Chinese Watercooling

[Sprite]

Recently I got back into mining Bitcoins (which lasted about a week), and noticed that my 7870XT and 7850 were very loud and hot under full load. I decided I wanted to delve in to watercooling again but didn't have much money to spend. After reading around and looking at some VERY cheap and basic waterblocks (e.g. http://www.overclock.net/t/1375689/l...will-they-work) I ended up reading a thread on Xtremesystems where the guy purchased items from a store on AliExpress.

The shop itself is http://www.aliexpress.com/store/907279 (try to ignore the horrible banner).

I ended up purchasing:

- 1155 CPU block for a i5 2300
- 600L/H pump with built in 160ml res
- 2 x AMD full cover (half cover? it's just for RAM and GPU core) blocks
- A few black compression fittings

In total I paid around £90 for the items, and around £25 for postage.

After a 3 week wait (apparently a delay was caused as the GPU blocks hadn't been manufactured yet) the items arrived today. Updates to follow...

[chuckskull]

I'd give it a double long leak check, just because it's cheap, but I think you may have ended up with a bargain loop there mate.

[Sprite]

Will do!

The thing I was most worried about being crap was the pump, however it's a branded unit, albeit by a company I've never heard of (syscooling).

[Hicks12]

Arent you forgetting radiators?

Seems like a pretty decent bargain, off top of my head it would be...

GPU Only block 2x £35
CPU Block - £20 - £50
Pump - £30 - £60
Compression fittings - £3 (although those look very similar to bits power, mighty expensive and a bargain if so!)
Total : £140?

Remember to get memory/vrm heatsinks for the gpus! GPU only blocks cool the chip but not the surrounding vrm and memory chips, very important or you may fry them!. Something like this: http://www.specialtech.co.uk/spshop/...pid-12818.html

Eager to see how it goes .

[Agent]

Awesome idea / thread!

Just saw these on Ebay: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1-PCS-CPU-...item3ccfb1cc52

I wish I was as brave

[Sprite]

Yep I had a look at second hand stuff and rough prices were:

CPU Block - £20, anything half decent and relatively recent goes for lots more
GPU Block - hard to find second hand, I saw a new 6850 GPU+RAM block which I reckon would fit for £45 each. One of the major things I wanted though was for the block to have the tubing come out of the top of the card at a right angle, to make SLI/Crossfire easier.
Pump - like the CPU block, anything decent goes for £40+

I also found reservoirs are fairly expensive, at least £20ish new.

I still need to pick up a radiator (the price from China + delivery wasn't too far from a new branded one) as well as tubing and some distilled water. I may also need a case unless the Antec One is easy to remove the HDD/ODD bays from. So if anyone has something spare let me know!

Arent you forgetting radiators?
Compression fittings - £3 (although those look very similar to bits power, mighty expensive and a bargain if so!)

They seem well made, BUT the paint is scratched on some of them already

[badass]

Hmmm watercooling=expensive precision hobby with risks attached when things go wrong.

Chinese pretty much no name parts=cheap and nasty sh***y poor quality control etc.

Mix the two and you have a waste of time, effort and money.

Especially with the cost and performance of modern air cooling.

Maybe harsh but I personally think this in't the best use of time and money. Either go for the good stuff or get good air cooling for half the price.

[Pob255]

While the blocks you got cover the gpu + ram they don't touch the VRM's I do think you'll want some heatsinks for them
I'd go for the Enzotech copper ones http://www.specialtech.co.uk/spshop/...pid-13321.html or http://www.specialtech.co.uk/spshop/...pid-13320.html depending on size and space.

As I don't have a credit card this is out for me but I'm interested in seeing how you get on.

Photos!!

[Sprite]

Well, fitted the block on the 7870 XT just now, fits fairly nicely:

Block came a bit dirty, and I smudged it before this photo. I cleaned it up with some Akasa TIM cleaning fluid. It comes with 4 screws and some thermal pads.


Naked 7870 XT.


Block on. Took literally 2 minutes.


Reverse of block.

[Pob255]

Nice, looks like the 7870XT has a different VRM layout than the original 7870 and has it's own separate VRM heatsink, that's good to know.

[krishy]

Wow, sprite you are my inspiration!

I had the exact same idea as you, buying chinese parts for my water cooling build but was scared to do so!

You seem to be doing a great job!

