First time WC, looking to go extreme.

Was forwarded here by a nice person who goes by the name of Conundrum. So here I go.

Hey, I'm looking to assemble an extreme water cooling system, however it will be my first time to WC a system, and I only built my first PC a couple of weeks ago.

For my next PC, I will of purchased all the parts and be ready to build it in a few months. Which means I have plenty of time to research and decide on parts.

My issue is that I'm so new I have absolutely no idea what to get, if I was looking to do some mediocre cooling I would just buy a swiftech H20 220, but I'm going to do some hard overclocking on my i7 920 D0. As for my GPUs, they will be high end, likely GTX 480's or 5870/5970, but as I said I won't be deciding on anything for a couple of months so it's not final.

In the end I want something that will cool my system exceptionally well, and look like this.

http://forum.corsair.com/forums/showpost.php?p=419419&postcount=18

or

http://forum.xcpus.com/mods/21121-titan-dual-loop-obsidian-800d-watercooled-system-2.html#post353831

Either one is good, and the first link has a list of parts he used, although he did some modding to the case I might be unwilling to do.

So yeah, you probably get what I'm asking for now, and I'd really appreciate any input

As for a list of my PC components, I'm looking at:

i7 920 D0
GTX 480 / 5870 / 5970
ASUS P6X58D
Obsidian 800D

The case if very good for water cooling I've heard, and looks wonderful, If for some reason I get the GTXs, I will really want to WC them as I've heard they've very loud on stock fans. I want to OC my CPU as much as possible without having to raise the fans on the radiator to a noticeably high noise (pretty much don't want it disturbing me at all).

Thank you for reading and I look forward to your input

EDIT: Is it really necessary to add waterblocks to my mobo? I will be OCing the RAM, CPU and maybe GPU. What do I gain from cooling the mobo?
EDIT: When should I test for leaks?

First, Welcome to the Forums!
i7 920 will require a minimum of triple rad to keep it at good temps at 4.0ghz!
1-gtx480/5870/5970 will require a minimum of double rad.
XT/Heatkiller 3.0/Supreme ?? dont know the full name of this one...
Thermochill 120.3 + 120.2 (10% more perfo than swiftec 2xmore costy)
Swiftech mcr 320 + 220 (around 100$) for the 2.
For Fan i would suggest Gentle Typhoon 1850rpm, really silent fan plug them on a fan controller to reduce speed/noise.

Question,,, for the edit part
1- Watercooling Intel chipset (mobo) is not neccessary, these dont run hot at all.
Ram is not neccessary to watercool, its just add restriction to the loop. buy a nice ram cooler (fan)
2- First u assembly everything in ur computer. Cutting tubing pluging everything to the barbs ( tubing to barbs ) following this res-pump-rad-cpu-res or res-pump-cpu-rad-res either work fine. When you leak testing UNPLUG EVERYTHING!!!!Put a lot of paper towels where it could leak, if its leak a little tight the clamps / drain , remove tubing tight the barbs if its the barbs that is leaking. 1-2days leak testing to be sure. Please dont leak test during the night...

Grosjambon said:

First, Welcome to the Forums!
i7 920 will require a minimum of triple rad to keep it at good temps at 4.0ghz!
1-gtx480/5870/5970 will require a minimum of double rad.
XT/Heatkiller 3.0/Supreme ?? dont know the full name of this one...
Thermochill 120.3 + 120.2 (10% more perfo than swiftec 2xmore costy)
Swiftech mcr 320 + 220 (around 100$) for the 2.
For Fan i would suggest Gentle Typhoon 1850rpm, really silent fan plug them on a fan controller to reduce speed/noise.

Question,,, for the edit part
1- Watercooling Intel chipset (mobo) is not neccessary, these dont run hot at all.
Ram is not neccessary to watercool, its just add restriction to the loop. buy a nice ram cooler (fan)
2- First u assembly everything in ur computer. Cutting tubing pluging everything to the barbs ( tubing to barbs ) following this res-pump-rad-cpu-res or res-pump-cpu-rad-res either work fine. When you leak testing UNPLUG EVERYTHING!!!!Put a lot of paper towels where it could leak, if its leak a little tight the clamps / drain , remove tubing tight the barbs if its the barbs that is leaking. 1-2days leak testing to be sure. Please dont leak test during the night...

Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply

Okay thank you for the suggestions, are those the best radiator's I can get? and why would getting those fans in particular and lowering the RPM be better then getting a fan that naturally spins at 1k RPM?

It looks like I can only fit a triple rad and a single rad in the Obsidian 800D, maybe I should do some careful case modding so I can keep everything inside.

What thickness should I be looking for in tubing? What's the difference in looks of the tubing when you have coloured tubes and clear coolant, or clear tubes and coloured coolant?

So will I be needing one Res/Rad/Tubing/Block/Pump for my GPU, and another set of those for my CPU? Or does anything share any components?

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2637/3977127912_f8f8c212a3_b.jpg

That's probably how I'll fit my rads.

