First Build With Water Cooling

[sn8kedr]

Hiya all!

It took me a long time to work myself up to actually going ahead with watercooling but after watching TTL a million times I decided I'd give it a shot. Here's my rigs specs:

Intel i7 950

Gigabyte X58A-UD3R Rev 2.0

12gb G.skill RipJaws 1600mhz

Gigabyte GTX580 Super Overclock

Silverstone Strider Gold 1200W (massive overkill I know! Plan is to at add another 580 down the track......or maybe something Kepler based)

Coolermaster HAF932

WD Caviar Black 1TB x2

OCZ Vertex 60GB SSD

XSPC Rasa 750 RX360 Watercooling Kit

Just wanted to also give a big thanks to Tom for giving me the balls to give water cooling a crack - all your hard work and effort is very much appreciated! The same goes for everyone else that makes this sight and the plethora of information it provides possible

Well, here it is! Let me know what you all think - I know it's basic but given it's my first shot at Watercooling I'm as happy as I can be at this point.

During the leak test:

First Boot:

All lit up:

 

[dugdiamond]

welcome to OC3D

it's nice to see a newbie follow the posting rules

nice build, would look better with blue coolant and white LED fans on the rad. (blue-on-blue is BAD!)

 

[DarthDudo]

Hiya all!

It took me a long time to work myself up to actually going ahead with watercooling but after watching TTL a million times I decided I'd give it a shot. Here's my rigs specs:

Intel i7 950

Gigabyte X58A-UD3R Rev 2.0

12gb G.skill RipJaws 1600mhz

Gigabyte GTX580 Super Overclock

Silverstone Strider Gold 1200W (massive overkill I know! Plan is to at add another 580 down the track......or maybe something Kepler based)

Coolermaster HAF932

WD Caviar Black 1TB x2

OCZ Vertex 60GB SSD

XSPC Rasa 750 RX360 Watercooling Kit

Just wanted to also give a big thanks to Tom for giving me the balls to give water cooling a crack - all your hard work and effort is very much appreciated! The same goes for everyone else that makes this sight and the plethora of information it provides possible

Well, here it is! Let me know what you all think - I know it's basic but given it's my first shot at Watercooling I'm as happy as I can be at this point.

During the leak test:

First Boot:

All lit up:

Very nice mate good job!What fans are they?

 

[jonnyfgm]

Looks nice, how are you finding the res/pump combo in terms of noise?

 

[sn8kedr]

welcome to OC3D

it's nice to see a newbie follow the posting rules

nice build, would look better with blue coolant and white LED fans on the rad. (blue-on-blue is BAD!)

Ha ha - thanks. I didn't realize just how blue it was gonna be. Your right though - food for thought for the next build though

 

[sn8kedr]

Very nice mate good job!What fans are they?

Thanks bud!

I went with 120mm BitFenix Spectres - almost went with the Spectre Pro's but I wanted to keep this build relatively cheap as it is really just a practice run for my next upgrade.

 

[yassarikhan786]

Welcome to the OC3D forums and what a lovely build you have there

 

[sn8kedr]

Looks nice, how are you finding the res/pump combo in terms of noise?

Cheers man - so far the res/pump seems to have been really good. I can hardly hear it even when I drop all the fans down. The only time I can notice it is when I switch her on and the pump fires up - and even then it's only really a split second.

 

[jonnyfgm]

Ok that means my rig must just need a bit of dampening then. Its usually silent to start off with but as the system gets put under stress and the water warms up it seems to start to hum

 

[sn8kedr]

Welcome to the OC3D forums and what a lovely build you have there

Thanks mate - it's taken me a while to work up to adding the water cooling gear in there but now that I have, I've already started planning the next build lol. I can tell it's gonna be uber addictive!

 

[sn8kedr]

Ok that means my rig must just need a bit of dampening then. Its usually silent to start off with but as the system gets put under stress and the water warms up it seems to start to hum

Yeah - I had heard it can be a little loud and even had some light molded foam ready to line the side with just in case it was a bit noisy but thus far no drama's.

 

[Davidsons08]

Wow, looks awesome man. Nice job.

 

[Azurite]

Welcome to

and nice 1-time watercooling rig

 

[tharionos]

how much i do like blue builds

nice one and enjoy !

 

[Damien c]

Really nice rig mate and well done on the 1st time off water cooling.

I was nervous the 1st time I did water cooling, but now it's just natural just as easy as adding a new graphics card or more ram.

 

[f0x.]

Looks great fella, Like the braided Power cables too

 

[wassupdoc]

Great first build

might be getting that kit for my colossus, would you recommend it?

 

[jits h]

Great build

Loving the blueness

 

[MaXiMiZe]

That's wicked for a first

 

[sn8kedr]

Great first build

might be getting that kit for my colossus, would you recommend it?

Thanks mate - as a first time watercooling kit it's great. The only thing you really have to worry about it the coolant (and defo replace the tubing - the stuff that comes with the kit is pretty average). So, for me and what I wanted it for it's fantastic. Temps are brilliant and putting it together was actually a lot easier than I had first thought.

The only down side is with the res/pump combo - don't get me wrong, for the CPU loop it's great! But I think when I look to upgrade to multiple rads and blocks later on it will need to be replaced as it won't have the power.

So would I recommend it - if your looking at your first loop or just wanted to get into watercooling relatively cheaply the definitely! It's great!