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Endgame

Gawd
Joined
Jan 10, 2007
Messages
954
My last 2 water cool builds were the i5 Ivy bridge in my sig (I should probably update that) with a pair of thermochill 120.3s and a swiftech block (apogee? Don’t remember) that I pulled apart years ago, and a left over bits build for an A10-7870k with some of the original black ice rads and a swiftech bay Rez.

What’s hot (cold?) block wise these days? Are those thermochill rads anywhere near top tier? What fans are best? Can’t imagine the gentle typhoon AP-15s are top tier anymore. What is the Rez situation like now that 5.25 bays are gone from most cases? Any pumps better than my d5 or ddc? Where do the cool water cooling kids hang out? Pro cooling .com is dead, and xtreme systems seems to be in a similar boat. Who is doing all the parts reviews and shoot outs? Cathar is long gone, along with most of the old guard whose names I can barely dig out of the memory banks.
 
What’s hot (cold?) block wise these days? I think most here would say heatkiller or the new optimus blocks are currently tops.
Are those thermochill rads anywhere near top tier? They are no longer on the market. Hardwarelabs GTX series has been the standard for a few years now.
What fans are best? Not much has changed. Corsair M series may be the only new entry to gain some respect .
What is the Rez situation like now that 5.25 bays are gone from most cases? The new trend is flat reservoirs/multiport manifolds. Tubes are still strong.
Where do the cool water cooling kids hang out? Here or reddit?
Any pumps better than my d5 or ddc? No, but you can now get pwm variants.
Who is doing all the parts reviews and shoot outs? Noone, it is a black hole.
 
I’ll keep updating this thread as I go.

It looks like swiftech hasn’t really updated their site since the end of 2017? Their “limited edition” heirloom block that was for sale in 2017 is still listed.

Dual pump + Rez doesn’t appear to be much of a thing anymore? I can’t find an equivalent to the old bay res + dual ddc swiftech anymore.

Looks like EK is still having problems with their nickel plating? I feel like that was an issue 5+ years ago ...

Hard line has become very popular (it looks cool, so I understand why), but I haven’t seen any builds with hard line copper. like, wouldn’t that be the dream hard Line piping? pipes that also act as a rad...
 
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Endgame said:
Hard line has become very popular (it looks cool, so I understand why), but I haven’t seen any builds with hard line copper. like, wouldn’t that be the dream hard Line piping? pipes that also act as a rad...
Click to expand...
I have been doing it for almost a decade. Biggest issue in the beginning was fittings. G1/4 fittings for 3/8" tube didn't exist then. So i had to re-tap to 1/4NPT. Thin Plexi doesn't like it, wants to crack. But outside of that, it has been great. Fittings are cheap from hardware or industrial supply stores. No issues with coolant compatibility either, or the idea of them wearing out. 3/8" refrigeration coil is cheap and readily available, as are the bending and flaring tools. Currently rebuilding my setup, not moving away from it.

Smoked Brisket said:
Jay'z Two Cents recently did a copper tube build and at one point said he would not do it again. Hard to cut and file down. It was the "Dark Knight" build. That being said I know you can buy pre-bent 90 degree copper tubes.
https://www.amazon.com/Bykski-500x200mm-Degree-Bending-Cooling/dp/B07Z5TSZFP?th=1
https://www.performance-pcs.com/wat...s-steel-tubing-14mm-0-5m-xspc-steel-14mm.html
https://www.newegg.com/p/37B-0003-00163
Click to expand...
Yeah, not much respect for this guy on this topic. Copper cuts and flares very easily, and you can bend by hand in most cases (unless its copper plated steel).
 
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Looks like Johnny Guru isn’t doing power supply reviews (last review was over a year ago). Is there a go to power supply review site? I generally based my decisions around Johnny guru and hard ocp. That said, I would be shocked if there was a better power supply than one of the seasonic titanium supplies, so maybe that is an easy decision for the next build...
 
Endgame said:
Looks like Johnny Guru isn’t doing power supply reviews (last review was over a year ago). Is there a go to power supply review site? I generally based my decisions around Johnny guru and hard ocp. That said, I would be shocked if there was a better power supply than one of the seasonic titanium supplies, so maybe that is an easy decision for the next build...
Click to expand...
Seasonic Titanium is still the best PSU, there are other good ones but many are rebranded Seasonics unless they are major players like Enermax. Techpowerup and the FPS review(ex hardocpers) are still doing good PSU reviews. Noone is doing it like Hardocp did. no offense to anyone. Super Flower PSU's are about to enter the US market and maybe they can become a player.
 
Let’s talk premix fluid vs distilled w/ kill coil for a minute. I’ve only used a premix once (first release mayhem) and I was not impressed and went back to distilled with kill coil.

Fast forward to now, and I’m reading people saying that nickel and silver don’t play nicely in a loop. My current loop has been filled since nov 2012, Distilled w/ kill coil, never drained (just topped off annually), nickel plated fittings, copper swiftech block, 2 black ice rads.

If silver and nickel are a problem in a distilled only loop, something should be trashed at this point, right? I’ll be tearing apart the loop in a few weeks - what should I look for problem wise?
 
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