Ty again

EDIT: http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2492/3972969653_4522c07e2d_b.jpg

What's the thing he has in his lowest drive bay called?

EDIT: How do I get shiny/glowing tubing like I see on many peoples rigs?

The thing in the lowest drive bay is called a fan controller and specifically it's the Scythe Kaze Server

In regard to your last edit question, you either have to get:

--UV Reactive tubing w/ Distilled water + Biocide (Recommended)
or
--UV Reactive Coolant w/ clear tubing.

Coolant is never recommended on these forums because Distilled Water + a Biocide performs just as well (sometimes better) as a coolant and coolants can cause unnecessary build up in your tubes:

Look at post #12 in this thread for the buildup I'm talking about

Gwiggles said:

The thing in the lowest drive bay is called a fan controller and specifically it's the Scythe Kaze Server

In regard to your last edit question, you either have to get:

--UV Reactive tubing w/ Distilled water + Biocide (Recommended)
or
--UV Reactive Coolant w/ clear tubing.

Coolant is never recommended on these forums because Distilled Water + a Biocide performs just as well (sometimes better) as a coolant and coolants can cause unnecessary build up in your tubes:

Look at post #12 in this thread for the buildup I'm talking about

Click to expand...

Thanks, so it's best to get coloured tubing. How does the UV reaction work? And are there any fan controllers that can controller 5 fans or will I need 2 fan controllers?

Will any fan work with those fan controllers? What are some of the best low noise fans out?

They are 6fan controler. I can't link any since im not an **expert in that domain** I am using a switch to control my fan 5v/7v/12v.
UV Colored tubing work with UV CCLS (UV cold cathode) I dont know about other colors, im using red and when under UV its look more Orange than redish... (but only happen with red colors)
Here is a pic I made.

Fan controllers.for 6 fans? Easy! And most quality fan controllers have enough wattage to allow daisy chaining in parellel for fans. For example, my fan controller has 9 fans on it with 4 channels. Channel 1 has 3 fans wired together for one 120x3 radiator. Channel 2 is the same. Channel 3 has two 92 mm fans for blowing on my Mobo. Channel 4 has one 120 for hard drive cooling.

So yea, easily done. Got to Jabtech and look under fan, fan control. Sunbeam reobus and the extreme model. Cheap and works like a champ.

Best low noise fans. Scyth gentle typhoons, sold in 3 flavors. The 1450 ones are great, I use the 1850 and turn them down. On a budget? Yate Loon fans. Very very popular and for horizontal mounting (sleeve bearings) they cannot be beat. The mediums for a low FPI rad are perfect.

So I know what tubes and fans to get but what are some really good reservoirs, pumps and anything else I need?

EDIT: also, do I need 2 pumps if I'm separately cooling my CPU and GPU? or do I really need two of everything

You go two loops, yes you do. There is a res for the MCP355 or the D5 pump that allows two seperate loops, the res is fits in a 5.25 slot. and the pumps mount on the back or bottom.

I was hoping you kinda had picked out pumps, resses, blocks etc already. I guess I can hold your hand as we get you watercooled.

Get TWO MCP355 pumps. TWO XSPC Restops for the pumps. That covers two pumps and the reses. You'll need barbs for the pumps.

And yea you need clamps, hose, maybe some swivel 90 degree fittings, liquid, biocide for the liquid.

Lets start simple, look up the pumps and restops I mentioned. You can see the pumps in this log, read and scroll down to pics of the pumps.

http://www.overclockers.com/annual-water-cooling-cleaning-rebuild-journal/

I'm not nice, I'm a demanding teacher of watercooling and expect solid research from my students! Grr Give me 35 last posts here read from beginning to end.

Conumdrum said:

You go two loops, yes you do. There is a res for the MCP355 or the D5 pump that allows two seperate loops, the res is fits in a 5.25 slot. and the pumps mount on the back or bottom.

I was hoping you kinda had picked out pumps, resses, blocks etc already. I guess I can hold your hand as we get you watercooled.

Get TWO MCP355 pumps. TWO XSPC Restops for the pumps. That covers two pumps and the reses. You'll need barbs for the pumps.

And yea you need clamps, hose, maybe some swivel 90 degree fittings, liquid, biocide for the liquid.

Lets start simple, look up the pumps and restops I mentioned. You can see the pumps in this log, read and scroll down to pics of the pumps.

http://www.overclockers.com/annual-water-cooling-cleaning-rebuild-journal/

I'm not nice, I'm a demanding teacher of watercooling and expect solid research from my students! Grr Give me 35 last posts here read from beginning to end.

Click to expand...

Don't worry I won't be building for another few months so I have plenty of time my only worry is picking things early before better things come out but that shouldn't be an issue with picking WC parts, only other PC components

Thanks for your post Im gunna do some more research now

EDIT: Is the Swiftech Apogee XT a good waterblock?
And how high of a OC do you think I can expect from a i7 D0 chip on a 24+2+2 phase power mobo, without going past 70C?

If you put a 120x3 on the chip you can get 4.3 or so, depends a lot on the chip, your ambient temps, and your ability to overclock. hehe, research.