A first watercooling...

I wanted to start a new thread, now that I've done a lot more reading than I'd originally realized there was to do. I've been lurking on the forums for the last week, all while reading various posts I was pointed at and trying to understand Delta-T and fan properties.

With all that.. I went back to the 5 retailers that Conumdrum recommends in his beginner's guide, and revamped my list.

My System
Case: Antec 1200 with 5 120mm Tri-cool fans and 1 200mm Big-Boy
Motherboard: Asus Rampage II Extreme (1366 X58)
Processor: i7 920 Bloomfield @ 2.66ghz
Graphics: EVGA GeForce GTX 260 Super-clocked
RAM: 6Gb Corsair Dominator (1600 speed)
Power: Corsair 1000W Modular (with extra 12v rail)


This will be a two-part upgrade. First, I'm replacing the GTX 260 with a 2Gb GTX 560 Super-clocked this week and adding another 6Gb RAM. Next is new cooling. I'm going to be putting in a single-pump single-loop. This is where I need advice...

Pump and Reservoir: Swiftech Maelstrom Dual Bay with a MCP35x

Radiators: Alphacool NexXos ST30 240mm and Alphacool NexXos UT60 240mm

CPU Block: XSPC Raystorm High-Performance Acetal

GPU Block: Watercool Heatkiller GPU-X3 GTX 560 Hole Edition

Other Stuff:
DangerDen's 1/2" - 3/4" UV Blue Dreamflex w/ tube-cutter
Anti-Microbial Silver Strip
Moonsoon Free-Center Compression 1/2" ID - 3/4" OD (Black)
Bitspower Matte Black 45 Degree G 1/4 Adapter
Bitspower Matte Black 90 Degree Dual Rotary G 1/4 Adapter

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Eventually, I'll be switching to a CoolerMaster Storm Stryker case and changing out the top and bottom stock fans for Gentle Typhoon AP-15's in push-pull. It's also got enough space to add another 120mm radiator which would be Alphacool NexXos UT60. All of this will be fit internally. Hopefully, this will all end up amazing looking.

Not a bad start.

Swiftech Maelstrom Dual Bay with a MCP35x Good

Either CPU block, temp diffs are so small now

GPU blocks. No they are not the same. Both are made by fully diff companies, one in Oregon, one in Germany.

Coil for tubing is a pain and does nothing except make the rig ugly and you have never tried to make it look right on tubing yet for spacing? It's evil.

PHN Nuke good.

You need just PHN or the silver strip. 4" is plenty at one place.

Your rad choice sucks. They are outdated rads, poor water flow rates, not a great thermal performer, and there are better choices. They were great in 2006 though.

Maybe head over to Martin And Skinnee's. Notice they don't even review that rad? It's that old and they didn't bother.

If you don't know about Martin and Skinnee, maybe this will help:

http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showpost.php?p=6489396&postcount=3

Fittings are your choice, you choose.

Ohh and make sure your GPU is reference or a full cover block will fit. GPUs change after release, many full cover GPU blocks will NOT FIT on later editions. Part of the game, get used to it.

Watercoolers buy top notch first types, WC makers can sell lots of blocks for the ref editions.

Some hokey company makes a better GPU and only sells xx, no watercoolers buy that card, so they don't make blocks. Cots a LOT of money to make/engineer a new block layout. No profit.

If you are still having a hard time trying to find a radiator that suits you, take a look here.

Hope this helps. Good luck.

And why watercool a 260? Not full cover for sure. It is worth less than the waterblock on ebay and you'll be upgrading the card in a year I'm sure if you game. Finding a 260 block for a 260... DD even makes one for that card?

Wow they do, but yours might be non-ref and it prolly won't fit, the Vregs and ram etc are placed diff. make sure.

I had DD's on my SLI 280s long ago, they make good blocks and nice well respected folks. I met them, great peeps, always treated me well when I got into the game long ago. In fact Skinnee used my two 280's for testing for liquid tests.

Conumdrum said:

And why watercool a 260?

Click to expand...

I'm switching to an EVGA GTX 560 and I'd like to have the whole system under water. That EVGA is supposed to fit, I found more than one review somewhere in which the person had the same card.

