• Some users have recently had their accounts hijacked. It seems that the now defunct EVGA forums might have compromised your password there and seems many are using the same PW here. We would suggest you UPDATE YOUR PASSWORD and TURN ON 2FA for your account here to further secure it. None of the compromised accounts had 2FA turned on.
    Once you have enabled 2FA, your account will be updated soon to show a badge, letting other members know that you use 2FA to protect your account. This should be beneficial for everyone that uses FSFT.

Advice needed on WC kit...

A

AceCurby99

n00b
Joined
Nov 9, 2005
Messages
50
I'm building up a PC and am looking to add a water cooling system to it. Here are the upcoming specs...

AMDFX57
2x NVidia 7800 GTX
2x 100GB 7200 RPM HDs
2GB PC3200 RAM

Now, I've been doing a little research about different companies and there blocks, radiators, etc...there seems to be an agreement that either DangerDen, Swiftech, or DTech is the way to go.

Heres my question - w/ each of these, which Radiator, Pump, and resevoir should I go with if I want to run a CPU block, both GPU blocks, and the MB block. Should I add a HD cooler? My goal is to eventually overclock this thing, and since I'm poor, I got one shot at this - if anything breaks, it sits until I can rob the local 7-11 again...

Fire away boys and girls...I was suggestions, advice, comments, etc. Thanks! :cool:
 
After building water cooling systems for more than 4 years now I would definitely go with the Swiftech MCW6000 or MCW6002 for the CPU water block. It performs better than the other blocks at low - moderate flow rates. A very few other water blocks like the Swiftech Storm will produce slighly better cooling in a system with very high flow rates, but high flow rate systems are a pain to build. you need large powerful noisy pumps that generate a lot of heat, large tubing that is troublesome to bend and route, and you wanted to have 1 CPU and 2 GPU water blocks in your system which is going to be fairly restrictive anyway. Bottom line is use the MCW6000 and you don't have to worry about your flow rates, and the difference between it and the highest performing water blocks is almost nothing anyway. They're reasonably priced too.
You will need at least a 120mm x 2 Radiator to handle the amount of heat you are going to be generating with that CPU and 2 GPUs, anything less and you're asking for trouble. Make sure you are pulling cool air from outside the case through your radiator, don't push hot case air through the radiator.

Absolutely don't use a hard drive cooler, they are just a disaster waiting to happen. they will also restrict your water flow and dump more heat into the water loop which should be reserved for the CPU and GPUs.
I would also not use a water block on the motherboard chipset. Get one of the new motherboards with one of those heat pipe coolers on the motherboard or use something like the Zalman big passive chipset heatsink. You'll want enough airflow though the case to cool the motherboard and drives anyway.

Swiftech has a good resevoir that fits in a 5 1/2 drive bay. Some people just use T-Lines and no resevoir but I've found the resevoirs are much less hassle. All water cooling systems with flexible hoses lose water over time because of the porosity of the plastic. Having a resevoir means you don't have to keep on eye on coolant and top it off all the time. It also makes it very easy to fill the system and get the bubbles out of it which can take hours with other arrangements.There are a variety of resevoir options from different companies, depends on how important looks and style are to you. The Swiftech engineers are very good and you can count on getting a very good product from them. They design and make very solid products, or if they find some one who makes an excellent product they rebrand it and sell it( such as their pumps). However it may not be much in the looks category. You can also find cheaper options sometimes, and some retailers will sell Swiftech items below MSRP.
Swiftech carries 2 pumps on their website, the MCP350 is a rebranded Laing DDC (a german company). DangerDen also sells this same pump as the DDC-12V for a little cheaper. You may find even cheaper prices at some other online retailers although not many carry water cooling gear. the MCP350 is small, very quiet, and with a good pressure/flow rate curve. The other Swiftech is the MCP655 which is considerably larger, more powerful (and noisy), but this new model has a pot to control pump speed (and noise) so you can adjust it to what ever speed you need. The MCP655 has more than enough power to meet your needs. Get one of these two pumps, or something that is recommended on the water cooling forum listed below. Reliability is paramount, there are cheaper pumps out there but it's not worth the nightmare when they start leaking or fail. Trust me on this one. Don't ever buy a pump that doesn't have at least several years of track record and reliability.

GPU blocks are more problematic because you'll need to find one that fits your card. Some just fit the GPU and others cover the RAM also. If you use a block just for the GPU you'll need to have some airflow over the card to cool the RAM. This little rack item
http://www.xoxide.com/sunbeam-wherever-pci-rack.html
works very well, just mount a 120mm fan above your video cards with it.
For GPU blocks I suggest you ask on
http://forums.procooling.com/vbb/forumdisplay.php?f=9
This is THE premier forum for serious water coolers and designers. However PLEASE search the forums thoroughly to see if your question has already been answered. People run short on patience on people who don't read the previous posts.

