Old Skool OC'er Needs some Advice on first WC setup

Hello everyone!

Its time for me to take the plunge and setup my first water cooled rig. My budget isn't huge but I want to get quality parts that will last. I am water cooling for performance gains and overclocking.

System specs are in my sig. I figured I should try water cooling since my case (CM stacker 832) has 2 available places to mount radiator/s. one 120mm spot up top and a 2x120mm spot on the bottom. I want my cpu/nb cooled (is sb cooling a necessary?) with the option to add a gfx card in the future to the setup.

I have a good technical background so I'm not too worried about setting it up I just need the help picking quality parts. Thanks in advance guys!

what is your budget? Are you willing to cut up your case to make room for bigger badder rads?

budget is about $200 more if necessary

im willing to cut up the case but for only a cpu/nb setup 2x120 or even 120 is good right?

TheKarmakazi said:

I have a good technical background...
'''just need the help picking quality parts.

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So you're asking people that may/may not have "a good technical background." for advice?

You're going to get answers like "Im havea ________ (fill in the blank) and I buyed a ________ (fill in the blank) and it werks gud. !!!!!!!!
...no system specs, no before after temps, no idle/load temps, basically just gibberish.


And an example of the type of info you'll need, read these first:
A good waterkit is designed from the ground up to match the requirements of the system that it's cooling. This means you need to know what heatload you need to cool, and then need to know what minimum spec is required to cool that heatload. This l'il guide gives you a very rough guide on how to do it based on information available. From: http://www.over-clock.com/ivb/index.php?showtopic=20277
http://www.thermochill.com/PATesting/
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=151627 http://translate.google.com/transla...&article_id=222&langpair=de|en&hl=en&ie=UTF-8
And, of course, the stickies above.

Your motherboard has connecting S/B, N/B, and mosfet heatsinks with heatpipes. I would just watercool the CPU and make sure you have adequate case air flow. Besides, most N/B blocks just restrict the loop. S/B definitely don't need watercooled.

I like Swifttech stuff, works great for me. Can't go wrong with the following: Apogee GT CPU block, MCP655 pump, MCRES-MICRO reservoir (or T-line), MCR220-QP 2X120mm radiator, and 8-10 feet of 7/16" or 1/2" tubing.

billb said:

So you're asking people that may/may not have "a good technical background." for advice?

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Lol! I only meant that you dont have to dumb things down for me.

Thanks for the reply tho, Ive read the stickies, and I will now check out those threads you posted.

The heat that I will need to dissapate would be a e8400 pushed beyond 4.4 or so (I can do 4.0 on air so im guessing I dont need an absolutely diesel loop.

batboy said:

I like Swifttech stuff, works great for me. Can't go wrong with the following: Apogee GT CPU block, MCP655 pump, MCRES-MICRO reservoir (or T-line), MCR220-QP 2X120mm radiator, and 8-10 feet of 7/16" or 1/2" tubing.

Click to expand...

What size tubing do you recommend? Since I will only be cooling the cpu (also potentially 1 gfx card later on) should I go with the smaller size (does 1/16" make a huge difference)??

No, tubing size is covered in the stickies.

The 7/16" is a little easier to work with if you have tight bends in your loop, but it is harder to slip onto the barbs. Once on, it'll almost never leak or loosen up.