Need Watercooling Guidance

[KillAWatt1705]

I hope to be building a new rig soon, and with new rigs come new problems. I've built many gaming PCs before, however, I never installed a water cooling system before. I am a huge overclocker and I think its about time I gave water cooling a run for its money. These are the components that I plan on buying:

Processor: Intel Core i7 920

Motherboard: Asus P6T Deluxe X58

RAM: Corsair 6GB DDR3 1600MHz XMS3 Dominator Memory

Graphics Card: ATi Sapphire HD 4870X2 OR Nvidia Gainward GTX 295 (Still Unsure, most likely the ATi though)

Case: Coolermaster Cosmos S

(Unfortunately, I'm not yet allowed to post pictures or links of the coolermaster case, but Im sure it's easy to find them.)

Power Supply Unit: Coolermaster 1000W RealPower Modular PSU

Those are the main components I plan on purchasing very soon, and the primary components I intend to water cool is the graphics card and the processor. However, the issue begins with the processor, the Intel i7, Im totally unfamiliar with its requirements for water cooling. As well as what the best parts are to buy for my water cooling loop and how I should set this up within my case. I know there are water cooling kits available, but from what I understand its best to buy custom parts, and I am willing to do that for extra cooling performance. If any more information is needed just let me know.

Much Appreciated

 

[moogle]

I would get a triple chunky rad like the Feser or XSPC RX one and mount it in the roof, a Laing DDC 18W pump + XSPC DDC top (maybe a Swiftech MCP655), Swiftech Apogee GTZ CPU block + i7 Mounting bracket, EK 4870 X2 waterblock (or XSPC if you don't mind not having the option of crossfire) and for fans if you want Silence get some Medium/Low speed Yate Loons or I would get some 38mm Scythe Ultra Kaze 2000RPM fans and put them on a speed controller.

Watercooling will add around £200-350 more onto your budget

 

[KillAWatt1705]

Thanks for thre reply, the parts have been noted. However where would I fix these within the case? I'm unsure how a loop is supposed to look, and in which order I would put these parts within the loop.

And as far as parts go, would these be the only parts I would need to purchase? Or are there other things that you haven't listed that I would require?

 

[moogle]

You'd have to buy tubing barbs and other bits but I left all those out and just outlined the main parts. The radiator would fit in the roof of the Cosmos. I assume that the Cosmos S has the 3 x 120mm fan mountings in the roof right? Well that's where almost all Cosmos watercooled cases have their triple rad mounted unless it's out on the back mounted by a radbox.

 

[KillAWatt1705]

You'd have to buy tubing barbs and other bits but I left all those out and just outlined the main parts. The radiator would fit in the roof of the Cosmos. I assume that the Cosmos S has the 3 x 120mm fan mountings in the roof right? Well that's where almost all Cosmos watercooled cases have their triple rad mounted unless it's out on the back mounted by a radbox.

I see. But take note that I am a total newbie, I have no idea what a barb is, how many I need, what they are used for, and what other "bits" I require. And as far as radiator placement goes, yes, from what I can see from other water cooled cosmos s cases, there's always a 3 x 120mm radiator fixed at the top of the case.

But what it comes down to is how the whole loop in my case would look, and how other components, like the pump for instance, or the reservoir, would be positioned in such a case. As well as other parts I need to position tubing, ect.

Sorry to be a bother like this but I really need a thorough guide, becuase Im going to be buying components very soon and I need to know that Im buying every single part that is required, not just the primary components, in addition to the knowledge required to construct a water cooled set up.

 

[moogle]

Sorry to be a bother like this but I really need a thorough guide, becuase Im going to be buying components very soon and I need to know that Im buying every single part that is required, not just the primary components, in addition to the knowledge required to construct a water cooled set up.

It's no bother at all man don't worry. Basically the watercooling parts have standard threaded holes. That hole is G1/4", some watercooling parts use different type holes but very rare.

Anyway the barbs they fit these threaded holes. What this does is allow you to fit on barbs/fittings onto your watercooling parts. These are the bits where the tubing/hose connects onto.

The reason they are modular/interchangeable is so that you can use barbs of different sizes, and you can use tubing that fits your barbs. If you wanted smaller tubing you could change down to smaller barbs.

On every watercooling part you typically need 2 barbs, one for the inlet and one for the outlet unless it's a special item like a fillport. So for a full cooling setup like yours you'd need maybe 6 or 8 (depending if you have a reservoir and if you go for a pump other than the D5).

The reservoir is where you fill the cooling fluid into and it feeds the pump with the fluid. If you were cooling CPU + GPU I'd have the loop going

Res -> Pump -> Radiator -> CPU -> GPU ->

When you do install the watercooling always remember to do a 24h leak test incase anything comes loose or water starts leaking.

If you're confused about anything else just say.

 

[Diablo]

Does the same order apply if I were to cool a northbridge instead of a gpu, but otherwise the same setup?

 

[moogle]

Does the same order apply if I were to cool a northbridge instead of a gpu, but otherwise the same setup?

Well really it doesn't matter what order it goes in, I just prefer to put it in order of least hot -> most hot. If your CPU was dumping so much heat the water was the same or hotter than the NB temp then yes it'd matter. That never really happens though and is one of the reasons why not alot cool their SB because if it's at the end of the loop (a heat packed one) it might actually be warming it up instead.

 

[Diablo]

Thanks for your help. Just waiting for my case *hint hint TTL (lol)* till I can get my new loop set up.