Radiator, Pump, and Reservoir recommendations

[qhfreddy]

Hey guys,

I am sketching out a rig I will be building around June-July or after Christmas this year, and I need some advice regarding the water cooling I want to be doing on it. This is the first full build I will have done, and also my first water cooled build.

I am building in a HAF-X with a P8Z77-V and a 3570k. GPU is going to be a VAPOR-X 7950, no water cooling for that.

I have decided on a Swiftech Apogee HD for the waterblock and I need advice on a 360mm length radiator, a pump, and a reservoir for the single CPU loop. I'd like some future expandability to be able to include water cooled SLI/CF GPUs, and another 360 or 240mm length rad in the front of the case (Will probably get rid of some of the 3.5 inch bays), preferably on the same loop.

Shipping to the UK and price under 150 GBP for the loop parts (excluding the Apogee HD)

Thanks in advance

 

[alpenwasser]

Hi there,


I'm not very familiar with the HAF-X so I can't really comment whether that's a good choice to go water cooling. Therefore I shall simply proceed to advise you on Rad, pump and res .

Disclaimer
Since I don't live in the UK, you'll have to check for yourself if these products lie within your price range.

Radiator
There are many good options on the market right now, I myself am running an Alphacool UT60 360 (review, and have a look around his site for more informative stuff while you're at it) and am pretty happy with it.

Alternatively, Phobya rads are also pretty decent from what I hear and not too expensive. A bit more on the costly side is the XSPC RX series, but they're very good at low fan speeds. Same goes for the Hardware Labs SR-1 series on both counts.

If you're looking for something thinner, Alphacool (XT45 and XT30) and XSPC (EX series, AX series and ES series) both make thinner rads that have been quite well received. The XSPC RS series isn't quite as performant but pretty affordable.

I don't personally own a Haf-X but from what I can tell it would require quite some modding to get a second rad into the front? Not sure on that one. (Almost) anything is possible, of course, it just depends how much work you're willing to do.
Alternatively, you might be able to fit a Phobya single 200 mm rad into the front without too much hassle since there's already a 200 fan there if I've been informed correctly.

Pump
I'd recommend a D5. It's a bit expensive, but provides ample headroom for any future expansions, which might be cheaper in the long run. The manufacturer is Laing, but they are sold rebranded by quite a few companies. Just make sure to get the Vario version (it has a little red nob on the back) so that you can turn it down since its full strength is rarely needed. The downside is, it is recommendable to also buy a custom pump top (Alphacool makes some, as do Koolance and a few other companies), which adds quite a bit extra in price.

If you wish to go a bit more affordable, you might want to have a look at Phobya's 12 V DC pumps. I think I remember reading that the strongest version is a bit loud on 12 V, but I think the medium one would suffice for a CPU only loop. You can always replace it or add a second one if you expand your loop later on. Regardless, have a look at a few reviews on the Phobya pumps before deciding on buying one.

And no matter what pump you buy, make sure to dampen it sufficiently! Every pump vibrates, and if those vibrations are transmitted to the case, the result can be rather noisy and unpleasant.

Reservoir
This very much depends on what you want. If you get a D5 pump with a custom top, you can get reservoirs that go directly onto the pump top.
Alternatively you can of course choose a normal bay res or tube res. If you choose a bay res, there are also some which can fit a pump directly onto it. However, I'm a bit wary of bay res pump mounting because usually the pump's vibrations can get transmitted directly to the case (see above).

Since the reservoir is for the most part a matter of taste and preference, the best thing you can do is have a look at what's available and decide for yourself.

 

[qhfreddy]

Thanks for the reply,

I have looked through the radiators, I think I will settle with an XT45.

As far as the pumps and res I was really looking for a pump that is separate from the reservoir. As far as the res I don't want anything fancy, just a decent sized res that will fit in the case.

 

[Noz_God]

you can put a 60mm thick rad in the top with fans on top (outside case) with no modding, i have modded the top of my HAF-X to have push/pull. Tom has done a vid on YouTube with the HAF-X with a 360 rad in top.

 

[qhfreddy]

you can put a 60mm thick rad in the top with fans on top (outside case) with no modding, i have modded the top of my HAF-X to have push/pull. Tom has done a vid on YouTube with the HAF-X with a 360 rad in top.

So A 60mm rad fits within the plastic housing on the top? Can you show me how you set it up?

I will only be mounting push fans if the rad goes inside the housing, if it is on the underside of the metal case I will mount pull fans in the housing.

Link to the vid plz? I looked around, but could not find it.

 

[alpenwasser]

Both the D5 and the Phobya pumps can be used without troubles on their own with a separate reservoir. I'm running my D5's without a reservoir combo with Alphacool after-market tops since I'm not that keen on pump/res combos unless working in confined spaces.

As for res , are you looking for a bay res or more something like a tube to put inside the case?

Regarding the video, I could only find a haf-932 build (search his channel for Shadow H20), I'm not sure if there ever was a Haf-x water cooling vid. But I might be wrong on that one of course.

Even if you pick the XT45, that will do just fine. If you can find out if an XT60 fits, then of course the additional cooling capacity wouldn't hurt, especially when expanding the loop later.

Of course, you can always buy the case first, measure everything out and then buy the radiator that actually fits inside if you wish to be on the safe side.

 

[qhfreddy]

Of course, you can always buy the case first, measure everything out and then buy the radiator that actually fits inside if you wish to be on the safe side.

I think I'll buy the case in a few weeks, I'll measure the dimensions and find what will fit for the rad.