As for the radiators, I was actually going off that "Beginner's Guide" that you wrote. I thought I read that the Black Ice GT series was a set of nice radiators, but I'll go a-digging again for more info on radiators. It looks more like I'll end up with something like the XSPC RS360 or EX Coolstream XT or XTX.

Will get rid of the anti-kink coil, I thought it'd be easy to install while looking cool and being useful. And I can get away with just the one kill-coil and no biocide?

EDIT: Original post updated to reflect changes thus far. Thanks guys!

I didn't write that one. I agree, that's a better choice on rads. Careful on your choice of rad thickness, it can interfere with motherboards and other placements depending on your case choice and your mobo. We have lots and lots of builds documented here. And fan choice is important too. Look into that also.


Good to go on the GPU then. 120x4 is enough for you, if SLI later plan for 120x5.

I should be able to fit the 120.2 without an issue, but thanks for reminding me to check. As for fans, I was under the impression that I could get away with 2000rpm fans on one side of each radiator, at least for now. I'm looking into upgrading the whole case with something like a Gentle Typhoon fan so that I can reduce noise without losing any performance. The sound of the fans right now doesn't bother me.

I might put another 560 in there, but I'm not sure as of yet. So I wanted to plan for the just-in-case.

As to fittings, is there a specific type of barb I should use? I don't mind if they're color matched or not, but I've no idea what to even buy in that instance.

Ohh, the GT AP-15 fans are great. No one yet has beaten them. In fact once they came out, and peeps found out, they were hard to get, supplies ran out boom at the paces to buy them. It's calmed down, prices spiked but have come down. Great 120mm fans, high pressure, great user noise levels. I run mine at 1000 RPM off a controller.

Thats where you read user experiances and start your journey.

It's a hobby. I spent 3 months hanging out and learning before I made my first list.

Easy with no knowledge gain, buy Bitspower fittings, any color, and don't forget to plan for a few 45 or 90 degree fittings.

You can read about my thoughts in my build log in the stickies, I do mention the fittings and have a rebuild log there too.

I seemed to have stepped into this game a bit late but will try my best. I also have a antec 1200 case before I went H20 and chose to go with a 800D (budget permitted, meaning the CC didn't hit cap lawl ). For future reference, the way I see it is buy a case that you will wanna have for 5+ years for future upgrades or you will be adding more things to your loopb and for making room for rad or rads when adding new parts to the loops. I'll be honest, the antec with out alot of modifications will be a B**CH to work with and especially cable management. If you don't care about cosmetics and willing to modify the case than all power to ya brother and would like to see it once you're done. Don't get me wrong great case for ALL AIR and modded H20. Lots of great new cases that are affordable with more room for rad/cables etc nowadays. As for radiators, Hardware Labs (GTX (high rpm) / SR1 (Silent) <-- have that one) has sold me for now till another competitor slaps them around a bit. As for fans, AP-15s are the bad boys in the block but I'am going to wait for newer PWM fans as companies are some what started to switch to that signal. Great Res/combo from Swiftech as I'am thinking of going with that same res with the dual top as I already have the 2 35xs so I can clean up my look with less tubes everywhere and to allow more air-flow in my case. And as for fittings, I like Bitspower wether you pick compression or barbs. Overall your list looks good. If you care about performance and want a quiet system with good cooling, I would go with another case to cool off your CPU/GPU and add either 120.3 or 120.4 with that hardware you have stated and still have OCing room along with those AP-15 fans on the rads. Hope this helps.

P.S. - As Conumdrum says, its a hobby but to me I feel its part of my life and with out it I can't eat or sleep. I read alot and saw others builts to get an idea how I wanted to build mine and took about 9-12 months of reading and of course buying parts here and there till I got everything together.

Conumdrum said:

Great 120mm fans, high pressure, great user noise levels. I run mine at 1000 RPM off a controller.

Click to expand...

What exactly is a fan controller and how do they work? I mean, I've got variable front speed and LMH top and rear exhaust fans that are speed controlled but that's built into the case. How does one add a "fan controller" and dare I ask how complicated that can get... I haven't seen too much thus far in what I've read other than "I got one. It works."

