Modern Day Water Cooling not for the feint of heart?

[dark_d]

Forgive the ignorance... Is there a company that sells water cooling components so you can build a customized system that meets Modern Day needs? I am creating my shopping list for my next computer and am trying to figure out if I can water cool the thing. I am looking at the FX62 (AM2 slot), and TWO of the 7950GX2 video cards. This is going to give me 4 gpus to cool instead of the single GPU that I see coolers for. Of course I am brand new to water cooling but what I would have expected was a pump off the reseviour that would feed multiple lines to the computer and then return to the radiator/reseviour. Each of the lines off of the pump would cool a different part so that you could customize and cool whatever you wanted.

Example: If your pump split to 6 lines then you could cool 2 CPUs and 4 GPUs, or you could cool 4 CPUs, a GPU, and the northbridge.

Basically a customizable approach that would provide the same temp water to anything that you wanted to cool, instead of sending the water to the CPU (heating it there), then sending the heated water to the GPU (heating it more) and so on.

I think I will leave this post there instead of continuing to ramble. Let me know what I can do.

THANKS

 

[deathbybubba]

Forgive the ignorance... Is there a company that sells water cooling components so you can build a customized system that meets Modern Day needs? I am creating my shopping list for my next computer and am trying to figure out if I can water cool the thing. I am looking at the FX62 (AM2 slot), and TWO of the 7950GX2 video cards. This is going to give me 4 gpus to cool instead of the single GPU that I see coolers for. Of course I am brand new to water cooling but what I would have expected was a pump off the reseviour that would feed multiple lines to the computer and then return to the radiator/reseviour. Each of the lines off of the pump would cool a different part so that you could customize and cool whatever you wanted.

Example: If your pump split to 6 lines then you could cool 2 CPUs and 4 GPUs, or you could cool 4 CPUs, a GPU, and the northbridge.

Basically a customizable approach that would provide the same temp water to anything that you wanted to cool, instead of sending the water to the CPU (heating it there), then sending the heated water to the GPU (heating it more) and so on.

I think I will leave this post there instead of continuing to ramble. Let me know what I can do.

THANKS

????Why???? :roll: :roll: :roll: Just save your money and get a CPU in the 300 range and OC it and get a pair of 7900gt's(better yet x1900xt and xfire)and oc them. You'll save a ton of money and you won't even notice that the system you want gets a 98236912396349837 in some benchmark compared to the 6723923798123 in the system that costs probably 1500 dollars(us) less

 

[lbax]

Regarding water cooling the 7950GX2:
Caution, the 7950GX2 is two circuit boards "piggybacked" on one another. You may be challenged in getting a water block & cooling lines to the lower unit due to the limited clearance between the two cards. Choose your cooling components after you have the graphics card(s) in hand.

 

[dark_d]

I am building the system primarily for work (that was for my wife's benefit -- read that as hardcore gaming). I want to run it through a home theatre projection system (the kind that projects to a white screen) which means the picture is going to be blown way up. In order for this to look decent I figure I am going to be turning all the options up on anything I play which means alot of video power. I need the dual core CPU in my actual work (working with Databases and web based applications), and want the upgrade path provided by going AM2 so I am pretty set on my choice of the FX62. To be honest I have not considered anything but Nvidia for the graphics card and I probly should. Even so, if I start to overclock things and want to cool it all...

How can you water cool so many components?

 

[dark_d]

Is there a company that sells the components piecemeal to allow customized solutions? Like I said I am very new to water cooling.

Thanks

 

[lbax]

Newegg lists the following:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.asp?Submit=ENE&N=2010110062&Subcategory=62&description=&srchInDesc=water&minPrice=&maxPrice=

 

[HYST3R]

i understand what you want to do, i use a water cooling system and have for some time now.

from what i read in your post you want seperate routing for each cpu/gpu so that they are all getting "cool" water and not "recycled" water. but the only thing i can think of is that your going to need to have multiple pumps. even if you can find/make a piece to split all those lines from the pump your still gonna need a pretty heafty pump to move the water through that much line.

your cooling capacity is going to have to be pretty good too with all those cpu/gpu's prob looking at a double rad setup atleast, especially if you want room to OC.

finding a custom water setup like the one you described will prob cost alot but if you got the money go for it. other than that the cheapie kits like the "Thermal Take Big Water SE" are really easy to add onto i.e. more pumps lines even extra bay tanks for more fluid. you could easily start with one of those and add onto it for what you need. hope that helped.

 

[cmptrdude79]

Danger Den has great piecemeal components. Their Maze4 series offers impressive cooling characteristics. You could also start with a base Swiftech kit from Frozen CPU (or anywhere, really) and add individual cooling blocks for the additional hardware.

