Advice

FFXIhealer

New member
New poster. Never intentionally overclocked anything longer than 30 minutes, so virtual OC noob here.

Backstory: I put together my first REAL gaming rig in 2010 after my deployment in Afghanistan (U.S. Army). It's an Intel i7-860 2.8Ghz with 16GB (4x4GB) DDR3-1600, TWO GTX 480s in SLI on a MSI Big Bang Trinergy motherboard (providing 16x-16x for the graphics cards), and the included Realtek sound card riser.

Anyway, when I bought it, I also bought a Brass/Copper 240mm radiator and a Danger Den DD-GTX480 water block (I initially only had one card). I don't have anything else.

Well, I'd like to rebuild this system the way I originally intended to - with WATER COOLING. But I've never done it before. I've watched tons of videos an it looks simple enough. What gets me is the Price for putting a GOOD custom loop together. I put up a mock picture of what I'm looking to do using the Corsair Obsidian 750D case as a template - but I can't insert a picture here without the old PhotoBucket and now that they've disabled 3rd party hosting unless you pay a small fortune, we'll have to do without for the moment.

The loop I'd like to do includes a triple-fan 360mm radiator on the top for exhaust, the 240mm rad I already have in the front for intake, and TWO VGA blocks for the two GTX 480s in parallel and an EK block for the CPU. The loop would go like this:

Reservoir/Pump -> VGA (Parallel) -> 360mm Radiator -> CPU -> 240mm Radiator -> Reservoir/Pump

The items I've been looking at include:

Corsair Obsidian 750D Airflow Edition - $160
EK Supremacy EVO CPU block (Copper) - $78
Corsair Air Series SP120 High SPL fans (2 pack) - $28 each pair, about 3 pairs needed
Thermaltake Pacific DIY LCS PR15-D5 200ml 5-Speed Adjustable D5 Pump/Reservoir Combo - $155
XSPC 360mm Radiator (Copper/Brass) - $63

That's $540. Include fittings and tubing to this cost. I would use straight Distilled Water with some PT Nuke. I'd LIKE to try PTEG tubing, but I know you need to be careful during bending.

Any advice people could give me?

EDIT: Oh yeah, I should mention that I would like to OC the CPU to around ~3.4 GHz after this and try overclocking my two GTX 480s as well once temperatures are no longer a concern. I'm also, naturally, having a huge problem finding a 2nd full-cover waterblock for my 2nd GTX 480. I'd PREFER to get another DD-GTX480 (color is not a factor) to ensure proper flow-rate matching for parallel cooling, but if I could get away with paralleling with a Koolance 480 block, I could do that. There's one still on Ebay for sale, though I'd PREFER the Danger Den block.

Oh snap! Just checked and there's a pair of EK-FC480 on Ebay. Might grab that and try to sell the Danger Den block. That way, I can do parallel cooling on the SLI with matched flow rates. Looking at $600 minimum at this point for a high-end custom cooling loop and the case.
 
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