Custom water cool loop!

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
2fast4thetown_down

2fast4thetown_down

Honorable
Apr 7, 2012
1,041
0
11,310
I want to water cool my pc. I am 15, a PC enthusiast and I have about $250 for a water cooling loop. I have fine performance, the thing is I am going to do it for 3 reasons.
-Because I want to
-It looks cool
-refer to #'s 1 and 2
I would do it with a 240 mm radiator, and white tubing......thats all I got I have never done this before and need some help. Please list a parts list of things I need and what you recommend for the price.
I have a mid-tower Zalman Z-11 case, It is cool looking and a liquid cooler would make me happy!
You made my day,
2fast
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
atomicWAR

atomicWAR

Glorious
Ambassador
Sep 4, 2007
6,590
795
44,490
120mm x 2 rad
http://www.frozencpu.com/products/12483/ex-rad-204/Coolgate_Dual_120mm_Ultimate_Heat_Exchanger_Radiator_CG240.html?tl=g30c95s160 ($74)

two half inch barbs ($12) is part of above link

pump and reservoir combo
http://www.frozencpu.com/products/10038/ex-res-161/XSPC_X2O_750_Dual_525_Bay_Reservoir_Pump_-_Updated_Version.html?tl=g30c97s152 ($59)

needs two half inch barbs ($12) again is part of above link

waterblock for cpu
http://www.frozencpu.com/products/14365/ex-blc-1000/Swiftech_Apogee_HD_High_Performance_4-Port_CPU_Waterblock_-_Black_-_Intel_w_LGA_2011_Hardware_AMD_Ready_Apogee-HD-BK.html?tl=g30c85s139 ($70)

total $227 before tax
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
2fast4thetown_down

2fast4thetown_down

Honorable
Apr 7, 2012
1,041
0
11,310


Man, that stuff got me excited(about building this). pushing my budget and this doesn't acomadate for a GPU block or fans.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
atomicWAR

atomicWAR

Glorious
Ambassador
Sep 4, 2007
6,590
795
44,490
honestly i would start there...if your going to add a gpu to your loop you need a very good rad...maybe even a triple 120mm like i have though mine is 80mm thick unlike the 60mm one i showed you. i would add your gpu's to the loop later if possible. better to get good water cooling parts then find you need to get more rad's to make it work, thermally speaking.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Ballantin

Ballantin

Honorable
Mar 20, 2013
40
0
10,540
You will need as well 2x 120mm fans and tubing. This will add another, about 25$ (or more).

You will also need some distilled water and etilen-glycol (car anti-freezer to mix in a 5% to 15% solution with the distilled water).

Also, a reservoir is recomended, or a fillport at least...

I will add as well 1x T or Y connector, to fit a draining valve.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
stickmansam

stickmansam

Splendid
Oct 30, 2011
3,719
0
23,460
Upvote 0 Downvote
manofchalk

manofchalk

Glorious
May 11, 2012
12,914
3
48,960


:pfff:
You need no such thing unless your planning on sub-zero temperatures.
And its Ethylene-Glycol.

My advice is to read the watercooling sticky linked too by Stickman a few times, that will give you all the info you need to get a general idea of what your doing.
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/277130-29-read-first-watercooling-sticky

From there, I say decide on the water-cooling components yourself, and then post back here with what you'v gathered. We will comment, give feedback and point out any glaring issues.
IMO, custom water-cooling is the one place where we shouldn't just give you a shopping list of parts, understanding of the components and concepts is important because ultimately it will be you building, maintaining and no doubt fixing the loop at some point. Our job is to make your slide into [strike]madness[/strike] water cooling a smooth one, but not to do it for you.

If budget is a concern, have a look at the XSPC Raystorm kits. On the lower-mid range ones, they are often cheaper than buying each part seperately and its all good quality components.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Ballantin

Ballantin

Honorable
Mar 20, 2013
40
0
10,540


Thank you for the correction on the spelling. English is not my nativa language, so sometimes I do mistakes in words that I do not used to write every day :)

And about the sub-zero tems, are you serious? Ethylene-Glycol is being used in normal water cooling loops for ages. It is cheap, it is a good biocide, it helps to prevent corrosion, and it adds this green color (UV Reactive) that some people like.

