Water cooling Q's (Shrouds and waterblocks)

Hi Everyone,

This is my first post so I would like to say Hi!

So I recently purchased a rig:
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 2.83GHZ 1333FSB 12M 45nm
Zalman CPU Cooler CNPS9700NT (Intel775&AMD AM2/939/754)
ASUS P5Q Deluxe (CF,4DDR2,RAID,1394a,2GbLAN)
4 GIG Crucial Ballistix Tracer 4-4-4-12 DDR2
Seagate 500GB 7200RPM 32MB Cache SATA (ST3500320AS)
1.44MB Floppy Drive (Black)
Samsung 20X SH-S203B SATA DVD+/-RW (Black)
ASUS EAH4870X2/HTDI/2G (DDR5 2GB,,2DVI-I,HDTV,HDMI)
Thermaltake Armor VA8003SWA Full Tower & 25cm Fan (Silver)
Thermaltake Toughpower 1000W With 140mm Fan (W0132RU)

Knowing the 4870x2 is notorious for running hot even at idle, I've decided I want to go water cooling. Just so we all know this is my first water cooling attempt(I'm excited!)

I just purchased a Black Ice GTX360, but I am unable to find a shroud anywhere, I've searched most of the websites I know and did a search in google but came up with nothing.

Do these shrouds even exist or will I have to fab one myself?

The last piece I have to purchase is the water block (mostly because everywhere I go they are out of stock). I was going to go with Danger Den's DD-4870-X2 Water Block, I was wondering if there are any other option for a water block for the 4870x2?

Thanks for the help,
Justin

EDIT: $$$ is not a factor for me

Here's what I've got so far:
Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Paste
ArctiClean Thermal Cleaner
Tygon 3603 Tubing 1/2
3xYate Loon Medium Speed Fan: D12SM-12
Swiftech MCP655 12V Industrial Water Cooling Pump 1/2IN Barbs
Swiftech MCRES-MICRO Clear HI-FLOW Water Cooling Reservoir 3/8IN & 1/2IN Barb Fittings

Any advice would be great for a rookie at water cooling. I've printed the guild from here so I've got the reading material.

oh dayum money is not a factor huh buy a dell! haha jk

i would put the cpu in one loop and the card in another... better cooling plus money isnt a factor right? lol

as for the fans do you mind the noise? i would get faster fans to maximize my cooling but its up to you

there are some universal shrouds some where i just cant find them right now....

as for the block have you tried looking at the ek blocks?

You shouldn't need a shroud on that GTX as it won't add much efficiency since the fan mount is raised off the fins a bit already. But you might gain more efficiency going with 6 fans in a push pull config on it and you could get away with running 6 lower cfm quieter fans instead of 3 higher cfm noisy fans. As far as 4870X2 waterblocks go, the only one that I know of designed for that vid card so far is the DD one.

Thanks for the comments and advice, I order 3 more fans for the push & pull method on my rad. Hopefully the items are in by next week so I can get to work on this.

What kind of water additives are popular? I ordered some MCT-40 but am open to other/better options. Zerex seems to be popular and Swiftech's name is thrown around a lot.

probably the best solution is just plain destilled water and some algae killing stuff ( can't remember the name of it atm)

Use distilled water, and 4-6 drops of povidone iodine in your loop. Ive been using that for a while now, with no issues whatsoever.

I have to agree strongly about just distilled water and Petras Biocide. You need no more and I can't stress it stronly enuff. No time to say it for the 50'th time or link you to the 100's of threads I have read in the last year about wierd liquids and problems.

Here is the poop. Water by itself is one of the best heat pulling fluids in the world, unless you want to pay for exotic $50+ gallon stuff that will kill you if you breath it. You want a good WC loop? Expect to spend close to $300 for a Good WC CPU/NB loop or stay home. Thats's every clamp, wiretie, hole cutting tool, pump etc. Otherwise stay air. A great Air case, geat heatsinks, great case management saves $100's over water. And almost as good temps. WC gives somewhat better temps and less noise.

Distilled water is used because it has no additives, is pure, and actually is no less conductive than the stuff others sell. Marketing, please remember peeps will write anything to sell, and the FDA doesn't regulate (like even they do a good job) WC liquids. Some still use a bit of antifreeze, needed due to dissimilar materials. Not an issue with any quality WC setup. Some use other odd things because they heard it works. Wrong. Big wrong.

If you spend a day search And I mean solid 24 hours, on all the major WC forums, I can say with confidence all the advanced WC peeps who just want ease of use, no hassles will use water and biocide. And you will find tons of wierd problems peeps have with other fluids.

You want bling and color? Buy colored tubing, it really looks neato. I myself use Tygon silver tubing. Bland silver grey. It has a 'bit' of silver coating on the inside. Silver is a great biocide. My tubing was 6x times the cost of masterclear tubing. At 10 ft not a major increase really. I use Petras PT-Nuke too. 3 drops in my loop is all thats needed. My loop has no color, no bling, nothing.

My water is xtal clear, my blocks have no growth, my res has no ugly foam, my system is 100% top cooling effiency for waht I have. I redo my loop, takes a full day every 6 months.

Unless your a builder who needs the bling, stick with a solid WC setup.....

Play with crayons and color on your next adventure, once you WC there is no going back to Air.....except to breath.

Start smart, simple.

And it ****us me off to incredible depths about the marketing hypes about fluids. Peeps will buy anything if it's posted in a quick crapo retail website that such xx fuid is the freakin bomb. They are such retail marketing pros/assboogers for even saying it's the bomb when it's been a gunk building POS for the last 3 years.

Distilled water, iodine, and some algaecide gets my vote. Keep it simple ...!

Another thing to think about too here: If you go with the silver tubing that Conumdrum uses or use the black Tygon like I use, well they limit how much light can come in contact with your coolant. And algae needs light to grow. So no light getting to the fluid=no aglae growth.

Just a thought for you to ponder.

very well put conumdrum

i gotta admit though i wish colored water didnt leave gunk in the blocks/rad