Building first water cooling loop... Please advise

[allen5055]

I'm building a full water loop for three or four r9 290s. I have never water-cooled before. I am building the system ground up. I just bought a corsair 900d. Any advice for the other parts? I figured a 360 and 480mm radiator would be sufficient.

Can I save money by buying an xspc kit and adding on? I figured that the pump would be too weak.

I prefer to buy everything possible at microcenter because there is one next to my house.

 

[jhaze84]

A 360 and 480 would be great for that loop I think. I usually go by the "rule" that at minimum you want 120mm radiator space for each heat generating component, plus another 120mm headroom for overclocking.

There's lots of choices and brands for parts. You can't really go wrong anywhere but I like EK waterblocks, Alphacool radiators, Primochill tubing, and Bitspower and Monsoon fittings.

A kit is a fine way to get started and will save you money over buying components separately. My first watercooling loop was using an XSPC kit. The problem with kits though is that the more you learn about watercooling, you start to replace parts in the kit and eventually you spend more money than if you never bought the kit in the first place.

This kit would do well for starting your loop because it has twin D5 pumps, which should be good for powering a loop the size you want.

 

[Tsumi]

If it's the kit with the D5 pump, it would probably be more than sufficient. However, if you're throwing that much money into GPUs, I would go all the way with the watercooling setup and do piece by piece. A good watercooling setup will last you years.

Start with two Alphacool UT60 480 radiators. Pair that with a D5/MCP655 pump and a reservoir of your choice. For the CPU block, I recommend the Apogee HD or the XSPC Raystorm. For the GPU blocks, the Aqua Computer Kyrographics R9 290x block is very nice, but limited availability at the moment.

 

[allen5055]

A 360 and 480 would be great for that loop I think. I usually go by the "rule" that at minimum you want 120mm radiator space for each heat generating component, plus another 120mm headroom for overclocking.

There's lots of choices and brands for parts. You can't really go wrong anywhere but I like EK waterblocks, Alphacool radiators, Primochill tubing, and Bitspower and Monsoon fittings.

A kit is a fine way to get started and will save you money over buying components separately. My first watercooling loop was using an XSPC kit. The problem with kits though is that the more you learn about watercooling, you start to replace parts in the kit and eventually you spend more money than if you never bought the kit in the first place.

This kit would do well for starting your loop because it has twin D5 pumps, which should be good for powering a loop the size you want.

I really like the kit you linked after reading about it. It seems quite powerful and more economical than buying separate parts. I like the redundancy of dual pumps. I have no idea how to customize the kit. What tubing would you recommend and what fittings?

If you have any advice on waterblocks and an sli bridge that would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for your help!

 

[allen5055]

If it's the kit with the D5 pump, it would probably be more than sufficient. However, if you're throwing that much money into GPUs, I would go all the way with the watercooling setup and do piece by piece. A good watercooling setup will last you years.

Start with two Alphacool UT60 480 radiators. Pair that with a D5/MCP655 pump and a reservoir of your choice. For the CPU block, I recommend the Apogee HD or the XSPC Raystorm. For the GPU blocks, the Aqua Computer Kyrographics R9 290x block is very nice, but limited availability at the moment.

The kit seems much more economical to me than buying things separately. It has two D5 pumps and the cpu block you recommend. I will buy a 480 separately but if I get the kit I think it should pretty much come with everything I need except maybe a few more fittings right?

 

[Tsumi]

The 900D has the capability to house 2 480 radiators. You will almost definitely want to replace that AX 360 radiator with a thick, low FPI 480 radiator (like the UT60 I mentioned). And if you want tubing other than the clear tubing that is included, that's additional money down the drain as well.

 

[jhaze84]

I really like the kit you linked after reading about it. It seems quite powerful and more economical than buying separate parts. I like the redundancy of dual pumps. I have no idea how to customize the kit. What tubing would you recommend and what fittings?

If you have any advice on waterblocks and an sli bridge that would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for your help!

Radiator: I recommend the Alphacool UT60 480 like the other poster mentioned. It's a very high performing rad.

GPU blocks: The XSPC Razor GPU blocks are very nice and will match the kit, if you are going for looks. Otherwise EK copper waterblocks are my favorite. They also make nickel plated blocks which are popular but I prefer copper as there's no chance of that nickel plating flaking off, which has been a problem in the past. Don't know much about SLI bridges unfortunately but there's a lot of people here that do.

