First watercooling setup

[corban]

Currently have the brilliant ASUS Sabretooth p67 board and an i7 2600k running at a modest 4ghz with a noctua d14 cooling it and 2x 570's in sli in a silverstone fortress ft02 case, i have no problems or issues with my pcs performance or noise or heat. However ive been looking into watercooling for some time and this year i think i want to take the plunge, firstly this would mean me selling on the brilliant FT02 case (before ppl jump on me i know its a great case and i also have seen people build watercooling into them) i feel the FT02 is designed to be the best aircooling case around (or was at the time) and i dont want to butcher it to be an average watercooling case. Ive looked at the cosmos 2 and its a beast of a case but ive also seen from CES2012 a new NZXT full tower case they showed there that is unreleased atm which has also caught my eye.

Im giving some serious thought to selling my 570s (again i think they are great) and going for a single card solution for now and to begin my foray into watercooling, and given the reviews i've seen the 7979 seems a decent choice and gives me the option to Xfire later.

My question really is im thinking for a single card say the 7970 and my cpu which whilst being clocked i have set modestly so i can run it 24/7 for gaming 90% of the time, a 360 rad should be enough to keep everything as cool as i want am i correct with this ?

Also the cosmos 2 and the new NZXT (excuse my lack of name) both have options for extra 240s at least in the bottom of the case so if i wanted to put a second card in i could add another rad.

Just really wanted to run this past the watercooling gurus here.

Many thanks

 

[S_I_N]

I saw that nzxt case i think ur referring to but if ya can provide a link it would be great. As far as the cosmos 2 yes it'll fit a 360 in the roof but of the thinner variety. prolly only good for cpu loop at ur oc. Adding a 240 in the bottom will deffo help for both cpu and gpu. And should net ya decent temps.

So answer ur question no I dont think a thin 360 rad will do cpu and gpu. adding a second card to the mix with a 240 I doubt it'll do it. I know thw 7870 run a tad cooler due to the die shrink but as no blocks exist for them yet (afaik) its really hard to say with 100% certainty

ok found the case ur referring to its the NZXT 810 Switch. it will according to the vid house a rad in the roof they claim 90mm of room and the top fans are designed to mout outside the case.

 

[SieB]

What S_I_N said

As far as the cases go though the Switch 810 is the better watercooling case and is cheaper than the Cosmos II, what the build quality is like on the 810 we don't know yet though. Even if it is well built the Cosmos II is still the more solid case but it's also a lot bigger, more expensive and lacks the massive amount of room for rads the 810 offers in the roof.

I wanted the Cosmos II for months but was disappointed at the price and the lack of radiator space in the roof especially given the size of the case. Don't get me wrong though it's still a very good case but if you want a case for watercool without modding, when you look at the 810 and see the options it has compared to the Cosmos II, watercooling wise, the 810 is the better case.

 

[| raVen |]

100% agree with SieB!

If you want to go for watercooling CPU and GPU go for NZXT 810, I'm sure that build quality will be not the same as Cosmos2 but, NZXT one is cheaper more than twice.

100% I will buy NZXT as soon as will hit the market.

 

[corban]

100% agree with SieB!

If you want to go for watercooling CPU and GPU go for NZXT 810, I'm sure that build quality will be not the same as Cosmos2 but, NZXT one is cheaper more than twice.

100% I will buy NZXT as soon as will hit the market.

Right so some advancements, I have secured a 7970 , and 360 rad (GTX 360 Black Ice) and a pump (Laing 18W DDC-Pump 12V DDC-1T Plus) the latter 2 being second hand from a friend whos moving on up in the WC stakes. Which leaves me with a cpu block to choose from looks alone i like the XSPC RASA and people have certainly reviewed it well so thats a positive. Fittings however im not so sure on i know i want black and i know i want compression (i understand the differences and peoples preferences), but more than this i dont know i like the look of the EK ones and the bitspower ones seem to be hugely expensive compared to everything else.

Which leaves the Res this is the point im currently stuck on as i cant seem to decide what i might need. Any suggestions ?

 

[SieB]

Fittings are basically the same just some are better well made than others and Bitspower ones are just overpriced.

Res is just down to personal choice as well, performance wise there is no difference it just depends if you prefer a drivebay res, a cylinder res or a pump top and res combo. I Suppose it also depends on your case and how much room you have, if you have a large case then a decent sized internal mounted cylinder res would be fine but if your case doesn't have much room a drive bay res would be better because it's tucked away in the drive bays.

i'd say go with the one you think will look best or which will be best suited to your case.

 

[corban]

Im thinking I will go with a tube res as im hopefully getting a NZXT Switch and theres plenty of room in that but the bays im likely to use a fan controller and a dvd bay at the very least.

im thinking the phobia one atm as it seems well made and good reviews and price point.

 

[SieB]

The Phobya ones do look the best in my opinion, except for the FrozenQ ones but they are pretty expensive.