Need some help with a wc setup for a $250'ish budget

Just ordered my new rig and am wanting to get some watercooling for it but I've seen so many mixed results and I still don't have that great of an idea of what I'll need for my needs.

I'm wanting to cool my cpu (q6600), my gpu (8800gtx), and the north and south bridges on my evga 680i board.

What would you guys recommend for a $250-350'ish budget, preferably towards the cheaper side but without sacrificing too much?

Hi bud so shop at petra thec shop you will found every thing's for you're water cooling need's and here some suggestion for realy good part's
Cpu water block : dtek fusion 62$
Gpu water block : Ek 8800 gtx full coverage 110$
Pump: swiftech mcp655 75$
Radiator: swiftech mcr220 so 2 x 120 mm fan for 45$ (add 2 fan if you need it)
Tubing: tygon r-3603 3.25$ by the foot maybe 7' will be great 23$
now add a t for the t line and some pt nude for 5$
so your total : arround 320$ for a great set up .........

The above list is great but you really need a 3x120mm (and then some) to cool all that. I agree with the Fuzion block and the MCP655 pump.

CPU: D-Tek Fuzion (~$60)
GPU: MCW60 w/8800 adapter kit & RAM sinks (~$70?)
Pump: MCP655 (~$75)
Rad: MCR320 (~$55)
Tubing & Misc.: 1/2" MasterKleer tubing; 1/2x1/2x3/4" copper T (hardware store); distilled H2O (local store); iodine (probably in your med cabinet); algaecide (aquarium/pet shop); misc. clamps ($20-30)


IDK about the chipset coolers - I use MCW30s (~$30 ea.) for mine but I'm not familiar enough with your board to recommend those. If you're going to cool all that you'll be pushing the upper end of your budget regardless ...

I would not cool the motherboard chipset with water, or at least only do the northbridge. Just improve air cooling on the chipset to keep your loop simpler and less constrictive and cheaper. I'm leaning toward what QuietIce listed, except I'd probably use the Swiftech Apogee GT instead.

Definetly a Tripple Rad, I agree on everything that you guys have said

Okay, I've managed to scrounge together an extra $600 so I'm not going to be so limited on my pricing.

So how does this look so far and what connectors do I need?

D-TEK Fuzion Universal CPU Waterblock 1/2"
http://www.petrastechshop.com/dfuuncpubl1.html
61.99

Swiftech Stealth Rev.2 Full Cover Waterblock for nVidia 8800 Series
http://www.petrastechshop.com/swstfucowafo.html
105.95

HW Labs Black Ice GT Stealth 360
http://www.petrastechshop.com/hwlablicegts1.html
59.95

HW Labs Black Ice GT Xtreme 480
http://www.petrastechshop.com/hwlablicegtx.html
159.95

Laing D5 Vario/Swiftech MCP655 Inline 12V DC Pump
http://www.petrastechshop.com/swmcin12pu.html
87.99

Danger Den Maze4 Chipset Waterblock (Nvid61.99ia 680i)
http://www.petrastechshop.com/dadenmachwan.html
2x 42.95

Swiftech MCRES-MICRO Hi-Flo Reservoir
http://www.petrastechshop.com/swmchire.html
19.95

1/2" ID (3/4" OD) Tygon R-3603 Laboratory-Grade Tubing
7x 3.25


And running the loop something like this:
Swiftech MCRES-MICRO Hi-Flo Reservoir
Laing D5 Vario/Swiftech MCP655 Inline 12V DC Pump
D-TEK Fuzion Universal CPU Waterblock 1/2"
Danger Den Maze4 Chipset Waterblock - North Bridge
HW Labs Black Ice GT Stealth 360
Danger Den Maze4 Chipset Waterblock - South Bridge
HW Labs Black Ice GT Xtreme 480

That looking good? Or is it overkill or trying too much for what I have? I'm worried about space in my Antec 900 with this setup as well as a loss of pressure through such a long loop process.

get a thremochill 120.3 PA over those black ice rads

I would go with the EK 8800 block my self:
http://www.petrastechshop.com/ekgtxfucowaf.html

I would go with a DDC with modded top:
http://www.petrastechshop.com/laddcwpeddto.html

I would also go Theromchill.

DCC+/mcp355 with a modded top that thing rival's the MCP655 and is so much quieter when running full boar.

if your not limited to money now, i would suggest a loop for just the GPU's and one just for the cpu.

MCR220 for your 8800GTX

MCR320 for your Q6600


HR 05's for your NB/SB

Going with the advice above that would put me with something like:

D-TEK Fuzion Universal CPU Waterblock 1/2"
61.99

EK-FC8800GTX Full Cover Waterblock for nVidia 8800 GTX
109.99

ThermoChill PA120.3 Triple 120mm RadiatoR
+ G3/8 to G1/4 Adapter Qty 2
+ ThermoChillPA120.3 Triple Shroud
194.96

ThermoChill PA120.2 Dual 120mm Radiator
+ G3/8 to G1/4 Adapter Qty 2
+ ThermoChillPA120.2 Double Shroud
157.95

Swiftech MCRES-MICRO Hi-Flo Reservoir
19.95

Laing DDC w/ Petra'sTech DDCT-01s Top Combol
99.95

Danger Den Maze4 Chipset Waterblock (Nvid61.99ia 680i)
2x 42.95


1/2" ID (3/4" OD) Tygon R-3603 Laboratory-Grade Tubing
7x 3.25

That adds up to around $740... Isn't that a bit steep for what I'm looking at?

