First WC setup, I'd love some advice

T

Tych-0

Gawd
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Hey all, I've been building systems for many years now but I've never got into custom water cooling. Over the next week or so I'm going to try and decide on my full parts list, so I'm open to your input on anything, but I'm fairly set on the Rampage V Extreme and a 5930k. I'm thinking I'll upgrade to a Caselabs Mercury S8, but I'm also liking the look and the price of the Thermaltake Core V51.

I'm currently running SLI 780s, but I do not plan to WC them as I'll probably be upgrading to 980s, or possibly waiting for the Titan 2 or 980Ti. So I won't be water cooling my GPUs yet, but certainly plan to in the next few months so I want this system to be ready to accept multiple video cards, 2 for sure, but 3 is also a distinct possibility.


So I'm a little lost in the vast expanse of WC parts and what exactly I'll need, and if I do indeed go with the S8 chassis, what configuration to get it in.

I know I'll need a pump, reservoir, radiator and CPU water block, but I'm a little clueless as to what are good options for those parts and the fittings and other miscellaneous parts I'll also need.

I don't have a specific budget set, but I don't want to be cheap, or overly extravagant, just something that performs well without getting ridiculous price wise.

I'd love recommendations and also a good place to get parts in Canada if you know of one, if not, getting the parts of the US is not a big deal to me.

thank you!
 
First off, set a budget. I did not, and I'm now $2k into water alone. But, I'm a putz, and like to spend money.

I am going to recommend the Caselabs simply because I have an M8, and it's amazing. I already forsee this case lasting my lifetime, provided computers are still occupying physical space.. ;c)

Anyway, the build you're doing, go for the Caselabs.

Configuration is really daunting, until you realize you just have to do it. Lay it out, see what everything looks like. I actually made some primitive diagrams and printed out a few copies so I could try various options.

As for selecting actual parts... First off, see what is available for your socket. Then, go to the reviews, look at data, look at a lot of it... Evaluate which features you value, and pick which units coincide with those values.

For example, I went with the EK Supremacy because it was pretty much the best, and value at the time, might still be?
You'll probably want to buy blocks for those video cards. Your cards will dictate what blocks are available. Are they OEM 980s, or aftermarket (if they make them yet)? If they have aftermarket PCBs, you might have an issue finding waterblocks that match up. I went with EK again, and their Acetal/Nickel combo 290x blocks. Be sure to buy a 'terminal' to connect the two cards together if possible. They are a lot neater, or at least somewhat easier (no short tubing runs, etc).

As for fittings.. Your options here are barb (push on), vs. compression (screw on). Barbs are cheap, and you throw a clamp on there for additional safety. Compression fittings are more expensive, but have a cleaner look. I went with Bitspower fittings, why? Because I'm a label whore and heard they have great performance/reliability.

It doesn't really sound like an AIO cooler is for you, as you want to explore and play with it. So, I wouldn't recommend that.

As for parts in Canada.. I'd imagine all the guys ship there, no? Maybe try FrozenCPU, as they're in upstate NY, close to CA border. Honestly, if it will help you at all, you can order stuff to my warehouse, and I'll ship it along just for the cost of shipping. I have a medical supply company, also in NY. Might actually benefit you to go direct though, as us within NY requires Frozen to charge tax.

So, read some guides, that's what I did.. I'm a bit stuck on my build, but I'm making headway. Ask questions. Read. And, look at those graphs, you'll be able to pick out whatever it is you need. Keep in mind that once you get into the higher $$$$ parts, the difference in performance becomes minimal (for the most part). So, you can't really go wrong, other than compatibility issues.
 
I'm not good at budgets, I just want good gear without getting too wasteful, quality and performance first, I hate not being satisfied with what I got and having to replace it immediately. On the other hand I like when newer much better stuff comes out and gives me a good reason to replace it. Heh, but I'm mostly preaching to the choir here at the [H].

I think I posted a little hastily; not doing enough research, but I'm working on getting some parts together and the best corresponding set up for the S8 and will be back with some more specific questions.

Thank you for your input so far.
 
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All it would be best to go all copper and do try not to get aluminum in the loop.

Also you can try to look at universal block for your video card, just remember to buy heatsinks for the memory and vrm.
 
Unless you're getting some obscure parts, it's very hard to get aluminum watercooling parts nowadays. Nearly all the water-facing parts are either nickel, brass, or copper.