I am a new water cooler, im mostly interested in the experience than anything else, and didnt want to dish out £300+ for a setup.

I have a 3570k and 2 x 7970 in crossfire which i wanted to watercool to look nice, and be cooler of course.

If you dont mind me asking, are the chinese parts safe? Do you consider them reliable? For £90 its an awesome project but im just worried about safety.

Also the website you used, is it reliable? (i have found some parts on eBay but this website looks even better with more variety)

(im new here btw, so hi everyone)

Thanks in advance

Krish

[flearider]

your going to need 2 rads triples or a very nice quad if you can fit it ..
that should keep temps down around 40-46 full load .. depending on ambient

[Sprite]

Wow, sprite you are my inspiration!

I had the exact same idea as you, buying chinese parts for my water cooling build but was scared to do so!

You seem to be doing a great job!

I am a new water cooler, im mostly interested in the experience than anything else, and didnt want to dish out £300+ for a setup.

I have a 3570k and 2 x 7970 in crossfire which i wanted to watercool to look nice, and be cooler of course.

If you dont mind me asking, are the chinese parts safe? Do you consider them reliable? For £90 its an awesome project but im just worried about safety.

Also the website you used, is it reliable? (i have found some parts on eBay but this website looks even better with more variety)

(im new here btw, so hi everyone)

Thanks in advance

Krish

Welcome to Hexus!

I'm still waiting for a few parts to complete my loop so can't comment on reliability I'm afraid.

Without using the parts though, the seller seems to have sold lots of his listed items and there are a few reviews. It took about 3 weeks after payment for my items to arrive. It should have been quicker but the GPU blocks weren't in stock so they had to be made up. If you do end up purchasing from the seller, haggle on price, I got a big discount on the quoted P+P price. Payment wasn't actually taken from my account until about a week after I ordered (this may be different for you though). You could also have a look at this taobao store, who seems to be the actual manufacturer of the GPU blocks.

Individually:

- The pump is branded syscooling, and feels fairly well built
- The CPU block is of a good finish, and the base is well polished
- The GPU blocks are fairly hefty, and fit well

Hopefully I will have all the parts by either this weekend or next weekend, so will update you all

[Hicks12]

your going to need 2 rads triples or a very nice quad if you can fit it ..
that should keep temps down around 40-46 full load .. depending on ambient

No, you do not need that much for a 7870 and an i5! Nowhere near that much cooling is required haha. You need at most a triple rad really, at the moment I have two 250mm rads as my 360 began leaking and well they cool an i5 2500k at 4ghz and a 7950 at 1ghz and i dont see their temps hit higher than 45 .

Looking good man but the dirty gpu block to me seems like its actually been used and they didnt clean it properly, bit odd!.

[krishy]

Welcome to Hexus!

I'm still waiting for a few parts to complete my loop so can't comment on reliability I'm afraid.

Without using the parts though, the seller seems to have sold lots of his listed items and there are a few reviews. It took about 3 weeks after payment for my items to arrive. It should have been quicker but the GPU blocks weren't in stock so they had to be made up. If you do end up purchasing from the seller, haggle on price, I got a big discount on the quoted P+P price. Payment wasn't actually taken from my account until about a week after I ordered (this may be different for you though). You could also have a look at who seems to be the actual manufacturer of the GPU blocks.

Individually:

- The pump is branded syscooling, and feels fairly well built
- The CPU block is of a good finish, and the base is well polished
- The GPU blocks are fairly hefty, and fit well

Hopefully I will have all the parts by either this weekend or next weekend, so will update you all

Thanks for the advice, I will check out that website .

Looking forward to your next update

[flearider]

No, you do not need that much for a 7870 and an i5! Nowhere near that much cooling is required haha. You need at most a triple rad really, at the moment I have two 250mm rads as my 360 began leaking and well they cool an i5 2500k at 4ghz and a 7950 at 1ghz and i dont see their temps hit higher than 45 .

Looking good man but the dirty gpu block to me seems like its actually been used and they didnt clean it properly, bit odd!.

err wow 4ghz .. so stock .. I run a 8350 at 5ghz and an oc 5870 .. cpu temp idle 34c cpu temp max 42c if your not going to do anything with it then fine get a couple of small rads but whats the point may as well stay on air ..

and just to add my fans only run at 1000rpm so whisper quiet ...