Newbie Questions

Well as the title suggests I have a few questions. I put the thread here because most of them revolve around my goal of building a custom water-cooled computer (every other question I had I found answers for after some research).

Background: While I've never actually built a computer from the ground-up before (much less built a custom cooling loop), I've been enthusiastic about my interest in computer hardware for my whole life. A project of building a whole computer from parts has always been a little dream of mine, ever since I was what, five? Yeah that. So, while I admit I'm new, I'm not completely in the dark (and I don't think I'm biting-off more than I can chew). I won't be making any really stupid mistakes like running a machine without a CPU heatsink (because, you know, that'd be...well...really dumb), or not doing a test-build outside the case, or a leak test once it's all done.

So that said, I still have a few questions that I can't seem to find any really solid answers for.

Discrete GPU PCBs and Manufacturers

I'll preface this by saying that I'm going to get an nVidia card. (There's no debate on that. I have a pile of reasons built on personal experience with both AMD and nVidia GPUs and hell would have to freeze over before I got an AMD one.) My question is...how the hell do I make sure that the PCB used will be compatible with a particular block? I get that pretty much all water blocks are built around the reference design, and that from what I can tell variations are less of a problem with nVidia cards than they are with AMD ones, but is there any way to tell, with absolute certainty, that the PCB is the reference one? I know the risk of it being different is pretty low if you aren't dumb (like expecting ASUS' CU cards to work), and if the memory configuration is the same, but beyond that I'm at a loss. The best one could hope for is visual inspection, but that requires the card. Catch 22. Unless one can rely on EKWB's compatibility tool to be a good guide for whether or not cards will work, even for other water blocks (by making the assumption that EKWB's block is based on the reference design, and say XSPC's block is also based on the reference design, then if EKWB's block will work with a card, so will XSPC's). It's A=B=C then A=C logic but I just want to check that I'm not making a mistake here.

[Removed: Questions about manufacturing; bottom line is get cards that are overclocked already and the binning is going to have been much better, and they'll probably overclock much better as a result. Duh. Why did I ask this.]

Edit: Forgot about this, but, thermal pads. By their very nature they tend to have less thermal conductivity than thermal compound, at the very least because of the adhesive. Soooo, assuming one were happy to deal with the extra work, is there a reason it'd be a bad idea to also use a thermal compound on the other components that a block is going to come into contact with (the parts that the block manufacturer usually says to apply the pads they ship the block with)? The only reason I can think of is if the chips the pad needs to be in contact with rise to different heights above the PCB, though by the look of it, that's not entirely common. My goal here is to keep as many major components as cool as possible, to extend their life as long as possible, so if this is one way to squeeze a few extra degrees out of a card's components it'd be worth the effort.

Pumps and Controllers

So I'd like to use Koolance's CTR-CD1224 controller. Fan ramps? Pump RPM? Coolant temps and dynamic ramping based on it? YES PLEASE! My only question there is...do I need to use a Koolance pump, or could I toss-in any other 12V or 24V pump instead? This isn't such a big concern because I'll probably use a Koolance pump anyway (and yes I know they're mostly based on Laing pumps anyway and just rebranded as Koolance or Swiftech or what-have-you), but it'd be good to know for in future after the build is done when it comes to upgrades or replacements.

Koolance Temp and Flow Sensors

[Removed: I figured-out a way to do what I want.]

XSPC EX Radiators

Anyone know what the frack the fins-per-inch is on those things? I mean, it'd be fine and dandy to just get some high static pressure fans and be done with it, but their website has no info on this.

"Why the hell are you even bothering with all this?"

Star Citizen. 'Nuff said.

Maybe someone can clear me up on this too. But to my understanding "discrete" GPU are the smaller based ones like the GTX 750/ti and not the full length ones like a 780/ti.

Also to my understanding reference design cards should all be the same layout, just with the manufacture's name on the box. The difference comes to when the manufacture modifies the cards power phases for their overclock edition cards or "flagship editions" (sometimes includes moving the vRAM around). If you look further into EKWB full block GPU coolers, they also make them for non-reference cards too that wont work with reference cards.

One thing that you are lacking to inform is what card are you going for?

My understanding is that discrete just means separate. That is, it isn't integrated with the system (e.g. the motherboard or CPU). So any GPU stuck on a card and then slotted into a bus on the motherboard would be a discrete GPU.

As for card (kinda herp-derp for not mentioning this): probably a 780 (maybe a Ti if I can swing it but the price difference versus the rather meagre performance improvement really isn't selling me). However, that's very much subject to change. My goal is to have it built for next year. In that time my plans will probably change if new hardware becomes available (what with DX12, nVidia's new cards and G-SYNC on the horizon), or if I decide I need to save some money (though I know enough not to skimp on the case, PSU, or mobo, and only to skimp on the CPU and GPU in equal measure to avoid bottlenecking).