Fittings: The kit comes with XSPC black chrome 7/16" ID 5/8" OD compression fittings, so I would recommend getting more of those. XSPC fittings are very high quality and not too expensive so I like them. Just make sure the fittings you buy are the same 7/16" ID (inner diameter) and 5/8" OD (outer diameter) dimensions as the ones in the kit.

4. Tubing: The kit comes with some tubing but it's not a lot and you may want a different color. Primochill Advanced LRT is a very popular brand and high quality stuff. Again, make sure it's 7/16" ID 5/8" OD to fit the compression fittings.

And like the other poster is saying, you may find after you've bought everything that you want different parts than what the kits offer. You have to weigh that possibility and maybe just buy the parts separately. If you aren't that picky though and want to save some cash, the kit is made of really good parts and will be a great start to a loop.

Hope this helps.

 

[Croak]

Is this a gaming rig that you're going to look at a lot, or a miner tucked away somewhere you could give a shit about aesthetics? That kit comes with 2 metres of decent 16/11 tubing but it's not as blingy as Primochill or Masterkleer, and the fittings are also good quality but not blingtastic like Bitspower or Monsoon fittings.

Regardless, you should pick up at least 6 more compression fittings, and it's always a good idea to have a few rotary 16/10 45 and 90 degree fittings to make life easier, and a couple T-fittings to make it simple to install things like temp sensors or a drain line. XSPC is the least expensive route for all those bits (compared to Bitspower or Monsoon or even Koolance), sacrificing some bling but at half the price.

Get a couple more metres of tubing to take advantage of all that space in a 900D, and the included 16/11 is just fine as far as OD/ID goes so I'd stick with that, no real advantage other than aesthetics to go with thicker tubing.

Run what you want for coolant, though the best bet is always plain distilled with biocide for the least amount of cleaning issues.

XSPC also makes quality GPU blocks and the 290 units are now available. Backplates are optional but usually worth getting. If you go the XSPC route you'd also need an SLI bridge for every two cards if you run them serial, or 1 for every card if you run them parallel. What size you'll need depends on your motherboard slot layout, and keep in mind that XSPC counts the number slots from the bottom of the top card to the top of the bottom card...for example, counting from the top PCI-e slot on my mobo, my second GPU is in slot 4, but I use a 3-slot bridge since that's the gap it's spanning.

I'd also consider getting at least one G1/4 temp sensor plug in the loop to keep an eye on water temps (and it makes it easy to control fans based on water temps rather than CPU temps). A good easy place to use a second one would be one of the spare ports on the GPU blocks (XSPC blocks have 7 ports each)

As for the kit naysayers, keep in mind he's going with the AX kit, and those are some very nice copper radiators, one of if not the best 1155/1150 all-copper CPU blocks on the market, quality plated brass compression fittings, solid D5 varios in a well-built bay reservoir, and even the Xinruilian fans included in the kit are decent, quiet-ish, and have fully sleeved long cables. All at a nice cost savings over buying the bits separately.

 

[allen5055]

The 900D has the capability to house 2 480 radiators. You will almost definitely want to replace that AX 360 radiator with a thick, low FPI 480 radiator (like the UT60 I mentioned). And if you want tubing other than the clear tubing that is included, that's additional money down the drain as well.

I'm considering buying two of the 480 radiators you suggested and the kit. I can put the 360 in the front.

Are two 480s and a 360 complete overkill? I really like the dual pump reservoir combo and the cpu block in the kit and buying them individually would add up to almost the price of the kit. Might as well get the kit and consider the 360 radiator as free.

Any suggestions for how many quick disconnects I should get and where I should install them? I know the radiator you suggested has a port that I can attach a drain line to and it will be at the bottom of my case so I think that would work.

I don't care about bling, just effectiveness, long-term reliability, and price.

 

[Tsumi]

QDC's should go around components you plan to change out often. Usually, this would be before and after CPU and GPU blocks.

I would recommend getting Heatkiller GPU blocks with this.

 

[Croak]

I'm considering buying two of the 480 radiators you suggested and the kit. I can put the 360 in the front.

