Help me build a no-price-limit watercooling system!

[Sean W.]

tests have shown that there is almost no difference between 1/4" ID ( innder diameter ) and 5/8"ID tubing. when i say almost no difference, i mean a plus or minus of about 1 degrees. most blocks that come with barbs use 1/2" barbs, so id recomend using 1/2" ID tubing.

but to be honest, im going to have to go ahead and say i DO NOT reccoemend you going water cooling... i say get air coolers for each componenet you wish yo cool. so get a Noctua NH-D14 for your CPU, and 2 air coolers for your 5970's like this one: Arctic Cooling Accelero Xtreme 5970 VGA Cooler

i think you will be much happier goign with high performance air coolers... just my 2 cents.

 

[aspire]

The impact of tubing sizes - XtremeSystems Forums

See charts regarding the impact of tubing size on flow rates and temperatures.

Not that this was with an older C2D processor in a CPU only loop, also note that flow rate is almost doubled from the smallest tubing to the largest.

This means that the closer the loop gets to becoming saturated (the point where the radiator can no longer remove as much heat as is coming in) the more performance that increase in flow rate will yield.

In a full loop with CPU/GPUS/Motherboard what might have been 1 degree C could approach 3-5 degrees easily.

 

[earwicker7]

I had toyed with the idea of air cooling for a while, and even ordered a CPU heatsink, but I'm returning it, and I'm biting the bullet to go water-cooled. Here is my list of what I think I'm getting, so I could use some feedback. There will be two loops, one for the CPU/North Bridge, and one for the dual GPU cards. By the way, my motherboard already has a North Bridge block built in.

CPU Block: EK Supreme HF Universal CPU Liquid Cooling Block - Rev 2 - Full Copper - Nickel Plated (Sockets 775 / 1156 / 1366 / 939 / 940 / 771 / 754 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3) - FrozenCPU.com

GPU Block (x2): EK Radeon HD 5970 VGA Liquid Cooling Block - Acetal+Nickel (EK-FC5970-Acetal+Nickel) - FrozenCPU.com

Question: Do I need the backplates for those GPU blocks?

Pump/Reservoir/Radiator combo (x2): Swiftech MCR320 Drive Triple 120mm Radiator / Reservoir w/ MCP35X PWM Pump Combo (MCR320-Drive Rev2) - FrozenCPU.com

What fans are recommended for silent operation? I'd be using 1/4" ID, 3/8" OD tubing, so what connections would I need? Any other stuff other than biocide (and which one do you guys recommend?) that needs to be ordered?

 

[aspire]

I wouldn't recommend the 1/4" ID tubing. At the very least go for 3/8".

Do you know what the build in NB block is made out of? I'm not a big fan of mixed metal loops. Even though some people say their fine I can't help but think, why risk it?

 

[earwicker7]

I think the only reason I'm looking at 1/4" is that this is the recommended diameter for the NB block... unless my physics are off (they may be lol) the larger diameter is nullified by that little kink. I could go with another route on the GPU loop.

I'll have to check on the NB block... for all I know it's made out of Kryptonite. Where would I find out... it doesn't seem to be in the manual, unless I'm missing it.

So is that rad/res/pump combo ok? With them all being in one piece, I can just mount them on the wall a few feet down from the PC (out of splash range, god forbid).

 

[aspire]

Have you read the parts of my guide that are posted?

I understand that some of the parts overviews are a little out of date, but all the logic and general info is still sound.

See my sig for link.

 

[earwicker7]

Have you read the parts of my guide that are posted?

I understand that some of the parts overviews are a little out of date, but all the logic and general info is still sound.

See my sig for link.

Yes, I did read it... good stuff. I don't remember seeing the combo unit in there... did I miss something? That's the main thing I want to get an opinion on; the rest of the stuff seems to have a good reputation.

What is the deal with mixing metals?

 

[mm_67]

What is the deal with mixing metals?

This is what happens when you mix metals : Galvanic corrosion - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[aspire]

Yes, I did read it... good stuff. I don't remember seeing the combo unit in there... did I miss something? That's the main thing I want to get an opinion on; the rest of the stuff seems to have a good reputation.

When I wrote the write-up that combo pump/radiator did not exist as a product. It uses good parts and you should be happy with it.

-Aspire

 

[earwicker7]

Thanks! Now I'm just waiting on Gigabyte to get back to me on the materials used on the cooling block for the North Bridge. I have no idea how long this will take... the last time I emailed them, they never got back to me.