As for the EKWB coolers, eehhhh. Meh. I would prefer to have a true full-cover block. XSPC makes a rather nice looking one (backplate separate, but the point is that I can get that block here easily whereas I haven't found a Canadian reseller for Swiftech's). Partly for looks, mostly because it'll protect the device from (minor) impacts. I see EKWB also has black, full-cover blocks, with backplates, and they're a tad cheaper. So might be worth it. I do plan to use a proper coolant (based on this EKWB report) so don't anticipate any nickel plating being a huge issue. I may still have to go with XSPC though because I'm in Canada, so I'm already looking at import costs and duty for some of the Koolance equipment. The price difference between the pretty LED-lit XSPC block and EKWB block is only $10 here too.

I suppose I'm also a little confused about GPU Boost 2.0. I mean, great, you can set a target temperature, and liquid cooling makes temperature far less of an issue. But how the heck does that interact with the quality of the components? It's kinda obvious that that's going to matter, and you might just end-up with a crap chip that doesn't want to go all that high in clock speed, or a real godly piece of silicon that overclocks to the moon.

Edit: I also had a question about thermal pads that I forgot about. So I've added that under the GPU section.

Dedicated GPU means that the GPU is separate and not running off of the CPU.

When it comes to the cooling parts you can always mix and match .

I feel you on the plan changing. Just be careful though if you keep waiting for the "next" part to come out, you'll always be waiting haha. G-sync is technically out, they do have a monitor mod for it but it is like 200$ (specific monitor) and the next monitor that is coming out that natively supports it "should" be next month (though these will be expensive).

I haven't even built my computer yet, so I cant shed light on the overclocking/gpu boost 2.0. I can say though that the non-reference cards are hand picked and tested for their overclock ability to ensure that components are of good quality.

Discrete/Dedicated means the same thing in this instance.

GPU Boost 2.0 just means it will throttle the card up to a certain clock provided the temperature is below a certain point. For example, my 270X has a default 3d clock of 1150mhz, as long as the temperature is below X it will kick it up to 1180mhz when running 3d applications.

tvol EKWB has a nice feature on their website that lets you see what waterblocks work on which cards, whether they are reference PCB's or non- http://www.coolingconfigurator.com/. Don't confuse reference PCB with reference cooler. Very few manufacturers go through the time and money to redesign the PCB, but some of them do, for the reasons Galded stated above.

Don't worry, I didn't have that confused. My thoughts were more on the actual quality of the parts used, and the binning process. Not sure how much that'll matter. (And as for EKWB, yeah the configurator is nice. I used it a few times to look-up compatibility for cards I was considering.)

If there's one bad thing about Apple, it's that I've been spoiled with a gorgeous 27" IPS display. Probably means I'll get the ROG monitor ASUS announced, regardless of price. >.< (Less than 2560x1440 just looks tiny to me now.)

As to mixing-and-matching, that's exactly what I plan on doing. Koolance's pumps and controllers appeal to me most for functionality and their fittings for aesthetics, and I'll probably get an XSPC rad because it's easiest for me to get them here. The things up in the air are blocks, between EKWB and XSPC, though again the aesthetic of XSPC I find more appealing. (And since the price differences are marginal and from what I've found so are any performance differences, I guess all that really leaves is aesthetic. Unless there's absolutely no way to disassemble the XSPC blocks for cleaning some years down the line.)

Lights are cool on xspc cpu blocks and gpu blocks! ASUS ROG monitor isn't going to feature IPS, but a high quality TN panel, unless that has changed too since I lasted checked up on. I haven't been spoiled on anything big like that, so tri-monitor set up with 24in 1080s will be an amazing experience for me .

XSPC EX Radiators

Anyone know what the frack the fins-per-inch is on those things? I mean, it'd be fine and dandy to just get some high static pressure fans and be done with it, but their website has no info on this.

Click to expand...

Check out Martin's Liquid Lab in general, and this review. Looks like about 19 fpi (a moderate fin density) for the 120.3 version.

Thanks. Guess that settles that. Any halfway decent static pressure fan should do.

The only 2 stores I've heard from fellow canadian members is Dazmode (Will have more of a water cooling selection versus the others) and NCIX. Budget permitting you could go outside canada and order from Performance-pcs and Xoxide as I've read they will ship directly to you apparently. Possiblly frozencpu as well but not sure.

http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=645051

an excelent thread made a while ago containing a wide collection of outlets sorted by country they are located in