Are two 480s and a 360 complete overkill? I really like the dual pump reservoir combo and the cpu block in the kit and buying them individually would add up to almost the price of the kit. Might as well get the kit and consider the 360 radiator as free.

Any suggestions for how many quick disconnects I should get and where I should install them? I know the radiator you suggested has a port that I can attach a drain line to and it will be at the bottom of my case so I think that would work.

I don't care about bling, just effectiveness, long-term reliability, and price.

With two pumps and three or four 290's, that's not overkill at all, each GPU is going to use up about 240 worth of radiator under load, the CPU could use another 240, so that leaves you 120 for headroom, high ambients and/or the ability to run the fans a little slower and quieter, and don't forget that the D5's dump a few C of heat into the loop as well.

 

[allen5055]

With two pumps and three or four 290's, that's not overkill at all, each GPU is going to use up about 240 worth of radiator under load, the CPU could use another 240, so that leaves you 120 for headroom, high ambients and/or the ability to run the fans a little slower and quieter, and don't forget that the D5's dump a few C of heat into the loop as well.

I've decided to get the 240mm ax xspc kit with the dual d5 bay reservoir. I will buy two alphacool 480 ut60 radiators. I will get quick disconnects for the CPU and gpu. I will buy The cheapest EK water blocks.

What fans should I buy for these radiators? Can I get away with just one set or do I need to do push/pull?

Is the copper xspc ray storm worth $40 more than the regular ray storm? I can buy the kit on performance-pcs and save $40 by downgrading.

Also, I read somewhere that frozencpu will give you a one time use 10 percent discount code after you rate them on reseller ratings. Is this true? If so, I will order a component now to get my code before I buy everything.

 

[Croak]

There's no performance difference between the acetal/copper Raystorm and the all-copper one.

No real need to push pull from the start, wait and see how what the noise level is like first. There's minor gains to be had with push/pull in terms of temps, but they help a fair bit if you're going for quiet. The inexpensive XSPC Xinruilian fans work just fine and there's no need to pay for fancy fans if this thing is just another miner.

And with at least 10 fans, I'd pop for a good 30W or better fan controller and some splitter cables, or at the very least a powered distribution block just to take the stress off your motherboard.

 

[sok0]

So is this dude planning on running all that stuff in 1 loop? The dual pump thing he linked makes it seem so... All I can say is that is a horrible idea. If you have 2 pumps, run 2 loops, you dont need redundancy of two pumps.. Computer will auto shut off well before damage if your pump fails. And you could easily get by with great temps using a 240mm on the CPU loop with a single D5, then 2nd loop run a d5 + 2 360mm radiators for the GPUs. Dual 480's is overkill by far.

Id suggest you do the CPU only loop first, get a feel for it since you never done it, then do the GPU's loop separate, so then it's not one big clusterfuck when you are trying to run tubing to 5 blocks, 3 radiators, pumps, etc .

 

[allen5055]

So is this dude planning on running all that stuff in 1 loop? The dual pump thing he linked makes it seem so... All I can say is that is a horrible idea. If you have 2 pumps, run 2 loops, you dont need redundancy of two pumps.. Computer will auto shut off well before damage if your pump fails. And you could easily get by with great temps using a 240mm on the CPU loop with a single D5, then 2nd loop run a d5 + 2 360mm radiators for the GPUs. Dual 480's is overkill by far.

Id suggest you do the CPU only loop first, get a feel for it since you never done it, then do the GPU's loop separate, so then it's not one big clusterfuck when you are trying to run tubing to 5 blocks, 3 radiators, pumps, etc .

Why is a single loop a bad idea? I'm going to do dual 480s because my case supports it and I don't want to regret going too small later. I was planning doing the loop like this... Dual bay pumps to cpu block to 480 top radiator to gpu blocks to 480 bottom radiator to front 240 radiator.

Everyone else seemed to think a single series loop was fine. Dual loops seems kind of messy. If I put the cpu on a separate loop the 480 top radiator will be completely wasted.

 

[Croak]

Two 360's would support three 290s mining, but not four. Each of those hot bastards needs at least 240 worth of radiator. The price difference between a 360 and a 480 ain't all that much, and like the man says, he's got the case to easily fit it and he's not trying for style points either.

