Spec me my first ever WC kit

[j.o.s.h.1408]

Hi all, I am looking to have a go at setting up a water cooling system to cool down my pc. I have been fascinated with the whole idea but always bailed out as I was very worried about reliability issues and costs.

Costs is fine now as I am more mature and have a decent job And in terms of reliability issues, as long as I do it “right” it wont leak.

Now the purpose of WC is because of my 480gtx. Its loud when fan is at 70-80% and very hot. I feel that WC is a great way to cool it down and to do some OC on. I would also like to do some OC on my cpu. Get up to 4ghz at least while keeping temps down.

So with the reasons out of the way, below is my current spec pc:

• ASUS P6T deluxe Socket 1336 Mobo
• 6GB DDR3 Ram
• Nvidia 480GTX card
• Intel i7 920 2.6GHZ Nehalem
• Corsair Moduled 800W PSU
• Lian LI full tower PC-A7010 case
• Thermalright Ultra Extreme aka TRUE

I have done some reading on WC and this is what I have learned so far. What I need is this:

• Radiator
• Reserviour
• Pump
• Hoses
• CPU and GPU blocks
• Fittings/clamps

Here are a few questions:
Once all hooked up, How do I drain and change the water later down the line and how often do I need to drain and maintain it?

Once all is hooked up, do I do this?
1. Add 1 litre of water in reservoir
2. Turn only the WC kit on and not the pc
3. Put tissues around the Water blocks on my gpu and cpu to test for leaks
4. Leave it on for 10-24 hours on
5. If no leaks after 10-24hours, Turn the pc on and enjoy nice cool temps and high overclocks.

What kind of liquid do I use? Bottled distilled water from supermarket?

I heard I should not mix coil with another material? Do I need to make sure all the pumps, rads, fittings/clamps, reservoir, etc are all one material?

Is it a good idea to use a T line to easily drain a loop at the bottom of my case?

Now my last question is where I can purchase this: http://www.lian-li.com/v2/en/product...45&ss_index=74 I have literally looked everywhere, even on eBay.

Now what’s my budget? my budget is £300-£320 for the full whack.

Are these temps doable on my budget:

4ghz at 60c MAX load
Stock 480gtx speed at 40-50c MAX load(Leaving plenty of room to OC it).

Thanks all and looking forward to your thoughts and opinions. I am a complete noob on this so apologize for some questions i have asked.

edit: has to be upgradeable so i can easy remove my 480gtx and slap on a new card when i buy one next year

[GoNz0]

check out ek waterblocks

the res stores the excess coolant, allows for bleeding the system, and topping up as believe it or not the tubing is porous and will eventually require topping up, not that it leaks or anything but its just one of those things. it also expands a little over time due to it being under slight pressure.

you can buy none conductive coolant, and yes you top up, fit the caps, smother it in something to soak up spills and short the PSU (or use spare psu) to fire up the pump. let it bleed, turn off for a fe wmins and top up once the bubbles settle, repeat over and over until the air is out, this also requires tipping the case about to chase out air locks.

lian li parts, well ask tom at chilled pc, if he cant get it he will make it.

tbh pay the bit extra and use him for your stuff

http://www.chilledpc.co.uk

4.5ghz, well its down to the cpu, may not get a better clock but u will get cool and quiet.

feeling flush ?

import koolance kit, controllers, flow meters, i did and never looked back. 2nd koolance build now, i love the software pump and fan setup as desktop is near silent.

[c.ruel]

With a case the size of yours you could easily do two dedicated loops if you wanted to. One loop could be for CPU mounting a triple radiator in the top (you would have to get a custom top panel from lian li, or cut yourless or get someone else to cut it for you). Then have a second dual radiator in the front mount to the hard drive bays or on the floor at the front just in front of the psu (this would involve some cutting as well). That could run dedicated just for you GTX 480. That would be a pretty awesome setup and you could easily do o/cing and keep temperatures lowish and quiet.

Either way with your budget and the size of your case squeezing enough radiator in should not be a problem.

