Have never water cooled before

[cctaylor88]

Alright I have been creeping on many build logs for quite some time now and am completely wanting and willing to dive into water cooling my computer. I have never done this before so obviously I am completely new to it and ask for your patience which has never been a problem in the past. To be honest I have never even seen a water cooled computer up close and personal. Anyways, my current plan is to switch into either an nzxt phantom 01 or 630 or the switch 810. As of right now I am super close to pulling the trigger on the switch 810 case as I have heard these are very friendly to those looking forward to water cooling. Now, I have been reading quite a few threads on WCing but as you can imagine it is all very foreign and reading the terminology can only do so much for me.

I would like to keep it simple for now and limit my "loop" to just the cpu but am completely overwhelmed when it comes to selecting components as there is a dizzying array of choices. From my very limited understanding I need a pump, reservoir, radiator, and cpu water block...is this correct? Also, how many rads do I need? It seems like a lot of people refer to two rads when they talk about their loops but as I am only needing to cool the cpu I'm not sure? For reference I have an AMD cpu and 600w psu. I know this is very vague and limited but that's pretty much where I am as of right now...
Oh and this is a bit off topic but what's the deal with the WC bundles like the Raystorm 750 RS240 kits..they are only $150ish are these worth it...or do you recommend making my own loop from custom parts?

Anything that will help me get started and make a purchase is greatly appreciated and I can't wait! Thanks in advance.

 

[C12Friedman]

Personally, I begin all of my loops from kits, I've found it's a little cheaper to start that way - even with going with bigger kits such as the XSPC Raystorm RX360 D5 vario kit - parting out, I can't find the parts alone cheaper (seems something always puts me over the same price point). It's easy enough to add rads, fans, controllers, etc. later.
The watercooling sticky is a very good thing to bookmark (IMO) and explains many questions up front but for your needs, a single 240 rad XSPC EX240 or RX240, even an RS (the other two are a little better, although the EX is a thinner rad, it is in the same frame as an RS - the RX is ~twice as thick)
Do check out the watercooling sticky here http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/277130-29-read-first-watercooling-sticky - good stuff there
Welcome to watercooling, enjoy

 

[manofchalk]

Kits like the XSPC Raystorm's are a great place to start, I know its where several of the regulars (including me) here started their water-cooling.

Read the water-cooling sticky the Friedman linked too, it details most of the background knowledge and concepts behind water-cooling you will need to get an understanding of how to run water through the most electrically active machine you own.
Might take a few reads for it all to click, I'm still finding new stuff when I occasionally re-read it.

If you plan too include GPU's to the loop, I advise getting a D5 kit. The X20 750 is a decent enough pump, but not really sufficient if your including multiple blocks. Getting the D5 also gives you the ability to move it out of the 5.25" bays if you wanted, I find that pumps mounted their tend to vibrate against the bay and are noisy.

 

[cctaylor88]

Personally, I begin all of my loops from kits, I've found it's a little cheaper to start that way - even with going with bigger kits such as the XSPC Raystorm RX360 D5 vario kit - parting out, I can't find the parts alone cheaper (seems something always puts me over the same price point). It's easy enough to add rads, fans, controllers, etc. later.
The watercooling sticky is a very good thing to bookmark (IMO) and explains many questions up front but for your needs, a single 240 rad XSPC EX240 or RX240, even an RS (the other two are a little better, although the EX is a thinner rad, it is in the same frame as an RS - the RX is ~twice as thick)
Do check out the watercooling sticky here http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/277130-29-read-first-watercooling-sticky - good stuff there
Welcome to watercooling, enjoy

Yeah I feel like an AIO water cooling kit would be a great place to start as well, I've read up on WC quite a bit and understand the basic concept but as I said I have never even seen one in person so obviously its very hard to really grasp without doing it myself. Okay I have been searching newegg and tigerdirect and can't locate anything related to raystorm or even getting specific and searching for raystorm rx360, do I have to buy these directly from the manufacturer or what? Also, what are your thoughts on the swiftech h220? I've been looking into this as well, like that it comes with copper rad and allows me to expand down the road.

And P.S as of right now I won't be adding GPU blocks anytime soon

 

[cctaylor88]

Alright well i just called swiftech and they haven't even received their commercial shipments which means no one has these things available for sale to the public yet... what a bummer as I really want to make a purchase today so it will be at my door sooner!

 

[C12Friedman]

Here are two sources in the US
http://www.frozencpu.com/cat/l2/g30/c321/list/p1/Liquid_Cooling-Water_Cooling_Kits_-_Brands.html
http://www.xoxide.com/watcoolkit.html
See what interests you in there

 

[manofchalk]

Retailers like Newegg and Amazon (they do have some parts) dont sell water-cooling equipment. The big name for that in the US is FrozenCPU, though I have heard that it isnt the cheapest of sites.