Where to buy water cooling parts?

clayton006

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Jan 4, 2005
Messages
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I used to shop at frozen CPU but I can't seem to check out of their cart. Anyone know where I can get water cooling gear? I don't know of any other decent sites.
 
FrozenCPU is down indefinitely. Do some searches, lots of drama around it.

The only other US site with a large selection is Performance-PCs. Smaller shops that I know of that are still operating are Koolertek and Sidewinder. Otherwise, direct from the manufacturer is your other option.
 
Sidewinders has been serving the community for 15 years, great proxies and great service.
 
I have recently made 2 orders to Pc Performance and am VERY pleased. LARGE selection. I also purchased items from Sidewinder Computers and was very pleased. They seem to have a much smaller selection.

FrozenCPU was also my primary source BUT it does not look good for it.
 
And there's always the fs/t forum. Had to dig a bit, myself, but found a good deal on radiator, cpu block, pump (minus top), and some fittings. Ended up saving about $80. ;)

Have to be patient, though...which is why I ended up buying the rest from performance-pcs, Amazon, and direct from primochill. XD

Total cost (including the stuff from this forum) for a loop without res: $270 :D
 
The beef I have with performance pcs is their pricing. Stuff that I buy is consistently 25% more on performance pcs than it was on frozen cpu.
 
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If you have a MicroCenter near you, they have a small, but fairly diverse selection of liquid cooling kit.

And not just all-in-ones.
 
If you have a MicroCenter near you, they have a small, but fairly diverse selection of liquid cooling kit.

And not just all-in-ones.

Unfortunately, Micro Center was being supplied water cooling gear by FrozenCPU. Now that Frozen has gone belly up the variety at Micro Center is dwindling. Hopefully they find a new distribution source soon.
 
Unfortunately, Micro Center was being supplied water cooling gear by FrozenCPU. Now that Frozen has gone belly up the variety at Micro Center is dwindling. Hopefully they find a new distribution source soon.

Well SHIT!
 
Well SHIT!

Those were my exact thoughts when I heard that tidbit. Sadly it appears true as the water cooling gear at my local Micro Center just keeps dwindling away and not getting restocked.
 
You best bet for basic gear, pumps,reservoirs and radiators would be jabtech or sidewinders.

If you want a big choice of connectors and GPU coolers or CPU coolers, then performance is sort of the last man standing.

My first stop has always been sidewinders, but the inventory is a bit small.
Performance is no doubt the largest, but shipping is pretty expensive.
Jabtech always has the basics.
 
If you get small/light stuff from performance-pcs and use USPS shipping you can save a buck. Then if you get larger/heavier stuff from amazon (prime) you can save even more (assuming they have what you want at around the same price) and possibly get 2-day shipping too. The difference for me was something like $12 or $3 at p-pcs when I ordered some fittings, between (I think) FedEX Ground and USPS, FedEX being the next least expensive.
 
You best bet for basic gear, pumps,reservoirs and radiators would be jabtech or sidewinders.

If you want a big choice of connectors and GPU coolers or CPU coolers, then performance is sort of the last man standing.

My first stop has always been sidewinders, but the inventory is a bit small.
Performance is no doubt the largest, but shipping is pretty expensive.
Jabtech always has the basics.

Jab-tech has closed down.

The only small guys left that I know of are Sidewinders and Koolertek.
 
Those were my exact thoughts when I heard that tidbit. Sadly it appears true as the water cooling gear at my local Micro Center just keeps dwindling away and not getting restocked.

To be honest that has been my experience with MicroCenter water cooling gear for the past 5 years lol. Poor outdated selection has always been the norm for their water cooling gear.
 
comparing USD vs Euro prices aquacomputer has competitive prices with US stores, even after calculating shipping costs. On the other hand, Performance PCs has very fast shipping, while AC takes forever to deliver its stuff.
 
Have any of you guys actually ordered from sidewinder within the past few months? I've seen bad reports as of January, aside from my own where they didn't send me $15 worth of screws and never replied to my emails. Didn't care enough to file a claim as I've never had any problem with them prior.
 
