I've decided that I'm going to do my first watercooling project, so if anyone could suggest some good places to read up on different blocks/rads/pumps/ect. Id appreciate it.
I'd ask for recommendations on blocks but as of right now I'm just starting the project and have no clue as to what hardware is going into it. If anyone could give me some suggestions on Rads , Resevoirs, and Pumps however, Id appreciate it greatly.
I'll also be reading the stickied water thread as well [thumbup]
I cant help you with anything other then I love my koolance....I get great temps with it and was cake to setup.Originally Posted by Mystic_Pickle
The Swiftech STORM waterblock is a beast. I happen to be selling mine in the classifieds. *wink wink*
Well, let me know if your selling it swiftly, or if its not going very good, I wont be looking at buying my parts for a couple weeks at least, since I need to decide on a case and get that gutted first.The Swiftech STORM waterblock is a beast. I happen to be selling mine in the classifieds. *wink wink*
Using one of those myself, great block [thumbup]The Swiftech STORM waterblock is a beast. I happen to be selling mine in the classifieds. *wink wink*
Reservoir is optional and one of any significant size will probably need to mounted on the outside of your case. If you have the room, a 5.25" drive bay reservoir would be the best for fit and ease of installation.
As far as tubing, I'd go with 1/2" ID (inner diameter) braided tubing. It won't kink and it holds it's shape very well. You can get it at hardware stores like Home Depot. You can also get metal worm screw ties there also. I prefer those because they're removable and you won't break them.
For blocks, anything made out of copper or brass is the best because those metals are very good for heat conduction. Copper contact points are very common, but entire copper/brass blocks are less common. Danger Den sells that type and I've been very impressed by all of the blocks I've recieved from them. DD also sells a few silver blocks which would be marginally better for heat conduction, but they're probably not worth the price for a entry or mid-level setup.
CPU block is a must, easy to install and it gets the fat HS/F out of your case.
Northbridge coolers are available for most boards, but recent VIA chipsets don't really need them because they run only a few degrees higher than ambient. nForce chipsets will benefit though. If you buy a northbridge block, make sure that it will fit in your system (take size and tubing direction into account)
GPU blocks are obviously popular due to heat, but finding one that fits your specific card may be a little tricky. For the GPU, you will want one that cools the GPU core as well as the VRAM, since both get pretty warm.
Other solutions are available for RAM and HDDs, but those components don't usually get extremely warm under normal conditions. high speed HDDs and high voltage RAM modules will benefit, however, from reduced heat.
Radiators are available in two main sizes according to fans you can attach to them - 120mm and 80mm. These types can be bolted directly to a fan mount on your case. As a general rule, bigger is better, but a single fan 120mm radiator will probably work as well as a 120mm triple fan rad running without fans. There are several other forms of radiator, but like the reservoirs, large ones will require you to mount it on the outside of the case or make serious modifications to the case itself.
There are a few pumps that are most popular for PC cooler. Swiftech and Eheim are two popular vendors, but there are others. For these, you want to get one that has a high enough head pressure to push through all of your blocks, radiator(s), and reservoir. a head pressure of 10ft. is more than enough, but 5ft. or more should be adequate for most systems. Flow rate is also important, but any pump that you can fit in your computer will have enough of a flow rate to move the water. A Higher flow rate pump will be required for more flexible tubing, like the Tygon brand, in order to keep it from kinking (braided tubing doesn't have this problem.)
Here's some places you can go to look around at the available parts: Frozencpu.com, Sidewindercomputer.com, Xoxide.com, Dangerden.com. Reviews on any specific part can be found on Google.
Really all you need to watch out for is making sure your selected tube size fits all your components (inner diameter is usually used; outer diameter isn't usually important). Then you need enough tube clamps for every connection you have.
I would recommend that you go to your local junk yard and get a full size car radiator for your radiator. Sometimes if you tell them what its for (not a car) then you can get a break on price if they have some they can't sell. You might get that for 20~30 dollars. Use a big cardboard box for a duct to your fans, if you want to use fans that is. Big radiators have a nice cap on them that lets you easily fill and doubles as a reservoir as well. Plus they have about the best surface area and highest water flow rate of anything you can buy for your purpose.
I also recommend using zip ties to hold tubes on. They are cheap and work very well.
As for waterblocks, most of the reasonable quality blocks perform close enough to each other that your end result will be the same, meaning that you will get the same clock speed out of whatever, so buy on price.
As someone else said, 1/2" ID (inside diameter) tubing, or larger, for all tubing, is highly recommended. Whether you get braided tubing or not probably does not matter that much, but you must buy thick wall (the 3/4" OD tubing), not the crappy thin wall.
If you want to run fanless then I would seriously recommend you getting a big car radiator and bolt it to the side of the case if you insist that it all be together. I have been running that way for well over a year now (won me worst case contest at MML4 last year :). An alternative to that to still run fanless, and potentially cheaper, is to buy two 50' sections of 1/2" ID or larger tubing and run them in parrallel. Lowes has some 50' sections like that for about 10 dollars each. A lot of people may think it looks like hell, but it works and is cheap.
I was looking for the white text which is non existant.....I cant belive you would suggest this to anyone. I mean how ghetto could you be I mean Im all for saving money adn all but jesus a car radiator??
large car rad's are very effective as passive water coolers provided they are coupled with the right pump.
but i prefere this type of thing
i'm actually in the process of doing my first internal water cooling project using a gigabyte kit i bought off ebay for £40.
Didn't I say that I won worst case contest at MML4 (million man lan 4, >1000 pcs were there :)
Here it has a cardboard shroud
Here it is in normal use, no fans no nothing. Straight tap water mixing iron, copper, brass and sometimes aluminum :)
At any rate, this isn't near the most ghetto setup I've ever had.
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