liquid cooling kit!

TechiGamer · Oct 22, 2013

I am new to the liquid cooling so if one of you guys could help out that would be awesome! So I am looking for a kit that comes with everything I need. I am not very interested in the closed loops like h110, I would like something that I can expand to gpu cooling and can be fancy as some of the videos on youtube. Basically my budget is lowest price possible and I have a thermaltake chaser mk1 chassis and a i5 4670k. Any help would be appreciated!

C12Friedman · Oct 23, 2013

The first link I'll give here is the water cooling sticky http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/277130-29-read-first-watercooling-sticky if you've been there, rereading won't hurt, good stuff
The lowest priced kits of quality I am aware of would either be the Swiftech H2O-X20 Edge HD Series or the XSPC RayStorm D5 EX240 WaterCooling Kit
Shopping around for those may find decent prices. I found the H20-320 Edge for less than $200 (big sale) and I think I paid around $220 for the Raystorm kit. I will add though that the XSPC Raystorm 750 isn't the highest quality kit (although the price seems good) - the pump is built into the res and in case of failure, the res and pump need replacement (I had a 750 pump/res - lasted just over a year which is why I'm pushing the D5 kit - much better pump and replaceable without replacing the res too.)

ksham · Oct 23, 2013

Take a look at the XSPC Raystorm kit.

TechiGamer · Oct 23, 2013

C12Friedman :

Thanks for the awesome reply! What do you think about this one http://www.swiftech.com/H20-220ultimaHDliquidcoolingkit.aspx! out of the one's you suggested which one is the best value? Do you think it would be better to just to put together a parts list lets just say from koolance because I have seen people say that kits come with low-quality products! Is that true? Thanks

C12Friedman · Oct 23, 2013

The Swiftech H20-220 ultimate is a very good kit IMO and I would think it should serve well as a watercooling foundation. I have not ever been able to source the parts for cheaper than a kit.
As far as quality, some of the cheaper kits (XSPC 750 comes to mind) may be partially to blame for such reports. The D5 based kits are very sound and there would be little (if any) difference in quality of components from individual purchased ones

TechiGamer · Oct 23, 2013

C12Friedman :

Cool thanks for the advice.. now the decision: XSPC or Swiftech! Which one has a better name and better components? I'm just assuming it must be pretty close!

C12Friedman · Oct 24, 2013

The XSPC Raystorm seems to be the better waterblock, the Raystorm also has an led system for the block which looks pretty cool IMO... you can read reviews of the blocks at MartinsLiquidLab http://martinsliquidlab.org/2011/09/26/i7-2600k-cpu-xspc-raystorm/ and http://martinsliquidlab.org/2011/05/16/i7-2600k-cpu-swiftech-apogee-xt-revision-2/

TechiGamer · Oct 24, 2013

C12Friedman :

Looks like I'm leaning towards the XSPC... but I was kind of thinking that I should maybe get a 360mm rad if in the future I want to liquid cool my GPU? But the only problem is that my MK1 Chaser will not fit a radiator roughly around 2.5 inch thickness with fans! Or I could drill some holes and possibly mount the rad on the bottom and the fans on the top or vice versa? What do you think?

C12Friedman · Oct 24, 2013

I'm thinking perhaps a 280kit then (double 140mm) like the http://www.frozencpu.com/products/16551/ex-wat-217/XSPC_Raystorm_EX280_Universal_CPU_Water_Cooling_Kit_w_D5_Variant_Pump_Included_and_Free_Dead-Water.html?tl=g30c321s1310 which (according to the two reviews I watched for your case) should fit the top mount. Fans may need to be placed under the rad (inside the case as opposed to on top) in a push configuration

TechiGamer · Oct 24, 2013

C12Friedman :

Just one more question! What do you think of externally mounted radiators? I honestly would prefer internally mounted, but if there is a huge performance difference than I would choose that! And if I could do a 360mm outside and there would be a big performance difference than I would go for it.

C12Friedman · Oct 25, 2013

In almost all cases, external mounting of the radiator will provide better cooling than an internal mounted radiator since it would be receiving cooler air than the air inside the case. The issue becomes one more of aesthetics than performance when considering an internal mount. There may be a balance to be found depending upon how hard you want to push your clocks. If only looking to keep a slight to mid-overclock stable through gaming sessions an internal mount shouldn't be bad. If looking to run more aggressive clocks then the external mounting option should be looked into. There is much to consider which keeps me from simply answering "Do it this way..."