I suggest avoiding EK or XSPC products, because when something goes wrong, their warranties are almost worthless. Just like Asus.
 
fuck EK

yeah...I'm bitter

also, run straight distilled water, no snake oil juice or dyes, silver in the loop works well to keep the algae down
 
Im in the same boat, long time [H]'er but a noob to WC...gonna sit in on this and see what you guys come up with. Distilled water is all you need? Swiftech uses Hydrx in their systems, great if its not needed, one less thing to have to buy! Silver, as in a silver coil?
 
I run distilled water ($1 per gallon from a store) with a silver killcoil in the reservoir, and never had any problems.
 
I threw a 1Oz silver round in my res...works great...and has boobz!

g499.jpg
 
wirk said:
How about saving time/effort/problems and buying just released super WC H-240X from Swiftech:

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/hardware/2014/10/02/swiftech-h240-x/1

This should be the best WC in this galaxy, is delivered ready to use but it is also expandable for the future.
Click to expand...

Apogee XL: Sure, one of the best blocks in the market.
MCR radiator: Middle road as far as radiators go.
MCP30 pump: You're going to want to replace this when you expand.

Best watercooling is hyperbole. The system is low-mid range as far as watercooling systems go.
 
Tsumi said:
Apogee XL: Sure, one of the best blocks in the market.
MCR radiator: Middle road as far as radiators go.
MCP30 pump: You're going to want to replace this when you expand.
Best watercooling is hyperbole. The system is low-mid range as far as watercooling systems go.
Click to expand...

Sorry, to be clear I should add: Best ready-to-go (but expandable) system. I do not think the pump will have to be replaced, see where it is mounted.

Reason why this should be best is that already the smaller brother H-220X got rave reviews

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?289340-Swiftech-H220-X-Review-Part-1-of-2

and the H-240X is beefed up, own Swiftech tests illustrate this:

http://www.swiftech.com/H240-X.aspx#tab3
 
The only differences between the 220 and 240 kits is the size of the radiator used. The 220 uses a 2x120mm radiator, and the 240 uses a 2x140mm radiator. Not all cases can support 140mm radiators.

The pump is weak. It's rated at 6 watts. The MCP355 and 35x is rated at 18 watts, and the MCP655 is rated at 24 watts. If the system is to be expanded, the pump will have to be replaced with a more powerful pump.

Also, when you expand, you're going to want larger radiators capable of cooling more. In essence, when you expand, you're going to replace almost the entire thing.

It is the only ready-to-go expandable system from a major watercooling manufacturer, so saying it's the best really isn't saying much. The Coolermaster Eisberg is a joke (noisy pump), and Coolermaster is hardly a major watercooling manufacturer. There's a reason why it costs only $150.
 
I don't see the point of watercooling if you don't watercool your SLI'ed GPU's. All you end up with is a very noisy system with the main advantage that you can call it "watercooled" for bragging rights. In short you get the main disadvantages of noisy air cooling and none of the key advantages of watercooling. Why bother? I'd wait until upgrading to the 980 GTX's first.

Secondly, I think the OP needs to decide on whether to go AIO/ready-to-go, full watercooling or air cooling. If budget is not an issue, go all out watercooling. If budget is an issue, you can choose between air cooling or AIO. And unless you're trying to squeeze a cooling solution into a mini-ITX case or you like the clean aesthetics of an AIO block (and ignore the radiator), I don't see why you'd go AIO over air given that high end air cooling is cheaper and easier. And if convenience is a factor, then air still the winner over either full watercooling or AIO/ready-to-go.

Personally, I don't like compromises. I'd recommend you either go full air cooling or full watercooling and nothing in between.

p.s. I like EK products - I've only had good experiences with them. But that's just personal preference.
 
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EK makes some nice products, for sure, but their customer service leaves something to be desired. Exactly like Asus. Buy with the mindset that if something goes wrong, you have no warranty.
 
echn111 said:
p.s. I like EK products - I've only had good experiences with them. But that's just personal preference.
Click to expand...

want to buy a slightly used HF supreme?


still has...some...nickel plating on it
 
LoL - quite happy with my basic EK-Supremacy copper block.

I'm one of those few people who prefers to stick to pure copper blocks and use fluids with anti-corrosives just to be on the safe side. Well aware everyone says distilled water and silver is the way to go, and nickel plating is safe and all that, but I guess I'm just a bit risk averse when it comes to WC'ing ;)
 
Tsumi said:
The only differences between the 220 and 240 kits is the size of the radiator used. The 220 uses a 2x120mm radiator, and the 240 uses a 2x140mm radiator. Not all cases can support 140mm radiators.

