Looking to venture into water cooling

[Orlean]

Hello, I've been looking into getting into water cooling for quite some time but I'm somewhat on the fence and maybe some of you can steering me in the right direction. One of my concerns is that my case I'm using a Thermaltake Armor + Full tower it's not the best designed case it's somewhat roomy but the PSU is mounted at the top so I have no way of mounting a rad up at the top really so I would have to get creative with mounting everything.


I was looking at the Raystorm 750 Rx360 originally then I saw the EX 360 kit with the D5 pump become available although being almost $100 more than the 750 kit from what I was able to gather the D5 pump is better and I would be willing to pay for a more reliable pump. The other thing although I know most of the hardcore water cooling guys are not fond of the AIO, but with the release of the Swiftech H220 it's made me consider it as a option I know can't really compare it to a real water cooling loop but I believe from what I'm able to gather it's a pretty good unit.


As far as the reason to water cool well I've just always wanted too in addition yes I do overclock not to the extreme but I would like to push my system a little more than I have it now in the future. I also plan to water cool my 7870 , I want to do this with the hope of also reducing the noise of my setup too having the DCUII cooling solution on the GPU, the big 230mm side fan, two 140mm case fans and the CPU fan all make a pretty big racket.

Between the 750 RX360 or EX360 /w D5 pump or H220 what would be the best option for my needs ?



Is this EK 7870 block any good ?

http://www.frozencpu.com/products/16422/ex-blc-1165/EK_Radeon_7870_GTX_VGA_Liquid_Cooling_Block_-_Nickel_Acetal_CSQ_EK-FC7870_-_Nickel_Acetal.html?tl=g30c309s1705





My case:
http://www.thermaltakeusa.com/products-model.aspx?id=C_00000091

RX360kit
http://www.frozencpu.com/products/16894/ex-wat-222/XSPC_Raystorm_750_RX360_Extreme_Universal_CPU_Water_Cooling_Kit_w_Free_Dead-Water.html?tl=g30c83s137



Ex360 kit
http://www.frozencpu.com/products/16071/ex-wat-211/XSPC_Raystorm_EX360_Universal_CPU_Water_Cooling_Kit_w_D5_Variant_Pump_Included_and_Free_Dead-Water_.html?tl=g30c83s137

H220
http://www.frozencpu.com/products/18290/ex-wat-242/Swiftech_H220_Compact_Drive_II_Plug-and-Play_Liquid_Cooling_System.html

 

[toolmaker_03]

I would go with the second link, it is the better system, as well it will meet the future needs of the loop!

 

[manofchalk]

First order of business for a starting water-cooler is to read the sticky, it will explain a lot of the knowledge and concepts behind water-cooling and is enough to get you started.
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/277130-29-read-first-watercooling-sticky

You can fit a 240mm at the bottom of the case, and a 120mm off the rear. No place for a 360mm rad unless your going to externally mount it off the back.
For just a CPU loop, a single 240mm will do, though you will likely need more if you add the GPU in, but do the TDP calculations to check.

Also, when your looking at an EK product and see the word Nickel, run 😛.
EK landed themselves in a bit of hot water a while ago when they released a bad batch of nickel products that corroded quite badly, it was such a widespread issue that it was obviously a manufacturing fault. EK however said that it was the enthusiasts use of Distilled water rather than their branded coolants that caused the issue.
As you can imagine, they haven't had a good name when it comes to Nickel products since.

 

[phx08]

Also, when your looking at an EK product and see the word Nickel, run 😛.
EK landed themselves in a bit of hot water a while ago when they released a bad batch of nickel products that corroded quite badly, it was such a widespread issue that it was obviously a manufacturing fault. EK however said that it was the enthusiasts use of Distilled water rather than their branded coolants that caused the issue.
As you can imagine, they haven't had a good name when it comes to Nickel products since.

Thanks for that heads up mate!

 

[Motopsychojdn]

We don't class the 220 as an allinone tbh, its more in line with the Xspc kits, I.e. a proper loop in kitform,
If you want to add your card though I'd disregard it as you will need more radiatorspace to allow that,
The RX Rads are better performancewise but EX's are still pretty damn close, I run both so I can say that the EX's don't 'need' high Rpm fans at all, despite the logic that they should work better that way,
D5 pump is a better pump as you already know,
DCII Shrouds and watercooling, Hmm, That rings a bell,
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/forum2.php?config=tomshardwareuk.inc&cat=15&post=351461&page=1&p=1&sondage=0&owntopic=1&trash=0&trash_post=0&print=0&numreponse=0&quote_only=0&new=0&nojs=0
Don't give those monster shrouds up,
and yes, using water and CCC's fan control, they are silent even during 8 hour Crysis3 runs 😛
The fans run at around 15-20% to help cool the memory and boards, can't hear them and my heads next to the Pc
And like Chalk said, EK Nickel=Bad, Sticky=Good

Moto

 

[Orlean]

First order of business for a starting water-cooler is to read the sticky, it will explain a lot of the knowledge and concepts behind water-cooling and is enough to get you started.
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/277130-29-read-first-watercooling-sticky

You can fit a 240mm at the bottom of the case, and a 120mm off the rear. No place for a 360mm rad unless your going to externally mount it off the back.
For just a CPU loop, a single 240mm will do, though you will likely need more if you add the GPU in, but do the TDP calculations to check.

