Looking to go water cooling!

[jakewat97]

So recently I've been getting inspired by all these mod rigs and build logs around the place and am considering to do my first water cooling loop. I'm not talking slapping on a h100 or something like that i want to go proper built loop.

Now as a beginner i am only looking at starting out slow so I've been having a look at things like the xspc raystorm kits, only around the rs240 series, and have some questions on what i should do.

First, is it worth buying compression fittings to replace the six barb fittings that come with the kit and are barbs less safe/ less prone to leaks as compression fittings or is it just that compression fittings are easier to release?

Second thing is what necessities do i need that don't usually come with kits, eg. do i need a kill coil and do things like clean the loop out before installation with distilled water?

Extra: i intend to either build this kit up or carry it over to other builds so a vga cooler may come later but its just cpu for now.

Any help and suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks, Jake.

 

[manofchalk]

Barb+Clamp and Compression fittings do the same job just as well as each other, Compressions just look better for a few dollars more.

Would depend on the kit, but if your focusing on the XSPC kits then you need coolant (Distilled is best) and something to stop Bacteria/Algae growing in the loop (Kill-Coil or Biocide are the common options).
If you want colour in the loop, then you would need to get your own tubing or dye (recommend going the tubing route).

If you intend on expanding the loop later on, I suggest you get the components to handle that now. If you get a kit with the XSPC X20 750 pump/res (which is fine for the loop as is, just the CPU, but add more blocks and you'l have issues), it will make expanding the loop to include a GPU all the more expensive when you have to buy a D5 pump and reservoir as well.

I suggest reading through the water-cooling sticky, that will answer a lot of your questions.
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/277130-29-read-first-watercooling-sticky

 

[fixer762]

Here are a few Water cooling channel on youtube.

Vertex 636
http://www.youtube.com/user/vertex636

Ronsanut- Watch his Clockwork Orange build, its awesome, but damn long and you'll need snacks.
http://www.youtube.com/user/Ronsanut

And browse Koolance's website and browse there watercooling 101 section and browse their parts you should be able to figure it out.
http://koolance.com/

 

[jakewat97]

Thanks for the replies, i will do more study on the links posted when i have some reading time on my hands 😛.

@manfochalk
yea i did realize the reason for the lower end xspc kits being "lower end" was the power of pump and res size. I may have a look around and maybe build a kit using eg. a cheaper res but a d5 pump, but i do really like the raystorm cpu block. also for now i would probably only be able to fit a 240 rad in my current case because it is an old thermaltake va8000, which wasn't the best designed case for space management, although it was advertised as a water cooling case back in the day lol.