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Maxiius

Maxiius

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Jan 25, 2006
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Hey all, I have a question about getting into the watercooling genre. I've been doing some reading among these boards here and seems like the best way to go watercooling is by building it yourself and ordering custom parts for the best performance. So my question is what would be the best custom watercooling system one could put together? (Maybe someone could throw together a part list of all the componets I would need to get it going. Price is not much of an issue, but nothing outrageous, try keep it under ~$500)

Looking into cooling and OC'in a AMD Opteron 175 Denmark...(open for suggestions of best opteron to OC with watercooling). Video card watercooling would have to be upgradable, I have 2 7800gtx ko that i could put watercooling blocks on, but mainly interested a watercooling that could upgrade to the new 7900 series when it comes out. Case wise really doesnt matter, I haven't picked one out yet, but looking into the Lian Li or SilverStone.

If there's any other information that I forgot to post just let me know. I'll try to give any information I can to help put forth to build one hella nice watercooling system.

Thanks,

~Maxiius
 
you have a really loose budget heheh under 500 eh? its more than enough to get yourself the best watercooling around

parts:

cpu block: Swiftech Storm
pump: iwaki md20rz
radiator: PA120.3

gpu block: 2x maze 4


everything else is up to you

its really hard to build a better setup than that unless you want to pay double for a cathar storm G5 cpu block... but those are VERY limited and you have to orden them straight from cathar. so yeah
 
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parts:

cpu block: Swiftech Storm
pump: iwaki md20rz
radiator: PA120.3

gpu block: 2x maze 4


everything else is up to you
Click to expand...

Thanks for the quick reply shawnlizzle! Now thats all the main parts eh i assume. What size tubbing would be the best for this setup 1/2"? And does anyone have another extra advise on watercooling in general? Have done a couple of builds on straight air cooling, its nice, but I'd really like to get into the watercooling / OC'in area.

Thanks in advance!

~Maxiius
 
1/2 inch would be optimal, and for general watercooling tips, read my sticky... its a bit outdated and i can't update it now cuz its closed

still good general watercooling info though
 
Lol - ok.

Ask yourself these two questions.

1. Do you care about noise?
2. Do you want a self contained system? Like everything in the case?

2. Is most relevant I think. If you're not bothered about having pipes coming out of the case and running into the basement then you can have a system with a lot of water in it that will have a very high performance using very cheap parts. For example, garden water feature pumps, reservoirs made of buckets and old car radiator/fan combos. Plumbing supplies are relatively cheap too. The only pc specific components you would need are the blocks. I'm just saying that water cooling isn't just used in PCs, but all types of system that need to disperse heat.

Eventually you have to disperse the heat somewhere. Most systems focus on dumping it to air, but another way is to have a lot of mass instead, either of water or metal. For example, I have 1 litre of water in my system. I can dump 100W of thermal power into it for 28 minutes before the temp rises from 20Deg to 60deg with no radiation of heat at all. I know this because the fan cable on my rad fell out once and I only realised after the system shut down. I had been playing HL2DM for 30min by then. I have a 14% OC too!

If I used 2 fermenting bins with 50 litres of water I could run the pc in that temp range for 20 hours, no radiators or passive sinks. I know this sounds extreme, but so many water cooling systems focus on dumping the heat to air that you wonder what the point of using water is.

Of course, you would have to wait for the water to cool down again before firing the system up, but you get the idea. 😉 Don't just restrict yourself to what people try to sell you.

Good luck!
 
Thanks for the tip john_thor!

I'm in a real pickle on what I want to do here, I have a beast system build right now, but i'm not impressed with it because how warm its running. Which is why I'm gathering info on this famed watercooling business.

Current temps are as follows:

CPU: idle= 40-42C / stress= 48-50C
GPU: idle= 48-50C / stress= 60-61C
MB: 30-35ishC

I know those temps arent like insane hot, but I want my computer to run in the low 30s idle and low 40s stress. Lower the better. Will watercooling suit my wants is the million dollar question here? And i dont want to spend another $1000 bucks on phase changing. But on the other hand i'd be willing to spend the cash on an excellent watercooling solution if it give me the temps I want, for all the parts I want to be watercooled, i.e. mainly CPU + both GPUs. I want those babys iced out. Just not crystalized with liquid nitrogen 😛
 
You could get a cheap WC setup and achieve the same temperatures. If you don't care about noise, you could keep the heatsinks, save yourself $500 bucks and go on holiday instead.