Also, when your looking at an EK product and see the word Nickel, run 😛.
EK landed themselves in a bit of hot water a while ago when they released a bad batch of nickel products that corroded quite badly, it was such a widespread issue that it was obviously a manufacturing fault. EK however said that it was the enthusiasts use of Distilled water rather than their branded coolants that caused the issue.
As you can imagine, they haven't had a good name when it comes to Nickel products since.

Apologies for the late reply, Yeah I've read the water cooling sticky several times since I've been roaming/posting on here and every time I look at it it just makes me want to pull the trigger on W/C even more :lol: Albeit filled with great information I didn't really find what I was looking for there on a personal level regarding what would be the best option for me.

As far as the radiator I would like to keep it down to one radiator instead of having to purchase a second radiator and tubing when I can just hang the 360 off the back of the case with this koolance mount by doing it that way I will have to factor in the extra room that will be needed in the back between the wall and rad/case. Either way it looks like I'll have to spend some additional money if I either went with a second rad and tubing or getting the proper mount for the 360 - but what would you recommend ?
http://www.frozencpu.com/products/9095/ex-rad-159/Koolance_Radiator_Mounting_Bracket_w_Quick-Release_BKT-HX001P.html?tl=g30c95s162#blank


I was aware of the EK nickle ordeal by reading from posts on here, I figured they maybe might have addressed it by now but sounds pretty typical of a company that won't admit to there product being faulty and just blaming the user. I was looking for a full cover block for the my 7870, are there any other options that are reputable ?

We don't class the 220 as an allinone tbh, its more in line with the Xspc kits, I.e. a proper loop in kitform,
If you want to add your card though I'd disregard it as you will need more radiatorspace to allow that,
The RX Rads are better performancewise but EX's are still pretty damn close, I run both so I can say that the EX's don't 'need' high Rpm fans at all, despite the logic that they should work better that way,
D5 pump is a better pump as you already know,
DCII Shrouds and watercooling, Hmm, That rings a bell,
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/forum2.php?config=tomshardwareuk.inc&cat=15&post=351461&page=1&p=1&sondage=0&owntopic=1&trash=0&trash_post=0&print=0&numreponse=0&quote_only=0&new=0&nojs=0
Don't give those monster shrouds up,
and yes, using water and CCC's fan control, they are silent even during 8 hour Crysis3 runs 😛
The fans run at around 15-20% to help cool the memory and boards, can't hear them and my heads next to the Pc
And like Chalk said, EK Nickel=Bad, Sticky=Good

Moto

You may not classify it as a AIO, but there are some other W/C guys on here that classify it as such 😛 Since my dilemma is the H220 v a XSPC kit - If I were to get the H220 what's your opinion on it being able to sustain another radiator & GPU block ?


Wow! That's a nice mod on the shrouds and fans nice way off keeping active cooling on the board without having to mount some sort of spot fan to blow on the cards for the memory and VRM's - although don't know how I feel about having to somewhat permanently apoxy the fan mount onto the block like you have.

 

[manofchalk]

The sticky is only there to give you the ability to decide whats best for you, it wont tell you outright.

Externally mounting the rad is an option, and I have done so myself. That Koolance mount is fairly good, but you don't need to spend so much. I just used the XSPC mounting brackets that come with any of the Raystorm kits.

The Koolance mount might be good if you were almost making a docking station and needed to quickly add or remove rad's from the system, but if you don't need that capability than you should be fine for the XSPC standoffs.

Protip: When externally mounting a rad, consider your angles very carefully. I didnt get enough 90° connectors, and now I have to use that zip tie to stop the tube from kinking because of the tight curve.

 

[Orlean]

In regards with the sticky, I'm going to have to decide what approach I want to take the hardest part is pulling the trigger on the purchase so I will have to decide if it's something I want to tackle but in the meantime I can do more research on the subject.

Thanks for your time and reply regarding going water ManofChalk, Moto.

 

[Motopsychojdn]

No problem man, we're here if you need us 🙂
Moto