Waterblocks for NFI NF4 Ultra-D

[Kamui]

hi

I am in the process of building my first water cooling system with a koolance exos 2. Which waterblocks would you recommend? I plan to cool the cpu, the chipset and the gpu.

thanks
kamui

 

[Fresh Daemon]

The Koolance CHC-A05 will fit and won't obstruct graphics cards. Since you already have a Koolance system I would go with that. The hoses should fit without modification. The only alternatives that won't block one or both PCIe slots are German and Italian blocks which will be very expensive to ship.

 

[Kamui]

hi,
is the CHC-A05 the only waterblock recommended for the DFI? Also, should i purchase all the blocks from Koolance or some other 3rd party will do? (swiftech or DD)

 

[Fresh Daemon]

The GPU-180-H06 will also fit, but it is considerably more expensive and has a more restrictive design. Swiftech and DD definitely make better performing waterblocks than Koolance, but also use wider tubing, 3/8" or 1/2" ID, as opposed to the Koolance system which uses 6mm. So you will have to use adapters to build a Koolance chipset block into the loop. With a decent pump, a rig with a Koolance chipset cooler and DD/Swiffy CPU/GPU blocks will perform better.

Swiftech and DD have no blocks that will fit the LanParty NF4 boards. DD has one for the Asus SLI board and was reported to be working on one for DFI, but the project seems to have petered out.

If you are expecting to get higher overclocks with a chipset waterblock, you won't. The only reason to do this is silence, and that's a pretty good reason since that chipset fan can get very loud and annoying at full RPM's. You can also hack a Zalman passive NB cooler to fit, it's been done.

 

[Kamui]

hi fresh daemon,

thanks for the advice. I will be purchasing the blocks soon.

 

[Fresh Daemon]

Your potential problem is that the Exos 2 is 10mm ID, whereas the CHC-A05 is 6mm. This is going to be a flowrate killer and will cause the temps on your other components to go up. You may wish to get a Zalman passive heatsink (only costs $7-8) and duct an intake fan over it first, see how that works.

 

[Kamui]

hi Daemon,

thanks for the advice. I am planning to have the 3/8 tube run from the CPU block into a F splitter. I believe the F splitter outs are 2 - 1/4 tubes... these should be able to run well in parallel to my video card and chipset cooler

Would this be fine? Or will it still kill the flow?

 

[OhHenry]

Buying the waterbocks from them are pretty cheap which I did.

ALso, on a side note don't use their stock fluid, I would purchase fluidxp which is non-conductive. Their stock fluid is conductive and killed my video card .

 

[w00t]

why did you spend that much money for an external water cooling unit? they cost like 399 right? what a ripoff

 

[Kamui]

Hi Woot, I understand what you mean... but I am new to watercooling and I wanted a easier setup.