[GoNz0]

or as in my case, stick a pa 140.3 to the back of the case to cool a pair of 480's



looks small as its hanging off an 800d, the top of the case hides the pa 120.3 for the cpu and mobo.

[j.o.s.h.1408]

Couple more questions. Can u use a T connector and connect a seperate House at the top of it and have that Hose run out of the case through the back of the PCI bracket opening and attach a valve so i can easily drain the system without opening the case or even tilting it?

The reason why i ask is that it is easier to drain from the lowest point of the loop if im not mistaken and many reservoirs are stored high up teh case like in a dvd drive bay?

see pic of an example
pic from from a guy called Razor http://www.avforums.com/forums/pc-ga...l#post15625205

Also, In what order do i do the loop? Radiator at the top of the case at 12 o'clock, followed by reserviour in a drive bay at 3o'clock, Pump at the bottom at 6 o'clock, GPU at 8 o'Clock, CPU at 10 o'Clock, and finally back to the Rad at 12??

edit: To test the WC without turning on the pc, i heard u got to insert a pin between the 24pin mobo connector and then u will be able to turn on the PSU with the pump connected? Wouldnt that mess up and even electrocute yourself! Dont want to electrocute myself or damage my top of the range corsair moduled GPU!

Also, once i do go WC, i dont need any case fans anymore innit? Hard drives wouldnt need too much cooling and my pcu and GPU will be pretty much sorted?

[j.o.s.h.1408]

With a case the size of yours you could easily do two dedicated loops if you wanted to. One loop could be for CPU mounting a triple radiator in the top (you would have to get a custom top panel from lian li, or cut yourless or get someone else to cut it for you). Then have a second dual radiator in the front mount to the hard drive bays or on the floor at the front just in front of the psu (this would involve some cutting as well). That could run dedicated just for you GTX 480. That would be a pretty awesome setup and you could easily do o/cing and keep temperatures lowish and quiet.

Either way with your budget and the size of your case squeezing enough radiator in should not be a problem.

Wouldnt it be better to use 120.3 rad on the GPU and a 120.2 rad on the cpu seeing as GOU'S nowadays are more hotter then cpu's?

Also, i cut holes on my previous case before usinga jigsaw lol came out OK!

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_wv9XuGREBzE/SX...2/IMG_5783.JPG

[GoNz0]

yes i use a 3 way koolance block to spur off a drain on each loop, res position isnt that importand as mine are mid way with the rad up top and water does not piss out if i take the top off the res to top up.

cutting holes is not clean, asking tom at chilled pc to laser cut is a very cheap option of getting what you want. even more so if you place a wc kit order with him at the same time

i got a plate to adapt the 140.3 to take 140mm noctua fans as they have 120mm mounts due to there design. it cost £15 painted black...

also its best to go pump > heat source > rad
you can go pump rad heat source, or even do what the hell you want as the volume of water means the pre rad and post rad temps on a good kit are within 2 degrees, it levels out due to the high flow, i get a 1 degree under idle and 2 degree drop under load coming out the rads.

[j.o.s.h.1408]

I've sent chilled pc a email about it. will see what he says.

Anyways is this good liquid to use for WC system?

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1l-fe...ive-01-s-cm%29

none conductive means if it leaks on my pc, i wont fry and damage it?

[scaryjim]

... i cut holes on my previous case before usinga jigsaw lol came out OK!

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_wv9XuGREBzE/SX...2/IMG_5783.JPG

That's not cutting holes in your case ... this is cutting holes in your case

Still haven't finished that, actually ... must get round to it sometime...

[GoNz0]

i would not use that fluid as 1 spec of dust can cause it to go conductive, its impossible to stay ultra pure.

as a top up its fine along with something like thats more of a coolant such as the therochill stuff

http://www.chilledpc.co.uk/shop/index.php?cPath=67

[Hicks12]

im no watercooling expert but ill tell you what i know . Rads can handle ALOT of heat/power going through them, if you have room for extra rads then it can be good but most of the time if you get a good rad with good fans its solid.

