Best Watercooling Setup (or close to it)!!

[waytoosmall]

Okay, I am writing this because I asked questions on here and only a few people responded. I've read tons of guides, forum posting etc.. and I wanted to put up the equipment I settled on for people trying to find a really nice watercooling setup they can put together.

Read the Sticky at the top of this forum on watercooling, it is excellent and informative, but model numbers have changed a little and new products have come out. So here is what I went with.



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1 CPU COOLING: Swiftech Apogee


2 VGA COOLING: Swiftech MCW60 Universal VGA Cooling Solution


2 Hardware: MCW60 G80 adapter kit for nVidia GeForce 8000 series


4 Swiftech MC14 BGA RAMsinks (8 per pack/ 13 needed per 8800gtx)


Danger Den Bay Reservoir High-Density Polyethylene


12 Stainless steel worm clamps



Zerex Super Coolant



Tygon 3603 Tubing 1/2" ID 3/4" OD



Iwaki MD20RLT Water Pump (Japanese Motor)



Thermochill PA120.3 w 3/Panaflo/NMB-MAT FBA12G12U1A 120x38mm, 3PIN, 114CFM, 46dBA Fans (using a Sunbeam Multi Fan Power Port to connect all the fans on the radiator to one molex connector)


Thermaltake CL-W0080 Flow Meter (only thing i'm unsure of, I don't think this will cause reduced flow but I will continue to read and confirm before I install the system. Just wanted some way to see it all moving.)




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The motor is the best according to everything I read. Should really keep the water moving. It will run you around 170 with shipping and can be found over at petstore.com. Nice people and the guy explained to me, including part names, how to take the outputs from 3/4" to 1/2" using parts from home depot.

The radiator seems to be one of the better ones out there, but it was hard to find any concrete evidence, mostly testimonials.

The CPU block is another area that people are all over the place about, but I saw solid proof that the APOGEE outperforms the Storm Rev.2 in my application using the E6600.

For GPU, do not get a complete coverage block. Get One that just covers GPU, then use ramsinks for the memory.

Be prepared to order from multiple sites and I found customer service to be off mark all over the place. Like things being out of stock and the people waiting a whole day to let me know this, therefore delaying my order. Crazypc was by far the best I worked with along with petstore.com. Other than the fact that crazypc is in Michigan, which is the arch rival territory of my beloved school Ohio State....

Please, everyone that is up to date on watercooling please comment on my part selection, or list what you use. Overall this setup was not cheap at all, but nothing in my sig is. If I'm going to spend days researching and talking to people, i'm going to get the best. I know I didn't go TEC, which I hear can be much better, but I wanted to get a grip on WC first, then I'll make that jump on my next processor upgrade. Hope this helps anybody looking to peice together a good watercooling system.

 

[aspire]

As was previously stated, take a look at petrastechshop.com

Do not get the apogee, it is in all respects a very low budget block and you will not get the same performance you would get a from a swiftech storn, or an aquaxtreme mp-1.

To be perfectly honest, there is no need to buy a 170 dollar pump. I would personally reccomend either the aquaxtreme 50z or the Laing D5, sold by both swiftech and danger den.

And finally, for gods sake, dont buy anything thermaltake branded when it comes to water cooling. It will break and is just a bunch of crap.

Anyways.... Thats all i've got to say

 

[lancec2c30]

Ya they attempted to make a case that was already water cooled. lol what a waste of $450. Every review on it claims pump failure or sever leaks after the first 2-3months.

EDIT: aspire, I think it is about time for a sig update as you have that e6600 and all.

 

[waytoosmall]

Staight from the swiftech website...why would they not want you to buy the more expensive block, which is easier to find in stock everywhere I might add?????



"Based on our calculations the Swiftech Apogee is 0.015 °C/W better than the Swiftech Storm (revision 2) at keeping the new Intel quad-core series of processors cool! This equates to about a 2°C difference in average full-load temperature between these two blocks when dealing with a stock Intel QX6700 processor @ 2.66GHz. Although this difference may seem small, it is important to note that differences in temperatures of this magnitude are significant, especially when taking into account the large disparity in price...With such a large difference in both price and performance, both in favor of the Swiftech Apogee, it is hard not to give the [Apogee] waterblock our highest recommendation when cooling the new Intel quad-core processor. Those that are looking to upgrade to this CPU can be confident that their dollar is well-spent when choosing the Apogee." December 2006



Please respond to this...and the only thing I got from TT was the little flow meter, nothing else, which I would assume would be hard to break. As for the pump, like I said, you don't need it, but every water cooling guru sais it is the pump to have when you have multiple blocks like I will have. And can handle even more if I decide to do HD cooling etc...