The pump is weak. It's rated at 6 watts. The MCP355 and 35x is rated at 18 watts, and the MCP655 is rated at 24 watts. If the system is to be expanded, the pump will have to be replaced with a more powerful pump.

Also, when you expand, you're going to want larger radiators capable of cooling more. In essence, when you expand, you're going to replace almost the entire thing.

It is the only ready-to-go expandable system from a major watercooling manufacturer, so saying it's the best really isn't saying much. The Coolermaster Eisberg is a joke (noisy pump), and Coolermaster is hardly a major watercooling manufacturer. There's a reason why it costs only $150.
Click to expand...

Hit the nail on the head.

I also agree with echn111, either go for a full system or stick with air cooling. Cheap watercooling doesn't give much benefits over good air cooling these days.
 
Major Noob question here:

Since my GPUs and CPU will be in the same loop, how do control when the fans ramp up? Currently I'm considering 2 of the 120.3 Alphacool Monsta rads in push/pull, so would I be able to run all six fans on one of the rads from the CPU fan header and then use the GPU headers to control the other fans (divide them up?)? Or do you just run all the fans at a constant speed all the time, or perhaps I need some other method of controlling them?

Thanks

edit: I'm also curious if there is a big difference between copper and nickel water blocks, performance or maintenance wise. Also, are you able to run rads in parallel or does running them in series make more sense? Thanks again!
 
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case labs is great but I couldn't justify the prices over the 900D
I love my 900D it was so easy to setup 2 quad radiators it was almost like cheating.

I run stuff in series where I can, because then your certain to get equal flow through them both. Exception to this rule would be if I was going to run more than 2 video cards, due to creating too much restriction.

Nickle might be slightly better but it has it's downsides as well. You probably should try to avoid mixing nickle and silver, but copper and silver is fine. Copper is cheaper so I usually just go that route. Supposedly some TIMs will eat copper faster than nickle like the liquid pro, but nothing is perfect.

If you get mosta rads be sure to get double fans (more noise) to push air through them, otherwise your better off with a thinner radiator. I recently used one of those super thing 280 rads, with 2 silent fans for my server build, while the radiator does not have as much surface area, the low pressure fans I'm using (fractal 240's) are plenty strong enough to push air through it. I'm no longer sold on bigger or thicker radiator = better. Better = it fits right and works well for the application.

Fittings are going to be expensive.

Have fun picking out your reservoir, I would recommend an internal reservoir over a bay reservoir. There's some cool looking stuff out there.

Finally I control my fans with a fan controller for my 900D, or the bus in the case of my simple fractal build. There's never much of a need to ramp them up in either case, set it and forget it works for me.

PM me if you need anything, I don't monitor these threads much when I don't have builds going.
 
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Nickle plating is cosmetic, it really doesn't make any difference in performance.

You can run anything in parallel but there is little if any benefit to running radiators in parallel. I think series will most likely give you the best performance and the best tube routes.

Currently I have my fans hooked up through a Corsair Link kit (I have 10 SP120 PWM fans). However the Corsair link is a complete piece of shit, the software barely works. I have some basic Swiftech PWM splitters that I am going to move to soon and just use the CPU Fan PWM signal to control everything.
 
In some of my previous builds where I had many fans to manage, I used the T-Balancer BigNG for temperature sensor based fan control. You'd setup your rpm versus temp curves, program them into your fan controller, and your system would automatically ramp the fans from 450 rpm to 2000rpm and back down again depending on usage and temps.

The software wasn't great but it did the job. There are probably better fan controllers nowadays, but I haven't checked recently.

I agree that sequential rather than parallel is the way to go.
 
Thanks for the helpful replies; custom WC is a bit more complicated than I was originally thinking; I still have a lot to figure out.

I'm looking at getting the RVE board which seems to have a lot of options for fan control, including the front panel which allows you to switch to different profiles. Do you think that would be sufficient instead of a separate fan controller?

The costs for this build are getting a little out of control, I'm honestly a little shocked at how expensive a high end custom loop can run, but simultaneously having a good time figuring all of this out. I'll be back soon with a proposed parts list for critique, and almost certainly more questions.
 
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