One thing to keep in mind with your split-off-the-pump idea is that each of those lines needs to have a certain amount of flow. You will need to be sure that your pump has a much higher flow capacity than normal, in order to maintain flow through so many individual loops. Also, remember that you will need a high pump head as well, as you will see huge pressure losses due to the various splitters and other fittings necessary to handle all those components.

My best advice to you would be to set up fully independent loops, one for CPU and some graphics cards, one for the remainder of your graphics. Have separate pumps, radiators and reservoirs for each. Otherwise, you're either going to have to spend a cubic butt ton on your pump, or you'll exceed its ratings and fry something due to either lack of pressure or lack of flow.

Just my 2 cents (and barely worth that).

-J

Edit: Damn you Hyst3r, beat me by 6 minutes. Good to see someone else out there was thinking along the lines I was.

 

[HYST3R]

i agree, splitting the lines right off the pump with cut the flow in half, or divide the pressure over the number of lines.

the best idea would prob be multiple pumps. and thermal takes systyem is made for customizing and adding.

i use one and i really like the spill proof connectors. if you mess those up, you sholdnt use water cooling :lol:

 

[dark_d]

I wanted to thank HYST3R for his response. I am finding the ThermalTake website very useful. I am particularly interested in the Tide Water Plus as it is made for cooling two video cards in SLI or CrossFire. The fact that everything for this is selfcontained makes it seem easier to use in combination with a standard water cooler for the CPU. I do have to wonder though about what limits a card cooler like this will place on my ability to overclock the GPUs.

I have not looked at the ATI cards yet but if I like this cooler and since I do want a TV tuner as well I will have to start looking at ATI for space consideration on the motherboard.

 

[waylander]

Danger Den is good and so is Swiftech. I don't think there will be much in terms of water cooling for those video cards in the near future. I would suggest that you just go for the 7900GTXs as those have water blocks already.

I also agree that you will need to have 2 separate lines. I think you can split one line into two with little difficulty but not into six. This will mean water blocks for everything, probably 15' of good tubing, Tygon is always mentioned, and two separate rads. You might be able to get away with one reservoir but again you might have 2.

In the end I think it would be easier to set up two entirely separate water cooling systems. I realize that money doesn't seem to be an issue with the components that you have listed but be ready to spend at least $500 on your water cooling.

 

[chunkymonster]

I am building the system primarily for work (that was for my wife's benefit -- read that as hardcore gaming). I want to run it through a home theatre projection system (the kind that projects to a white screen) which means the picture is going to be blown way up. In order for this to look decent I figure I am going to be turning all the options up on anything I play which means alot of video power.

If you're going to use this set up in some HTPC configuration, then any single mid-to-high end video card (7800, 7900, X1800XT, etc) will suit your needs...IMO, don't go SLI, but put the cash into a projector that is going to give you a high quality projection, something that offers both 4:3 & 16:9 at a minimum resolution of 1280x720 or possibly 1400x1050...good projectors, and I mean good multi media projectors, and not that crap out the Dell catalog, are well over $2500 USD.

Is there a company that sells the components piecemeal to allow customized solutions? Like I said I am very new to water cooling.

Check out Danger Den for all kinds of good stuff about water cooling.

Basically a customizable approach that would provide the same temp water to anything that you wanted to cool, instead of sending the water to the CPU (heating it there), then sending the heated water to the GPU (heating it more) and so on.

Lastly, I get what you're saying about wanting seperate loops for the cpu, gpu, etc...essentially a double loop type system...but from what (little) I've experienced with water cooling...having seperate loops won't make that much of a difference...the idea of seperate loops precludes the fact that you would need enough pumping power to maintain a consistent flow thru each loop and possibly may require more than one pump...

 

[dark_d]

Thanks cmptrdude79, I just hit danger den and it has everything piecemeal. This is a very nice site.

Since this is my first water cool job, can someone recommend a good pump? Yes I will be getting more than one (probly one for cpu and chipset and the other for GPU). I have heard there is not much need for chipset coolers but what the hay.

 

[turbo_mcgillicutty]

Just a little friendly advice. You do not need all of that graphics horsepower to display on a 110" projection. I use a Sony Cineza VPL-HS11 projector to display 1280x720 (720P HD res) with a pc with a x1800xt. I run oblivion well at this resolution with HDR and 2x AA (with the chuck patch of course ;-)) and it runs it well. All other games i run at this res with higher AA and they all look beautiful. On the other hand, if you have the money to buy a 1080i/p hd projector and want to run at this res, then you have the money to buy 2 7950s. I just dont know how you are going to water cool them with the piggyback PCB setup they have. The lower chip will be a tight fit for a water block.

TM

 

[cmptrdude79]

In specific, let me state: stay away from aquarium pumps. They will not generate enough head/flow to cool multiple components effectively. Unfortunately, this encompasses most cheap water cooling pumps.

