Hi, rather than spending a couple of grand on upgrading my MacBook Pro I decided to put together a monster desktop rig and am looking for some advice on setting up my first custom loop for water cooling.
I had the NZXT Kraken X60 on pre-order but have been told by NZXT that it won't start shipping in the UK until at least early February. I've had all the other components for my rig for over a week and I'm getting impatient waiting for it!
I was looking into air cooling my CPU instead but then a few people have suggested I should go for custom water cooling.
My rig currently consists of:
Case: NZXT Switch 810
Case Fans: 6 x NZXT FX-140LB (4 RB included with the case) - Currently set up as 1 back exhaust, 3 top exhausts and 2 front intakes (2 of the RB fans mounted inside on the HDD cages to push air up towards my GPU
Fan Controller: NZXT Sentry 2
LED: NZXT LED Hue
CPU: i7 3930k
Mobo: ASUS Rampage IV Formula/BF3 Edition
GPU: KFA2 GeForce GTX 680 4GB (was going to go for 2-way SLI but holding fire for now)
PSU: Seasonic X-850
RAM: Corsair Vengeance 16GB (4 x 4GB) 2400 MHz
SSD: Samsung 840 120GB
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 3TB
Blu Ray: Lite-On Blu Ray ROM
Network Card: TP Link TL-WDN4800 450Mbps Wireless N Dual Band PCI Express Adapter
OS: Windows 7 64bit OEM
The rig's going to be used for gaming and video editing and I intend to OC the CPU to around 4.5. I don't want to have to start replacing or upgrading parts for at least 4 years.
So my question is what do I need to get myself started with custom water cooling? I've been looking into components and been doing some research but thought I'd seek further wisdom here!
I want to spend between £100 and £200 on everything needed.
I want to use a 420 slim rad and top mount it in my Switch 810 (I've got the new 15mm spacing compatible top plate on order with NZXT already). Will grab myself one more FX140 LB and rejig my fans so I'll have 6 doing push pull.
Here are a couple of parts that have caught my attention so far:
Radiator: XSPC EX420 (36mm thick)
CPU Block: Alphacool NexXxoS XP³ Light - Acetal Edition /or/ Phobya CPU-Cooler UC-2 LT Intel - Black Edition
Fans: Already have plenty
Pump & Reservoir: Been looking at some res/pump bundles on Aquatuning they've got the Phobya DC12-220 paired with a EK-Reservoir Combo DCP 2.2. Is something like this enough? I've not got a 5 1/4" bay free so was thinking of mounting the pump and res at the bottom of the case between the PSU and the lower HDD cage. How do you go about mounting a cylindrical res? Is there somewhere better that I could mount something like this?
Fittings, Tubing, Liquid & Additives: Any pointers on what's needed here?
I had a look at some of the watercooling kits such as the XSPC Raystorm D5 EX420 Kit on Overclockers but it's over my budget and I already have the fans.
From initial research it looks like the KFA2 GPU can''t be watercooled without some modding so I'm happy just to put the CPU on ice for now.
Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!


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