Basically, if you have small WC system, you will end up thinking about air flow anyway. However, if your case allows, you could fit a double 120mm fan rad and pump and have a nice setup for well within your budget. What case do you have?
 
I Agree Wusy, Id Reccomend Him Just Going With A Liquid w/Peltier Cooling.
That Should Give You Near 0 Temps For Alot Less $$ ..... Speaking Of That, I Plan Myself On Going To Liquid Cooling w/Peltier, But Im Using Mineral Oil As Coolant In My Cooling Circuit :lol:
 
It's hard to say, because I have a dodgy MB sensor.

I have, (bit dated now)

AMD 2800+ athlon @ 3200+
AIW9800Pro
NForce2 Chipset
2 x WD raptors

I cool all that and the MB mosfets with a single 120 rad and fan at 12V, a 45cm passive reservoir, and I get ~45-55deg cpu, ~35deg chipset, ~21 deg ambient.

I'm using the old waterchill blocks (not antartica), 8mm ID tubing and the larger waterchill pump. Order of components is

CPU,
Chipset
GPU
Mosfets
Hardisks

There's one other slow 80mm fan, just get some air going over the graphics ram. I can run HL2DM for a couple of hours no probs. For anything else I can drop the fan to 7V and then it's very quiet indeed, but then I have sound proofed the case with bitumen material.

So, quiet, self contained case. Downside is it's bloody heavy! :)
 
Actually You Would Be Right.... If We Werent Talking About Mineral Oil, But Mineral Oil Is Thin To Begin With And Can Be Had Even Thinner, Nearly As Thin As Water, So A Standard Pump Should Work Fine From What I Have Read, But Im Still Researching. On Top Of That The Oil Will Get Thinner As Its Being Heated By The Hot Side Of The 226Watt Swiftech Peltier/Water Block That I Plan On Using.
 
Well my setup wouldnt have to be self contained as this setup will be my home gaming setup. I'll have another lan party comp build coming in the future which would have to be either air or self contained WC'd. What I need is an exact how to guide on actually putting it together. I read over shawnlizzle or whatever 😛 guide, and it was very helpful, but a picture is worth a thousand words :) . I also heard that its good to setup the system not in the computer just outside and run it and make sure all your hose/fittings and such are leaking etc. Any have a link to the pdf of an actual water kit installing that maybe I use for a guide line and so that way i get an idea of complete list of parts i would need, i.e. how much tubing, how many fittings, what type of fittings, etc...?

~Maxiius
 
If you get one of the asetek kits, it's all included. Extra blocks and rads come with push connect fittings so all you need is more tubing. It's plug and play really. Buy yourself some plumbers tape for any leaky joints and some water wetter (anti corrosion) and you're set.
 
Actually, As Thin As The Oil Is Efficiancy Woulnt Be Hampered To A Large Extreme, Especially When It Gets Warm And Thins Out, The Reason I Chose Mineral Oil?.... Two Words.... Non-Conductive (And Im Paranoid About Leaks)
 
Er, specific heat capacity of

mineral oil = 2000kgJ/K
Water = 4200kgJ/K

So you'll need at least twice the flow rate to achieve the same heat transfer as water, irrespective of viscosity. You better have a pretty large pump for that peltier!
 
Need to revive this thread for a bit...
Whats the next best pump compared to iwaki md20rz? Didn't want to spend 180 bucks just on the pump, but if that's the BotB pump I might swing for it. I found it for about that price new from some aqua store and also saw a used one on ebay for like 20 bucks heh. Is there only that 1 store to buy it from or any know any other stores to purchase pumps from?

Also, what exactly is bleeding the system or whatever? Its removing the air from the tubes correct? Exactly how is that done, just by running the system before slapping in on cpu, gpu, etc...?

Thanks,

~Maxiius
 
And how does the Danger Den Acetal MAZE4 GPU - Low Profile compare to the Danger Den H20 GPU Block- Nvidia 7800? Only concern with the maze 4 block is that is doesnt say if supports new then 6800 cards, it does for 6800 and lower but not higher. Can anyone confirm this?
 
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