1st time water cooler check list.

[paulstung]

Please can you look over my possible shopping list for my first attempt water cooling . It for now is just for my cpu

Monsta 240 rad ? 360 ?
Lund pom plex res black
D5 + D5 HF top
Koolance cpu-37051 block ? unsure to go for the Swiftech Apogee hd ? Raystorm ( with the 2nd yellow led in it will bring it all together )
Fittings all monsoon 19/13 6 x straight / 6 x 45 degree , silver bullet , end caps
Primochill 19/13 back hose x 2m
lund plexi light module / 2 x 5mm yellow led's
4 x Corsair sp120's
3l distilled water

I am unsure on the size of the tube / fittings it might be a bit thick and over power the rig , maybe sugestions on that . And also looking at 5mm led's for the 2 pin conections would I need some kind of module to power them ? I have been looking for yellow ones with a molex but everywhere are out of stock . I am actually thinking about ditching the 240 rad and modding my phantom 630 ,to take a monsta 360 up front ,any thoughts on that peeps. Thanks for reading.

 

[SEBAR]

Go for a smaller diameter hose and fittings. 19mm is very large and you could run into clearance issues on your blocks and 3 liters of water seems like a lot but I guess it is always better to have too much then not enough.

 

[paulstung]

Yes I was thinking that for the hose I just started a shopping basket , to get an idea of the prices ( my god water cooling isn't cheap ) there is some fine tuning to do before the final order . What size tube/fittings is the norm ? It's always good to have more , of something I might just get the 2 . I could save a few quid , well a lot of quids on the fittings , but they are just too sexy not to use.

Appart from the tube size can you see any other issues ?

 

[SEBAR]

The most common sizes are probably 3/8 ID X 1/2 OD, 7/16 ID X 5/8 OD, and 1/2 ID x 5/8 OD. The size of the tubing does not make much difference. I use 3/8 ID X 1/2 OD and it works fine. I think 1/2 will bend without kinking better than 3/8. The 360 rad would be better than the 240 if you can fit it also make sure to plan out your component placement inside the case. be sure to measure everything as best you can. I ran into problems with fitting a rad in the top of a case because I did not measure the clearance with the motherboard installed. The heatsinks on the motherboard caused me problems because I could not get the rad fitted in the top. I ended up returning the case and getting something different.

 

[paulstung]

Cheers mate. I shouldn't run into any clearance issues , the rad is going up front .

 

[alpenwasser]

Performance wise tubing doesn't make a lot of difference, as already mentioned by SEBAR. Personally, I go for 16 mm OD/10 mm ID tubing. Has very good kink resistance due to the comparably thick walls relative to total diameter, there are lots of fittings available for it and you rarely run into clearance issues (and when you do, there are a ton of 10 mm barbs available as alternatives to compression fittings).

And yeah, the total cost for fittings has a tendency to skyrocket without difficulty .

One thing to note: If you're going to use a Monsta Rad (80mm thickness), push/pull is advisable. They require a bit more fan power (i.e. pressure) than the normal rads for unleashing their full potential (which is to be expected since more rad thickness means more resistance for the air to overcome for the same fin density; it's pretty basic fluid dynamics).

Today's CPU blocks are very close in performance, so my advice would be to just go for the one you like best.

3 l of water is not problem. As soon as you have a spill (during filling/emptying your loop, not in operation hopefully) or need to replace your liquid having a bit in reserve is nice. And it's not like it will go bad. Sooner or later you'll use it anyway .

Are you intending to run only distilled water? Or are you going to add some anti-corrosives/biocides/kill coils?

 

[paulstung]

The silver bullet mate .

 

[alpenwasser]

The silver bullet mate .

Ah, yes. Have to kill those werewolves somehow

Seriously though, that should work very well as long as you don't have unanodized Aluminium in your loop, which from the components you've listed, does not seem to be the case.

Personally, for my first few years I used dist. water mixed with glycol. Later I switched to pre-mixed coolants. Since those have anti-corrosive agents as well as biocides in them, I've never had a problem with either corrosion or biological debris in any of my loops without using a kill coil (and I've been running an anodized alu reservoir for 10 years almost continuously with copper coolers in my loop). Just as a side note.

 

[paulstung]

I have had to rethink whats parts I am using , I don't fancy spending £400 ish just for cooling so revision 2.
Monsta 240
XSPC X20
Apogee Hd block
Corsair sp120 x4
Monsoon fittings 2x45 / 2x90 2xstraight silver bullet,caps
Black hose
Distiled water x 3l
5mm yellow led for the res
I'm still undecided on hose/fittings size yet ordering first thing so I'll decide buy then.

 

[airdeano]

just for some info, the SP120 can cool the 60 and 80mm radiators just fine with
two fans, doesn't have to be push/pull. but if you are going to use the SP120
quiets then p/p would be beneficial. and that takes up 135mm of space plus
another 30mm to allow the pull fans breathe..so make sure you got 165mm of room.

 

[alpenwasser]

just for some info, the SP120 can cool the 60 and 80mm radiators just fine with
two fans, doesn't have to be push/pull. but if you are going to use the SP120
quiets then p/p would be beneficial. and that takes up 135mm of space plus
another 30mm to allow the pull fans breathe..so make sure you got 165mm of room.

Haha, completely forgot that there's a performance edition of those .
Anyway, with powerful fans push/pull is indeed not required of course.

I'd only use push/pull on an 80 mm thick rad (but yeah, takes up a lot of space) or on a rad with high fin density if you're so inclined. Personally, I'm running a 60 mm thick alphacool 360 with three SP120's quiet in push and it's working just fine.