TechiGamer · Oct 25, 2013

C12Friedman :

I was also thinking: which kind of coolant should I get mixed or distilled water? And would this work with the raystorm kit http://www.dazmode.com/store/product/xspc_7_16_id_5_8_od_high_flex_tube_1ft_-_uv_blue/ ?

C12Friedman · Oct 25, 2013

Distilled water is best with a biocide or .999 silver "kill coil". With the DasMode 7/16 ID 5/8 OD blue tubing, which should work fine with the XSPC D5 kit, I wouldn't think any other additive(s) would be needed

TechiGamer · Oct 25, 2013

C12Friedman :

Thanks for all the awesome help! No one so far has given so many complete answers and great suggestions. Thanks

In the end, I think I am going to go with the 360mm radiator XSPC and mount it onto the back of my case! 240mm would float my boat.. but in the future I might need it when I i am going to L/C my gpu and cpu.

C12Friedman · Oct 25, 2013

If ordering from DasMode by their custom selection, I'll suggest the D5 PWM pump, IMO it is the best of the D5's and plugs straight into your motherboard's CPU fan header.

TechiGamer · Oct 25, 2013

C12Friedman :

OK cool thanks for the advice! I was also thinking would it be a problem if I would connect something like this to the XSPC loop ?https://www.dazmode.com/store/product/bitspower_water_tank_z-multi_150_-_60mm_tube_reservoir_-_clear/ Because I think it would look nice in the window of my case. Like would I need a converter to fit that on?

C12Friedman · Oct 25, 2013

Shouldn't be a problem at all, it does look cool (especially when lit, check youtube for vids of that). You would need either barbs or compression fittings to fit your hose. I'll suggest barbs (which are quite a bit cheaper than compression fittings) if you purchase 2 barbs (1/2" will fit the 7/16 hose nicely, could need a little heat to get the hose on) - the barbs can go onto the D5's res where they won't be seen anyway. That way you'll save a little plus all visible fittings will still be compression type

TechiGamer · Oct 25, 2013

C12Friedman :

And so could you like suggest a good non conductive coolant that never becomes all gunky and is reliable because I do not want this to happen : http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?226632-Confirmed-Feser-1-Blue-Premix-GTZ-do-NOT-want . I know most people recommend distilled water but since my system is based on blue I would like blue coloring in my coolant.

C12Friedman · Oct 25, 2013

The best I'll provide here is perhaps a few drops of food coloring... I'm not up on any type of additives since I'm strictly a distilled water/kill coil type. I tried to find a recommended product and was unsuccessful but I did find this http://martinsliquidlab.org/2012/01/02/distilled-water-is-the-king-of-water-cooling/ the only bad thing I can find in that article is a few links to SkinneeLabs (used to be a great testing site) which no longer exists

TechiGamer · Oct 25, 2013

C12Friedman :

Ok so I read this article here and it says that there is a possibility of corrosion! How do I stop that.. or is that even an issue with my XSPC loop? And do I need a special kind of distilled water?

C12Friedman · Oct 26, 2013

That shouldn't be a problem with the XSPC kit, as all components are brass and copper.
Ordinary distilled water is fine

TechiGamer · Oct 26, 2013

C12Friedman :

Ok so what chemicals do I need to add to distilled water. And so I don't need to order special distilled water for liquid cooling?

C12Friedman · Oct 26, 2013

The only thing I add to ordinary, run of the mill, supermarket type, distilled water ($0.79/gal) is a .999 silver "kill-coil". I've not had any problems with corrosion in any of my XSPC or Swiftech kits

TechiGamer · Oct 26, 2013

C12Friedman :

Ok so if I buy this one https://www.dazmode.com/store/product/uber_pure_killcoil_99_9991_silver_wire_0_25mm_-_250mm/ would I need to purchase two of them since it says 250mm and I am going to have two reservoirs adding up to more than 250mm of liquid? Either way I'm going to buy more since I want to have some at hand in case I need it ,but I just want to know if I need to put more than one into my loop?!! And so if I have the XSPC loop the silver and this https://www.dazmode.com/store/product/frozenq_fusion_reservoir_uv_blue_250mm/ corrosion will not occur right?

C12Friedman · Oct 26, 2013

nope, just one, 250mm is the length of the wire, not at all referring to capacity
That FrozenQ Fusion res is really awesome, MotoPsychojdn (he's one of the [strike]mad[/strike] 'master modders' here not to mention he has an awesome quote) has two - check out this thread http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/311860-31-next/page-2 (scroll down about 3/4ths for pics of his FrozenQ setup)
BTW the radiator he's mounting the res' next to is an RX240, quite thick but not nearly the thickest available

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