Watercooling advice

[matty-hodgson]

Leading on from my last thread, I got talked around from "wasting" £1500 on a computer now when I can save it til next year and get a brand new computer that'll be loads better, so I thought I'd splash out on the case and watercooling now, then next year I can just take out my old components and give it a quick hoover and it'll be good as new .

So firstly, I need help picking a good case for watercooling, something big inside with plenty of space for HDDs and plenty of room for my watercooling inside.

And secondly, I'm gonna need some help with watercooling, I don't know which shops are good, which brands are worth buying and all that stuff, so just treat me like a total noob in the watercooling area .

I was looking at the Corsair 700D and 800D just before, but then realised they won't fit under my desk which I recently bought, I love this desk so I'm just gonna have to find a case that's lower than 550mm.

I've also decided I want a green/black or blue/black theme going on inside this computer.

Also, I'm more bothered about the performance of this watercooling loop than the sound levels, it can't possibly be any louder than my PC atm and I'm used to that now so anything quieter will be nice . So Cold > Quiet.

I'm laying down £500 for all of this, which will include everything, including all the fancy stuff to make it all look good.

So, Hexus, I'm looking at you for help with this . Please advise me .

[GoNz0]

does it have to fit under your desk ?

something like the 800d should not be hidden

if you want to cram a lot of cooling inside a case you need the room to work.

as for who to use, chilledpc.co.uk 1st candccentral 2nd

candc dont have lots of stock but come in very handy for next day stuff with a phonecall at 4pm!!

and chilledpc's tom is a legend from cheap postage to custom made parts.


and start trawling the forsale threads for parts if 500 is your budget, 500 got me the blocks.

[matty-hodgson]

I've never really thought about having my case on my desk, but I suppose if it had a window and stuff then hiding it away would just be a total waste, especially if I get it looking really nice inside .

There's definitely room on my desk for it, more than enough, so yeah, I could get the 800D . Nice one GoNz0!

Is £500 not a lot for a watercooling build? I can always up the budget if needs be...

Also, is it possible to cool the memory? I'd quite like to watercool everything if it's possible, but only one the new build next year.

[GoNz0]

i was thinking about being next to the desk as its a big bastard, its a bit much to put on the desk also very heavy, i can just lift mine fully loaded (2 rads/loops tho')

you can get it all for £500, it depends how far you want to go with quality, i did go over the top in the quest for cool and quiet with a thing for koolance!

you want a pa120.3 rad to sit in the top of the corsair 700/800 with 15mm spacings (new version)

case rad and pumps going to set u back about 250, leaving the same again for blocks, tube, clamps, it is enough tbh and will still bag you nice kit, even if flashing lights may have to go on hold.

[GoNz0]

http://forums.hexus.net/classifieds-...-hardware.html

at least the rad

[SuicidaL]

i was thinking about being next to the desk as its a big bastard, its a bit much to put on the desk also very heavy, i can just lift mine fully loaded (2 rads/loops tho')

you can get it all for £500, it depends how far you want to go with quality, i did go over the top in the quest for cool and quiet with a thing for koolance!

you want a pa120.3 rad to sit in the top of the corsair 700/800 with 15mm spacings (new version)

case rad and pumps going to set u back about 250, leaving the same again for blocks, tube, clamps, it is enough tbh and will still bag you nice kit, even if flashing lights may have to go on hold.

those pa.3's are getting harder to come by now for a new one - just as rare on ebay. i was after one but they stopped them now and no sign of the replacement ta's as it's gonna delay my cooling upgrade.

[GoNz0]

http://specialtech.co.uk/spshop/cust...productid=9300

hurry they only have one


whats all this about them stopping them ?

thats about the last place with one

[matty-hodgson]

Is that one of the best rads available or something?

Don't have any money until Monday when I swap over the funds into my card account.

