Beginner's Guide to Water Cooling Your PC *** READ THIS FIRST ***

[Overclockers.com]

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A guide to water cooling your computer from the ground up.

... Return to article to continue reading.

 

[deadlysyn]

Great write up, hokie.

You forgot the LED stop fitting in the res trick to make them glow all nice and pretty too.

 

[QuietIce]

Excellent article!

 

[m0r7if3r]

long read, but a good one. Nice writeup.

 

[hokiealumnus]

Thanks a lot guys!

To anyone that reads - I was serious about feedback too. If there are items of concern I'm happy to reexamine sections / add if necessary.

If you're a new builder an have questions, we're here for you too! You can post quick questions here or start your own thread in the water cooling section. Just always remember - you never stop learning about this hobby. This covers most of the basics, but each build is unique to the builder and you need to research what works best for what you want out of water cooling.

 

[m0r7if3r]

To anyone that reads - I was serious about feedback too. If there are items of concern I'm happy to reexamine sections / add if necessary.

Only thing that really stuck out in my mind was that you mentioned swiftech a lot when referencing products an had one dead link (the apogee XT testing). You also didn't mention the jingway pump series or talk about the benefits of single vs dual loops (though it was already a PRETTY long guide, so I'm not sure how much you could add)...but that's just me being overly critical.

 

[hokiealumnus]

Only thing that really stuck out in my mind was that you mentioned swiftech a lot when referencing products an had one dead link (the apogee XT testing). You also didn't mention the jingway pump series or talk about the benefits of single vs dual loops (though it was already a PRETTY long guide, so I'm not sure how much you could add)...but that's just me being overly critical.

Thank you kindly for the feedback. Fixed the broken link.

Re: Swiftech - It just happened to be the easiest place to grab product links when getting examples. That's about it.

Re: Jingway - You're right, it didn't make the list. They seemed to be low cost alternatives to the superior DDC/D5 options (just looked at skinnee's testing from last year). There was mention of one of them as just that (low cost alternative) though - the D-Tek DB-1 is a Jingway rebrand AFAIK.

Re: Single vs. dual - you're right, it's already pretty long. Heh, hopefully it's not a combination of long and boring.

Being a basic guide, in most cases people will that go by it will want to start out on one loop. I did mention it, but only in passing because it seems that's more advanced than should be addressed in a beginner guide.

Thank you again for the feedback!

 

[saint19]

Excellent article dude with, all basic things that people need know for switch to WC.

1- Can I suggest add some recommended fans that works in all radiators?, that can help a lot too.
2- What about the maintenance period?

As personal question, can you suggest me a good reservoir? MCP-655D, MCR-480, EK Supreme HF Full Nickel, Compression fittings 1/2" ID x 3/4" OD. Thanks

p.d. Now is official, my MCR-480 for only CPU is "overkill"

 

[hokiealumnus]

Thanks!!

1) I considered it, but there are SO many options out there it would have made an already lengthy guide even longer. Fans are almost the most personal choice and should be chosen to fit a particular person's noise tastes, performance needs and radiator choice. As those are variables that change so much from person to person, I couldn't do the topic justice without going into a lengthy treatise on fans.

2) Excellent point, I'll work on a mention of that when I have time. Quick answer for you - If you have and use dye, no less than every six months. Without it you could go up to a year. IMHO, of course.

What style of res are you looking for? Do you prefer the tube-style (if so, vertical or horizontal)? Square? Bay res? Bling? There are quite a few options. A res is a res; as long as it serves its purpose, pick whichever one fits your style, budget and space.

 

[saint19]

Thanks!!

1) I considered it, but there are SO many options out there it would have made an already lengthy guide even longer. Fans are almost the most personal choice and should be chosen to fit a particular person's noise tastes, performance needs and radiator choice. As those are variables that change so much from person to person, I couldn't do the topic justice without going into a lengthy treatise on fans.

2) Excellent point, I'll work on a mention of that when I have time. Quick answer for you - If you have and use dye, no less than every six months. Without it you could go up to a year. IMHO, of course.

What style of res are you looking for? Do you prefer the tube-style (if so, vertical or horizontal)? Square? Bay res? Bling? There are quite a few options. A res is a res; as long as it serves its purpose, pick whichever one fits your style, budget and space.

I only use distiller water with Silver KillCoil in "reservoir", so, I think that one year is fine right?

Regarding the reservoir, a good one, not very big, not very expensive and that fit in a HAF X LoL. I think that tube-style vertical is the best option for me.

 

[MattNo5ss]

Is there something like the XSPC Res Top for a MCP655, a res that improves your pump?

The only reason I got a res was b/c the XSPC Res Top improves my MCP355.

 

[hokiealumnus]

Yes, I think you'd be ok for a teardown/rebuild at the one year mark.

As far as a reservoir, check out the res page at Sidewinder. Pretty much take your pick out of the stealth res or ek multioption reservoirs. I'm not familiar enough with them to know which has a better anti-cyclone insert though; sorry.

Is there something like the XSPC Res Top for a MCP655, a res that improves your pump?

The only reason I got a res was b/c the XSPC Res Top improves my MCP355.

That improves the pump? I have no data. But there does exist one at this point for the 655. Found it at Sidewinder last night.

 

[m0r7if3r]

Is there something like the XSPC Res Top for a MCP655, a res that improves your pump?

The only reason I got a res was b/c the XSPC Res Top improves my MCP355.

the stock top for the d5 is already really good, there are some improvements to be seen with aftermarket tops, but not like with a ddc.

@Saint - koolance has some nice new tube reses you might wanna check out, EK's are pretty standard, though some have had leaking issues.

 

[Owenator]

Awesome write up Hokie!

 

[saint19]

Thanks guys, I will created a thread for not do this a "personal" thread.

 

[deeppow]

Very nice job hokiealumnus! Some great pictures too, I'm jealous of such clean setups.

I got started water cooling back in the days Bill Adams was around and he got me interested. After various stepping stones, I've ended up with an alternate water cooling setup that works very well but really isn't economical so I wouldn't seriously suggest it to others.

I progressed from radiators to a chiller. The chiller of course isn't an economical approach but hanging around eBay for weeks finally yielded one at a "reasonable" price. I can run a higher overclock and still keep the CPU very cool. At this point, I've ended up with an external enclosure for the pump etc. Makes work in the computer easier but gota admit my setup is Rube-goldberg.

 

[hokiealumnus]

Thanks! I'm jealous too. Only the messy example photos were mine (they were older systems before I got 'clean' with the single Lian Li photo at the end), so I'm just as jealous! Shazza and Ace. excel at making beautiful, clean loops. They have great company, mind you; they were just the two that sprang to mind to ask permission for including them at the time.

Me? Well, I succumbed to the benching gods and my loop has since devolved into this for ease of transfer/portability. The Lian Li now houses an air cooled system.

 

[deeppow]

.... I succumbed to the benching gods and my loop has since devolved into this for ease of transfer/portability.

Ahhh, a setup only a mother could love.

 

[Conumdrum]

I was really hoping this link Hokie just wrote would stay at the TOP of the current posts, in BIG BIG red BLING letters, and not buried in the sticky link. We know how little peeps start there. They spend 20 min typing the first question that are so easily answered by spending 20 minutes reading. Saves ALL of us time and effort..

So, can it become the first post forever in the posts? And not lost somewhere?

 

[Ace.]

Good Work Buddy