Thinking about Custom water loop, where do i start?

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vandee560

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May 16, 2012
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As the Title says I am thinking about building a custom loop. I have a good amount of Pc hardware knowledge but I am clueless when it comes to water cooling. I am reading through some of the stickys now but I am looking for some more personalized answers. I'm not sure what would be the best setup for what I have. I am thinking that I would want to go with a single loop that cools both the CPU and GPU. Will I need 1 or 2 rads? how big of a pump/res will I need? Any advice or tips, like what brands to avoid, that you can give would be very helpful. Here are my Specs.

965BE 4.2ghz
Asus GTX680 DC2 Top
Asus 990FX Sabertooth Mobo
Corsair 750w psu( the blue lettered model)
Case is a NZXT Phantom Full Tower

I am not really looking for a super hi performance setup, I have a H100i on my CPU right now and am happy with the temp, I'm more interested in this as a hobby. also what price estimate am I looking at?
 
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hdeezie80
You have a good case for starting out. For a Good fully custom CPU only loop $350 to $400, A GPU block will add in another $100 - $150. Gotta say this xspc raystorm kit is a great starting point at $274, For adding the GPU look at another $150 - $200 for another radiator/ vga block. I use pretty much all the same parts that are in that kit + a rx 480 and GPU block. Only complaints are about the xspc bay res, it vibrates ocassionally and came a bit leaky needed some tightening with an allen wrench, plus placement is obviously limited to a 5.25" bay. I would say for radiators xspc or alphacool, blocks ekwb or xspc, pumps swiftech. But yeah big reservoirs are just for show they're meant to prime your pump and don't get rid of any...
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4Ryan6

4Ryan6

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Apr 14, 2002
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If it is going to be a hobby to you start here.

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/277130-29-read-first-watercooling-sticky

 
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DarkSable

DarkSable

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Sep 27, 2012
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The reservoir only needs to be large enough to fill and drain the loop, but you're going to want a decent pump.

I'd go with at least 3 120mm radiator's worth of cooling - probably depending on your case, two 240mm radiators will be the best bet.

If you go with a watercooling kit and expand it a little, you're looking at about $300.
 
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vandee560

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May 16, 2012
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Where should I look for kits and parts what is the "Newegg" of watercooling? is there one?
 
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DarkSable

DarkSable

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Sep 27, 2012
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The best kits are made by XPSC, and the "Newegg" of watercooling is FrozenCPU. :)
 
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manofchalk

manofchalk

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May 11, 2012
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The size of the reservoir doesnt have any significant impact to performance, you could argue that a larger amount of water takes longer to heat, but that only works when your talking literal buckets of water.
That being said, a larger reservoir does make it quicker to fill and power cycle a loop.

The amount of rad space needed is for you to figure out, the TDP section of the water-cooling sticky will teach you how. When picking TDP values for the radiator, pick reasonable ones like 1200RPM. Because a rad might dissipate 400W @2000RPM, but it will sound like a jet engine.

Newegg doesnt sell any custom water-cooling parts (they should though), though there are other sites where you can.
http://www.frozencpu.com/
http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php
Amazon often has water-cooling stuff, though their range is fairly spotty.

Tip: Invest in a good, high wattage fan controller. Water-cooling strangely enough involves a lot more fans than air cooling, there are only so many headers on the motherboard and the PSU isnt a good option noise wise. With a high wattage controller (30W+) you can control multiple fans from the one channel, or even certain pumps.
 
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hdeezie80

hdeezie80

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Jul 18, 2012
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You have a good case for starting out. For a Good fully custom CPU only loop $350 to $400, A GPU block will add in another $100 - $150. Gotta say this xspc raystorm kit is a great starting point at $274, For adding the GPU look at another $150 - $200 for another radiator/ vga block. I use pretty much all the same parts that are in that kit + a rx 480 and GPU block. Only complaints are about the xspc bay res, it vibrates ocassionally and came a bit leaky needed some tightening with an allen wrench, plus placement is obviously limited to a 5.25" bay. I would say for radiators xspc or alphacool, blocks ekwb or xspc, pumps swiftech. But yeah big reservoirs are just for show they're meant to prime your pump and don't get rid of any heat any one you pick will work fine its more about placement and space. Radiators are what remove the heat from your system so the bigger/thicker the better. Fan controllers I have tried a bunch of fan controllers and would recommend lamptron FC-8 or lamptron touch. Do your research on everything first, you want to make sure your going to have a usable system when everything is said and done. Be sure to read a couple guides, and get reviews on everything before you buy.
 
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