Of course he can use just distilled water, or kill coils, or a pre-mixed liquid....
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
manofchalk

manofchalk

Glorious
May 11, 2012
12,914
3
48,960
Looking it up, it does seem Etilen is actually Turkish (according to Chrome anyway :lol:, I suspect its actually Spanish) for Ethylene, so I guess no harm done.

You can use Ethylene Glycol for the purposes you state, but its not as... elegant... as a chemical biocide like Copper Sulfate or Silver kill-coil. The more additive that's in the water, the less thermal capacity it has so cooling suffers. For the corrosion part, if you pick your components right (ie, no Aluminium or EK Nickel) then corrosion shouldn't be an issue with Distilled water. For colour, you just buy coloured tubing.
Only reason for Ethelyne Glycol in a loop IMO is when your dealing with sub-zero temperatures, so chilled water loops or if the ambient temperature overnight can get below 0°C.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Ballantin

Ballantin

Honorable
Mar 20, 2013
40
0
10,540
You are right, I'm from Spain (how did you noticed it :p?).

Of course it is not the best option, but it is the cheapest one. I got excellent results in the past with EC-6, and now I'm giving a try to EK one, but I think the next time I will try to experiment with coloidal copper.

I dislike silver kill coils, silver used to produce black deposits.

About EK Nickel, the old EK nickel blocks don't suffer the same problem as the EN ones. I'm using a Supreme HF full nickel since it was released years ago, and it is still in mint condition, never suffered any galvanic corrosion.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
manofchalk

manofchalk

Glorious
May 11, 2012
12,914
3
48,960
You saw the thread about Colloidal metals in a loop or your own original idea? Just seems strange that it would be mentioned twice in a few days, when the concept of metal micro-particles in water I had never heard of until then :lol:.

Love my Kill-Coil, drop it in the res and forget about it. No ill effects so far (though I'v only been running the loop for ~6months now).

Yea, the EK Nickel controversy only happened with one batch of products I think. Chances are anything before or after that is fine, but someones gotta spread the payback for it :p.
I mean, they blamed Distilled water for causing it....
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Ballantin

Ballantin

Honorable
Mar 20, 2013
40
0
10,540
Someone suggested me to use colloidal silver some time ago, in a Spanish forum, but I disliked the idea because my concerns with silver, and you are right, I read this post about using Colloidal gold or copper, and this is something I can try.

The only problem/concern I can see using copper is the high conductivity that the coolant will have in case of leaks.

I'm now in my 6th loop and in this time I only got one leak, and was for a faulty part, so maybe I can test it on my sister's comp hehehe.

Im just curios, what do you preffer, high flow or high pressure? :D
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
manofchalk

manofchalk

Glorious
May 11, 2012
12,914
3
48,960
I shall refer you here.
http://martinsliquidlab.org/2012/03/22/distilled-water-shootout-water-purity/3/
Scroll down a bit, and it has results on how quickly distilled water becomes contaminated when metal is introduced. Its pretty damn quick. Doesn't matter how non-conductive the water is when it goes in, if you spill it you will conduct regardless.

Hmm, never thought about it actually, and my knowledge of water-cooling tends to break down when you get to the nitty gritty like that.
I would say flow, but I know beyond a certain point (~1GPM) it has vastly diminishing returns. To the point where adding a 2nd pump to achieve a higher flow will negatively impact performance because it the pumps heat output over powers what effects the higher flow rate bring.
Pressure is only needed when you have restrictive blocks, so RAM, Motherboard or multiple GPU blocks, and I have no interest in doing that just yet.

All that being said, I will eventually be buying a Koolance PMP-500, a pump known for its amazing head pressure :lol:.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
tc983x

tc983x

Honorable
Oct 9, 2013
125
0
10,710
they use ethylene glycol to raise the boiling point or lower hte freezing point. yes it has some anti corrosive components, but no anti bacterial, as it's meant to be run at past boiling inside a car. stick to cpu pre mixes that arenon conductive till you get the hang of watercooling a pc. ;) EK FTW. www.ekwb.com
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom