New to watercooling

[captsulu2004]

hey guys. It's been a long time since I have visited this site and with me wanting to actually do a water cooling loop in my new system I thought it be a good idea to stop by here and ask you professionals some questions. Being my first ever custom(semi custom) water loop, I want to start out with this kit here, http://www.performance-pcs.com/modm...-cooling-kit-featuring-ekwb.html#!prettyPhoto.

I will not be adding VGU cooling at this point, I will expand that sometime in the future. Now on to the questions. What do you guys think of this kit as a starter kit? What would you recommend to buy along with this kit as far as extra fittings, expansion fittings, fill/drain, etc. And most importantly, what of all these extra parts should they be made out of? I hear so much talk about the whole "mixed metals" thing but I am always confused by this idea simply because you cannot avoid mixing metals. The rads are made up of aluminum with brass inserts and most pumps are made up of various metals internally. I would also like to know my best option for connecting the pumps power. I see you can direct connect with molex, use a MoBo header, etc. If it's easier for you to judge, I have the ASUS X-99-A MoBo running a Intel Core I7 5820K and 16gb's of G.SKILL Ripjaw 4 Series (PC4 19200) running quad channel. I am running a mid level Nvidia GTX 970 and customizing this with water cooling isn't exactly straight forward. I haven't found a prefab'd water block for this card. This is why I will be waiting to water cool the GPU.

Oh and what type of coolant should I use? Do they make the coolant all-in-one with the biocide, anti corrosive, and color all in one? if so, which would be the best to use? If there's anything else I should know or do that I haven't brought up here please do let me know. When I build this loop I want it to go as smoothly as possible. Thanks guys.

 

[Silver Surfer]

You're new to water cooling and starting with a hard line kit?

Are you sure about that?

Just suggesting:

For your first water cooling adventure I suggest a vinyl tubing setup, with a D5 pump cylinder reservoir.

The Raystorm water block is an excellent cooling block.

http://www.performance-pcs.com/xspc-raystorm-d5-photon-ax240-watercooling-kit-18713.html

As far as coolant I run steam distilled water with Biocide, because what I linked is an all copper solution, and I've been running that for years with zero problems.

http://www.performance-pcs.com/mayhems-biocide-extreme.html

 

[Richo999]

How is your budget? Going full custom might not be feasible unless you want to include gpu or other parts in the future which will require a new gpu anyhow.
Are you sure about the hard-line? Like silver surfer already mentioned, a soft tubing loop might be easier as starter. You can always expand to hard tubing later when you include the gpu.

Mixed metals is a no go so stick to copper or nickel. Ekwb has introduced all aluminium kits with their fluid gaming kits:
https://www.ekfluidgaming.com
This aimed at the budget watercooler and the 240 kit start at €160

 

[captsulu2004]

Yes I'm sure I want to do hard line. When I say I'm new to water cooling I mean putting in a custom loop. I have been using a closed loop for years. I have the Corsair H80i installed right now on my 5820K. It keeps things pretty cool but it's also about 5 years old and I know these sealed coolers only last about that long, maybe a little longer. I have seen many loops installed and have researched as much as I can about these systems. My only real issue is with so many different options on the market, blocks, fittings, tubing, pumps, etc., what would be the best bang for my buck. As for the hard tubing, I know this isn't quiet the same, but I know how to do plumbing work and know how to do pipe bending, fitting, etc. and I have worked with plastic tubing before(just not this exact tubing). The tubing is pretty cheap so I'm not worried about making a mistake on a bend. $20 bucks for a couple more pieces of tubing isn't going to break the bank....lol. I have considered going with that soft tubing setup while I wait for the prices, if they ever, to come back down on gpu's. My only issue with the soft tubing is the clouding of the tubing that so many report after a short time. In the end I know soft tubing is easy but i'm not about easy, I'm about what looks the best and I do have the patients to do hard line.

 

[Richo999]

If your familiar with plumbing why not go full copper and paint it? My next project involves doing this with either full copper or aluminium loop. Petg can also cloud over time depending on the coolant you use. Acrylic hard line looks best after glass.

CPU blocks is pure aesthetics, jayz2cents did a test with a $15 waterblock of Amazon and compared it to a big brand CPU block with only 1-2°C delta under load.
Fittings and tubing same thing, although it's adviced to buy fittings and tubing from the same brand.
For pumps D5 is used alot because of the low noise and high airflow but it's pump pressure is lower, DDC has higher pump pressure but lower flow, is smaller aswell at the cost of more noise.
Alphacool and ekwb have good pumps, got a alphacool D5 which is not bad.

 

[captsulu2004]

Richo999, can you explain what you mean when you say full copper? Do you mean the tubing in copper as well? If that's what you mean, I considered that but I want to "see" my fluid. Not to mention I don't know of anywhere I could by the necessary fittings to do that. I'll look up more info on it though.

 

[Richo999]

Richo999, can you explain what you mean when you say full copper? Do you mean the tubing in copper as well? If that's what you mean, I considered that but I want to "see" my fluid. Not to mention I don't know of anywhere I could by the necessary fittings to do that. I'll look up more info on it though.

Ekwb and barrow support copper tubing with their hard line compression fittings. Check for the right size

 

[captsulu2004]

Richo999, I have been looking into it and I must say, Water cooling has come a lot farther than I last checked a few years ago....lol. Pretty sweet. Now I COULD go with the copper line because all you REALLY need to see for fluid integrity is your reservoir. Maybe pop in a flow meter just for looks and added view ability. I'm looking for a vid on someone painting or powder coating the copper to see how it looks. So far all I have found is vids of raw copper installs. Do they make the fittings in copper as well now? I see they make the fittings in brass/nickle plated. I'm no metallurgist but the point of the nickle plating is because nickle doesn't react with copper right?

 

[Richo999]

Richo999, I have been looking into it and I must say, Water cooling has come a lot farther than I last checked a few years ago....lol. Pretty sweet. Now I COULD go with the copper line because all you REALLY need to see for fluid integrity is your reservoir. Maybe pop in a flow meter just for looks and added view ability. I'm looking for a vid on someone painting or powder coating the copper to see how it looks. So far all I have found is vids of raw copper installs. Do they make the fittings in copper as well now? I see they make the fittings in brass/nickle plated. I'm no metallurgist but the point of the nickle plating is because nickle doesn't react with copper right?

painting copper is really easy, just like about any other metal. in the case of copper polish it with copper polish to remove any oxidation, slightly sand it. Primer it (hammerite?) 1 or 2 layers (I stick to 2 layers for most paints) and then paint it in the colour you like or you could just go with copper look and just polish it and add a protection coating.

bitspower has copper age and true brass to bad they dont have regular copper though, they also sell multiply choice of hard tubing
Bitspower fittings

in essence all you need for metal tubing is fittings and proper size tubing (copper tubing costs €10,- for 2,5m 12 mm OD, in my country) and to bend you can either use a spring or bending pliers (and ofcourse a pipecutter and some sanding paper which you need for PETG and acryllic aswell)

Nvidia did a video on a copper tubing loop:
Clicky

 

[captsulu2004]

painting copper is really easy, just like about any other metal. in the case of copper polish it with copper polish to remove any oxidation, slightly sand it. Primer it (hammerite?) 1 or 2 layers (I stick to 2 layers for most paints) and then paint it in the colour you like or you could just go with copper look and just polish it and add a protection coating.

bitspower has copper age and true brass to bad they dont have regular copper though, they also sell multiply choice of hard tubing
Bitspower fittings

in essence all you need for metal tubing is fittings and proper size tubing (copper tubing costs €10,- for 2,5m 12 mm OD, in my country) and to bend you can either use a spring or bending pliers (and ofcourse a pipecutter and some sanding paper which you need for PETG and acryllic aswell)

Nvidia did a video on a copper tubing loop:
Clicky

You can use the soft copper tubing as well. That stuff is pretty easy to bend by hand and with home made bending devices like wooden blocks and such. In the end I may still go with the PETG. I just have more options than i thought so it's gonna take me some time to figure out which way i want to go.....sigh.....lol