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Watercooling Checklist & Questions

F

f l u t t e r

n00b
Joined
Apr 6, 2003
Messages
7
I'm finally ready to delve in to watercooling after wholeheartedly deciding that my current air setup was entirely too loud (a good indicator is that I couldn't sleep with it on).

Before I make my purchases, I wanted to run everything by the more experienced. Below are my planned parts purchase for the actual WC setup. The components I'm going to cool are a P4C 2.6 (going for 3.5) and a Radeon 9800XT.

CPU Waterblock: Swiftech MCW5000-P (@ Swiftnets)
VGA Waterblock: Swiftech MCW50 (@ Swiftnets)
Radiator: DTek ProCombo with Shroud (@ Dtekcustoms)
Fan: 120mm Aluminum Fan (@ Dtekcustoms)
Pump: Eheim 1048 (@Dtekcustoms)
Reservoir: Unsure; Innovatek Tank-o-Matic?
Tubing: 1/2" Tygon (@ Dtekcustoms)

This being my first experimentation with watercooling, I have a few questions. How hard is installation? Will I need to purchase any extra fittings? How much tubing will I need? What reservoir should I get? If I get the Tank-o-Matic, how do I use it with 1/2" tubing?

I realize that moving to liquid cooling is a big step (for me atleast) and could be potentially very hard, but I have enough confidence to go through with it. Thanks in advance for any help, and suggestions are very welcome.
 
It is easy to install, just be sure you check for leaks BEFORE you put it in your rig.

6ft tubing should be fine. Always a good idea to pick up extra fittigns.

Tank-o-Matic is fine, you can do a mod to make it true 1/2" (like I did). It was not real hard, jsut drill it out. If you do not, it is going to restrict your flow a little...1/2 to 3/8 back to 1/2 is not to cool.

If you are going to water cool your GPU you may as well get a MCW50-T..it involves no more work and runs fien off a True480w.


Your pump choice is just fine.
 
Thanks for the replies.

I'm not real keen on drilling out the 3/8 holes on the tank-o-matic to use 1/2 tubing, so I think I'll look elsewhere for a reservoir. Any suggestions would be great.

Regarding the MCW50-T: From the reviews I've read it's not a beginner's item. It's recommended to those who have already watercooled and possible used TEC or phase-change systems. I'm just not sure how comfortable I am with getting it. Is there any huge reason I should pick it instead of the MCW50? I'm not looking for insane performance from super-low temps from my 9800xt, but if I won't get good temps unless I go the route of the 50-T, then I'll choose it. I also have a ThermalTake 480W PS, so I'm set there if I need it.

Thanks again for the help, I appreciate it.
 
well on my first water cooling loop it was just cpu and stuff...then a week later got a mcx-50T best thing eva!!! so cold :) today since my comptuer is broken i ran it off teh card(shows nothing but still cool..ahaha get it!!) and it was WAY sub 0C...i spat on it and froze INSTANTLY on contact....put digidoc5 onto it and beeped cuz it was registereing belpw 0 and it can't handle that.....truely a amazing piece of hardware! i would HIGHY HIGHLY HIGHLY HIGHLY reccomend it!
 
The Bayres is nice, and comes with 1/4 inch barbs. Mine has held up well for the 8 or 9 months I've had it. You can order them from D-tek Customs as well as a few other places.

I'd get a Hydor L30 over an Eheim 1250. Less money, more flow rate, and a higher head. Mine is plenty quiet and is still running great. :)

[Edit : Forgot to add that the Hydor L30 uses 1/4 inch barbs by default. Makes things even easier.]
 
Since Im assuming you are going for 1/2" ID make sure you get 4 of the 1/2in. Stem to 1/2in. tube ID hose barbs to plug into both of the SwiftTech blocks.
 
Consider where you are putting your radiator and pump. Make sure you can fit them where you wnat them, and it not...where else you can put one or the other.

Watercooling is tough to start, as I've learned, but is very easy once you get your layout right. Sometimes that involves extensive modifications to a case. Sometimes its as simple as drilling out a hard drive cage (a few rivets). Either way, when your done you can look at it and think about all the hard work that went into your system, and how good it looks :D
 
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