load...


Most of the bubbles and foam have worked their way out.

So I was doing a little overclocking, around 3.8ghz with like 1.25v around 52c on load lol, hyperthreading and all. Going to do more later. Ill post more pics once i get all the fans in the case and put the side panel on. Going to be getting hose clamps tomorrow.