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Watercooling gurus does this setup look good?

O

Odin30

Senior member
Maze3-$42
Blackiceextreme-$65
Eheim1250pump-$70
10ft1/2tubing-$18
Waterwetter-$3.50
Hoseclamps&tfitting-$8.50

Total--$207.00

Does this look like a good watercooling rig? I want a very kickass setup and need opionions on what i should add or subtract and whether this is a good setup?
Thnx
 
The setup looks like a winner. A few comments:

1) What fans are you planning on using? You're going to need something good which probably puts out for then 100+ cfm.

2) The BlackIce isn't worth the money in my opinion. You can buy a brand new heatercore and mod it and have money left over. The Heatcore is probably as good or better than the BlackIce Extreme. Unless you want it for looks.

3) Maze-3 Hasn't been tried yet. You don't know how good it's going to perform. Either wait a little to see how it fairs compared to the Gemini Blocks or the Spir@l or even the Maze 2.

I'm guessing your going with an inline system (closed loop). You're going to have to bleed to get the air out, keep that in mind. Air in the system will give you higher temps.

Go with Tygon and not regular Vinyl tubing. It fits better onto the fittings and it holds better. It will last and since you're spening a lot of money anyways go with the best. Don't skimp on the tubing.

Besides me being picky it's a good all around system.

-JokerF15
 
I was also wondering the same thing as I am contemplating getting a setup similar to that. Mine looks like this:

Gemini Spiral Waterblock - (How good is the Maze3 compared to this?)
Blackice Extreme Radiator
Eheim 1250 Pump
Danger Den 172 Watt Peltier
12ft of 1/2 tubing
Redline Water wetter
Clamps, fittings,etc.

I thought this looked like a good setup and yours looks pretty good too. Although, I have am not a watercooling guru as I just started.
 
I believe the best ratio of water wetter to water is like 1:50, so you won't get much coloration from it. I say get yourself some flourescent dye to put in there too.

You can find this stuff at CaseETC.com

................edit................
I think any solid copper block with any kind of water movement (S-turns or spiral turn) is going to perform fairly similarly. I think you should be looking for which one is going to fit best for you. I think the single most important part of the watercooler is the radiator, because it is what is going to move the heat from the water into the air. It will determine where your max temp is going to be. A crappy waterblock may hurt your performance, but all the average or above average ones probably perform very similarly in a tuned watercooler.

So make sure you move outside air across the radiator (either from outside to outside or from outside to inside (this one is the one I use, but only because I wanted it all inside my case)), alot of people have real good results from car heater cores if your going to mount it all external or if you have a decent sized case. And always draw air through the radiator as fans work better drawing against a load, versus pushing against one. The fan blades tend to waffle in the backsplash of air and lose alot of pressure.

Anyway have fun, I have really appreciated my watercooler.
 
Thanks WarCon,

One more question, would i need Water Wetter in addition to this?
Flourescent Coolant Dye - Blue

How much better is the Black Ice Extreme vs Black Ice II? I'm not too familar with the "720KCal per hour" (BI II) stuff, but wouldn't Black Ice II be better as it can cool more? Though I see Extreme outputs more Cal per hour.

WarCon,

can you elaborate more in lamen's terms. I'm planning on setting up my first water cooled system in a Lian Li PC65 but the intake fans are only 80mm and i think the exhaust fans are 80mm too. how would i keep my internal pref. while still doing a decent job of cooling the radiator/core.

thanks
 
Yes, water wetter does two things that the dye does not. It retards algae growth and causes the water to be more adhesive to the metal of your radiator (which aids minutely to cooling). The most important thing it does though is anti-algae.
 
Since the Black Ice II has places for two 120's. I would assume you can move more air across it which will pull more heat out into the air. But the low drop radiators (I believe heater cores are low drop), actually are more efficient at moving the heat from the water to the metal for the fans to move it into the air. I am sure both of the those would work great though, so whichever scheme you are going for (big radiator on back or maybe smaller one in the front of the case) should be how you pick between those two.

..............edit............
Put the proper name to the radiator that I mentioned.
 
If your going for the all inside watercooler, you will have to use a radiator that fits into the front part of your case where the two 80mm fan holders are. The Extreme looks to fit as does some heater cores (can be found at junkyards pretty cheap).

You usually have to mod the front panel to remove any excess metal so that there is no obstruction of air. In other words get a dremel or I used a $10 nibbler from Radio Shack, to remove the place where the radiator needs to set. I left enough metal to mount my radiator to it. Then the radiator goes in and the fan will draw air through it into the case.

(Only disadvantage of this is tepid air is going to be used to cool your other heatsinks, but really has never been a problem for me).

Mounting your pump (reservoir if your going to use one) should be in as out of the way place as you can get, but I didn't have any room so I have it right in front of the radiator. (Several inches away, so it doesn't block airflow).

The bigger radiators usually mount on standoffs (the same kind of thing that you use to mount your mobo, but bigger) on the back of the case. This really depends alot on your case as to how it really will work best. You can also mount it on the top of your case and just elevate it slightly off the case so it is drawing outside air through the radiator. This way there is no radiator air going into the case, but it obviously looks kinda crappy. If you have space for a second box somewhere you could mount only quick disconnects (for the tubing) on the back of your case and from them just run the tubes for your waterblock. If you use valves behind the other side of the quick disconnect you can remove the tubing without spilling much water at all and remove alot of leak possibilities from inside your case. The rest of the watercooler can sit in a small computer box or basically anything that you can mount an old spare AT power supply in (to power your fans for the radiator) and the radiator and the pump. If your using a bigger pump like the Eheim's the extra tubing won't be an issue.