Reseller ratings isn't looking good. Facebook has been dead since about April 2014. Comments left on Facebook have had no replies. Koolertek appears to be dead as well. Seems like all the little guys are dead.
 
Have any of you guys actually ordered from sidewinder within the past few months? I've seen bad reports as of January, aside from my own where they didn't send me $15 worth of screws and never replied to my emails. Didn't care enough to file a claim as I've never had any problem with them prior.

Wow, that's a shame if they're gone too. I bought a pump and other odds and ends last year.
 
I bought stuff from them a few years back and was looking into buying a pump again soon... If they are gone as well :(
 
I had a problem with sidewinder a few years back. Ordered $250 worth of parts. 2 weeks later no parts. Called to ask and they said 1 item was back ordered. I asked to cancel the order and they tried to charge me a 15% restocking fee(for something that never shipped). I told them I'd just dispute the whole thing with the bank. Then I finally got a full refund, the whole time they were acting like they were doing me a favor.

Ordered from performance pc and got all my equipment before sidewinder gave me the refund.
 

Just want to say that nobody should support aquatuning. People might not remember but back in 2009 they tried to steal trademarks for most major watercooling brands. They registered trademarks for Swiftech, DangerDen, Noctua, Bitspower, Koolance, Thermochill and other brands that they had no right to try and claim trademarks on.

History here: http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1426188


Bottom line, listen to what Kyle said back then: "Vote with your wallet"

Do not support aquatuning, ever.
 
Just want to say that nobody should support aquatuning. People might not remember but back in 2009 they tried to steal trademarks for most major watercooling brands. They registered trademarks for Swiftech, DangerDen, Noctua, Bitspower, Koolance, Thermochill and other brands that they had no right to try and claim trademarks on.

History here: http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1426188


Bottom line, listen to what Kyle said back then: "Vote with your wallet"

Do not support aquatuning, ever.

Thanks for that, that was before I got into watercooling and hardware in general. Never saw that news.
 
I can say I've had three orders go through well at performance-pcs.
 
It's not really a matter of how many orders they get right, it's what they do when the order goes wrong. Performance-PCs (and FrozenCPU) have a fairly poor track record of correcting orders that went wrong. Unfortunately there's really no good options left, except for maybe that one store on Amazon.
 
Yeah, Titan Rig has some decent stuff, and they have a discount on some things if you get three (I think) or more items from them in one order. I've only ever ordered one thing from them, though: A black XSPC D5 pump top. It came with all the necessary components, and it was packed well enough. There were no instructions, but I don't think that was Titan Rig's fault.

I've only made one order from performance-pcs, with four or five items. I received everything I ordered, and it was in good condition, but they were all fittings/adapters so I'd hope so. I guess that's a good thing, since it seems anyone who's had issues wasn't happy with their customer support.
 
Dang, reading all of this is making me want to reconsider wanting to do a custom loop with my computer now.
I was really thinking about doing it but, I've never done it before so obviously the whole thing will be a learning experience. Just don't even really know where to start to be honest. I get the gist of it. Just seems like a ton of planning. Which is why I want to do it, then I could piece it together, get the cost and slowly build up. But I need to finish a few upgrades before I set in stone what I want to buy for the loop. Like my GPU's maybe replaced soon, the CPU is going to be replaced but should keep same bracket I would assume. Other than that, I think I would be good.
I just need a lot more help than I'm sure most people are willing to give over the internet. :(
 
You'll be surprised at how much info you can get from members.
 
So far I have been pretty surprised with help I have received from certain things. This just seems like one of those things that I have to be able to go walk up to it all to know what to buy. I went to titan rig on amazon and I think I roughly put together a few things. I just don't know if having the reservoir and pump separate is better than buying one that comes together or simple things like that.
 
I have an idea of how I want everything to look and what I want cooled, just not good at piecing it together because I have never really seen any of this stuff to know how to know what to buy.
I mean I get the basic match cpu socket to block and reservoir, pump, fittings, tube and any block for anything you want cooled.
I guess you just have to pay attention to fitting sizes on what you buy and remember what gets a barb and what gets compression? Or can those be interchanged?
 
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