EggXpert

Well, I've been off the forum for a while (active elsewhere), and as I checked out the section there seems to be a lot of questions about pretty basic water-cooling equipment.  Turns out I wrote a guide about this sorta thing over at EOCF (check sig), so I thought I'd share it with you guys here too.

The original thread can be found here; I recommend checking it out as there's a lot of Q&A after the guide.

So It Begins

So, the day has finally come that you've caught the water cooling bug, or maybe you just want to know what a water cooling system might entail. In any case, before you start collecting parts there are 2 things that you need to know:

1. What are your goals? Silence? Temperature? Overclocking? Which components to you want to cool? Ask yourself which of these is the absolute most important to you; this decision will help you craft your parts list later.

2. What is your budget? No lie, creating a water cooling setup is going to cost some decent cash. How much will vary upon your parts and suppliers; we'll get to the specifics later. But keep in mind that it is 99% of the time going to cost you upwards of $170 to build a simple loop; if you can't afford that, you are better off purchasing a high-quality air-cooling solution.

With those two things in your mind, you can now star looking at individual parts.

The Pump:
Pumps come in many shapes and sizes, but to us, they have 4 important characteristics: head, flow, heat dump, and sound level. Head is how high a pump can push water up a straight tube; flow is the rate of water it can push at no height change, heat dump is how much excess heat from the pump makes it into the water, and sound level is self explanatory.

The first two specifications are usually listed in a description of the pump; suffice it to say that head is more important to our purposes than flow; purchasing a pump with high head and low flow will work much more efficiently for our purposes than vice versa. Most quality pumps will have more than 10 ft. (3 meters) of head, and the more complex your system is, the more head you will need.

That then leaves us with heat dump and sound level. Unless your running a chiller, chances are you won't need to care much about heat dump; the heat introduced by the pump is usually much smaller than that of the components you are cooling. Sound level is a trickier spec to quantify, and important to those who demand quiet, but most well-designed pumps are nearly silent, or at least no louder than your fans will be.

Most members here will just recommend any variety of the Swiftech MCP series of pumps, also re-branded as Danger Den pumps. The MCP 350 will usually work fine for most moderate loops, and the MCP655 will usually work for any loop. For those who demand the best possible pump known to man, the Iwaki pumps are your solution, either the RD-30 (DC) or the MD-20 (AC); be prepared to fork over some serious cash. For those who absolutely demand silence, I have heard good things about the Eheim pumps, but know that they are a little on the weak side.

The Radiator:

The second most basic part of your loop is your radiator. Remember your goals and budget? Good, because they play a very important role in choosing a proper radiator.

The first thing to know about radiators is to stick with the variety that uses 120mm fans, as they offer superior performance and lower noise. You will often see them notated as 120.x, where 120 denotes the fan size, and the .x the number of fans that will fit on one side. Obviously, the bigger the radiator, the more cooling capacity you have.

-For a loop that will be cooling 1 CPU and up to 1 GPU, I would recommend a 120.2 radiator.
-For a loop that will be cooling more than this, ie SLI'd graphics cards, use a 120.3 radiator, or if that won't fit, a 120.2 and a 120.1 radiator.

The manufacturer plays a very important part in the quality of the radiator. the absolute best is the Thermochill brand, followed by the Swiftech and the Black Ice brands. However, this difference is usually under a degree. For the average builder, the Swiftech wins my endorsement due to its price/performance ratio, although the performance builder should eye the Thermochills, and the silence builder the Black Ice.

Fans and Shrouds

Fans are used of necessity to force cool air through your radiator. You need to be concerned with 2 specifications: the cubic feet per minute it can move, or cfm, and the sound level. The fans are often the loudest part in a water cooling loop, so buying quality fans is essential to those who value quiet.

The noise level and cfm are, as one might suspect, directly related to each other. The more air that a given fan moves, the louder it will be. It is often recommended therefore that you purchase a higher cfm fan and use a fan controller to adjust the fan speed, and therefore noise, to an appropriate level.

The top dog of fans right now are the Yate Loon fans; as funny as the name may be, they offer powerful performance, low noise levels, and are dirt cheap to boot. The are the best choice for the average system builder; if you are looking for extreme silence, a few fans like the Noctuas might do better for you, but will range above $10 each. If you are looking for silent fans, don't swallow the manufacturer's printed cfm and sound levels verbatim; many manufacturers are notorious for making up false numbers, as many owners of Silentx fans will tell you.

A shroud is simply a separator between the radiator and the fans. It's primary purpose is to eliminate the dead spot in the middle of every fan, therefore more efficiently cooling the radiator. Many retailers will sell you shrouds, or you can make your own out of a cheap tupperware container.