Presume you want a fairly quiet setup? Id recommend the XSPC RX360 rad for starters if you can fit it? its fairly thick and obviously a 360mm setup (think its 400mm in total), its one of the best rads for slow fans and still holds up even with high speed fans. Gentle typhoons are great fans by scythe, i run mine at 700-1000rpm and they are one of the best, noctas are pretty good as well but for rads i prefer the GT, static pressure is the key unit for radiator fans.


£300 is a very good budget for watercooling, and your case is very similar to my lian li a70 (i mean virtually identical internally bar things like hotswaping hard drives ) and should house a nice setup easily. Heres my suggestion for a basic build:

CPU block, either EK supreme HF or the newly released XSPC RayStorm(make sure you get intel version if you do). ~ £50 for either

GPU block, either get a vga only block which i personally use and recommend on the basis that if you change cards often (or even once a year?) then it can save a sizeable amount, they cost ~£30 and support most cards, cool the gpu better than full blocks but the con is you rely on passive heatsinks for the ram/vrms on the pcb, its ok overall but it would be nice to have the ram/vrms cooled better somehow (it hasnt really held back my clocks, core clocks past 900Mhz on my 460!). If you do go for the gpu only then id strongly recommend the EK supreme HF VGA at ~£30 its pretty easy to install and very good performer (one of the best!), alternatively this should be the best alternative, you cant go wrong with EK blocks and just depends on preference if you want acetal or plexi (i.e transparent), please check the compatibility, theres a link on that page somewhere to ensure it does fit. Costs ~£65


Radiator , xspc RX360 if you can fit it . ~ £90 and if you can fit anything else then i guess something like an RX240/ RS240 is good second rad? ~ £70/40

Pump, laing ddc pumps are a solid choice really, either a 10w or 18w version is good... they are rebranded alot and generally in england swiftech is the main rebrander for them so swiftech ddc is to look for. 10w is fine, i have a 10w and 18w... i dont run either on max on the basis its too loud (im somehow able to hear anything that makes noise in my pc, even when others cant lol!), pushes loads of water at low power anyways. Its good to have 18w id say as it gives you head room, if you arent getting a fan/pump controller (around £30 for a useable one ) then id recommend either a single or 2 10w pumps as apposed to 18w versions.

Thy're around £50-£60, pump tops can greatly improve performance so i recommend looking into them, can be from £5-£30 !(gains diminish as you go up lol) or you can get a res top for £15 which saves having to buy a pump top and res seperately.

Res: Any res really, i personally have used an xspc res pump top before (still have it) and it was quite good, took up some room though and in the end i switched to an XSPC dualbay res with dual ddc pump mounts, basically sits into 2 drive bays and houses two ddc pumps, very good stuff imo and one of the best in terms of just keeping space at a maximum (ofc it depends if you use all your drive bays, i only use one for bluray drive and 1 for fan controller ).

Prices range from £15 - £alot, £15 for the pump top res and stuff like the swiftech microres (also a good alternative) and £45 for the dual bay res

Fans, already mentioned the two id suggest at the start, GT and noctas with me siding towards the GT fans, ive only bought a handful brand new and the rest ive got second hand at a good price but are normally priced around the £12 mark e.g. here, there are higher versions like the 1850rpm ones and its entirely up to you, i just got the 1450 as i could get them second hand and didnt want to mix and match much , never run them at max personally so doesnt bother me. Another alternative is Yate loon fans, they are without a doubt one of the best "budget" fans out there, you cant beat them at £3 a pop and they arent half bad for rads, id say if you cant justify the GT or noctas or are at the upper limit of your budget somehow then these are a serious fan to consider . I have some left over i think which you are welcome to for a small sum.

Tubing, easy really... xspc or masterkleer, recently tried the latter on a recommendation and it is a solid bit of tubing and either are brilliant. You need to pick a size of tubing really as thats the important bit in regard to tubing, there is negligble difference between all the different sizes, the larger sizes can give better flow rates but reduced pressure while the smaller ones do the opposite and both are needed , swings and round abouts but the main thing is WHAT YOU PREFER, if you like fat tubing and can house it then go for it, if not go for something smaller.

