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First water cooling setup, how does this look?

G

guitarguy6

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Oct 29, 2007
Messages
1,948
Hi guys, I'm finally taking the plunge and trying out my first water cooling setup. I'd like to stick with Swiftech and EK parts because they are the easiest for me to get in Canada. Here's what I've picked out so far:

EK-Supreme HF Acetal 1/4 cpu block $75

Swiftech MCP655 pump $80

Swiftech MCRES-MICRO Hi-Flow reservoir $21 (is this big enough?)

Not sure which radiator to go with:

Switfech MCR220-QP-K 2X120mm radiator $46
Swiftech MCR220-QP-Stack $58
Swiftech MCR320-QP-K $70

I'm going to not watercool my 5850 xfire setup or motherboard yet but would like to in the future. How does this setup look? what coolant and tubes should I use. Is there any other parts I'm missing?

Thanks for the help!
 
Distilled water for coolant. 1/2" ID tubing of your preference, preferably with 3/4" OD for less chance of kinking and better bend radius.

Go for the MCR320, but there's better radiators that can be had for $70, although I'm not sure what your choices are in Canada. Swiftech radiators are good budget radiators, but by no means the best. The MCR320 costs less than $50 in the US. It should be enough to cool your processor and two HD5870's though.
 
Thanks for the reply. Out of curiosity what would you suggest for a rad asides from the one I listed?
 
guitarguy6 said:
Thanks for the reply. Out of curiosity what would you suggest for a rad asides from the one I listed?
Click to expand...

Basically the Swiftech MCR320-QP-K and the Thermochill PA120.3 are the two that get the most recommendations on the HardForum. Those are probably your best options right now. They are certainly great for the money. I've got the Swiftech MCR320-QP-K on my test bench and I get pretty good temperatures with it.
 
Is the Swiftech MCRES-MICRO Hi-Flow reservoir big enough? Are there any good water blocks for the Gigabyte EX58-UD5?
 
guitarguy6 said:
Is the Swiftech MCRES-MICRO Hi-Flow reservoir big enough? Are there any good water blocks for the Gigabyte EX58-UD5?
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Yeah the Micro res is large enough. I hate that res though. I'm not sure why anyone likes them. I'd rather get something designed to go into one of the 5 1/4 bays if I were going to use a res at all.
 
Would this reservoir be a better choice?

Primochill Typhoon III Rev A Dual INLET/OUTLET 2X 5.25IN Bay Reservoir & MCP655 Pump Top -NO PUMP-

EDIT: All the customer reviews for this product on NCIX are very bad. :(
 
after doing a bit more research (been looking into wc for a while now) I'd have to say the standard tube res seem to be the best for functionality (don't go for any bay res that have all the visual effects as most seem to be ineffective against keeping bubbles from returning into the system, and some can even create them). it also seems a lot of bay res that are basically glued/screwed together rather than molded have a habbit of eventually leaking, and I can only guess that one with the ability to hold a pump would spring a leak faster due to vibration.

also +1 for the thermochill 120.X
 
Thanks for the help guys. It looks like I will be going ahead with this build. My only question is what barbs do I need. The pump is 1/2 and I believe everything else is G1/4. Does the reservoir need barbs as well? Are there any brands I should avoid? Thanks!
 
Dan_D said:
Yeah the Micro res is large enough. I hate that res though. I'm not sure why anyone likes them. I'd rather get something designed to go into one of the 5 1/4 bays if I were going to use a res at all.
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I don't know about a bay res, tons of horror stories about bay res busts that leak all over hard drives. The micro res is nice, I have no problems with it.

Thanks for the help guys. It looks like I will be going ahead with this build. My only question is what barbs do I need. The pump is 1/2 and I believe everything else is G1/4. Does the reservoir need barbs as well? Are there any brands I should avoid? Thanks!
Click to expand...

The swiftech micro res comes with plastic barbs that are not so great. You could use them effectively enough, they do give you o-rings to use with the barbs. If you want something better any metallic G1/4 fitting or barb will fit on them.

The barbs you should buy are G1/4 on one end and 1/2'' barbs on the other end.

Alternatively look into the I&H steath res (the tube thing if you've ever seen a pic), they are great and will also take G1/4 fitting/barbs.
 
The Swiftech micro-Res version 2.0 is an excellent reservoir.
For one, it has access to the top and bottom for filling and draining.
It now comes with G1/4 threads all around.
It is fully stocked with accessories for only 20 dollars. Although the barbs are not the best, they work fine.

I had a BitsPower 5.25 bay reservoir for about 5 minutes. It was a pain in the ass to fill, and it wouldn't bleed air like the Micro-Res can. It was top notch quality, no doubt, but it just wouldn't do what I wanted, and it was cumbersome to deal with all around.

The other thing I like about the micro-Res is that it is so small and light, it can be mounted nearly anywhere with simple zip-ties. very easy to fill and it bleeds air very well.

On another topic here......I recommend compression fittings. BitsPower makes the best and best looking. They are initially expensive, but can be used forever. No clamps to worry about and the fit is perfect every time. I've never had one leak.
 
If you can, I would go for the Feser 4x120 radiator for less than $80 at FrozenCPU with a 5% off code (I'm not sure what it is, something like pcapex). Pretty much the best 4x120 radiator on the market, you cannot go wrong with it. Not sure how much shipping will be to Canada though.

I tend to hear bad things about bay reservoirs, so I would stay away from them. Especially the one that you can attach a MCP655 to. The Micro-res fits into pretty much any corner you can think of, so its very versatile. Technically, you don't need a reservoir, it's just convenient to have, since it gets out the air for you. Also, you have room when water evaporates.
 
Thanks for the help guys. I think I have my list completed. Are there any water blocks for the Gigabyte E58-UD5? I tried googling a bit and couldn't find anything.
 
Is there a difference in performance between EK-Supreme HF - Acetal and EK-Supreme HF - Plexi?
 
If there is, there probably isn't a significant difference (probably on the order of 3 C or less).
 
Ok, I'll be setting this up tonight. Any noobie tips that might be helpful? Should I clean anything with distilled water before use? Should I put the tubes in hot water before installing them on the barbs?

Thanks
 
I'm still waiting on my tygon tubing for my first wc build. Good luck! I hope you get good temps
 
guitarguy6 said:
Ok, I'll be setting this up tonight. Any noobie tips that might be helpful? Should I clean anything with distilled water before use? Should I put the tubes in hot water before installing them on the barbs?

Thanks
Click to expand...

Flush out the radiator (flush means run water through it and then dump the water out) at least once before using. You'll get to see all the nasty shit that's there from the fab. Tubes in hot water not required, but definitely makes the job easier.
 
guitarguy6 said:
It's up and running now to get all the air out. Is 24hrs sufficient time for this?
Click to expand...

Lol, you are going to be bleeding air for weeks dude. I still see air bubbles in my micro-res. The swiftech micro-res has a piece of acrylic jutting out of the middle of the res that blocks the line into the res from leaking bubbles toward the line out. I still see bubbles nestled in there every morning and it's been more than a week or two.
 
This is awesome! I installed eveything no problem except I'm not to sure I applied Indigo Extreme TIM correctly. I followed all directions to a T and then started intel burn-in test while using realtemp to monitor. According to the instructions all cores should peak and then drop while finialy settling around 90. Mine stayed at 100 and never dropped so I stopped the test after 2min since I got scared lol Anyone have experience with this product? I'm not nto worried since I now have my pump connected and after running intel burnin for 10min my temps haven't exceeded 55. With the same overclock on my Xigmatek Dark Knight I would hit about 85 while running the Intel test.
 
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