EK Water Blocks Cooling, is this what I should get?

[thethinkerbox]

Hello, I had a recent thread and decided to go with liquid cooling, I figure EK Water Blocks is probably the best company to buy from, so here's my build, I'll follow that up with the parts I think I'll need, this build will come together in early 2011 (Q1 or Q2):

ASUS Rampage III Extreme MoBo
i7-950 CPU (OC'ed to ~4.0GHz)
Dual SLI EVGA GTX570 SuperClocked
Corsair HX1000W PSU
Corsair 800D Case
(RAM Undecided, but is probably gonna be a tri channel 6GB kit @ 1600MHz)

I'll be replacing all the fans with Noise Blocker XLPs (120mm) and Noise Blocker XK2s (140mm), for the water cooling part I plan to get:

Radiator: EK-Cool Stream RAD XT (Mounted with 6 Noise Blocker XLPs in a push-pull config so it blows the hot air out of the case, instead of directly into it)
Water Block (CPU): EK-Supreme HF - Full Nickel
Water Blocks (Full Graphics Card): EK-FC580 GTX - Acetal + Nickel (one on each board) (I believe these are made to work with the GTX570 also)
Backplate: EK-FC580 GTX Backplate - Nickel Plated (I believe these are made to work with the GTX570 also)

Now here's the part I'm a bit iffy on, I don't know as much about Pumps and Reservoirs, however I think these are the correct ones for me:

Pump: EK-DCP 4.0 (12V DC Pump)
Reservoir: EK-Reservoir Combo DCP 4.0
Barbs: EK-PSC Fitting 10mm - G1/4 Nickel
Tubing: PrimoChill Primaflex Pro LRT Black 1/2" ID 3/4" OD

I think all of these pieces work together, however I do not know it the pump is strong enough to get the liquid through the tubes at a premium pace, or if the reservoir has the amount of volume that I'd want, or if all of the parts fit right, or if these are overkill.

Thanks in advance for your help, I'm sorry that this is so long but I had to go into detail: Inform me of any other parts I should use, I know I need to use Distilled Water, and that I may have left out some things. This plan to water cool it may be a flop completely. Again thanks for your time.

 

[ortoklaz]

Ok ..first of all if you never taken advantage of 90 day step up program from EVGA don't get 570 SC (is not listed for it)
Noise Blockers are among the most expensive fans out there if you want 120MM ,you can't beat GT's but 140MM NB's are a good choice
Yes 580 EK blocks fit 570 ,own one
they don't have 570 backplates
The pump/res combo kind of weak,look in to DDC or D5 pump,here are some reservoirs for them(small but you will get the idea);
http://www.jab-tech.com/XSPC-Acrylic-Tank-Reservoir-for-Laing-D5-pr-4665.html
http://www.jab-tech.com/XSPC-Acrylic-Reservoir-for-Laing-DDC-pr-4123.html
and the rad..you want to quite set up or you don't care ?

 

[thethinkerbox]

I'd like it to be as quiet as possible while still achieving pretty good cooling for the loop. Based on your comment I'm guessing I could use either a smaller rad like a 240mm or just less fans. Thanks for taking time to respond, I'll look at some of those more powerful pumps and bigger reserviours.

 

[thethinkerbox]

Also I've heard that the backplates exist almost solely to look awesome, either way I'll wait for one designed for the GTX570 to come out, they add a certain touch to the rig. And what is this about not getting the Super Clocked?

 

[ortoklaz]

http://www.evga.com/stepup/
for your set up you would probably need 360+220/240 RAD's to fill comfortable XSPC RX or TC PA/TA series radiators;
http://skinneelabs.com/triplesv2.html
"I've heard that the backplates exist almost solely to look awesome"..that's about the size of it

 

[thethinkerbox]

What do you mean by 360+220/240 RADs. Are you saying that I need more than one radiator? If such is the case I'd almost rather go with using the water cooling for the CPU only and forget including the GPUs in the loop. After all I don't plan on OC'ing the GPUs too awfully much (I'll only be wanting maxed settings with a 1080p resolution, and one card will bear PhysX I think). What do you recommend so I can keep everything cool, yet not icy, I don't need to overkill this at all since I'd like to spend A's little extra as possible (how ironic is that, me wanting to save when building a high end gaming rig)

 

[ortoklaz]

What do you mean by 360+220/240 RADs. Are you saying that I need more than one radiator? If such is the case I'd almost rather go with using the water cooling for the CPU only and forget including the GPUs in the loop. After all I don't plan on OC'ing the GPUs too awfully much (I'll only be wanting maxed settings with a 1080p resolution, and one card will bear PhysX I think). What do you recommend so I can keep everything cool, yet not icy, I don't need to overkill this at all since I'd like to spend A's little extra as possible (how ironic is that, me wanting to save when building a high end gaming rig)

This is good entry level kit ,all you have to buy is tubing of your choice +(distiled water/PT NUKE);
http://www.jab-tech.com/XSPC-Rasa-750-RX360-CPU-watercooling-kit-pr-4780.html

Look at your first post.. ..for all that stuff to cool one more RAD will run you Extra 50~ 80$

 

[eposone]

A triple rad might be not enough for this dual GPU setup plus the OC'ed CPU...

