[littleswede]

Hi, I'm new to water cooling...I will be upgrading my rig to a Asus Striker Extreme nForce 680i SLI 4DDR2....a Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 2.67GHz 4MB FSB1066 Boxed Corsair XMS2-6400 TWIN2X2048-6400C4 4-4-4-12 Xtreme 2x1024MB
I also have 2x nvidia geforce's 7800gtx's

I want to water cool the cpu and BOTH grafik cards and the mainboard as well if its necessary...

Price.. I don't mind paying if it does the job well...

so give me a list to go shopping for... I'm quite handy as far as building pc's go so I think I'll manage this without a problem...
thanks

[Alien1099]

Get:

Pump - Swiftech/Danger Den D5 or DDC or DDC+ pump (they are all manufactured by Laing)
CPU block - Swiftech Storm, Apogee GT, or Dtek Fusion
GPU Block - Danger Den Maze 4 low profile, or DD or EK full coverage blocks
Reservoir - Eddie K cylinder res (optional, you can use a T-line instead, but the EK res is very nice)
Radiator - Thermochill PA 120.3 radiator (pretty much the best you can get especially for low db applications)
Fans - Yate Loon (nice quiet fans with decent CFM)
Tubing - Masterkleer 1/2 or 7/16 ID (much cheaper than and just as good as Tygon)
Clamps

For coolant use distilled water with maybe 10% antifreeze (I use Pentosin blue) for anti corrosion properties and color if you like. Be sure to use a few drops of povidone iodine to kill any bacteria in the loop too.

And you're good to go.

[Springbok]

That's a good list Alien gave you, you might want to add a fillport from Danger Den depending on how your reservoir is mounted. What case are you going to be using? If you're looking at getting a new case, the best for watercooling include the Silverstone TJ07, Cooler Master Stacker 830/832, or the Thermaltake Armor.

[millerioux]

Originally Posted by Alien1099

Get:

Pump - Swiftech/Danger Den D5 or DDC or DDC+ pump (they are all manufactured by Laing)
CPU block - Swiftech Storm, Apogee GT, or Dtek Fusion
GPU Block - Danger Den Maze 4 low profile, or DD or EK full coverage blocks
Reservoir - Eddie K cylinder res (optional, you can use a T-line instead, but the EK res is very nice)
Radiator - Thermochill PA 120.3 radiator (pretty much the best you can get especially for low db applications)
Fans - Yate Loon (nice quiet fans with decent CFM)
Tubing - Masterkleer 1/2 or 7/16 ID (much cheaper than and just as good as Tygon)
Clamps

For coolant use distilled water with maybe 10% antifreeze (I use Pentosin blue) for anti corrosion properties and color if you like. Be sure to use a few drops of povidone iodine to kill any bacteria in the loop too.

And you're good to go.

A VERY GOOD SUGGESTION.
HOWEVER, THE POSSIBILITIES ARE LIMITLESS...

PRACTICAL ALTERNATIVE:
Find the largest store near you (or online), and go mental on every component (stick with swiftech and dangerden) from waterblocks to radiator passing through to coolant(ready-made = less hassle) and tubing. don't forget to buy LOW CFM fans (unless u like ur system SUPER COOL BUT LOUD). That should definitely cool everything just fine

VOILA!

[Otter]

Can't argue with Alien's list, but I can elaborate a bit.

Pump. The DDC+ will out-pump the D5 in most loops, and is quieter to boot. The 10W DDC might be a better choice if you're seriously into silence, but you'd definitely want to modify the top for greater flow. There are at least hints that the current aftermarket tops make the pump less reliable, but you can modify the original top yourself and keep the impeller chamber more or less stock.
http://systemcooling.com/mcp350_mod-01.html

Radiator: The PA120.3 is fine rad. I'm not sure it's $100 better than the BIP3, though.

Fans: Yate Loon D12SL-12 or the new D14SM-12 (or D14SL-12, if you can find it). If you want near silence at idle but want to be able to crank up your fans to moderate whoosh now and then, the D12SM-12 is a good middle of the road fan. It undervolts well and doesn't mind PWM, but it can't really be considered quiet at 12v. If you want RPM monitoring with any of these fans, check the vendors specs carefully. Yate Loon makes all their fans both with and without the RPM wire, and you should assume a fan does not have it unless it's stated otherwise.

