How big of a fish tank do I need if I dont have a radiator

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FantasmicalMan

FantasmicalMan

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Mar 29, 2013
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Hi,

I'm new to water cooling and to computer hardware, I am looking into building a custom water loop for my first build.

When I told my older brother (who knows much more about computers then I do) he said that all you need for a reservoir is a small fish tank (around 5-10 gallons) but from my knowledge and time reading the forum's that, that is going to get hot, especially when he said you don't need a radiator! he also said that once it get's hot to throw ice cubes in the tank to cool it but I wanted to use colored coolant but won't that make it diluted and also contaminate the water because it's not 100% distilled

How big of a tank should I get and how big of a radiator? (I was looking at a Corsair H100i so something like that)

I'm also looking at overclocking the CPU, and the GPU for gaming and rendering, it may get hot when rendering a long video so I need good cooling.

Thanks,

Preston
 
Solution
inzone
I would for sure go with the GTX 670 4gb model as that will work for both gaming and rendering videos, the 16gb of ram and an i7 cpu. The i7-2600k might have been out for a while but it will give you an overclocking option that the Ivy Bridge can't match. The Windforce card has three fans and should remain cool even when used for long stretches and it's not really necessary to overclock it any further as it comes factory OC. The cpu you can use a H-100i on it for overclocking and it will work well so at this point you don't need the fish tank or custom water cooling. You can at some point start to experiment with water cooling but for now the H-100i will keep the i7 cool.

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inzone

inzone

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Mar 12, 2011
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The fish tank is a bad idea as the water will get warm with no way to cool it and the ice cubes is an equaly bad idea. You need to get a radiator and a proper resivoir. If the cost is too much then you should not be water cooling and a better alternative would be to get one of the closed loop coolers like the Corsair H-80i or H-100i depending on what cpu your cooling.
If you are able to afford to do water cooling then you need to let us know what your cooling, just the cpu? Which one? Are you also going to cool the video card? This will all determine what you should get for a radiator.
 
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FantasmicalMan

FantasmicalMan

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Mar 29, 2013
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I'm going to be cooling a Intel i7 2600k and a GTX 660 or 670 (haven't decided if I should wait till 700 series)

And also what do you guys think of the parts I have picked out so far? Have you heard anything good about some of them? any part I should ditch or switch?

Case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811139010
MotherBoard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157295
Graphics Card: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127699
Power Supply: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151121
Processor: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115070
SSD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820239045
HDD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136533
RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231534
DVD RW: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135224
OS: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832416552
Cooler: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835181032
Fan's 1: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103090 (4 of these to max the fan capacity)
Fan's 2: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835181027 (2 sets of these for a H100i)
Fan's 3: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835181026 (rear exhaust)
 
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manofchalk

manofchalk

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May 11, 2012
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That H100i isnt a custom loop, nor will it cool your GPU's.

Read the sticky I linked too, that will explain everything you need to know. If your after general system advice, go to the System's forum and start a thread there. Here we just deal with the water aspect of the build.
I suggest filling out this form when you post in the Systems forum, it will give people the info they need to help you.
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/353572-31-build-upgrade-advice
 
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inzone

inzone

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Mar 12, 2011
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What will you be using the computer for? You have picked out some good parts and what you plan on using the computer for will go a long way in determining if the parts that you selected are appropriate.
For example if it's to be used for gaming then you don't really need 16gb of ram, 8gb will do as games do not require a lot of ram. If your doing video editing and rendering the you want a strong cpu and a lot of ram. With games you want a very powerful video card.
So you really need to let us know what your intentions are for this computer.
 
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FantasmicalMan

FantasmicalMan

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Mar 29, 2013
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I am going to be using this computer to render videos (that's why I picked 16 GB of ram) and gaming (that's why there a 660 and not a 650) I'm going for Nvidia for CUDA Cores so I can use GPU acceleration, but will that be unless because of that i7?

But If i where to get a 670 I wanted to get the Gigabyte 4GB windforce OC model
 
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inzone

inzone

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Mar 12, 2011
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I would for sure go with the GTX 670 4gb model as that will work for both gaming and rendering videos, the 16gb of ram and an i7 cpu. The i7-2600k might have been out for a while but it will give you an overclocking option that the Ivy Bridge can't match. The Windforce card has three fans and should remain cool even when used for long stretches and it's not really necessary to overclock it any further as it comes factory OC. The cpu you can use a H-100i on it for overclocking and it will work well so at this point you don't need the fish tank or custom water cooling. You can at some point start to experiment with water cooling but for now the H-100i will keep the i7 cool.

 
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FantasmicalMan

FantasmicalMan

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Mar 29, 2013
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Thanks so much, for all the help and all the advice

 
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