If you confused about anything I will try to answer to the best of my knowledge but if you just want more reading material about watercooling I would suggest Overclockers.com. They have alot of really good articles.
 
if we were to get this setup (above):
Maze3-$42
Blackiceextreme-$65
Eheim1250pump-$70
10ft1/2tubing-$18
Waterwetter-$3.50
Hoseclamps&tfitting-$8.50

Total--$207.00

this is going to be an inline setup, correct? Meaning that the whole thing will be inside the case or the radiator mounted on the rear of the pc. There won't be any other parts needed, right?

WarCon, would you happen to have any digipics of your setup?
 
If everything is going to be inside your case, 10ft of tubing is a little much. But it actually never hurts to have spare around. I replaced my tubes when my tubes were stained when I tried antifreeze. It actually lowered performance enough that I decided against ever using it again. But water wetter works, so there really isn't any need for antifreeze. The rest of the parts look ok. You do need to figure how your going to fill the system. Inlines (no reservoir) can be a little difficult to fill without a fill spout. I would plan on buying a T with the two inline parts with 1/2 barbs and the upright part of the T a threaded spout. That way you can buy a cap and have a place to add water very easily. Place it in the highest part of your tubing. (If your feeling fancy you could drill or cut a hole and mount it through the top of your case)

I have some pictures of my first install, but not online anywhere. (Can send them if you PM me with the email address that you want them sent to) I used a cube style radiator and a smaller case than the one your using (Enlight 7237). I managed to fit it all inside and except for the additional air holes that I drilled in the front bezel and the blowhole, you wouldn't know it wasn't just a normal computer.

I recommend a lexan holddown for your waterblock. Also a shim for an AMD processor wouldn't be a bad idea, since the weight of the tubing and water and waterblock tend to want to pull on to one side (which is not a good thing for cores). The shim just gives you the security of not chipping the core. (I used a tiny drop of superglue to make sure my shim doesn't slip and short out any of the bridges or other components on the top of the chip). If you planning on cooling a P4, then no shim is required. I had to rig a hold-down for now with springs until I figure something better. But its working great. I am overclocking a 1.6A with 1.725 vcore to 148fsb (2368) and the highest temps I see are 37C.
 
thanks for the pics (if anyone else wants them, i'll be glad to put it on my site, with WarCon's permission of course). Though one thing puzzles me, i think you're doing an inline w/ no res. too but i dont see your T plug.
 
I know you fellers are considering the Maze3 which isn't in the review, but this gave me a few insights on waterblocks. Overclockers Also, a place to get that Gemini spiral waterblock seems to have a new one waiting to be released here. All this talk about performance watercooling makes me want to upgrade my sys😛
 
Lawcid, I think that the basic deal is that in that review, he/she tested the large-flow spiral by Gemini (the make the spir@l) to have an effective gph or 150gph. I know that you are planning to have a better pump than that and are planning to cool your GPU so it's probably not that big o' deal. My point was that the one that is supposed to come out, is designed for 1/2" imputs for very little impedence of flow. Your research into water-cooling before the install is to be commended and if you are looking to get the best for the money, I just want to give all the info that I've come across.
 
The difference between the Spir@l and the Gemini Blocks isn't huge. The Spir@l was designed for the hardcore overclocker. It is one SOLID, MASSIVE block of copper. It is a work of art in my mind.

The Gemini block is puny compared to the Spir@l. But don't let this throw you off it can dissipate the heat produced by AMD cpus + Peltiers. I myself have installed the High Flow block w/a 172 watt pelt. I don't have it up anymore, it was for testing only. It was running REALLY cool =). I'll have the full rig up soon, but i need to work on condensation issues first. The low volume Gemini is extremely small. when most ppl see it they are liek WTF is this..cuz its' SMALL, but it performs very well. Like in Hoot's article he's surprised by the size, and the performance.

These blocks go against most overclockers mentatlity that MORE copper = Better performance. Teh bigger the block the bettter the performance is what most ppl think, but it's not always true. If u look at Alpha heatsinks, They don't use all copper, yet every well most ppl beleive that all copper naturally means better, but design matters a lot more in most cases.

I'm not trying to say one is better than the other, both were meant for different reasons, and you can't go wrong with either. The Maze 3, is still un-proven, i would wait a bit too see users results before i dive it. The Maze2 was a great block and one can only expect the same amount of workmanship and quality in the Maze3.


-JokerF15
 
Thanks JokerF15 for the quick summary,

I checked the specs of the 4 tested bocks and now see what you mean by the size. the high flow looks about double the size of the normal spiral, but the performance seems the same. what about leak protection? I know they're super duper glued or molded on to the copper, but how strong are those things really, against leakage.

i suppose going with the larger brother spiral would be the best way to go, in my case, since i'll be watercooling both my cpu and gpu (gf3ti200) and both will be o/c'd. gotta find out how much those corbs/pal8045 resell for to get some cash back on the watercooling venture ;P
 
I am running a 1.6A with it right now, I have it at 2368 (148fsb) @ 1.725 vcore (shows as 1.70v). The idle temps are around 25C, and full load with it getting warmer in my house now I have hit highs of 38C, my system temps are at 28-29C at full load. I am sure CPUBurn 4 might get another 1-2C out of that, just haven't pushed it for temp like that yet. My northbridge is getting warmer than I like with the passive radiator of the P4B266-C, I have been wondering if a better heatsink wouldn't get me a bit more stability at higher FSB's. 😀
 
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