Drathozark said:

What exactly is a fan controller and how do they work? I mean, I've got variable front speed and LMH top and rear exhaust fans that are speed controlled but that's built into the case. How does one add a "fan controller" and dare I ask how complicated that can get... I haven't seen too much thus far in what I've read other than "I got one. It works."

Click to expand...

Fan controller is just a little box with switches on it. Plugs into molex on the PSU, and you plug all the fans into the fan controller. Switches let you manually control the speed of the fan, dead simple.

Looks like your case has one built in though.

Knufire said:

Fan controller is just a little box with switches on it. Plugs into molex on the PSU, and you plug all the fans into the fan controller. Switches let you manually control the speed of the fan, dead simple.

Looks like your case has one built in though.

Click to expand...

Is that something that would take up a 5.25" bay? Because I'm guessing I'll eventually try to move to something like the GT AP-15's. But I definitely don't have the money right now.

I have a fan controller. It has 4 knobs. It has a PSU input plug for power. I have one knob connected to 3 fans on one rad, another knob for the second rad with 3 fans. Another knob for my mobo fans to blow on my mostfets etc, and the last knob for my single hard drive cooling fan.

You can see almost hundreds of choices on the many websites we use to buy stuff, also newegg etc. In the stickies is a list of stores you can buy stuff in whatever part of the world you are from.

It allows you to use good fans and control the speed to allow your needed cooling and noise levels you like. Almost like bread and butter in this business.

On the Home page of this website I can think of 4-6 fan controllers reviewed in the last 2 years.

I'll quote our GTXJack.

"P.S. - As Conumdrum says, its a hobby but to me I feel its part of my life and with out it I can't eat or sleep. I read alot and saw others builts to get an idea how I wanted to build mine and took about 9-12 months of reading and of course buying parts here and there till I got everything together."

Drathozark said:

Is that something that would take up a 5.25" bay? Because I'm guessing I'll eventually try to move to something like the GT AP-15's. But I definitely don't have the money right now.

Click to expand...

Yup, fits in a 5.25 bay, might run you $20-30.

Try Sidewinder pc if you're outside the US...you don't list your location. :/
You're pretty well backed up here, so that's the only thing I can help you with.

I would first go on youtube or the like and see videos of systems with H20 and Fan controllers and of course any other question you have or don't understand of a product so you can get confortable as to what you're getting yourself into. You seem confused as to what a fan controller was as the MB has its own fan controlling capabilities in the bios or via OS software (exp. speedfan, asus fan xpert) just to name a few and some other pricey ones from 3rd party (software+Hardware) like Corsair Link (still in beta stage imo) and Aquaero. There you can see where does what go and what is what and what it looks like etc etc. Don't be affraid of videos when just reading . I remember watching just a ton of videos/pictures getting the feel for things while reading some to understand what I was watching.

"P.S. - As Conumdrum says, its a hobby but to me I feel its part of my life and with out it I can't eat or sleep. I'am starting to think this could be my new signature line but I don't think I have enough room for it.

Well, since my current case has controls for all 5 fans that will be on radiators, I'm going to wait for a fan controller till I upgrade the fan capability. Looks like I'll be changing cases at that point as well, considering my dual-bay pump/reservoir and CD/DVD/Blu-ray drive take up the only other three drive-bays that I'll have left.

So this has now become a three-part build. Hardware upgrade, cooling upgrade, and then a structural update with new air-flow. I know I can fit the first two steps in now, both budget and space wise (I have a friend who fit a 120.3 radiator in the front of his 1200), but I'll have to work on the last step. Case research and budgeting for at least 5 new fans!

Also, I am in the US. So I've been shopping a combination of FrozenCPU and PerformancePC for largest selection, then price comparisons from those two along with Jab-Tech, Petra's, and Sidewinder.

Sounds like a plan, and gives you time to see a bit more in the WC world. It'll help you in the long run.

Just two questions left... You said earlier that I should use BitsPower fittings, regardless of barb or compression. Is there any merit to other options? It looks like Monsoon fittings are cheaper to buy in packs of 6 than BitsPower is one by one.

And a loop setup question.. Is this viable?