Recommendations for first water-cooled build

[eragon0605]

I am a big overclocker, and heat has, of course, always been a big problem for me. I am sick of not being able to overclock my CPU/GPU farther due to temperature problems. I want to go to water cooling, but I really don't know what I'm doing. From what I understand, I need a pump, tubes, a resivoir, a radiator, some coolant, and a CPU water block, to get my CPU water cooled. From what research I have done, it is usually cheaper to buy the parts seperately than to get it all in a kit, correct? I found some good deals at www.dangerden.com, but I'm not sure if they are good enough, or if I am missing anything. I just want to start out with CPU water cooling, and then get a water block for my nVidia GTX 260 when I have more money. Here are some parts I have found:

http://www.dangerden.com/store/feser...1-coolant.html
http://www.dangerden.com/store/tygon-3603-tubing.html
http://www.dangerden.com/store/dange...reservoir.html
http://www.dangerden.com/store/dd-cpx_pro-12v_pump.html
http://www.dangerden.com/store/black-ice-gtx240.html
http://www.dangerden.com/store/mpc-c...-i3-i5-i7.html

I want to get parts good enough that I can just get a GPU water block and a couple of tubes when I want to get GPU water cooling. Will I need any additional parts? Oh, and how many orders of tubes do I need for just CPU overclocking? Another thing I was wondering is where do you put all this stuff? Is there some sort of mounting system so I can just stick it all on my case, or what?

Relevant system specs (sorry if I forgot something):

CPU: Core i5-750 (LGA 1156)
Mobo: ASUS P7P55D LE
PSU: Seasonic X-750
GPU: nVidia GTX 260

EDIT: Sorry if I was unclear about 'where do you put all this stuff'. I am wondering where the radiator and pump will go; I don't want them just sitting on my desk.

[billbartuska]

Originally Posted by eragon0605

I want to go to water cooling...

If you're a good enough overclocker to be held back by temps, then I' sure you've seen posts like this:

I Have:
CPU: Core i5-750 (LGA 1156)
Mobo: ASUS P7P55D LE
PSU: Seasonic X-750
GPU: nVidia GTX 260

I don't know anything about oveclocking. How do I overclock this?

Well, you've done the same thing, just substituted "How do I watercool this?"

Just as the aksee of the first question likely wouldn't understand the answer, you too need to do some reading in order to be able to ask the right questions and understand the answers. Just as there are no universal "good" BIOS settings, there are no universally "good" WCing setups.

That being said, I'll try and head you in the right direction.

Parts required:
Pump, Waterblock(s), radiator, tubing and hose clamps.
A resivoir isn't necessary. it just makes bleading the air out of a newly filled system easier and provides a place for adding the water. The same can be accomplished inexpensively by adding a "tee" fitting and adding a fill line to the water loop.
It would also be nice to be able to measure the temperature of the water.

As for where to mount the components, there are too many posibilities to describe than all. This site and many other have sections where people post pictures of their systems. That will get you a good idea of the possibilities.

"I found some good deals at dangerden.com" is the equivalent to "I found a CAS 4 bios settings on extremesystems.org"

First you determine how much heat (overclocked) your components are going to generate. Don't forget to add in the heat dump from the pump too.

Then you pick a radiator or radiators that can dissipate that amount of heat.
Manufactur's specs (most lie!), independant reviews and test reports will tell you what fan CFM and water flow are necessary for it to get the job done - Big rad, low CFM fans, low water flow - small rad, high CFM fans, low water flow - small rad, low CFM fans, high water flow - etc. You get the idea? Generally, all things being equal, larger radiators will work with lower CFM (ie quieter) fans.

You do the same for waterblock(s).

Then you pick a pump that will give you the flow rate you need, taking into consideration the restriction (of the rad(s), rez, block(s), tubing and fittings) it has to work against. You do know that fans and pumps have P-Q curves?

As for tubing, for high end watercooling, use 1/2" ID. The Tygon R-3603 you linked is the best money can buy. Use stainless steel worm clamps

You might, if you're serious about overclocking, want to add WCing to the NB and SB chips too.

For coolant, use distilled water (not deionized, not de-mineralized, not anything else) and a biocide, and that's all.

Some guesses:
You're going to want at least a 3 x 120 radiator
You're going to want at least 120 x 38mm fans that are rated at least 70CFM
You're going to want at least 1.5 gal/min actual flow rate through the loop.
You're going to spend at least $400 on your first setup.
Your third setup will be what you were really after in the first place.
You will find out that a high end WCing system can take anything a massively overclocked motherboard, CPU and video can hand out, but you'll still want to go faster and you're going to volt-mod and then WCing won't be enough.

Links:
Martin's Liquid Lab
Skinnee's Labs
Swiftech
Perta's
Jab-tech
Frozen CPU
Performance PC
Sidewinder Computers
Overclock.net
Extremesystems
And OCXtreme where the world record holders hang.

Hope that helps........

[eragon0605]

Thanks for the info! I may have other questions when I get my parts, but first I need to save up enough money to buy my first setup...

[arkon]

I'm just starting out with w/cooling myself. About to start my new build (see post: http://forums.procooling.com/vbb/sho...510#post172510).

I recommend that you use a dual loop setup. One loop for your CPU (and possibly including your NB/Mosfets etc. if you are hardcore...), and a separate loop for you GPU(s).

GPUs are happy running hot (and therefore OK with, and create, high water temps), whereas CPUs are a little more sensitive to temp and run cooler. If you want to OC the hell out of both parts, then for goodness sake don't dump the heat from your OCed GPU(s) into the water that is trying to cool the delicate CPU... You'll severely restrict how far you can push the CPU.

Good luck with the build and post a build log!

4rkon