The CPU block:

Right now the only blocks worth your time considering are the D-tek Fuzion and the Swiftech Apogee series. The D-tek is the best block on the market, and the Apogee gt offers the budget buyer a great alternative that will achieve at worst 1*C worse performance. That's really all there is to it.

The GPU Block(s):

Here again the builder is presented with a relatively binary choice: to use a "full cover block", which cools both the GPU and the surrounding memory chips, or to use a GPU-only block and ramsinks on the memory chips.

This comes down largely to user preference; the full cover blocks offer a convenient way to effectively cool all of the significant portion of your graphics card, but have a few cons: they will not work with subsequent generations, they generally have temps that are a little higher, and cost more. The GPU only blocks are cheaper and offer better temps, and will work on subsequent video cards, but you will need to also apply ramsinks.

If you want the convenience of a full cover, get the EK full cover block.

If you want the benefits of a GPU only block, get the Swiftech MCW 60 block.

The North Bridge (NB) Block

There is minimal, if any, benefit to water cooling the NB beyond what a good heat sink can do; you simply need to keep it reasonably cool so it doesn't fry as you up the volts/FSB. I've never heard of a person increase their stability by lowering their NB temp a few degrees. For most builders I'd actually recommend using a passive heat-pipe heat sink, like the Thermalright HR-05, as it will easily contain all but the very highest overclocks, and a little airflow will work even greater wonders.

That being said, water cooling the NB is a completely acceptable solution; just be forewarned that including the NB in your loop will add about 45 watts to your load, as well as a little bit more restriction. But rarely would this cause more than an increase of 1*C in CPU temps. If you do decide to water cool your NB, your best bet is the Swiftech MCW-30.

The Tubing:

Tygon is the absolute best, but you'll pay an arm and a leg for it. MasterKleer offers a fine alternative at a much lower price, but tends to kink more easily.

It is generally recommended to use 7/16 inch Inner Diameter tubing, as it will offer a tighter seal on 1/2 inch barbs.

Reservoir or T-line:

Both of these components serve exactly one purpose: to bleed air from your loop. Reservoirs will do this faster and easier, but will cost a fair chunk of change. T-lines are generally a little bit trickier to bleed with, but will cost no more than a couple dollars for a t-fitting. Another thing to consider is that a reservoir can take up considerable space inside of your case.

Something to keep in mind if you decide to get a reservoir: don't buy one that fits in a 5.25" bay. These are known to be noisy and make sloshing sounds, and often take a long time to bleed. If you do decide to get a reservoir, I would recommend a Swiftech Micro-res, as it is relatively cheap (about $20) and is a fast bleeder.

The Coolant:

It's a fact: the coolant with the very best thermal characteristics is good old water. So the further from pure water you get, the worse your performance will be. Therefore, for most applications it is recommended to use pure distilled water and some small quantity of biocide. Common biocide solutions include:

-antifreeze, use in a 5%-10% mixture w/ H2O
-iodine, add a few drops to your loop and your good to go
-Copper sulfate, works in the same way as iodine.

Most other solutions are not effective and/or are overtly expensive. Almost any coolant that claims to be non-conductive will lose that property upon contact with your system components, and perform several degrees C worse; don't let their advertising tell you otherwise!

Another factor that may arise is corrosion inhibition, but if you stick to the parts I've listed, this is a non-issue.

For example...

Now I'll get to the part that so many of you have been waiting for, the part where I list off a sample system and say "Buy this." While I would encourage you to make your own decisions, here is a sample loop that will knock your socks off:

Pump: Swiftech MCP 655 http://www.petrastechshop.com/swmcin12pu.html
Radiator: Swiftech MCR-220 http://www.petrastechshop.com/swmcqposerab.html
Fans: 2 yate loons, mid cfm, $12 http://www.petrastechshop.com/12yalod1cafa1.html
CPU Block: D-tek Fuzion http://www.petrastechshop.com/dfuuncpubl1.html
GPU block: Swiftech MCW 60 http://www.petrastechshop.com/swmcgpuwawg8.html
NB block: Swiftech MCW 30
http://www.petrastechshop.com/swmcchco.html
Tubing: 10 ft MasterKleer http://www.petrastechshop.com/7id5odmagepu.html
Coolant: Distilled water + 5-10% antifreeze (find some locally)

So where do I get this stuff?

As you may have already guessed, www.petrastechshop.com is a wonderful enthusiast store that often undercuts larger retailers like newegg. There are many other fine retailers out there, such as www.jab-tech.com.

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I think that that covers all of the basics. If you think that any part is unclear, or think that something should be added, feel free to post it below.

