I found a watercooling setup I want to mimic.

[Piano Man]

I currently have the CoolerMaster ATCS 840, and I'm starting to get the watercooling bug.

I was looking up watercooling rigs on youtube and found this guy's rig using my case.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDvWq7Q70Dc

I really like the setup he has going, and I want to mimic it. However, since I don't know much about watercooling, I was hoping you guys can eyeball the vid for me, and tell me whats good about it, and what's not. Luckily its in HD, so its pretty easy to see everything in decent detail.



I appreciate any response.


PS - With the 3x120 radiator on the top, do you think he's blowing air out the top of the case, or down thru the rad, into the case?

 

[aigomorla]

its a mid class h2o system.

Nothing special, its not high performance.

If you look at the recomendation's ive been giving people tho, that is an upgrade of this system.

There are better pumps, and i dont like bay res's because they make a SWOOSH noise unless u fill them up to the brim.

But what would u want to know?

CPU Block: KL-345
Pump: D5
Radiator: Looks like a MCR320 by swiftech.

He's using fittings from bitspower.


If he asked people for advice his fans are pulling air from the ouside into the case. You always want the coolest air to go inside the radiator.

 

[Piano Man]

What did you think about the reservoir he uses and its placement? Also, do you think having the T-Line after or before the pump is better?

 

[aigomorla]

Originally posted by: Piano Man
What did you think about the reservoir he uses and its placement? Also, do you think having the T-Line after or before the pump is better?

tline b4 the pump helps bleeding sometimes..

however if you put a res b4 pump, you get the same result.

A tline after pump is used for draining. I believe you should have a well setup drain if ur the type that wiill do a lot of tweeking.

As for the bay res, i dont like them.

 

[starams5]

I agree with aigomorla, I'm not to crazy about that res or its location. I use some Koolance parts (RAM-35 water block) and fittings, I have nothing against them. But take a look at this deal I found at D-Tek before you buy that Koolance CPU water block:
http://www.dtekcustoms.com/ind...on=VIEWPROD&ProdID=226

 

[Piano Man]

Ok, so after reading up on this forum and xtremesystems I have come to the conclusion that was is "best" is pretty hard to nail down. Anyways, here is what I want my loop to look like, and what it may look like in the future. I don't want to go crazy on parts, but I do want to have a good LC solution.


For my first foray, I will have a 2 block loop, one for my C2D 8400 and another for an ATI 4890. In the future, I suspect that I will have an i7 or i5, and possibly a 2nd 4890 in XFire configuration, so I want to plan my stuff for that scenario. I will want to Overclock everything.

Pump - I'm pretty confused on this. From what I've gathered, GPM doesn't really matter that much because 1) you never see loops doing more than 3GPM and 2) Head pressure is most important.

So I was looking both at the Laing D5 and DDC2 pumps. The D5 has more GPM, but the DDC2 has more head pressure. Am I to believe then, that the DDC2 (with a Petra Top) pump is better for a 2/3 block loop? The info I got was from here.


CPU Block - So it seems that highly restrictive CPU blocks do the best, however, because of the lower GPM that is allowed to flow through, its not the best for multi block loops. I was first looking at the Swiftech Apogee GTZ, but it appears that the DTek Fuzion V2 gets almost as good of numbers, but has a higher GPM flow rate. For a 2 or 3 Block loop, what kind of flow rate should I go for, and do you think the fuzion v2 will be a good choice?

Radiator - I will definitely be getting a 3x120mm rad (will probably stick 3 YL Fans on it). It appears that Swiftech MCR320, ThermoChill PA120.3, XSPC RX360 are the main contenders. I don't plan on using fans faster than 1500 RPM, and it appears that heat dissipation amongst those 3 at that setting is almost identical. Also, even though the swiftech has a higher pressure drop than the other 2, it doesn't really affect the loop since I'll see higher pressure drops elsewhere in the loop. Since the swiftech costs half as much as the thermochill, I was thinking of going with the MCR320. Thoughts?

GPU Block - From what I've read on this, full coverage blocks are great for the memory and voltage regulators; however, they can sometimes really bog down the loop, while a GPU only block is better for the overall loop, while not cooling the memory. Any thoughts on this? The blocks I was considering were either the Koolance VID-487 or the XSPC Razor 4890. Haven't seen reviews, so I'm not sure which is better.

As far as tubing. It seems like 7/16 gives the same performance as 1/2, allows for a snug fit, and can handle tighter bends and such.

I haven't really looked into fittings because I just haven't gotten that far yet.

As far as reservoirs, I'm liking the 5.25 bay ones since I have a ton of room in that part of my case.



Once again, thanks. I'm a total noob, so let me know your thoughts, or if I got any assumptions wrong. Thanks!

 

[aigomorla]

GTZ > Fusion

DDC-3.2 /w EK top or XSPC Top > D5

Tubing get masterkleer, its cheap, and u wont be hurting when u mis cut it.

since ur gonna Xfire, i would recomend u slip the loop up.

once again i dont like bay res's because if u dont fill them up completely, they will make a WOOSH noise.