[Moto7451]

Originally Posted by millerioux

A VERY GOOD SUGGESTION.
HOWEVER, THE POSSIBILITIES ARE LIMITLESS...

PRACTICAL ALTERNATIVE:
Find the largest store near you (or online), and go mental on every component (stick with swiftech and dangerden) from waterblocks to radiator passing through to coolant(ready-made = less hassle) and tubing. don't forget to buy LOW CFM fans (unless u like ur system SUPER COOL BUT LOUD). That should definitely cool everything just fine

VOILA!

I'd have to disagree with your advice. Getting the top of the line, most expensive parts (what I'm interpreting "go mental" as) does not always guarantee good performance. For example a Black Ice Extreme or Black Ice GT non Stealth will work poorly with a low speed, low pressure fan. They may be more expensive than the Black Ice Pro, Black Ice GT Stealths or Swiftech Radiators, but they will not work as well.

Also the price of pre-made coolant is extremely cost ineffective. A Gallon of Fluid XP costs $140 before shipping and sales tax. A Gallon of Distilled water costs 99¢ and a liter of Pentosin is $10 or you can get small bottles for ~$4 from Petra's tech shop. They're just as nonconductive for just as long.

I say that you follow Alien's proposed setup as a guideline. You'll be very happy with the performance. If you find the cost high, substitute the radiator for a Black Ice Pro series radiator, stick with a T Line, and go for either the Apogee GT or Fusion depending on what's cheaper. Also a good way to save money is to stay away from full cover blocks. While cooling the memory and VRMs may help performance slightly if at all, they rarely work between generations of cards - or for that matter between the small upgrades such as a switch in memory technology or speed grade. An example of this was the move from the 6800 to 7800 where the major difference was the memory chip height (the newer Samsung GDDR3 chips were shorter, requiring a new block to be purchased or shims to be used). An additional $100 in component cost every year or so (depending on your upgrade cycle) can be very annoying.

[voigts]

I echo Alien's list. The only suggestion I might add is that you can use a Swiftech microres. It is a good res.

If you want the best with the lowest noise, go with a Thermochill PA120.3. The next best rads to Thermochill are the Swiftech MCR rads. I would go with the Swiftech before the Black Ice rads.

[4od]

I have two things to say...

Don't get the storm, while its basically the best block around for single cores, the apogee (gt or regular) has been proven to have similar or better results with dual/quad cores.

If you have time/energy/initiative/bravery, its pretty easy to make a reasonably powerful but SILENT system, with the only noise being from the pump. The easiest way to do this is to just put a submersible pump in a five-gallon bucket full to the brim with water. Its completely silent, and costs about ten bucks, but the performance is comprable to a 120.1 rad with a low cfm fan.

I have experimented with larger quantities of water (a laundry basket, and later a platstic garbage can) and have had good results, but the garbage can tipping over was a big fear for me, so i stopped using it and reverted to the laundry basket. The performance of the laundry basket was like a 120.2 with reasonable fans, but the garbage can performed beautifully, almost as well as my bong cooler, with water temps only 3-4 degrees over ambient.

I have my temps from various attempts lying in a spreadsheet somewhere, i'll get them at some point

Happy Cooling

note: all temps/performance was with a C2D e6400 and 3.2ghz at 1.3v, a 7900 gs at 575/1600, an old style Apogee, and some **** vid card block i got for 10 bucks from a friend

[littleswede]

thanks everyone this has been a great help...

I have just 1 question what is the best way to connect together to 7800gtx cards when water cooling because it seems that a certain amount of the cooling effect is lost when runnind sli is there a way around this..?

thanks again everyone..

[billb]

I second the suggesstion on the Apogee for dual cores.

You might consider:
Iwaki MD20RZT (high pressure) punp. The most expensive, but nothing moves more water under higher pressure. But the with an Appogee amd Maxe 4 blocks you don't really need high pressure so the benefits would be incramental.

Instead of fans on the rad, look into a blower. At equivalent CFMs, much higher air pressurs than fans and hence they move more air through the rad. They're also quieter than high CFM fans at equivalent CFMs.

[Otter]

Actually, the Storm works quite well with AMD's dual cores. The 90nm dies aren't that big, and the new 65nm dual cores are only 126mm². With Intel's more spread-out design, though, I agree the Apogee would be superior, and even more so with their quads.