Cooling Cheap Water Cooling

You would be very surprised at the prices you can get on cooling parts on ebay.

At the moment, on ebay UK, I'm bidding on a package containing:

Danger Den Hard Disk Water Block

Alphacool Socket 775 Water Block

Zalman Northbridge Water Block NEW

EK's massive copper and perspex Nvidia 8800 GTS water block NEW - no barbs

A bunch of pipe crimps, and silver thermal paste.


All for under £40.00, when at somewhere like Coolercases, such a package would cost £145+

To be honest with you guys, I don't need these parts just yet, so feel free to bid against me for some top cooling parts at rock bottom prices.

Auction finishes in 1 hour...

 

sweet thats awesome! I may have to have a look, not being a big ebay fan myself but this looks too good to pass up.

 

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Danger-Den-HD...yZ131508QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

The Link... if anyone needs it

 

I have never tried watercooling, one thing I would like to know and that I have never seen in any tutorial is "do you need to check your watercooling system every month or so" or is it something you can do and let it run for months/1 year ?

 

If setup properly you can run them unattended. Having something that you can check quickly fluid level would be helpful too.

 

If you use one sort of metal, e.g. all aluminium, or all copper, and use something that acts as an anti corrosive, like watter wetter or anti-freeze, you really needn't do anything at all, except maybe check up on it every once in a while.

If you have used different types of metal, its not a big deal, but if you do notice any colour change, or dramatic change in system temp. you know that there is some corrosion going on, and need a fluid change.

A well made system needs very little maintenance at all, except perhaps for the occasional coolant top-up.

Here is a quick guide which you may find useful:
http://www.maximumpc.com/article/how_to_maintain_your_water_cooling_setup

 

I would also recommend changing your pump every couple of years...

 

I'd try watercooling but buying GPU blocks for a 7950GX2 would be a nightmare.

 

just watercool the CPU then

 

why are you selling??? can't you hold onto them untill you need them

 

MODGODTANVIR<-- Using different materials is not a good thing... Use either Copper/aluminum or whatever, all the way! Anodized aluminum SHOULD remove the posibility of interfering with the copper, but I wouldn't recommend it! But hang on to it, if it was you who won them... I have a lot of crap I don't use right now, but if I need it someday, it's nice to be able to just dive into that box and use them, on a sunday morning!

Ending Credits <-- I'm running a single 7950GX2 and I'm not sure what to do... Either I'm gonna buy an extra 7950Gx2, and make waterblocks for both of them to run Quad sli on water... Or I'm gonna go 8800 Gts 320mb sli... No matter what, I'll make blocks for them...
I have a feeling that 8800 will drop a bit in price when 9800 comes out in february!

 

swiftech makes a kit for them. they use two mcw60 vga blocks and a spacer kit they designed.

 

Watercooling is finally becoming affordable. I picked up a brand new Waterchill kit (CPU+GPU+NB, 1x120mm rad, small pump) for $100. Not quite swiftech quality, but still very nice and solidly built. If you can get dangerden stuff for ~50 pounds, thats fantastic.

 

So what is the most commonly used material for the best quality and performance water blocks, copper or aluminium?

Can you just use pre-mixed coolant for cars that you buy from an auto shop or should you buy distilled or de-ionised water and add a specific type of anti-freeze or anti corrosive to add to it, and if so what type and what ratio should be used with what waterblock material?

Sorry if this sounds confusing or noobish, I am thinking of going to water cooling and want to make the best decision from having the best information and you blokes seem to know what you are talking about and don't dribble smeg like some people tend to.

 

Copper is best (well more accurately silver is). Yes you can use premixed but it's usually 50/50 mix which is a little too thick or viscous. A 10% - 15% Glycol to de-ionized water is just fine and what I use. Of course you can also use the specific made stuff if you want ever so slightly better performance and stuff to light up under UV.

 

I use filtered water which is then boiled before I put it into the system and a little anti-corrosion, bacterial management solution. 7/16th tubing over 1/2 inch barbs means no need for securing but you can if you're a little worried.

Run rigs like this for years....only changed my water recently after a years use because I changed the waterblock.

 

Avoid aluminum in watercooling loops; stick with Copper/brass. The only brands I'll consider are: DangerDen, Swiftech, EK-Waterblocks, D-Tek, Thermochill, Hardware Labs, and LIANG; although the Swiftech Apogee GTX CPU block and Swiftech Stealth GPU blocks should be avoided since they have aluminum tops.

I use Distilled H2O with some Biocide; with all copper/brass you don't really need any corrosion inhibitors. Using a 5/95 Pentosin/Distilled mix is also a viable option.

 

That's actually worse than filtered water; boiling it actually increases the concentration of impurities in the water.

 

They do sell a copper top for the Apogee GTX, so that's less of a concern if you really want the block.

 

True but that's just one more necessary expense for that block, some places will sell it with the copper top as standard.