Water cooling types

[p1987]

Afternoon,

I am considering purchasing a water cooling setup for around the £150.00 mark max.

Any kit suggestions that would be better than my Thermalright ultra 120 eXtrEmE heatsink air cooler?

Would a cpu kit and a gpu water kit be better working separately or a combined kit for both?

 

[SuB]

I think you'll be hard pressed to get a CPU and GPU kit for that kind of cash fella.

 

[Remmy]

Like SuB said, it will be difficult to get a loop for a CPU and a GPU for that price. Maybe you'll be able to almost get a basic CPU loop, but you'll then have to add the GPU later on. For GPU and CPU, I'd want a minimum of a 360mm rad, so maybe starting off with something like the EK-360 H3O HFX Kit, but even that is about £230; then further down the line adding a GPU block will be about £80 more. The pump in this kit is pretty basic but should just cope with the CPU and GPU loop.

To get the best out of watercooling you want to do it all yourself to make sure you get good quality components, but unfortunately it's expensive. But that's just what watercooling is; if you want to do it properly, then it's costly, but IMO it's worth it for performance, silence, and aesthetics.

Oh, and a combined loop would be much cheaper, much easier, and much less hassle.

 

[p1987]

Much appreciated and £150.00 max was due to my lack of knowledge

I will take a look at the above.

Regards

 

[tinytomlogan]

TBH even cpu only with the chance of upgrading a gpu block later for 150 would be tight dude.

you need a good 360mm rad and a case that supports it too

 

[SparkleDJackson]

yea it can get hideously expensive buddy. when a cpu block is 40 a d5 pump is 70 it doesnt leave much in your budget. but just because you are inexperienced doesnt mean you should set yourself a limit like that because in all honesty. if you can build a pc you can watercool it. its no more difficult. the boss has a good wc guide on the channel you can check out. there are a lot of wc vids on youtube that you should not follow as they are super super wrong so trust toms vid. its pretty good.

 

[tinytomlogan]

For the money you have youd be better off with a H100i and some decent quiet fans dude.

Unless you just want low temps and dont care about noise then you can just use the stock ones.

 

[Bartacus]

Honestly, I wouldn't bother with an H100. The TRUE is a bloody good air cooler, and I'll bet you wouldn't see a lot of temperature difference on the CPU if you bought an H100. Temps would be better, yes, but it's not like you'd knock 10-15 degrees off the TRUE, especially if the TRUE has 2 decent fans and you have good airflow in your case.

 

[SeekaX]

Honestly, I wouldn't bother with an H100. The TRUE is a bloody good air cooler, and I'll bet you wouldn't see a lot of temperature difference on the CPU if you bought an H100. Temps would be better, yes, but it's not like you'd knock 10-15 degrees off the TRUE, especially if the TRUE has 2 decent fans and you have good airflow in your case.

u wot. looks hideous, probably louder, will heat up the entire case and might be able to deal with stock clocks, but not even the ndh14 can keep up with an h100 and that is probably the best air cooler you can get.

 

[Bartacus]

u wot. looks hideous, probably louder, will heat up the entire case and might be able to deal with stock clocks, but not even the ndh14 can keep up with an h100 and that is probably the best air cooler you can get.

I know the H100 will best it, no doubt. I'm just saying the temp difference won't be as big as you may think. You've obviously never used a TRUE if you think it won't handle stock clocks. Mine handled an i7 920 OCed to 4.2Ghz just fine, with load temps around 60-62C. As for heating up the case, ummm, no. Mine had 2 fans blowing air directly into the rear exhaust fan. Noise is fan dependent and on air, who cares about looks.

EDIT: I lied unintentionally. It never topped 62C at 4Ghz, not 4.2. My bad. Point is: TRUE is a great cooler, and OP sounds like money is a factor, so I think the H100i would be a waste of his money. ESPECIALLY if he wants to go custom loop later on.

P1987: I'd save up some money and go custom loop on both CPU and GPU, instead of getting the H100i now. My $0.02CDN, which isn't worth much!

 

[KING_OF_SAND]

+1 on the H100i. I have been using one with SP120 quiet and they are incredible in keeping my 4.6ghz nice and cool. And even at 5ghz it is still manageable. 150 is REALLY tight for a custom loop. I did my 6990 back in the day (granted it was a GPU) but the block itself was 150, the tubes were another 30, the smaller parts added to another 30, the pump res combo ended up being another 250. A nice custom loop will run you a good 500.

 

[PetetheSweet]

Maybe you can try a new Swiftech H320 and add a GPU Waterblock, if you have enough room for a 360mm Radiator.

Then just put another Radiator and a set of fans to the setup later and bang you're ready.

Compact, powerfull enough and silent.

Link to the Swiftech Page:
http://www.swiftech.com/H320.aspx

 

[p1987]

I currently have the True (Ultra 120 extreme) an yes, I agree; it is still one of the best air coolers on the market no doubt, I just fancied future proofing myself by purchasing a water cooling kit that can push my GPU even higher.

What would the average overclock increase be if I use WCing and hit the max voltage (via software) on my gpu? I'd rather not volt mod the cards if the temps go above 90.

Regards

 

[NeverBackDown]

What would the average overclock increase be if I use WCing and hit the max voltage (via software) on my gpu? I'd rather not volt mod the cards if the temps go above 90.

This is something we have no answer on. All depends on your GPU. What we can tell you though is with watercooling you will hit a GPU limit before a thermal limit.

 

[p1987]

Currently my gpu is at 900mhz core and 1375 memory, it has crashed out (lines on the screen) when i push it to lightning speeds (940 core, 1375 memory), it it possible that the memory has hit its "limit" as the core only reaches 70c on load. I think I will try and push the core to 1000mhz and drop to memory to 1370 and test again.

I agree.

Much appreciated