 

[Noz_God]

That's Toms vid with a 35mm rad in the top. Putting fans in pull is better for cleaning, i just think push/pull looks better

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zGAjOVJN8k&list=SPFBB470EB66059D23&index=18

 

[qhfreddy]

Thanks for the vid.

I was wondering about mounting the radiator where Tom mounts the fans, I prefer a push config so the fans run at a lower temperature.

For a pump I decided on a Swiftech MCP655, LinusTechTips recommendation.

As for fans I think I'll go with Corsair SP120 performance editions, 3 of them.

 

[hdeezie80]

Thanks for the vid.

I was wondering about mounting the radiator where Tom mounts the fans, I prefer a push config so the fans run at a lower temperature.

For a pump I decided on a Swiftech MCP655, LinusTechTips recommendation.

As for fans I think I'll go with Corsair SP120 performance editions, 3 of them.

I use the same pump and fans right now and would definitely recommend both of them, the corsair SP120's performance editions run really well on a fan controller without any of the buzzing you can get with cheaper fans running at low voltage. And the pump is nearly silent up to about its 4th speed.

I would suggest getting an xspc ax 360 or rx 360 if it will fit for the top and a phobya 200mm for the front, put the radiator at the top with the fans pulling into the case so they will be cooling your rad while actively cooling the vrms and ram, remove the hdd cage completely and mount the phobya 200mm rad where the 230mm fan is aswell as your pump and res and just throw your hdd's in the hotswap bay, there is an ssd mounting spot where the wiring goes which is pretty nice for getting your main drive out of the way. then just mount another 200 mm fan exhausting out the side, a 140 exhausting out the back, and a 120 exhausting over the hdds to keep all that heat out of the case. if you don't want to remove the hdd cage one xspc rx 360 would be fine if you were going to try to keep the voltage under 1.35 or so and stick with a single gpu, the 3570k really doesn't pull too many watts so it would be more a matter of how fast you want to run your fans.

 

[alpenwasser]

I'm assuming you know this, but just to be sure, the MCP655 is a rebranded D5 Vario, so any D5 pump top will fit.

One thing regarding the Swiftech one: I found this thread. I don't know how up-to-date and/or correct the information there is, but it mentions that you lose warranty on the Swiftech once you open the pump top.

So, if you intent to use a custom pump top (advantage: not insignificantly better performance, easier fitting of fittings due to G1/4" threads), you might want to consider something like a bare pump motor (Alphacool sells one, as does Aquacomputer) without the stock top. Will save you a few bucks as well in total.

If you just want to run the stock top and are sure you're not going to go for a custom top in the future (or don't really care about warranty), then the Swiftech will be ok.

And another thing regarding the D5: Some come with an RPM signal (the Aquacomputer one, for example) and some don't (Alphacool's variant if I recall correctly), if you care about that sort of thing.

As hdeezie80 mentioned, you might wish to run the fans on a fan controller, the performance edition of the SP120's on 12V is not exactly what I'd call quiet (then again, what qualifies for a quiet fan is rather subjective).

EDIT: The Alphacool D5 is also available preinstalled, with an Acetal and a plexi top, just fyi.

 

[qhfreddy]

The main reason I chose the HAF X for the case was so I can do a lot of upgrades in the future without needing a new case, a guy I know through games has a 480mm rad in the front of his HAF X, which is a (rather extreme) option in the future. Right now I will just start the loop with a 360 in the top with fans pushing air out of the case. I will switch the orientation of the 140 to pull air in, and leave the other fans as they are, this config will allow for a good amount of positive pressure in the case. I will probably fiddle around with the setup once I have built it though.

As for the radiator choice, the RX360 is a rather thick radiator, and also a bit on the expensive side where I'm getting the parts from (specialtech). The AX360 is also quite expensive.

I do expect to be able to do some pretty serious overclocks with this setup, and I will probably also make myself a high wattage PWM fan control circuit as a side project later, until then my model train power supplies will be used for the fans that I want to have running under 12v. Either way, my setup right now is far from quiet so 40-45dB fans will probably not bother me that much, considering I have a large fan blowing air through my room, which you can find it hard to talk over.

Just a quick two questions about your loop: Do you only run one pump? And what reservoir do you use?

 

[alpenwasser]

Just a quick two questions about your loop: Do you only run one pump? And what reservoir do you use?

In my current loop, I'm running an Aquacomputer Aquastream. Performance is not bad, but unless you're putting it on a Aquaero (which I haven't), you can't really unleash its full potential. And the D5 is the better solution imho.
But for my next project which is currently in the works I'm putting two D5's in the loop (with Alphacool tops). Not necessarily for performance, but more for redundancy. Also, this allows me to turn the pumps down while still retaining performance without having the noise characteristics of a pump running full speed (high pitched sound, although if dampened correctly, it's barely noticeable). And yes, I have tested this in person since I already have most of the watercooling parts for my build.

But within the noisy environment you're talking about, even a pump at full speed won't be audible.

As for reservoirs, I'm going to put an Aquacomputer Aqualis into my loop. On the expensive side, but pretty awesome. It's made from Borosilicate Glass instead of Plexi, and the glass cylinder has a wall thickness of 5 mm. Build quality is absolutely awesome on those things. You can get them in a variety of versions, if you're interested, go have a look here. Personally, I've chosen the Pro variant without nano coating. The standard (Eco) version lacks the LED mounting option, and if I've deciphered the product description correctly, the expensive version has an integrated fill level sensor (usable only with an Aquaero I think). The medium (Pro) version has the possibility to fit it with a fill level sensor later on, but does not come with it. I believe the Eco version does not have this capability.

All versions are available with a nano coating, although I have yet to see a demonstration of its effectiveness. Just make sure you don't get the pump top version by accident, but the normal one instead .