Plumbing is going to be shit simple if he gets a water distribution bridge with the GPU blocks of his choice (and hopefully runs them in parallel), it's just one line in, one line out, for the entire GPU assembly, then plumb the rest just like any other single loop system. It's not rocket surgery, it's simple plumbing.

And sok0 my friend, you yourself are running a 120.4 loop just to keep a single GTX 480 and 2500K cool. Do keep in mind that an R9 290 runs at least as hot as your (hot) GTX 480, and he's going to be putting a 24/7 mining load on it as well. Really can't have too much radiator in his case..

 

[sok0]

This review is using a simple thin(low quality) 140mm radiator watercooling kit on a 290x and getting great temps.

And speaking of my rig btw, i run on 1 radiator fan 90% of the time, unless I watch a movie or play BF4 which kicks on all 4 fans on a temp curve using a temp sensor. And all my fans run at 800rpm when they are on, so im not getting anywhere near close to the threshold of my radiators.

 

[allen5055]

I'm adding everything to my cart and am ready to buy everything. A few questions before I finish the order.

1. How many additional compression fittings do I need in addition to the 6 provided in the kit? http://www.frozencpu.com/products/1...w_Free_Dead-Water.html?id=VgyiUZFB&mv_pc=5690

2. Next, which quick disconnects should I get? I figured one before the cpu, one between the cpu/gpu block, and one after the gpu block. http://www.frozencpu.com/cat/l2/g30...uick_Disconnects.html?id=VgyiUZFB&mv_pc=11121

3. Should I get a drain port? I have an alphacool 480mm UT60 on the bottom... does this have some extra ports I could use to act as the drain?

The parts I've added so far... two alphacool UT60 480mm radiators, the XSPC kit I linked above, 2m of extra XSPC clear tubing, four EK Acetal waterblocks, the Quad EK Terminal connector for the waterblocks, a silver wire, eight XSPC G1/4" Thread 7/16" ID x 5/8" OD low profile compression fittings, a Bitspower G 1/4" Temperature Sensor Stop Fitting. The total is $1200 already minus my 10% discount code. Four GPU waterblocks will do that I guess. I'm not even buying backplates for my graphics cards since they serve no purpose. This rig is hideously expensive... but I guess I'm building it to last. I bought eight Scythe Gentle Typhoons AP-15's and two swifttech powered pwm splitters to control my radiator fans. I also snagged a Lepa G1600w power supply from Amazon.

What I have remaining to buy...
1. Quick Disconnects

 

[wesnerer]

I'm adding everything to my cart and am ready to buy everything. A few questions before I finish the order.

1. How many additional compression fittings do I need in addition to the 6 provided in the kit? http://www.frozencpu.com/products/1...w_Free_Dead-Water.html?id=VgyiUZFB&mv_pc=5690

2. Next, which quick disconnects should I get? I figured one before the cpu, one between the cpu/gpu block, and one after the gpu block. http://www.frozencpu.com/cat/l2/g30...uick_Disconnects.html?id=VgyiUZFB&mv_pc=11121

3. Should I get a drain port? I have an alphacool 480mm UT60 on the bottom... does this have some extra ports I could use to act as the drain?

The parts I've added so far... two alphacool UT60 480mm radiators, the XSPC kit I linked above, 2m of extra XSPC clear tubing, four EK Acetal waterblocks, the Quad EK Terminal connector for the waterblocks, a silver wire, eight XSPC G1/4" Thread 7/16" ID x 5/8" OD low profile compression fittings, a Bitspower G 1/4" Temperature Sensor Stop Fitting. The total is $1200 already minus my 10% discount code. Four GPU waterblocks will do that I guess. I'm not even buying backplates for my graphics cards since they serve no purpose. This rig is hideously expensive... but I guess I'm building it to last. I bought eight Scythe Gentle Typhoons AP-15's and two swifttech powered pwm splitters to control my radiator fans. I also snagged a Lepa G1600w power supply from Amazon.

What I have remaining to buy...
1. Quick Disconnects

1- 6 more fittings. You need 2 for each additional component you add. The 4 GPU blocks will count as one component since you are linking them with a bridge.

2- This is up to you. I personally don't use the quick disconnects.

3- The UT60 does have a port at the back you can connect a tap to. I am not sure if there would be room in the case for the added length of it. A drain of some sort is a good idea. You will have to service the loop and change the fluid in it and it makes this task much easier.