 

[aspire]

Well, in regards to the Pump, my own the Laing D5 which retails for 75 usd, pushes 317 gallons per hour using its natural fittings.

The Iwaki pump you have picked out retails for 160 usd plus shipping, pushes 420 gph.

This may seem like a landslide victory, but consider, it is pushing that much water through fittings that are 50% larger.

Now, that should mean it should be pushing 1/3 more water simply due to outlet size.

1/3 of 420 = 140 gph per 1/4 of outlet.

However, for the laing because it only has 1/2 inch fittings, divide its gph by 2 to find its gph per 1.4 of outlet size. 317/ equals 158.5.

Thus the laing pump is more efficient than the iwaki pump.

You need to realize that in the conversion from 3/4in to 1/2in you will lose a fairly significant amount of flow.

That pump is truly designed to work in a 3/4 tubing enviroment for it to truly perform.

Finally, with the Laing D5 it is already prewired to run on 12vdc whereas the iwaki is meant to run off an electrical outlet another inconvenience. Lastly there comes the issue of size.


Anyways, this has got to be the longest reply i've ever posted. I just think that for the price, there is not sufficient benefit.

Anyways, that thermaltake thing is useless, and will break really soon if you do use it.

edit* Just looking at the case, I dont thingk there is any way in **** you are going to even fit that iwaki pump inside it.

 

[waytoosmall]

I reference you to:
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=41495

which is part of the watercooling sticky in this forum. Specifically to this:

"MD-20/WMD-20
This pump based off of cathars calculations is the best AC based pump that money can buy. It will give you the lowest temperatures regardless of setup (given that you have a dual fan rad or more).
This is the bigger brother of the MD-15. This pump does 6.7gallons per minute and has 14 feet of head. This is where Iwaki goes into a class of its own. There are no other aquarium pumps that can touch these. (I'm sure there are some out there somewhere, but for the most part...) This pump can handle literally anything you can throw at it. I had to retighten all my seals on the water block to get it watertight again. As far as noise goes, this pump is very quiet. It does have some noise on the lower hertz, but the sound of some fans at low speed are louder than it. only if u have your fans completely silent will it cause you to notice it. This model is 110 dollars for the WMD (American) and 160 for the MD (Japanese) model. This pump consumes rougly 45 watts of power, and dumps 14.5-20 watts of heat into the water. "

There is a lot more math involved than what you are listing. Flow is not the only thing to consider. There is also head, and heat transfer. Again, read the sticky on watercooling in this thread for all the considerations when choosing a pump.


I was not planning on putting the pump in my case, I know it wont fit. I realize it runs AC, that is one of the reasons I bought it. I'm not saying the Laing D5 is not a great pump, but it is not as good as the Iwaki if you want maximal performance

And you didn't comment back on the CPU block. What do you think of the quote from the Swiftech website?

 

[lancec2c30]

Man your computer is going to be a bi*** to take anywhere.

Now is there w/c tubing that has a inner diameter of 3/4"? If so With all the waterblocks you will be pushing through, I would recommend getting it.

Your those 8800 could really use it.

 

[waytoosmall]

I will never carry it anywhere. I don't go to lan parties. I just want to push this beast to the limit at home. I'm not sure about the tubing. Everything I read said 1/2" but i'm sure people have used much bigger tubing. Everything I have read sais that 1/2" with this setup should be sufficient.

 

[aspire]

Meh, do what you will, the apogee is a cheap block that will never, under any circumstances outperform a storm.

By the laws of physics that govern heat transfer, it just aint gonna happen.

Still, its your choice, and being that ive never used several of the parts you chose, im probably not the best guy to ask.

If you have the oppurtunity to wait a few days look for a guy by the name of Kuraikitsune01 to come onto aim. He is the owner of petrastechshop.com He is always glad to help ppl out wiht questions. I remeber last time i drove to their store, they had some random length of 3/4 inch tubing laying around which i commented on as being nuts...

 

[lancec2c30]

Ya, I am not positive. But I thought they had tubing with inner diameter of 3/4". We will let aspire come and fill us in.