First Water Cooled Setup (What to get?)

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pdamasco

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May 10, 2008
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This will be my very first attempt at setting a water cooled rig! I was looking into the All in one option made by thermaltake called Kandalf Full Tower
Case Series-
Black w/ 25cm Fan Side Panel Window. Right now my setup is on air cooling and it gets very hot due to the fact that my case has awful airflow.

My current setup includes:

Windows Vista Ultimate 32-bit
AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ 2Ghz
ASUS A8n-SLI motherboard
EVGA Nvidia 7950GX2
Creative Soundblaster X-Fi Elite Pro
Western Digital 74GB Raptor
WD 250 GB HDD
an old Quantum 30GB HDD
Plextor 760A DVD Burner
LG DVD Reader
Mitsumi 12in one Media card reader/floppy
Aero Cool 620 watt modular power supply
2gb Corsair DDR-400mhz

Now I am interested in upgrading my components to

- ASUS P5E3 Deluxe/WiFi-AP LGA 775 Intel X38 ATX Intel Motherboard
- Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300 Yorkfield 2.5GHz LGA 775 95W Quad-Core Processor
- Patriot Extreme Performance 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Dual Channel Kit

all other components will be reused if possible!

I know that the Kandalf should be able to handle coolng the CPU, but i'm not sure if it will be able to handle cooling the 7950GX2 and the CPU.

My questions are:

1. I am also unsure as to weather I should bother buying a full GPU water block specifically for the 7950GX2 or if I should just get 2 GPU blocks and ram heat sinks.

2. Do you guys think it is cost effective to properly cool the 7950GX2 or would it be more economical to go out and buy a 9800GTX and a new Block for the entire card?

3. Are the stock Kandalf case components worth it or should I build my own rig?

4. Is DDR-3 Worth the extra cost?

5. Will I need a more powerful Power Supply?

6. What type of coolant should I use? What CPU/GPU Blocks do you recomend?

7. Are copper blocks best? (Brass/Bronze/Copper/Aluminum)

I know I am asking a lot of questions but I am new at this and I just want to make sure I make the right decisions.

-Thank you all for your input!;)
 
1. + 2. dont bother spending all that money WC'ing the 7950 its not worth it, spend the money on a new card.

3. 95% of thermaltakes WC stuff is crapola, ur better off building your own.

4.no

5.no

6. you can spend 20-30 bux on a premixed bottle or you could buy some swiftech hydrx for 2 bux and mix it with distilled water. the most popular block is the dtek fuzion.

7. yes copper is best, dont be messing with anything thats aluminum unless your whole loop is made from it.
 
^

eh i got the thermaltake armor LCS and ill admit most of thermaltakes water is shit. but all ive replaces is the cpu block w/ a d-tek fuzion. my thermaltake cpu block cracked when i was barly applying any pressure to it.

6. a. Well like i said alot of people rave and stick by the d-tek Fuzion, and well so do i lol, and as for gpu i went with the EK full waterblocks, you end up paying a little more but in the end they are very solid blocks, my gpu under load only gets to like 45c. but its up to you, just from what ive heard stay away from koolance blocks.

6. b. As for coolant liek they say you can make your own. but you can always look around and see what people are using ive started using PC iCE and its nice so far its the coolant im using for my GPU loop, and im using thermaltake coolant for my CPU loop.


i havnt seen any problems that everyone keeps saying about the pump/res breaking and leaking or anything. Like i said ive been using the pump/res, tubing, liquid, and fittings for about 6 months now and i havnt had any problems.

i got alot of good info about WC loops and stuff from another dude from the overclock.net forum here ya go. remeber thoguh this was back from december so it might be a little diffrent but this is a good start.

Originally from IRA-K

I'd go with a vario D-5 pump.....D-5

You should go with 1/2" barbs on it all so you'll get good flow...This is good tubing, its more compact then the full 1/2x34" tubing but will flow about as well...7/16x5/8"


This for full 1/2" if you would rather have that....1/2x3/4"


I'd go with a 360 rad ...Thia is the best rad out there now..GTX360..These would be good fans for it.....86cfm Pana


I like these bay res's.....DD 5 1/4" Bay Reservoir


Stuff to read...

...Water Cooling - In English


...Assembling your Custom Watercooling Setup


...Poll: Push or pull configuration for Radiators

....Part 1- Temp's with and with-out shrouds

...How To: Make any Sized shroud in 2 minutes

...PC Water Coolant Chemistry - Part I

...WC Cleaning and Set-Up.pdf (35.6 KB)
Click to expand...
 
Seconded on the pump and 7/16" ID tubing, though I don't think you need a triple radiator for your first WC setup. I'd get a 120x2 at most.
 
i just used that incase he wanted to go sli/crossfire. its always good to be prepared, but again it all depends on how far you want to take it. if your gonna be taking your graphics to the extreme and getting sli or crossfire set ups id go with the 3. now mind you it is big but i took some "L" brackets bent them to a "U" shape and mounted it ontop of my case, then i cut wholes on the back of the case to allow the tubing to enter.
 
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