Personally ive had 1/2" ID and 3/4"OD tubing originally but moved to 3/8"ID 1/2"OD tubing, i prefer the latter after switching, gives more room and bends easier but it really is marginal difference, the pro with the larger tubing is that it doesnt kink easily, part of my tubing looks like it could kink soon .

For measurements (if you're confused at the moment ) basically ID is the inner diameter of the tubing (basically the circle ignoring the tubing wall) and the OD is outer diameter which includes the thickness of the wall. If you use Barbs for your fittings then OD doesnt matter much, however if you go for compression fittings (i recommend them as they're much easier and more reliable to use, albeit more expensive at ~£2.50+ per fitting, i have a good few of them so let me know if you want anything as i may have some), as compressions work by using a barb type fitting on the block/rad etc and then you have a clamping ring that goes onto the tubing and then screws down onto the barb part (which is why OD is an important factor).


Coolant, easy suggestion... do you have a halfords nearby? Get some Deionised battery topup water from them, its good stuff and tested to be much better than other generic stuff (supermarkets etc). However if you want to spend a bit more i would certainly recommend Mayhems stuff, the guy who makes it (mick) is great and an honest guy who makes excellent products. Ive just used some of his distilled water, good price and good quality.... his Dyes are without a doubt the best in the business so if you want to dye your coolant get some from him (or use coloured tubing, i prefer dyes if im honest!). Hes just released some new stuff which is a high performance coolant with some lovely colours, pastel range! Have a look at specialtech.co.uk as they stock it all.

Most stuff will come premixed with anti corrosion stuff and biocide but if it doesnt then just get a small bottle of mayhems biocide. Im looking at trying this stuff out http://specialtech.co.uk/spshop/cust...pid-14663.html cant decide on a colour but it looks epic , comes with biocide and anti corrosive stuff .


Total?: ~£276? including the full gpu block.

Retailers, scan or specialtech... specialtech are without a doubt great, good prices and excellent customer service (pop on their forums theres alot of support available!).


heres a couple of photos of my system now, sorry for poor pictures... bad lighting for phone and my dslr was unavailable :L.



If you look at that square block on the HDD bay, i use that for draining my loop as it can be the lowest point of my system (put it on my desk and lower the tubing off the edge and it pours into a bucket, well most of it anyways... never going to get 100% clear ). Glad i added it when i rebuilt my water cooling setup awhile ago, fill up via the res is very easy and draining via that drain port makes it damn easy .

In terms of filling the loop all i do is fill up the res/system as much as possible then i run the pump, i do this by disconnecting everything from the psu (i mean everything, the reason you do this is that encase there is leaks etc you significantly reduce the risk of killing something!) i only connect it to the fan controller which controls my pumps, to run psu without a switch etc just put a paper clip in the 24atx connection, you should see a green cable, one end of the clip needs to go to the green cable and another to any black wire, it will then jump itself (theres no risk to killing it unless you have an ezcool psu lol), make sure you unplug the psu before connecting the clip to ensure you dont shock yourself.

Then when the pumps running continue to fill up the system with water fairly quickly, running a dry pump can damage it but dont rush yourself as you end up making mistakes (or atleast i do...) eventually you will need to start rocking/tipping the system to get air bubbles out and that just takes time/patients but fairly easy and thats about it .


And thats my long winded post finished, any questions feel free to ask me and if you are looking for some wcing components i do have a stash so i can search for stuff if you need it!. Good luck!

[j.o.s.h.1408]

CRACKING post. will read the whole thing later! dont know if you mention it in your post but did u mod your top panel of your case yourself? Struggling to find the top panel of my case atm. looks like i will have to send off my top panel to chill pc aka Tom to mod it for me

I would attempt the mod myself using a jigsaw or a dremel but its getting cold outside and i usually do my DIY stuff outdoors in the garden.

[Hicks12]

I didnt mention it but yes i did, it was great apart from a very few minor errors... couldnt hold the aluminium panel in place well enough (should have thought about it a bit better, it wasnt hard just mere oversight) so some of the holes didnt line up! ever so slightly, good other than that. Ignore the electrical tape thats not stopping it moving or anything, i had some vibrations coming from the case and just stuck down anything, dont even think it was the panel in the end ha.

