Generic title about WC ideas

[Fozzi]

Hello guys, I've been wanting to try a WC setup for some time now with a CPU/GPU loop and maybe a NB block also but I'm not married to it. However at the same time $250 is almost a small fortune to me. I'm not opposed to taking a week and hacking some parts together ('84 chevette heater cores, outdoor pond pumps, etc) to make a loop on the cheap (college cheap!). I'm curious though, would it be a viable way to go about making the setup and what parts should I look out for? Or should I go for the products that were made specifically for the application?

Keep in mind I'm not interested in water for only temp/noise factor but mostly to say I've done it before and to tinker with something new. Also portability (I bring the PC to work once a week and LAN every once in a blue moon) is a concern. I don't mind noise, currently with 3 D12SLs, Xig 1283, and 4850 stock fan running 43%-56% at all times I can hardly hear the thing as is.

From following a few of the links I've found here I estimate total TDP at about 170W (X2 4000+ @ 2.8ghz undervolted for 79w, pump and gfx card making up the rest) for GPU/CPU/pump, and I'd like to use either D12SL, D12SM, or equiv.

Thoughts?

 

[soulesschild]

If you're looking for portability WC is probably not going to help you much. I mean...you could buy a sealed all in one kit but that wouldn't mean much and you wouldn't have really tasted WC cooling in my opinion....but the experts here will fill you in.

 

[Fozzi]

I was thinking along the lines of the following:
XSPC Raxor 4850
Swifty Apogee GT
Swifty MCRES-Micro
DD-CPX-Pro
'77 Bonne heater core 1/2 OD fitting
Some Masterkleer 7/16 ID 5/8 OD - about 8ft
And a few EK High-Flows 1/2 OD
Total: $255.19

Any recommendations on where I might be able to save a few dollars? Other than shaving about $6 by grabbing the heater core from a junkyard and soldering my own fittings. Would it be cheaper to grab a universal gpu block and get some Ramsinks? I figure I'd need about 12-14 sinks to properly cover the entire voltage regulation area. Or I could cut up an old AMD HSF and use that for ram sinks.

My main concern is mounting the rad, and whether or not I should use a push/pull or simply a push fan setup with D12SMs and a 1" clearance shroud that I could make.

Any opinions on the hardware I'm looking at or money saving tips/new build tips beyond what all the links in this forum provide? I feel like I'm running circles in a dark room with no guidance at this point.

FYI: Martin's flow estimator shows about 1.71 GPM

 

[mellojoe]

Here's what I have learned:

WC ain't cheap. Sure, there are cheaper ways to go, but the simple fact of the matter is that normal heatsinks are now much better than ever. A $50 heatsink produces cooling that is incredible compared to years past. Heatpipes and exotic materials make the cooling almost comparable to a low-end or "cheap" watercooling setup.

If you are on a budget, get a good air-cooler. You won't regret it.

Back in the day, when air-coolers were really just glorified extruded aluminium blocks, a cheap, cobbeled together water cooling loop would blow it out of the water in terms of cooling. A basic aqua pump, an old heatercore, and some hoseclamps were enough to make the hassle worth it. You could easily outperform any heatsink on the market. Now, however, its just not the case. W/C is cool, but air-coolers are the way to go on a budget.

For the price of your basic w/c loop, you could get a top of the line air cooler, buy all new high-output / low-noise fans, and get a slick fan controller that looks pretty, too. It will look nicer, and probably perform nearly identical to any low-end watercooling unit.

GOOD LUCK!