Building a Watercooling System

S

Steamed Turtle

Weaksauce
Joined
Apr 2, 2003
Messages
71
I'm trying to construct a watercooling and require some assistance. I've been doing some research for a couple days but I'm still very confused on some things. So I'll tell you what I do know in hopes of obtaining some assitance.

I'll first give you some background. I have a budget of about $200-250 to work with. I'm looking to watercool simply the CPU. My case is the Chemning 602, here is a picture of my case with everything in it to show you what kind of room we're working with. The case: http://xoxide.com/chenming6021.html. My case:
http://www.steamedturtle.com/myroom/5.jpg. I have an Antec TruePower 430Watt. This will be cooling a Athlon XP-M 2500+ on an EPoX 8RDA3+ Rev. 3. I am looking to have everything inside the case and I am not afraid to cut SOME holes, etc. If there's anything else you need to know, please ask.

Here are the parts I have picked out already. Suggestions are welcome.

Radiator: http://www.dangerdenstore.com/product.php?productid=1&cat=13&page=1 (Black Ice Xtreme)

Water Block: http://www.dangerdenstore.com/product.php?productid=32&cat=20&page=1 (Maze 4)

Pump: http://www.frozencpu.com/ex-pmp-09.html ( Eheim HPPS 12V)

Fan: http://www.frozencpu.com/fan-22.html (YS Tech 120x38mm Fan) Noise isn't a problem, this is actually 3dB quieter than the fan I currently have on my CPU cooler.

This is where you guys come in. I would like some help in picking out the rest of the parts. I don't just mean the main parts, to be completely honest I'm very, very new to this and don't know what I'm doing yet. I need to know everything down to the liquids, tubing, connectors, things to fill the system with. Thank you for your help, in advance.
 
Have you considered getting the TDX instead of the maze4, the maze4 is kind of old and you would see a good performance increase from the TDX for only a little bit more money.

You probably have room in the top to fit a double heatercore, might take up 2 drive bays, but it would provide better cooling, although one 120mm would be enough for just cpu....but if you were ever going to upgrade.

As for the pump, I would recommend getting the AQX-50Z from cooltechnica. Tubing, get either clearflex or tygon in the appropriate diameter (probably 1/2")

For the coolant you want distilled water + either 10-20% antifreeze, swiftech hydrx, water wetter(some people have problems with water wetter though) or zerex.

You want to buy yourself some nice hose clamps to secure the tubing as well.
 
Instead of tygon or Clearflex, go with McMasterCarr MasterKleer 7/16"ID 5/8"OD tubing. Its great stuff. Really flexable, good turning radius and it crystal clear. Best of all, its only $0.37 a foot! Its a liiiiittle tough to fully install it on a 1/2" barb, so just dip the end of the tube in some boiling water for a few seconds and it will slip right on. Just goto McMaster.com and do a search for MasterKleer. Your looking for part 5233K44. :)
 
i have had good success with both clearflex and tygon, but it is somewhat expensive for plain old tubing....................

regardig you fan selection, one of these (http://www.sidewindercomputers.com/de12ff.html) dialed down to about the same noise level will actually get more air through your rad, as a result of the corrective vanes. more air will go striaght through the fins, rather than sort of bouncing around here and there, generating back pressure and reducing fan performance..........

a second vote for the dangerden TDX instead of the maze 4, unless you want to do some funky thermoelectric cooling.(i don't really reccomend starting with thermoelectrics, the way that i have) the TDX will get you better performance for straight up watercooling.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top