PS: check out here for my earlier rant on water cooling kits.

Awesome...call for sticky

btw - autumn already ?

Cool write. I long for water cooling but I have not prepared enough money to pay it.

Thanks for the feedback!

I think I'm gonna wait on the "fall" refresh for a little while; we should be having some new gear coming out in a while, and school for most hasn't even started yet.  Fall is probably a month (and a half?) away, still.  ;)

Admittedly, I'm looking most forward to winter; we should have some shiny new quads out on the market, not to mention GPU's, so we can expect new WC gear just in time for the holidays :D.

And Ynot, it will come, someday!
 

Thanks for the write up, very useful.  Currently I am working on picking my parts for my WC rig.  The real only change that I have to your suggested setup, and I know its more costly is the PA.120.2 Thermochill radiator, other than that pretty much the same.

 Once again, nice thread and we need more things like this on this forum!

I agree - nice writeup!   A refreshing change from the plethora of personal opinions we usually get!

@Starkiller42- Nice guide, note that the PA series Thermochill are best at low noise / airflow but as you said the most expensive.

@ "The mods" sticky, sticky, sticky, sticky, sticky, sticky, sticky, sticky, sticky, !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

please?

 

Thanks, glad you liked it!

Yeah, the Thermochill's are definitely the best, no arguement from me there!  I just on a personal level can't spend that much money on a rad, especially when good alternatives are readily available for 1/3 to 1/2 the price.

And thanks for the sticky vote!  Looks like it's been "pinned" up for us; thanks mods!
 

I noticed it was pinned after I posted. Good info, I'm glad there are people willing to write these in the forums I visit for I am far too lazy to do it myself. As it is I do well to keep myself current let alone a guide such as this.  My thanks in advance because I'm sure I'll point many a noob in this direction.

Once again thanks, I have shown this to a few friends that are not part of the forum yet......

And they found this to be quite helpful. 

~TK

good post, very instrumental

Thank you for your guidance!

It is quite helpful!

 

 

Glad to be of service :D.

Re: CPU waterblocks -- an Apogee GTX will beat a D-tek Fuzion on Intel Quad cores.

 
I'm not sure if you meant the guide to be this comprehensive, but you might want to include something in the guide about cleaning out the parts, especially the rad, before assembly.  It helps keep the loop cleaner and a cleaner loop is a more efficient loop.
 

Looks like your really like petras. Perhaps it’s a lot more expensive then the already expensive idea of water cooling, however I found Koolance to have the best support and design for a water cooled system. Have you looked into Koolance at all? What’s your opinion on their systems? I am currently planning a water cooled system using Koolance’s PC-1024SL case. I find any advice you might have useful. Here's a link to my Build Post: http://www.eggxpert.com/forums/thread/187929.aspx

Koolance uses aluminum. Taboo, Alum is N.F.G. corrosion is a given but as the parts are "anodized" [?] they will last long enough for the warranty to lapse. Support???, what's that? some guy that barely speaks english reading from a cribsheet? thank you, no.

 

edit- @ Rike,  just saw the response on the appogee, IF you spend the added $39.00 for the copper-top it is a good block, stock, it also has alum.

WoodButcher:

edit- @ Rike,  just saw the response on the appogee, IF you spend the added $39.00 for the copper-top it is a good block, stock, it also has alum.

It uses aluminum but . . .

The housing is CNC machined out of billet aluminum and receives two plating's for a lifetime protection against corrosion: electroless nickel plating (MIL-C-26074E grade B) and Zinc Cobalt plating (ASTM B 840-99 grade 6). A black die is applied after plating strictly for cosmetic appeal.
http://www.swiftech.com/products/APOGEEGTX.asp

So, yes, it uses aluminum, the the aluminum is not exposed to the coolant in the loop and thus you don't have a mixed metals issue and the associated corrosion problems.

 
 

Rike:

WoodButcher:

edit- @ Rike,  just saw the response on the appogee, IF you spend the added $39.00 for the copper-top it is a good block, stock, it also has alum.

It uses aluminum but . . .

The housing is CNC machined out of billet aluminum and receives two plating's for a lifetime protection against corrosion: electroless nickel plating (MIL-C-26074E grade B) and Zinc Cobalt plating (ASTM B 840-99 grade 6). A black die is applied after plating strictly for cosmetic appeal.
http://www.swiftech.com/products/APOGEEGTX.asp

So, yes, it uses aluminum, the the aluminum is not exposed to the coolant in the loop and thus you don't have a mixed metals issue and the associated corrosion problems.

Thanks to turkeys like me they'll make money selling the copper top,,,,,,

 

No resevoir?