Starting Budget, what to buy first?

[amuffin]

I have a starting budget of $160, and I have to buy all my parts over time because I am poor Anyways, I was planning on buying the XSPC Raystorm 360 kit however I think building the watercooling loop would be a much more fun and give better performance. Basically, what should I buy first? I can pretty much keep making the budget larger and larger as I make more money from selling stuff

Parts so far:
Cpu Block: XSPC Raystorm
Radiator: ??
Pump: Swiftech MCP 655
Tubing: 1/2" ID 3/4" OD 8-12ft
Fittings: G1/4 Compression 1/2" to 3/4" 8 fittings
Resevoir: ??
Liquid: 1 Gallon of distilled water

 

[Motopsychojdn]

I'm recommending Xspc's Ex360, the 240 is enough for a Cpu only (EEdit, dependant on severity of Overclock of course)
but you have two cards as well, and a single 360 won't do both of those and your Cpu so buy the big rad now and a smaller one can be added later when you put the cards on,
Given your choices I would say compare the pricing, but you are pretty much buying the EX kit in parts there
You still get the feel/experience of building the loop, its just reassuring to know everything is in the box that should be
(Except instructions, but we can help if you get stuck . )
Plans solid though mate,
Moto

 

[amuffin]

I can't cool my hawks, not reference versions Cpu for now, maybe in a few years gpu's

 

[amuffin]

Are the rad stands for top mounting?

 

[Motopsychojdn]

Ofc you can cool them, uni blocks and ramsinks, and yes those little legs can be used to hang it off the back or top mount like I have, or you can leave them in your bits bag for modding supplies

Moto

 

[amuffin]

Well right now I just want to cool the cpu, would the 240 kit be good? Or can I get better parts for the same price? Only cooling cpu!

 

[Motopsychojdn]

Rx 240 does my Cpu great, Ex is same size as Rs but performance of Rx, so in a perfect situation the Ex wins in my book,unless you are going for the visual effect of a fat rad
we did a thread a while back trying to do a decent loop for $200, and revised the price to $250 as it was bloody hard to get any decent parts so whilst you could probably manage to find bargains and deals, you know the kits are there if patience isn't a strong point
Moto

 

[4Ryan6]

Rx 240 does my Cpu great, Moto

Are we talking AMD or Intel?

Well right now I just want to cool the cpu, would the 240 kit be good? Or can I get better parts for the same price? Only cooling cpu!

Before a radiator is suggested to you you need to disclose your overclocking intentions of either the 2600K or 2500K you own, if you intend to stay around the 4500mhz range a GX240 is as comparable to a Noctua NH-D14 air cooler, if you intend overclocking past 4500mhz then you'll probably need a quad radiator just for cooling the overclocked CPU.

What works great for AMD is not going to work great for the Intel Sandy Bridge K series of CPUs with a memory and GPU controller on board the CPU, I've tried to tell you this in the past to keep you from finding this out the hard way.

Moto gives excellent advice, but he is giving advice on the configuration he is running, and his member configuration states AMD unless he has a Sandy Bridge K setup he has not listed in his member configuration yet.

The Sandy Bridge Ks run hot, and overclocked even hotter, your overclocking intentions of your CPU has everything to do with recommending a radiator cooling solution for you.

If you're buying a piece at the time and you want to know what to buy first, buy the pump, the heart of the water cooling system but buy the variable speed model.

 

[rubix_1011]

If you are buying, pump is a great place to start and I would only recommend a D5 vario (suggested by 4ryan6 above) or a MCP35x.

Laing D5's (commonly known in the US as MCP655 or PMP450) are very high flowing pumps and quite powerful, yet silent. Variable speed is useful as not everyone wants to run theirs at 5, and you may not need to, either. There are 'B' versions which is not variable speed; it is permanently set to about 3.5-4 on the scale of 1-5 of the Vario.

MCP35x is a Laing DDC pump (Swiftech is the only maker of the MCP35x to my knowledge) as it runs a special PCB with PWM support. This means you can use your CPU_FAN header to power the pump and utilize PWM with this pump to speed up or down based on CPU temp. You can also utilize it at 100% or with a controller if you wanted to go that route as well. DDC pumps are commonly known in the US markets as MCP350, MCP355 and MCP35x. All use the same pump size, similar rotors, similar PCB and power (exception being 35x) and all can utilize the same pump accessories/tops/mounts as they utilize the same thread patterns for top attachment.

Before a radiator is suggested to you you need to disclose your overclocking intentions of either the 2600K or 2500K you own, if you intend to stay around the 4500mhz range a GX240 is as comparable to a Noctua NH-D14 air cooler

EX or RX? Either would be a good choice over an RS model, if sticking with XSPC. Of course, there are other radiator manufacturers out there as well.

if you intend overclocking past 4500mhz then you'll probably need a quad radiator just for cooling the overclocked CPU.

You could probably get away with a 360 rad worth of space if you were low on real estate. Even a quality thick 240 with great fans could suffice, but you'd be pushing it. However, K-series chips that are clocked 4.5+ put out a lot of heat and need to remain cool, especially if you are running more than 1.5v to keep your CPU stable.

If OP is waiting on GPU's at the moment, I would recommend a decision on what overclocking goals and future plans are for GPUs before really suggesting anything. I know we've gone through this 'what-if' set of questions a few times now, so I'd like to nail down what we're actually looking at in order to match up what he's really going to need.

Either way, one of the XSPC kits with the D5 pump upgrade would be a decent buy, as would a Swiftech Edge/Ultima kit outside of suggesting individual components one at a time.

 

[4Ryan6]

@rubix_1011 I meant to say GTX240, as the 240 I have is the Black Ice GTX 240

 

[amuffin]

Right now I got my i7-2600k @4.6ghz stable at a 1.38v and the temps get really high! Temps are roughly 65-75C Under a long term 100% load. I am trying to aim for a system that will just run much cooler.

 

[rubix_1011]

@rubix_1011 I meant to say GTX240, as the 240 I have is the Black Ice GTX 240

I started to wonder this; when I posted I hadn't had enough coffee yet this morning.

 

[Motopsychojdn]

@Ryan, no mate, no Intel in my house mate
(except a few refurbs that I class as stock, not possession hehe)
I did fail to take into account his fat Oc though, and genuinely thought Intels K chips were running cooler (brain remembers 2500k being 95w@standard over 975BE's 125w)
and even at 4.4GHz I wasn't cooking eggs on my rig though, idled at 38'c so I figured same (or bigger) rad would hold Muffin fine until he wanted the cards adding,
and having the headroom now means adding the next rad wouldn't be a huge pain later on
Moto