Custom Watercooling Desk Part help

[bdbeall]

Okay, I built a full sized computer desk with the intent of watercooling and putting the computer inside the desk. I will post pictures to follow, but for now I am looking for watercooling part recommendations. I currently have the computer itself housed in a crummy case while i finish the desk. Everything in the case is air cooled atm. Main parts are ASRock z77 Extreme4, 2x 6970's, i7-3770k.

What I have so far is:

http://www.frozencpu.com/products/17221/ex-wat-224/XSPC_Chrome_Raystorm_AX360_Extreme_Intel_CPU_Water_Cooling_Kit_w_Twin_D5_w_Free_Dead-Water.html

^^ Is a XSPX kit with a 360 AX Rad and dual D5 pumps

I was going to buy another 360 AX Rad to add to this, and i am buying a vga block for my Radeon 6970's. I would like to overclock both my 6970' and my i7-3770k.

So my question is, is there a cheaper way to get the same results, is 2x AX360 rads too much for 2 6970's and a i7-3770k, and can you mix two different companies coolant?

Cost right now is $820(420 for ax combo, 240 for vga blocks, 15 for extra coolant,100 for extra rad, 45 for extra tubing)

TIA

*edit Better?

 

[Motopsychojdn]

Check the W/c sticky out firstly,
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/277130-11-read-first-watercooling-sticky
but from a personal perspective,
there is no such thing as too much radspace,
FCpu is an expensive vendor, there are alternative sites listed in the sticky as well
you can mix coolants but when all you need is distilled water and a killcoil, why use coolant?
and don't forget you will need extra fittings for the gfx blocks,
And please edit out the swear in your post before a mod notices
it may be a naff case but this is a family frequented site
Moto

 

[bdbeall]

Check the W/c sticky out firstly,
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/277130-11-read-first-watercooling-sticky
but from a personal perspective,
there is no such thing as too much radspace,
FCpu is an expensive vendor, there are alternative sites listed in the sticky as well
you can mix coolants but when all you need is distilled water and a killcoil, why use coolant?
and don't forget you will need extra fittings for the gfx blocks,
And please edit out the swear in your post before a mod notices
it may be a naff case but this is a family frequented site
Moto

I did check the sticky first, but none of those other etailers even offer the ax models. So is the ax model worth it, or should i go with the rx ex or rs?

I am choosing a red coolant for it to match the red in my mobo, paintings on the desk, and ram. Just an aesthetic really. Can you put a killcoil in coolant or is this worthless?

 

[CaedenV]

Please take my advice with a grain of salt as I have absolutely no first-hand WC experience yet:

Anywho, one of my more insane friends has a desk system with a custom WC loop, and from his own explanation (I have not seen it as he is a bit of a recluse) he essentially has a single water loop between the CPU and both GPUs, which then uses a small car radiator with 2 very large and quiet fans on it. Knowing him, it is probably not the prettiest system ever built, but that is not to say that with a little bit of housing work and proper paint that it could not also look awesome.

The point is that if you are going all-out on a custom rig, do not limit yourself to store-front products, or strictly PC based parts. Yes, you do need very specific parts for your water blocks, but for everything else 'parts is parts', and so long as it fits it should work. You just may have to do a little more R&D on your end to make sure your pump can handle a large loop, and other such weird constraints of having a custom system. But if you can get away from computer-specific parts then the costs go down considerably, while still remaining quite effective.


Personally I hope to do some sort of desk system for video editing and gaming which would have some sort of passively cooled system, space for 3 large monitors, built in desk light, and a built in 2.1 audio system. But this idea is current way beyond my abilities, and far beyond my budget at the moment... but it is a good dream, and I hope to build it at some point as my kids get a little older, and make it a family project.


Be sure to post pics whenever you get around to putting this all together! And good luck!

 

[bdbeall]

Thanks for the heads up. I agree, I think a single loop would do the trick, but i wasnt sure if the single d5 would be able to push the loop, which is why i was opting for the kit with 2 d5 motors. I am assuming there will be about 20 feet of tubing, 2 360 rads, and then 3 waterblocks. The desk is about 6 feet wide with the mobo on the left and rads on the right, so there is 12 feet of just going from one side to the other.

I think i will stick with buying normal computer rads though seeing as the way i designed the desk was to house them in the first place. Wish i thought of a car rad though lol.

 

[bdbeall]

Update, I used the martinradpump optimizer thing, and it said to get a good balance i would need both pumps running at setting 5 to get the proper flow rate. So that answers that.

 

[bdbeall]

So I guess the only question left is, is there any other parts that can achieve similar performance for cheaper? for instance what is the difference between the ax360 rad and the rs 360rad. I tried the googles but cant get a real explanation just benchmarks.

 

[Motopsychojdn]

The order of performance is as follows
Rs cheap and cheerful
Ex same size as Rs and performs almost as good as,
Rx double thickness, the Daddy of Xspc's range imo,
And the Ax, which I'm not up on right now but theoretically replaces the Rx series
Rx is my best recommendation without knowledge of the Ax series, Ex second, and I don't recommend Rs since the Ex came out, its the same size, performs better and isn't a huge difference in price
Moto

 

[amuffin]

The order of performance is as follows
Rs cheap and cheerful
Ex same size as Rs and performs almost as good as,
Rx double thickness, the Daddy of Xspc's range imo,
And the Ax, which I'm not up on right now but theoretically replaces the Rx series
Rx is my best recommendation without knowledge of the Ax series, Ex second, and I don't recommend Rs since the Ex came out, its the same size, performs better and isn't a huge difference in price
Moto

http://www.pureoverclock.com/Review-detail/xspc-ax360-radiator/4/
Supposed to outperform RX at the same fan speed, but it's pretty good. Very expensive as well.....I'm not paying $80 for a 240mm rad.

 

[Motopsychojdn]

Hehe, according to that my EX360's have better flow
well there it is Op, the AX, although more expensive is comparable to, if not better than the RX, but I'd expect that from a newer rad series,
who would bring out a product thats outperformed by its predecessor?

Moto