Upgrading to watercooling looking for advice on good parts.

[Frozenn]

Hey everyone ive got the corsair 800D case and 2 GTX 680s and a i7 3930k with the gigabyte GA-X79S-UP5. I havnt ordered any RAM yet for the system i have 8 gb of corsair vengeance atm. id like to use a 360 rad up top and a 240 rad in the bottom with some modding of the case. for the pump i was thinking the swiftech MCP655.

 

[bmaverick]

Hey everyone ive got the corsair 800D case and 2 GTX 680s and a i7 3930k with the gigabyte GA-X79S-UP5. I havnt ordered any RAM yet for the system i have 8 gb of corsair vengeance atm. id like to use a 360 rad up top and a 240 rad in the bottom with some modding of the case. for the pump i was thinking the swiftech MCP655.

The MCP655 has high flow and low head-pressure. So, if the water-blocks are restrictive, you'll need to get two 655s. Otherwise a single MCP355 or MCP35x or two MCP350s will do the job since the flow is medium and the head-pressure is much higher. There are several dual pump performance tops out there if the 355 or 350 are chosen.

Is the Corsair 8Gb well enough to OC with low latency settings. If so, you should be just fine for starting out before dumping money towards 12Gb or 16Gb sizes.

With the two RADs, it looks like your plans are to cool dual SLI GPU cards or sometime in the future. That isn't bad. For the CPU like a 4/6/8 core a 240 RAD does great.

 

[cdawall]

A single 655 should be plenty unless there are some sort of ridiculous blocks used. The XSPC Raystorm in conjunction with Koolance or EK's GTX 680 blocks would work well with the single pump. If you are worried performance tops are abundant for the 655 and will help the head pressure some.

 

[MT Alex]

Whichever pump you decide on, I'd recommend a bay reservoir that is made for your pump. Here's a picture of mine if you need some ideas.

 

[cdawall]

Whichever pump you decide on, I'd recommend a bay reservoir that is made for your pump. Here's a picture of mine if you need some ideas.

http://img.techpowerup.org/120708/2.jpg

It comes out a hole lot cleaner than something like mine with dual pumps and no bay res.

 

[Sasqui]

One word if you're looking for some of the best quality and designed WC equipment out there: Swiftech (ok EK is also very good)

Can't go wrong with the 655, though there are more powerful pumps. Put the pump at the lowest point in the system.

For a resevoir, I particularly like the vertical acrylic tube. You can visually monitor the water level, and the vortex gives a good clue as to how the flow is going. Look at the EK-MULTIOPTION resevoir.

 

[cdawall]

One word if you're looking for some of the best quality and designed WC equipment out there: Swiftech (ok EK is also very good)

Can't go wrong with the 655, though there are more powerful pumps. Put the pump at the lowest point in the system.

For a resevoir, I particularly like the vertical acrylic tube. You can visually monitor the water level, and the vortex gives a good clue as to how the flow is going. Look at the EK-MULTIOPTION resevoir.

The 655 is weaker than what? An Eheim? That is getting a little excessive. I will take the silence and performance of a 655 over an MCP350/355 any day.

 

[the54thvoid]

I use Laing D5 pumps. Not sure what's in the Swiftech model. The D5 is completely silent inside a case up to about level 3. That pumps effortlessly around two EK water blocks on my 7970's through a parallel configuration.

And i also like the tube reservoirs. Found the bay reservoirs can give you gurgle now and again, depending on set up and connection inlets.

And like Cdawall says the Raystorm is an excellent block.

 

[MT Alex]

It's pretty frickin' sweet that Swiftech just released a PWM version of the 655/D5. That is worth it's weight in gold. I spent too many years with a dang fan controller, you rarely remember to turn them up/down like you think you would.

 

[m1dg3t]

Mcp655, or any variant thereof, is a beast pump.

I have a pair that have been in use for 10+ years! Still as effective/silent as day 1

If you want to save on space, the 350/355 series offer nearly identical performance in a smaller footprint and dump marginally less heat into the loop...

I have always liked Swiftech rads, they perform extremely well and don't cost a fortune. I also find them easier to work with due to their size and they respond extremely well to various fans due to their FPI.

My $0.02 anyways

 

[erocker]

The 655 is weaker than what? An Eheim? That is getting a little excessive. I will take the silence and performance of a 655 over an MCP350/355 any day.

I've owned two 350's and three different 355's. Not one of them made any noticeable noise... Except for one of the 350's which was junk from the factory.

That being said, if you aren't limited with space, the 655 is the way to go.

 

[MT Alex]

I'd say the 35X is the way to go, no other consumer grade pump matches its performance, but the OP wants the 655. If it were me I'd spend the $180 on a Maelstrom res with the built in 35X and be done with it.

Also, Swiftech rads have a high fin per inch build, so they need faster fans.

 

[m1dg3t]

LoL. I can put a pair of YL d12sl's on my Swifty's and be almost silent and only loose a few degrees of cooling. Seeing as i don't care about noise on that build i run a pair of med speed Panaflo's on a Sunbeam Rheobus.

 

[MT Alex]

LoL. I can put a pair of YL d12sl's on my Swifty's and be almost silent and only loose a few degrees of cooling. Seeing as i don't care about noise on that build i run a pair of med speed Panaflo's on a Sunbeam Rheobus.

I'm not sure what's LoL about that.

 

[Kaynar]

I have the 800D case too and I am readying my watercooling loop. Here is what I have concluded to after seriously alot of research:
-You can use a reservoir/pump combo such as the XSPC reservior+twin D5-vario pump combo. For the 800D especially it is very convinient, as MT Alex shows in his picture.
-In any case, I would go for 2 pumps for a system that will cool 2 GPUs (and make sure you put the 2nd pump in a critical place in the loop (though using a dual pump +reservoir combo saves u alot of trouble)
- The Koolance 380i CPU block is the best performer by far and XSPC raystorm and EK supermancy are also good in performance and most importantly for me appearance.
-DO NOT, i repeat, DO NOT buy the XSPC Razor VGA waterblock, it is total trash. I am thinking of using EK or Koolance blocks depending on my cpu block choice.
-I am going to buy a Black Ice SR1 360mm radiator and a slim 140mm for the rear.
-I will buy more 120mm fans from corsair (SP120) as they are top performers and i am thinking of using NZXT LX dual bay controller
-Using this controller plus dual bay reservoir is a good investment in terms of space... since I dont use front 5.25 bays anyway.
-You can consider cooling the mobo with a full kit but it is more for the looks rather than performance, since the mobos will do fine with even active cooling.
-Same goes for RAM, though i plan to watercool them for the looks mostly.
-I considered using colored tubing and the simplest/purest possible liquid coolant, but i am not sure on that yet.

 

[drdeathx]

1 360 rad will be enough to dissapate the heat. I ran a 3930K with 2 x 7970's and overclocked the 3930k to 5GHz with not problems and plenty of headroom.