Cooling Setup Ideas; Watercooling

Ok, So ive recently been researching alot on what could possible become my first Watercooling project. I have dragged myself over to the infamous bit-tech forums to ask for some well needed advice and answering of questions. I have broad experience in the maintaining and building of Air-cooled machines, and decided to take the move for overclocking and inaudibilty. So watercooling is a new step for me.

I am looking to build a new machine;
E6600 Core 2
7950 GT
Asus P5B

These at time of writing are my estimate components, from hours of reading through Very helpful threads guides and ideas here on the bit-tech forums i have decided to go ahead in building my first watercooled machine.

For the time being i am settling to only stick with cooling my CPU, possible GPU in the future, as i am aware the chipset has some nice passive cooling and i am more than happy to leave this as it is.

So my question is more of a compatibility one in all.

What pump would be recommended? Preferably a magnetic centrifugal i assume.
What sort of raditor would you advise?
Dual or single fans , 120mm or 80mm? Keep in mind i am only cooling the CPU
Tubing advise?
And reservoir or T-line? If so , drive bay reservoir or single cylinder?

And a basic loop idea of Res > Pump > Rad > CPU > Res ?


Thanks Again,
WaLLaWaLLa

 

Go for a dual 120mm That way you will have enouch room for some nice overclocking. Pump i dont realy know, all pumps are magnetic centrifugal that i know of. tubing get somethign like 1cm inner diameter, or bigger but dont go overboard. Resevoirs are optional i dont know of any great benefits of having one.

 

For the hardware i had in mind, i have had a look around Cooler cases and put together a bunch of components. And i would appreciate any ideas;

Danger Den TDX Intel 775 Block, For the Core2 Duo E6600
2 x 120mm
Tygon 3603 1/2" Tubing
Laing D5 Vario
Black Ice Extreme Radiator 240 (Black)
EK-Multioption RES 150mm

A rough explanation of barb sizes hosing and clamps etc. would be appreciated and would be a great help. Meanwhile ill head over to the great old Google and look over some bit tech threads.

Thanks Again,
WaLLaWaLLa

 

for all of your Water-cooling questions, take a peek here....::

http://coolercasesuk.co.uk/forumdisplay.php?f=8

 

Thanks

 

Yup. In fact, only a magnetic centrifugal: you want a steady flow and continuous performance without leaks. All pumps currently sold for PC watercooling fulfill these criteria.

The quietest are the Eheim 1046 and 1048, but if you want a good noise vs. performance level, go for the Laing DCC.

Dual fans, 120mm. You are only cooling a dual-core CPU now (about 110W) which can easily be managed with a single 120mm rad, but sooner rather than later you'll want to add the GPU (trust me on this. It's inevitable. You can't resist the mod). Unless your 7950 GT is passively cooled, like the XFX GeForce 7950 GT 570M Extreme.


Since silence is an important criterion for you, you'll want a fan with the best noise/performance ratio, and 120mm fans simply perform better for a given noise level than 80mm fans. The noise they generate is lower in pitch too, therefore more bearable.

Clearflex if money is an issue, Tygon if not. I'd always pay the extra for Tygon. Always choose thick-walled (3mm) tubing as it has less risk of kinking.

Either one will do. Some people have both. Any shape will do.

Res should be the last item in the loop before return to the pump. Any other component can be fitted in any order, really. What matters more is that you keep your loop short as possible and as simple as possible, avoiding kinks.

 

Thanks alot,
The card i was looking at is a basic fan cooled 7950GT rather than passive, so hopefully i will upgrade soon adding a GPU waterblock to the loop so i suppose dual 120mm fans makes sense.

I will see what time brings and will inform of any progress made here

Thanks Again,
WaLLaWaLLa

 

Parts

I have tried lots of pumps and I have always found the alphacool ap series the best, I currently have 3. They are quiet and powerful but they run off the PSU not an external plug like the eheims. Zalman tubing is the best if you can get barbs to fit it. Compression fittings will be no use and you would have to use straight barbs with clips and some people dont like that but the tubing is near impossible to kink.