Specifically, let me recommend either the Eheim 1250 or Eheim 1260. If you're going to run more than 2 waterblocks per loop, then definitely go with the 1260, due to its greater pump pressure (head) and flow rate.

The advantage to the Eheim pumps over others is length-of-life, as well as being AC powered. This creates a little more headache in your external wiring, and creates the need for a relay card if you want the pumps to automatically switch on with your system, but saves the draw off your internal power supply.

-J

 

[clue69less]

I wanted to thank HYST3R for his response. I am finding the ThermalTake website very useful. I am particularly interested in the Tide Water Plus as it is made for cooling two video cards in SLI or CrossFire. The fact that everything for this is selfcontained makes it seem easier to use in combination with a standard water cooler for the CPU. I do have to wonder though about what limits a card cooler like this will place on my ability to overclock the GPUs.

If I were you, I'd avoid a Tide water Plus for cooling two high-current GPUs. The regular Tide Water uses the same coolant volume, radiator size and pump to cool a single card. Reviews show that it works reasonably well in this capacity. Adding a second card to this limited cooling capacity looks to me to be asking for trouble. Then to see you're considering OC'ing the GPUs? Danger! Danger!!! (As in - go see Danger Den)

 

[dark_d]

Yes from what I have seen on the projectors I am expecting to pay $3K -$5K for mine (thank goodness I can expense my computer to the company I own which makes the cost there not important, but I have to eat the cost of that ever so nice projector). In addition to resolution I have been concentrating mostly on lumens and contrast ratios... Is there something else I should be looking at as well???

As for the separate loops I am now convinced I will need two completely separate water cooling systems.

 

[BGP_Spook]

Do not bother splitting your loop into parallel feeds, run it in series.
It is almost never beneficial to run parallel.
Honestly, at reasonable flowrates there will be less than 1C difference in water temperature between each componet.
Probably something like 0.6C difference between componets is what you would see, but I would need to sit down and do the math.
The quality and number of radiators and the quality of your water blocks will have a much, much greater effect on each componet.

It may be worth your time to run with two loops but that is generally not advisable either.

I never recommend kit watercooling as it is always(in my view) too expensive for too little performance.

Go here, do some searches and ask for help, with a little luck you will get all the answers you need.

Chipset cooling is an absolute waste.

These pumps are becoming popular when running two in series for reasonablly sized watercooling. If you go with six componets you may need more than two of these have to offer.

Edit: Eheim pumps are top notch, BTW.

 

[dark_d]

Yes that was basically what I was afraid of with the Tide Water... Thanks for letting me know.

 

[dark_d]

Thank you for the pump recommendation.

 

[dark_d]

Thank you all for the information provided. I need to check out the various sites you provided and see where that leads me. Right now though my head hurts from information overload (guess maybe I am getting tooo old).

Thanks again and I will keep an eye on this thread and post new questions as I learn more.

 

[chunkymonster]

Yes from what I have seen on the projectors I am expecting to pay $3K -$5K for mine (thank goodness I can expense my computer to the company I own which makes the cost there not important, but I have to eat the cost of that ever so nice projector). In addition to resolution I have been concentrating mostly on lumens and contrast ratios... Is there something else I should be looking at as well???

The only other I could suggest is looking at the cost of replacement bulbs, etc...check out Digital Connection for info on HTPC related components, they offer good write up on what they sell, and they have a decent FAQ, although sign in req'd for support (meh, what can ya' do nowadays)...also check out HTPC News for HTPC news, reviews, and all around good info.

Sounds like a helluva project! Good luck!!!!

 

[turbo_mcgillicutty]

I myself went to the sound a vision website as well as other for the professional reviews on projectors before i picked mine out. I also test ran a few (got to love a brother that owns a high end hometheater shop!) before i settled on my sony. Good contrast is a must. Also look at connections. Get one with HDMI and component video, as well as s-vid and composite. The sony i bought also has a vga port. Also, dont skimp on the screen. A $1000 screen is a wonderful investment. Some people forget that. A painted wall wont do.

TM

 

[MasterLee]

The pump has to be at least 500 GPH and it should be able to pump 6-9 feet straight up. I could wash cars with mine ( I use a submersible pump ), but I do use a pressure regulator.
It's going to take him a while to set that baby up too, he has to test it outside of the system for quite some time. With all those connections he has to.
From what I've seen of the 7950's, good luck, it may be more trouble than it's worth. You should look into building an air box for your video cards. My GPU is watercooled but the memory isn't, so I built an air box for it, hardly even gets warm at 1200 mem speed.

 

[Eversor]

Unless you are going to play games in 1080i/p resolution, I don’t see any need for a quad SLI setup.

You should visit asetek.com, they make some of the best water-cooling systems available.