[GoNz0]

it all depends on the setup you have, there are others that work better under certain conditions.

why do i love them ?

made in britain!

i have one stuffed into the top of my 800d and a 140.3 attached to the back of the case.

scary jim has my old one

with your budget there is no point tracking it down, i would go for the EK one in the fs thread so long as it has the 15mm spacings!

[matty-hodgson]

Gonzo, would you mind posting some photos of your setup? Just interested to see what yours looks like inside an 800D case .

[GoNz0]

this was part way through the build, the 120.3 is up top but there is no rad hanging off the back so for all intents its more like something you would have

(the fans are between the rad and the case)



hardware wise, it doesn't get much bigger, its the asus rampage 2 extreme full size board, 2 GTX480's and a 1250w enermax PSU, 140mm fans and both pumps have 140mm res tops.

[matty-hodgson]

Very nice setup GoNz0 . But I'm a bit confused to how the graphics cards are contained in that loop, it only looks like one of them is connected.

Do you have your motherboard watercooled there too?

And, when I kit out the innards next year, would it be better to buy graphics card with watercooling blocks already on?

[GoNz0]

motherboards cooled, and as i was waiting on the sli connector (my m8 who brought the blocks back forgot to post it) the cards were not hooked up, hence no rad on the back.

[SuicidaL]

http://specialtech.co.uk/spshop/cust...productid=9300

hurry they only have one


whats all this about them stopping them ?

thats about the last place with one

well there are no hard and fast facts but the pa's are going and ta's are coming, the only thing that seems to be known is that thermochill are moving the ports from 3/8" to 1/4" standard. price/specs and availability are all unknowns. nothing on thermochill site, even tom@chilled doesn't know any more than us.

i dunno weather to wait or look at other options, either the ek xt360 or xspc rx360. reading skinnee's review of them, the xspc was better overall but is a good £30 more than the ek. but then again the ek isn't bad but has m3 fixings which i thought were a bit odd.

[GoNz0]

ahh i just found your thread on chilledp forums, i brought adapters to fit 1/4 inch thread fittings

happy with what i have

[Hicks12]

Did you say cooling is more important than sound levels?

What are your planned upgrades next year mate? Hard to say but do you intend to move to a power hungry rig such as an equivilant to an I7 930+ GTX 480's ?

If so then high end water cooling id assume the best would be :

Radiator: Thermal Chill PA 120.3 or the XSPC RX360, the rx360 out performs the pa 120.3 with lower speed fans but the TC performs slightly better with higher rpm fans. The difference is minimal so both are probably the best you can get, just get the cheapest one and remember the PA needs adapters for the fittings where as the XSPC is already standard size. Oh and also i have to say the XSPC rad is great, my fan controller died so my radiator is running passive an e8400 and the water temp is staying below 40C, majority of the time is 29C and with fans running (when they used to work) it was down like 26 all the time .

Pump: A single laing DDC 18w should be enough but if the cooling performance is the most important than maybe you should try and get 2 of them and a reservoir that fits dual pumps (or 2 pumps each with an XSPC res top).

Blocks: Depending on socket really, i highly regard the EK supreme HF block as it supports all sockets at the moment and provides top end performance (the best actually, unless it recently lost the title). The effect it has on flow rate isnt to bad and the balance between that and cooling is excellent, and with 2 pumps it wouldnt even matter anyway. No idea what gpu blocks you should get though.

Tubing: If you want a themed look then just buy coloured tubing because using dyes just causes havoc with any WCing loop as it leaves deposits and ruins the cooling performance. Oh and tubing size, id say get the biggest possible as it provides the least restriction and reduces the chance of kinks appearing, 1/2" ID (inner diameter) and 3/4"OD (outer diameter) is the biggest tubing i believe.

Fittings: Any compression fittings are what id recommend, they are much better than barbs IMO so easy to use and much more reliable (ive had hose clips fail on me 3 times now which is 3 times to many ).


Again depending on what your cooling you may want to consider getting 2 lots of 360mm radiators.