Liquid Cooled Setup

[subdismal]

I've decided to build another rig and I want to try my hand at water cooling most every aspect of it. I'm on somewhat of a budget, but I could always save for a very good setup. I was wondering if any of you guys had reccomendations of what I would need to buy and maybe some details about the product.

Also, if someone could help me out with all the components of a water cooled system (i.e. radiator, etc.) I've read a couple articles and still don't feel comfortable with the whole ordeal.

 

[gotensan01]

Components of a wc setup:

pump
radiator/heatercore
fan
shroud (optional but highly recommended)
tubing
reservoir/t-line/fill & bleed kit
cpu/gpu/nb blocks
clamps
steam distilled water
additives (atleast to kill bio growth)

If you read enough posts here in ATCC, I think you can get the jist of it. When I get home from work I could look through and try to find the threads that really helped me out. I would highly recommend custom setups if you are looking for performace. Anyways it sounds like you like building your own things so this will be better for learning and fun.

Watercooling101 I haven't personally read it but I hear good things about it. At the least it is a good start, but post more questions on your thread here.

reference thread This is a thread that I started. It has info about a lot of things like multiple rads, pumps, blocks, additives, etc. You may want to look at this after the first link.

EDIT: The watercooling101 thread is a very good beginner's guide. One of the things that I think is understated is the difference between radiators and heatercores. Radiators use pipes that have fins attached to them which are them cooled. Heatercores spread the water across the fins to have them cooled.

Radiator cooling process: cool fins then pipes then water
Heatercore cooling process: cool fins then cool water

 

[subdismal]

Alright, with a little more personal and possibly Anandtech user review I can look more into each of those components and good products on the market for each.

I'd appreciate you showing me some good threads with high-quality information. That'd help a lot! I'll keep looking through the forums and keep my eye on threads about water cooling.

I'll read that article when I get home after this class. Thanks for the link!

I'll definitely try to post more questions I may have in this thread in the future.

Thanks a lot!

 

[HardWarrior]

High-quality information isn't something that's easy to come by unfortunately. Water-cooling can be violently pack-oriented sometimes, even to the point of open hostility. It's the hobbyist mentality. Once you've got the basic idea down, which gotensan expressed quite well, I'd suggest looking up reviews on the individual parts that interest you. There's a great amount of general information that usually comes with those reviews, including theory. Try to keep an open mind. After that start forming ideas on how you want to kit your box out and with what type and quality of parts. Beyond that, welcome to a fascinating means of thermal management that will add stability and flash to your computing experience.

 

[subdismal]

Well said, HardWarrior. I was almost so distracted by your eloquence of words that I nearly got lost in their meaning. Great suggestion, though! Thanks a lot!

 

[HardWarrior]

Originally posted by: subdismal
Well said, HardWarrior. I was almost so distracted by your eloquence of words that I nearly got lost in their meaning. Great suggestion, though! Thanks a lot!

My pleasure. I had a hard time getting started and find myself wanting to smooth the way for others if possible. If you find yourself in need of some advice just post. I'm sure between myself and gotensan, not to mention more than a few other people here, we can figure it out.

 

[subdismal]

I appreciate it and that's why I enjoy posting and browsing these forums. Not everyone makes you feel like an idiot if you ask some 'stupid' questions or anything. ^_^

 

[HardWarrior]

We were all new at one time or another. Just remember to pass on the goodwill.

 

[gotensan01]

Which method are you going with, air or water like you are discussing here? I would urge you to go water. You can cool better with a good watercooling setup than with almost any non-insane air setup...and the amount of sound a watercooling setup produces can be small.