Some retailers in no particular order that carry water cooling equipment are

http://www.dtekcustoms.com/index.asp
http://www.directron.com/
http://www.dangerden.com/news.php
http://www.xoxide.com/
http://www.swiftnets.com/

A few last thoughts. Pick your Motherboard carefully and look to see if you are going to be able to mount your water blocks and heatsinks without things running into each other. Get a good LARGE case with plenty of room in it and plenty of ventilation, you'll need it.
http://www.coolcases.com/cases/sr104_m_p1.html
Here is an excellent case, and they will even modify it to your specs for fan holes etc. Mounting a 120mm x 2 radiator in the front with 2 x 120mm fans on it. You can put lots of fans on it, including one for the harddrives. Use Zalman Fanmates or some other fan speed controller to reduce the fan speeds so you can get good ventilation but without all the fan noise. With the system you describe you'll be generating a great deal of heat. If you don't put some effort into keeping it quiet and making sure it has good airflow it can get pretty noisy.

Get a Good power supply. If you're working toward a quieter system get a SeaSonic S12-500 or S12-600 power supply. For case fans the Nexus fans (or Yate Loons) are the best for quietness. Use 120mm fans when possible. Don't buy SilenX fans. All their published specs are lies, and they are extremely expensive anyway. They are just rebranded Adda fans, check Adda site for more realistic specs. Get Good hose, check the water cooling forum above for what and where to get it. Stock Vinyl tubing from Home Depot etc is difficult to keep from kinking when bent. 3/8" ID tubing is much easier to route and can bend in a much tighter radius than 1/2" ID tubing, the performance difference in the system is not much. Don't try and build the ULTIMATE water cooling system, you'll waste tons of money and time trying to get that last 3% and you'll have to live with the noise. Go for robust, reliable, and low maintenance. If you want ultimate performance, go for that on your next machine when you can make informed decisions.
If you want more info on making a quiet PC go to
http://www.silentpcreview.com/index.php
and
http://forums.silentpcreview.com/index.php

and good luck.
 
Forgot to warn you about corrosion. Try and use all copper blocks and radiators, fittings should be copper or plastic. Use an anti-corrosive in your coolant.
 
WOW
I think we have another Hardcore W/C nut on our hands. Awesome post Ferdb!

Before I can just make a blanket recommendation, can I get a usage plan for this? As in are you wanting a quite system, or an O/C'ing monster?

Also, a budget would be helpful.

Get me that, and I can piece together a system that should keep you happy.
-Ghent
 
I'd start with the swiftech APEX kit and add a set of either Swiftech MCW55 or Danger Den Maze4 GPU blocks. There's not really anything to be gained by water cooling the chipset unless you want 100% total silence and water cooling the HD is just a waste of time. The Swifty kit uses 7/16 tubing on 1/2 barbs making it super easy to route the tubing without any loss of performance.

http://www.swiftnets.com/products/H20-APEX.asp

http://www.swiftnets.com/products/mcw55.asp
 
Im going to have to agree with my man bio-hazard here. I got the apex kit recently and its awsome. Theres not many situations where that kit cant fit your needs. In my opinion as far as kits go, you cant beat it.
 
I would like o add that if you're going for max performance with the SLI cards, you might want to think about one of Thermochill new PA 120.3 radiators, I'd love to have one myself, but they do cost a lot. And the second problem with such a large radiator is finding a spot to cleanly install the thing, they are just plain huge. But the Mountain Mods U2 serise cases are made special for the Thermochill 120 series radiators without any modding.

http://www.mountainmods.com/

http://www.thermochill.com/pa1203.php
 
Just get an Apex Kit and 2 MCW-55 water blocks. It comes with a res for refilling, best CPU waterblock you can buy, best pump, 7/16" tubing (very funky), best non-car 2x120mm radiator plus high quality fans.

Itll make it way easier than ordering lots of dif parts and youll be extremely happy with the Apex + 2 MCW55's.

Best CPU block,
Best W/C Pump rated for 5 years continuous operation with variable speed/noise control.
Best diameter tubing.
Best non-car 2x120mm rad youll find easily.
Best fan brand (or equal best)

GPU block is also friggin awesome.

Cant go wrong, just get an Apex
 
isnt MCW6000 and MCW6002 for Intel only?

edit: nvm i got it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top