If you can get him to mod it at a reasonable price id say do it, wouldnt pay more than £15-£30 though. Also if i forgot to mention my system is this:

CPU block: EK supreme HF copper
GPU : Ek Supreme HF VGA acetal
radiator: XSPC RX360 (top panel) + RS240mm (at the front, had to remove HDD bay and remount in the case, i made sure i could put an rx240 in there if i ever need to or else i would have put closer to the front).
Fans: GT AP14 (1450rpm fans on all the rads).
Res: Dual bay dual ddc res
pump ddc 10w/18w

Dye used is mayhems deep blue, you get crap loads for your money... think that was like 4 or 5 drops from it and well you get like 30 drops or something in the 10ml ones , atleast... its hardly moved in the bottle.


Oh and dont judge my cable management skills, i wanted to use the pc asap and well asus has some funny idea that you want all sata cables with right angles... need to get a few more sata cables and then ill be able to move everything away .

[j.o.s.h.1408]

i would not use that fluid as 1 spec of dust can cause it to go conductive, its impossible to stay ultra pure.

as a top up its fine along with something like thats more of a coolant such as the therochill stuff

http://www.chilledpc.co.uk/shop/index.php?cPath=67

better to get the goods from halfords then?

[j.o.s.h.1408]

I didnt mention it but yes i did, it was great apart from a very few minor errors... couldnt hold the aluminium panel in place well enough (should have thought about it a bit better, it wasnt hard just mere oversight) so some of the holes didnt line up! ever so slightly, good other than that. Ignore the electrical tape thats not stopping it moving or anything, i had some vibrations coming from the case and just stuck down anything, dont even think it was the panel in the end ha.

If you can get him to mod it at a reasonable price id say do it, wouldnt pay more than £15-£30 though. Also if i forgot to mention my system is this:

CPU block: EK supreme HF copper
GPU : Ek Supreme HF VGA acetal
radiator: XSPC RX360 (top panel) + RS240mm (at the front, had to remove HDD bay and remount in the case, i made sure i could put an rx240 in there if i ever need to or else i would have put closer to the front).
Fans: GT AP14 (1450rpm fans on all the rads).
Res: Dual bay dual ddc res
pump ddc 10w/18w

Dye used is mayhems deep blue, you get crap loads for your money... think that was like 4 or 5 drops from it and well you get like 30 drops or something in the 10ml ones , atleast... its hardly moved in the bottle.


Oh and dont judge my cable management skills, i wanted to use the pc asap and well asus has some funny idea that you want all sata cables with right angles... need to get a few more sata cables and then ill be able to move everything away .

Nice one. what did u use to cut your case? a dremel? It looks like you COULD fit a quad rad? or is that too tight of a fit u recon?

Im definelt going to add a T line at the bottom but with my one, i will have the hose sticking out of the back of the case so i can drain it without opening my case

[Hicks12]

good plan with the t line , i just put mine where i thought it was easiest .

I used a jigsaw and a dremel, jigsaw to do most of the straight lines etc and dremel to finish it off. I reckon you could fit a quad in there without much of a problem not sure if you would be able to keep the front panel though (on mine anyways) i also lost a drive bay currently, its not used currently but it can fit the fan controller as the radiators end goes into the drive bay a bit so any fullsize drive wouldnt fit . if you could lose the front panel and the drive bay its certainly possible!. your case maybe bigger than mine anyways so again even more likely.

Gonz0 is right about the liquid, however that can be said to any of the coolants out there, if you add anything such as dust it does make it conductive but most components will survive in my experience, all my previous components have been soaked in water... not during a working loop but merely my own stupidity while building/rebuilding loops and the only thing ive killed is a 4870 WHILE it was on (seriously, leak test as long as possible... i didnt notice the leak from my block on my second hand 4870 until i powered it on as i was rushing! Best £50 i spent... not, lasted 1 hour lol!.)

As long as you leak test and ensure fittings are secure you are fine, take your time and everything will go smoothly.