Also, aren't I going to be running into room problems with my Antec 900 case?

One other thing, for my flow setup on this, could I not use a splitting to split the liquid coming from the cpu and run that over the south and north bridges, converge them into a radiator then a smaller pump to reaccelerate and then pass it through the gpu, out to my bigger radiator and back to the resevoir and pump?

Using a couple Y fittings to split the loop is a bad idea. I'm a firm believer in keeping it simple. These guys are trying to break the bank. Why cool the chipset? Go back and reread post #3.

batboy said:

Using a couple Y fittings to split the loop is a bad idea. I'm a firm believer in keeping it simple. These guys are trying to break the bank. Why cool the chipset? Go back and reread post #3.

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not sure why you think we are tring to break the bank. the op first stated $250 for the limit then in post #6 states he has $600.

one loop to rad/cpu/gpu for $250 is doable. if you have $600 though and want the best temps im still going with 2 seprate loops/2 rads. the rads that james suggested will work great.

*side note*
im not completely sure im reading your post correctly though BB.

So what you would recommend is tossing something like a Thermalright HR-05 / HR-05 SLI Copper Heatsinks only on my north and south bridge and dropping down to a reasonable 50-100 dollar high quality but not the best radiator or two?

And what your recommending Evil is that I buy another pump and resevoir and use that to cool the gpu and south bridge while letting my other loop (the stronger of the two) cool the cpu and north? That's great but is there a good triple or double dual pass rad out there for more in the 100 dollar range instead of the almost 200 dollar range? Thermochill looks nice but its EXPENSIVE! Also, I'm using a mid tower Antec 900 Gaming case... Is there even going to be enough room?

Side note... With the extra cash I really don't mind around the 500-600 mark... 700-800 though, as its looking with the Thermo rads is probably a bit over the edge... What's a good medium and what would the rest of you suggest about north and south bridge cooling? Air should probably do it fine, but I heard that the wc is better and the south bridge on the evga 680i board does get smoldering hot when you start to oc it, so was going to wc it just to be on the safe side...

Oh just read the thing about the rads james posted... Will they do more than enough of what I'm wanting to do if I put them in 2 seperate loops? Thing with 2 loops is I'm going to be worried about running out of room... Otherwise I can always slap in another pump, will be alot cheaper doing it with mid price range rads as opposed to rads 2-3x the price of those...

And sorry, one more thing... How many adapters and Stainless Steel Worm-Drive Hose Clamp (Wide Band w/Liner) do I need? And is there a premixed solution with the deionized water, right concentration of the anti-freeze, the anti-algae gunk and possibly a uv dye I can pick up so I don't have to worry about mixing my concentrations? Not at school where I can pick up some nice graduated cylinders and I'd prefer not to have to work on getting the right solution down if I can buy one premade... And are there special tubing cutters or will a nice knife/razor or scissors do the job?

right use the HR-05's on the NB/SB then go with the rads listed in james post above. those are good rads at not a high price like the blackice's or thermochill.

nlraley said:

That adds up to around $740... Isn't that a bit steep for what I'm looking at?

Click to expand...

Think he sort of went over budget in that quote. After he said the budget increased to $600, people started spending his money real quick. The Swiftech rads are the best bang for the buck.

batboy said:

Think he sort of went over budget in that quote. After he said the budget increased to $600, people started spending his money real quick. The Swiftech rads are the best bang for the buck.

Click to expand...

yea he went with the costly rads though.. we could do this setup under $600... actually i should have looked at this differently... this will drive the cost down.
rad>cpu>rad>gpu>pump is the order i would go, then no need for dual pumps but still dual rads.
these are the rads james was talking about not the costly thermochills he selected.
triple
http://www.sidewindercomputers.com/swmcqupo3xbl.html
dual
http://www.sidewindercomputers.com/swmcqupo2x.html

no need for shourds on those rads i showed.

yes my first thought was 2 pumps for each loop, no watercooling on the NB's though, stick with air.

he'd only need one of those tripple rads.

Evil, now that's a very reasonable setup that you listed and it should perform great. If he's lacking room for a triple and a double, then maybe two doubles?

batboy said:

Evil, now that's a very reasonable setup that you listed and it should perform great. If he's lacking room for a triple and a double, then maybe two doubles?

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yea i dont see a need for a triple on a 95watt cpu even if oced a little. i would say go triple if he wanted to use low cfm fans to make the system overall quieter.

given that the overal surface area even with 2 dualfan rads would be much better then one triple cooling the cpu/gpu. he could save more then by going with 2 duals and not lose any coolling what so ever. this would just affect down the road cooling as in if he went with higher wattage cpu/gpu.