 

[thethinkerbox]

I don't even know how to fit more than tri rad into even my planned case, unless of coarse I put in dual tri rads, but that'd be a bit crazy right? Without the OC'ing of the CPU could a tri rad sufficiently cool my loop?

 

[rofl_my_waffle]

You can probably use a single tri rad if you don't plan on overclocking the GPUs or settle for faster fans.

Also EK isn't the best company for everything.

The Swiftech XT is a better block and I think cheaper too.

The Feser Company Admiral Radiator line is comming out January (it has been delayed so much) but it has a completely new design and said to perform better.
I have been looking into them, hoping I can shave some RPM off my fans with a better radiator.

 

[rubix_1011]

What do you mean by 360+220/240 RADs. Are you saying that I need more than one radiator?

Yes, this is exactly what we are saying. You are going to need at least dual 320 rads to run this loop...even if you run dual loops, you'll need it.

As far as keeping it cool, yes...icy...you can't reach sub-ambient temps with watercooling alone. You'd have to go a different route if those were your thoughts, so watercooling it is.

Please, read up some more...you'll need to have as much info as you can before you start dropping the cash on the loop; otherwise, you'll realize you might have missed something important later down the road.

http://www.overclock.net/water-cooling/226970-water-cooling-essential-threads.html
http://skinneelabs.com/
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/256607-29-watercooling-read-first

 

[ortoklaz]

@OP if you not going to do some crazy overclocking triple RAD should be sufficient or if you decide to lower your temps you can always add one more radiator later

 

[rubix_1011]

...Depends on the rad and fans used. Will likely need push/pull with good fans to accomplish this.

Yes, its possible and would work decent. You would see better results with at least an additional 220...another 320 would be great.

 

[thethinkerbox]

As far as keeping it cool, yes...icy...you can't reach sub-ambient temps with watercooling alone. You'd have to go a different route if those were your thoughts, so watercooling it is.

I don't intend on getting it to be icy, however I'd like to have lower temperatures than air could give me. There are several reasons I want water cooling, first off, it's quiet, secondly it looks awesome. At the most I'll OC my CPU to 4.0GHz, as far as my GPUs they probably won't be OC'ed too much considering they'll probably run everything at extremely high frame rates without it so there's no point, mabey some light OC'ing on them but not much.That being said I want my loop to be a ton more quiet than air cooling and also achieve keeping everything cooler than air, so if I have everything at full load I'll be wanting to achieve cooler temperatures than air could by a good margin, otherwise it's not worth it to me.

Lets take for example a comment on Newegg on the EVGA GTX570, he says it runs at nothing over 65C load temps, that's with the reference model's fan I'm guessing, if that's what the reference fan is cooling it to, then my loop should be cooling it to 40-45C full load. I don't know if I'm asking for too much from that since I don't know much about WC yet (aside from the couple of guides I've read), if y'all could point me towards the radiator(s) that I need to accomplish that I'll be grateful. I don't think that I want to use any other fan than the Noise Blocker XLP (120mm), since those seem to be some of the best available fans.

Now going back to Pumps, would a Laing DDC-Pump 12V DDC-1T (MCP 350) be good for this type of loop? As for Reservoirs I think that the EK-Multioption RES X2 - 250 Advanced, however correct me if I'm wrong about this. Again thank you for your time.

 

[rubix_1011]

A few things:

Watercooling isn't necessarily silent. You need to add more fans to cool the radiators, so take this into consideration. Also, you need to continue to use the case fans, since air cooling also cools the MB and other components...when you remove a heatsink/fan, you need to make up for that with case airflow.

Also, with a good loop, you can expect to see load temps on GPUs in the 40's, but this depends on your loop setup. You'll never get temps below ambient air temps, if that's what you mean by cooler than air coolers.

For the pump, the MPC350, 355, 655 or 35x would do well. For the 350 or 355, consider an aftermarket top...it will combine a reservoir and improve performance.

As for the radiators, it depends on the results you want. Are you using high CFM/RPM fans or low/med speed fans? Radiators are classified typically by FPI (fins per inch) the greater this number the higher CFM fans you need, but usually the better the performance.

I guess your thoughts of cooling could always be different; what do you mean by a large margin? What temps do you see now, vs. actual air temps in the room? If simplicity and less expensive are what you want, then you can find great air coolers for CPUs and GPUs that will perform better than the stock air coolers.

 

[thethinkerbox]

By cooler than air I mean that it'll be more quiet than air while providing the same temps.

 

[rubix_1011]

Well, you will be adding 3-6 more fans to the rads vs. the 1 or 2 on a good CPU heatsink. It depends on where the radiators are mounted, what kind of rads, and what fans you use.

 

[thethinkerbox]

As I stated I'll be using noiseblocker XLP fans in a push-pull config probably. Most likely I'll be using a 360 mm radiator mounted to the top of the case (the 800D) where they are meant to go.

 

[rubix_1011]

If you are going to only run a single 320 rad, you'd do well to run push/pull. Now...which radiator are you going to use?

http://skinneelabs.com/triplesv2.html