Cost breakdown

[StellaTerra]

Hello all. I've spent the last couple of months picking around the edges of building for myself a water cooling system, but I heard a lot of different points of view on how much it should cost for a system that wasn't going to fall apart. I heard anywhere from $50 to $300, and as it turns out it's much closer to the later than the former.
I've done some research on this but I certainly wouldn't call myself an expert. In particular I'm not sure how useful/necessary the additive and the clamps are, but I figure better safe than sorry. The only thing left out is the water itself, which I'll get from a local shop for cash, so I'm not including it. I don't think I left anything else out, let me know if I did.

I hope this list can be of use to others.
Comments and critique welcome.
Sorry about changing the font, I needed it to be monospaced for the stuff to line up

****** Things purchased used on [H] forums
$60.00 x 1 Thermochill PA 120.2 with thermochill branded shroud
$40.00 x 1 D-Tek Fuzion V1 with pro-mounting kit
~85.00 x 1 DDC3.2 pump with original top and PTS delrin top (not yet finalized)
****** Not yet purchased prices from jabtech
$12.80 x 4 Yate Loon D12SL-12 fans
$ 4.90 x10 Masterkleer Tubing 7/16" ID 5/8" OD (1 Foot per)
$ 0.99 x 1 Plastic t-line
$ 9.95 x 1 Primochill Liquid Utopia water additive - Blood Red
$ 2.58 x 2 24" 3 pin fan power extension cables
$ 3.98 x 2 3 pin 12v to 9v converter fan cable
$ 3.60 x 9 plastic tubing clamps
****** Subtotals
$38.80 --- Jabtech parts
$ 2.30 --- Taxes
~12.00 --- Shipping
****** TOTAL
185.00 --- [H] Forum total
$53.10 --- Jabtech total

* $238.10 *


This setup will (initially) only cool the processor, but in the future it should have the capability to include my video card. The rig, btw, is as follows:
C2Q Q9550
Geforce GTX 280
Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3R
From what I've read, the pump and radiator should be able to handle stock proc/GPU/FSB (which, according to what I've seen, comes to about 350W TDP.) If not, it's a fun project and it will cool the proc for sure.
There are two ways to cool a GPU, a full body block, or a GPU block with some kind of heatsink on the mosfets/RAM. The neatest thing I've seen so far is the D-Tek Fuzion GFX which is a GPU waterblock that is advertised with a relatively cheap full body heatsink so that they work together. I like this solution and I think if I do cool this card it will be that way. Otherwise I might cash in on the trade-up offer from BFG-tech and get their GTX 280 H2O edition which comes with a water block on it. The other way of doing that would be simply buying and installing a block that was built for the GTX 200 series.
Trade-up: $200
New Block: $120
D-Tek Fuzion GFX: $80
We'll see how it goes with the CPU

All in all, water cooling is frakin expensive!

This post served mostly as a place for me to collect my thoughts. Thanks for bearing with my garbage and meandering.

 

[Arcygenical]

Yeah, it's definitely not cheap, but it's quite worth it IMO.

 

[anr11]

You mentioned not knowing how useful the additive is, it is necessary. If you just run pure distilled you will likely end up with crud in your loop very quickly. PTNuke is probably the most recommended and is certainly one of the best, if not the best, additive available.

 

[StellaTerra]

You mentioned not knowing how useful the additive is, it is necessary. If you just run pure distilled you will likely end up with crud in your loop very quickly. PTNuke is probably the most recommended and is certainly one of the best, if not the best, additive available.

I've had this sort of recommendation before and I'm a little curious as to what makes a "good additive"? Certainly thermal properties is on the list of priorities, and I'd imagine that anti-conductive and biocidal properties are also important, but surely many many this can do that. Why not simply use 50% antifreeze? Why do you think PTNuke is better than Liquid Utopia, etc. And how much do these differences really effect the effectiveness of the loop?

Thanks all.

 

[THRESHIN]

although using some antifreeze in the loop will work, its really just overkill. antifreeze also does not conduct heat nearly as well as water either so you'd be reducing the efficiency of your system. using pure distilled is actually a great way to go with the exception of it growing algae after not too long. thats where PTnuke comes in. few drops of that and you won't have to worry about it.

from what i've read distilled water is very non conductive anyways - in some cases less than store bought solutions

 

[BillParrish]

If you just run pure distilled you will likely end up with crud in your loop very quickly

Only if you spit in it first or fail to check/clean the rad for manufacturing residue.

 

[anr11]

Only if you spit in it first or fail to check/clean the rad for manufacturing residue.

All you have to do is have mixed metals in your loop, which many people do without even realising it.

 

[anr11]

I've had this sort of recommendation before and I'm a little curious as to what makes a "good additive"? Certainly thermal properties is on the list of priorities, and I'd imagine that anti-conductive and biocidal properties are also important, but surely many many this can do that. Why not simply use 50% antifreeze? Why do you think PTNuke is better than Liquid Utopia, etc. And how much do these differences really effect the effectiveness of the loop?

Thanks all.

I personally have not used it (I always use pre-mixed solutions myself) but have seen many, many positive experiences reported by others and have yet to see anything negative reported. If I was going to use distilled, I would use it. What makes a good additive is first and foremost that it is stable and won't break down in your loop and clog things up (dyes will often do this). It should also contain biocides as you suggested. As far as having an effect on your loop, any effects as far as performance will be negative rather than positive as the more you move away from pure distilled water, the worse it will conduct heat. The negative impact however, especially with just and additive, is very minimal.