New to watercooling: Setup questions

First off, hi everyone. I have read the forum a bit, and finally registered tonight to get some help from you friendly, knowledgeable people. I am planning on water cooling my computer, and just need a few questions answered, and a bit of advice.

Complete parts list of my watercooling project

CPU block
GPU block
Pump
Dual 12cm radiator
Tygon tubing
16 hoseclamps
Non-conductive fluid
2 x 12cm fans to mount on radiator
Poly-T fitting for fill-line
Fillport

System specs
Asus P5W-DH deluxe WiFi edition
Core 2 Duo x6800
Artic Cooling Freezer 7 pro cpu heatsink
2 gigs Gskill DDR2 800 ram
Asus x1900 Crossfire Edition
SoundBlaster X-Fi Platinum
Silverstone Zeus 750W PSU
3 Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 Perpendicular Recording HDDs in Raid 0
NEC DL-DVD burner
Sony DVD-rom
Gigabyte Aurora Case (black with poly side window)

I have a pretty flexible budget, but want to keep the total cost below 500 if possible. I plan on setting it up as follows; dual 12cm radiator will mount on rear outside of case with two more fans on the backside to pull air out, with the existing case fans pushing, feed into the CPU block, then to the GPU block, down to bottom of the case where the pump will be mounted and back out to the radiator. A T-line will be right before the intake on the pump and run all the way to a fillport on the top of the case. The chipset on the motherboard is already passively cooled, and I am keeping the case fans so I dont think I need any chipset waterblocks. I have a few questions I need some help with though:
1) Will one 32oz bottle of the fluidxp be enough?
2) Is there a major performance difference between the BIX2 radiator I have linked and the thermochill pa120.2? How much of a difference?
3) Should I get the 3/8 OD tygon over the 11/16?
4) Is there any real need for a reservoir? Does it offer any cooling advantages? I dont want one if I dont need one, as they only cost money, and have two more fittings that could potentially leak, not to mention the reservoir itself potentially leaking.
5) Are there any obvious alternate parts I should get that offer a performance and/or cost advantage?

Thanks in advance for all the feedback. I do plan on taking lots of before and after pictures for you guys in return for all the help

Welcome to the forums. I would recommend a different CPU block. Storm, apogee, and fuzion seem to be the most popular. Also, if you have the space get a 120.3. Also, if this is your first build, you might want to go with cheaper tubing just for some trial and error so you don't waste that expensive tubing. Then once you are set, put some tygon in.

--pak


*added*

and welcome to the forum.

Do those blocks perform better then the DD RBX? I liked the look and the design of the RBX with the changeable nozzles. I researched the storm, and was a little turned away by it, since it seemed the performance was similar to the RBX, but the pressure drop was massive. Which version of the apogee? Arent there several? What is the pressure drop like on the Apogee and the Fuzion?

icantfindone said:

Do those blocks perform better then the DD RBX? I liked the look and the design of the RBX with the changeable nozzles. I researched the storm, and was a little turned away by it, since it seemed the performance was similar to the RBX, but the pressure drop was massive. Which version of the apogee? Arent there several? What is the pressure drop like on the Apogee and the Fuzion?

Click to expand...

Those are all questions I am looking for answers to as well. These three seem to be the most popular. As for the apogee your going to want the GT. I think there is even a higer model to the GT available to 775 chips which you are using.

If you scroll through this forum, you will see that a lot of people like one of those 3 chips for several reasons.

--pak

Added

I just looked it up. It is an apogee GTX. It comes shipped with 775 brackets but is also available for most of the common CPU's

just a FYI if u wana save urself 15 bucks or so go to newegg.com same pump for 60

::

Still a few more questions. . .
Would 3/4 OD tygon be better then 11/16 OD, or is there not much difference?
How many feet of tubing do I need?
Would one 32oz bottle of fluidXP be enough to fill the system?

icantfindone said:

::

Still a few more questions. . .
Would 3/4 OD tygon be better then 11/16 OD, or is there not much difference?
How many feet of tubing do I need?
Would one 32oz bottle of fluidXP be enough to fill the system?

Click to expand...

3/4" OD x 1/2" ID R-3603
How much? How far is it between all your components?
32 0z. enough? What's the volume of your components and tubing?
Hint: Pi x r^2 x Length.

I think the other day when I figured it, 10 ft. of tubing will hold about 1/3 L of coolant. I just didnt know how much water a radiator would hold.

Upon further research, I think I am going to get this CPU block
http://www.petrastechshop.com/dfuuncpubl1.html

and this GPU block
http://www.petrastechshop.com/ekfucowafora.html

I actually think 10 ft is overkill, but I want to order enough for that "just in case" scenario. There is a good chance that I will be watercooling my roommates computer after I do my own.

I am still considering between the BIX2 radiator and the thermochill pa120.2. I can get the BIX2 for about 1/3 the price of the pa120.3. However I dont mind spending the money if the performance difference is great enough. Anyone have experience with these rads?

icantfindone said:

I think the other day when I figured it, 10 ft. of tubing will hold about 1/3 L of coolant. I just didnt know how much water a radiator would hold.

Anyone have experience with these rads?

Click to expand...

10' will be good. You'll be making some mistakes.
PA120 Series:
http://www.thermochill.com/PATesting/
PA120.3 vs HE120.3 vs everything:
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=77260
Everything yoy need to know is there.

It seems the performance gap closes on the radiators with higher flow and more cfm. I am going to have 4 fans on my 120.2 radiator, and a high flow pump (the mcp655), so I think I am going to save myself $80 and go with the BIX2. Still have to plan how exactly I am going to mount that radiator on the back of my case. I have a loose idea which involves some screws, tin snips and a dremel, but that is as far as I have gotten.

Im new too and i need some advice im only going to be water cooling my cpu but i dont want to spend much money ($30 for basics) i have a 66Gph pump with a 17" head and i want to insted of using a pre built rad i want to use copper pipe setting in water as a rad any help on finding cheap parts would be helpful. This is not for a computer i use much it was given too me by a freind its a P1 233MHzW/MMX over clocked to 366Mhz 256 MB ram 15GB hard drive 32MB Nividia riva TNT video card running win 2k im water cooling this computer just to learn as if the worst happens i wont care

SuperCross said:

i want to use copper pipe setting in water as a rad

Click to expand...

An engineer you are not.
Yes the water will remove heat from the copper piping, but what will be removing heat from the water?

Don't use a rad of any sort. Just use a 5, 10, 20 (you pick which size) gallon container and make it part of your cooling loop. It will take hours for a CPU to heat up 10 gallons of water.