Best Custom Water Cooling Kits?

[T4C Fantasy]

I was wondering what are the best kits to use, reliable, max cooling, expensive but justified... im looking to finally go water cooled, check my specs from my spec list and tell me what would be great to get w/e clock is possible before needing LN2

[ALMOSTunseen]

Well currently the best "kits" on the market at the moment, are the XSPC and EK ones. If you're wanting to cool your GPU aswell, you may be best just picking parts from scratch. There are plenty of people here to help you with that. Where will you be buying your parts from, frozencpu?

[T4C Fantasy]

Originally Posted by ALMOSTunseen

Well currently the best "kits" on the market at the moment, are the XSPC and EK ones. If you're wanting to cool your GPU aswell, you may be best just picking parts from scratch. There are plenty of people here to help you with that. Where will you be buying your parts from, frozencpu?

well I was just looking to use new egg because I already have an acct there and to lazy to buy from anywhere else lol, does newegg not sell the things I need?

and yea I would want to eventually want to cool my gpu.. and do a delid of my 3770k and put better compound or w/e for optimal results.

[ALMOSTunseen]

Originally Posted by T4C Fantasy

well I was just looking to use new egg because I already have an acct there and to lazy to buy from anywhere else lol, does newegg not sell the things I need?

and yea I would want to eventually want to cool my gpu.. and do a delid of my 3770k and put better compound or w/e for optimal results.

Too my knowledge, newegg carry's some lines of watercooling components, though only a few brands.
Here are some good sites:
http://www.frozencpu.com/
http://www.performance-pcs.com
http://www.xoxide.com/
http://www.sidewindercomputers.com/

[MT Alex]

Unfortunately, NewEgg doesn't carry doodley squat for water cooling.
For just over $200 this kit is hard to beat. It's the best rated cpu block and rad in its class, the pump is nothing special, but it will suffice.
http://www.performance-pcs.com/catal...95087bc77b32a8
I'm not sure how well your case accepts a 360 rad, though. Your case will be the limiting factor, unless you go external.

[ALMOSTunseen]

Originally Posted by MT Alex

Unfortunately, NewEgg doesn't carry doodley squat for water cooling.
For just over $200 this kit is hard to beat. It's the best rated cpu block and rad in its class, the pump is nothing special, but it will suffice.
http://www.performance-pcs.com/catal...95087bc77b32a8
I'm not sure how well your case accepts a 360 rad, though. Your case will be the limiting factor, unless you go external.

Actually Newegg carry's a large line of swiftech products, that are quite cheap.

[sneekypeet]

Don't forget the Swiftech Edge HD kits Unseen tipped you off, and the cost is between the Raystorm and EK kits. On a personal note, I wouldn't touch the Raystorm kit with a barge pole!

[cdawall]

Originally Posted by sneekypeet

Don't forget the Swiftech Edge HD kits Unseen tipped you off, and the cost is between the Raystorm and EK kits. On a personal note, I wouldn't touch the Raystorm kit with a barge pole!

I also vote the swiftech setup.

[ALMOSTunseen]

Will the pump and res in the swiftech be enough if a gpu is added?

[sneekypeet]

For sure, that 35X is a damn strong pump. As for the res since it is built into the rad, I dont quite get the angle of the question.

[ALMOSTunseen]

It has a 35x? I alwsys thought they had some random AIO pump. As for the res, i always though it was best to have a bigger res when you add more blocks. Sorry for any typos, on my phone.

[sneekypeet]

a large res doesn't hurt, but the room afforded in the radiator is similar if not a bit more than the old Micro res from swifty. Go and have a look, its a nice bit of kit.

http://www.swiftech.com/H2O-x20-Edge-HD.aspx

[ALMOSTunseen]

The green tubing always made it look dodgy to me. But now on a closer look, it seems prretty good. I cant complain about their blocks though, about to get an apogee drive 2, and it is awesome.

[T4C Fantasy]

if you had to buy each piece individually what would be the best combo? meaning piecing different kits into 1 or just buying them separate if available

theres to many different kits its worse than going into a shoe store there is precise tubing length, pure water, ultra pure, like really? best radiator, pump, reservoir, water block that's a lot of accessories, its light building a room ac

[sneekypeet]

If you go and find individual parts you are going to be paying more than what the EK kit costs. This is the one thing that makes these kits a bargain. Not only that, but all 3 kits, XSPC, EK, and Swifty all came with plenty of parts to make the loops fit, just that some are better kits than others and why I advised the Edge HD.

[radrok]

I agree with sneeky, the Swiftech kit is top notch.

Anyway why go for a kit when you can do it yourself, this is what watercooling is all about, customization.
Sure you'll spend more but you'll have lots of fun and more importantly results.
Beware that WC can become an addiction, I've almost matched the cost of my PC hardware with what I've spent on WC

[MT Alex]

Originally Posted by ALMOSTunseen

Actually Newegg carry's a large line of swiftech products, that are quite cheap.

You are right. 92 products, all of which are out of stock.

[ALMOSTunseen]

Originally Posted by MT Alex

You are right. 92 products, all of which are out of stock.

http://img.techpowerup.org/130101/Untitled996.jpg

Hmm, maybe they discontinued them?

[bmaverick]

EK has had some quality issues in the past year, but it should be cleared up by now.

XSPC RASA kits work well, only if you get a good pump in the kit. The pumps are hit-or-miss that can fail within a few days up to the end of the warranty.

The Swiftech MCP35X variable speed conting pump based on the ITT-Laing DDC series is the king jewel for both flow and head-pressure. If the noise is a little high, turn the speed down or reduce the flow restrictions in the loop.

Corsair has the Hydro series of kits. They have a large following too. Corsair has been offering WCing kits since the late 90s.

ASTEK has a few kits as well.

What you need to do is to study the layout of your componets in your PC case, see what kits can be applied to it and review the best solution. Also, before getting any kit, read a few reviews on each to become knowledgable in knowing what the kit is capable of and what are the weakness. Anyone's advice will be just that until you are aware of the products.

[radrok]

Originally Posted by bmaverick

The Swiftech MCP35X variable speed conting pump based on the ITT-Laing DDC series is the king jewel for both flow and head-pressure. If the noise is a little high, turn the speed down or reduce the flow restrictions in the loop.

Agreed, I run a dual aquacomputer top with two Koolance PMP-400, a tad lower than maximum speed and they are dead silent.
Gotta love the small footprint too.

[MT Alex]

Originally Posted by radrok

Agreed, I run a dual aquacomputer top with two Koolance PMP-400, a tad lower than maximum speed and they are dead silent.
Gotta love the small footprint too.

I also run a MCP-35X, which is different than the standard Laing pumps that you are referring to. Same footprint, but higher performance.

[radrok]

Yeah that thing has a very good flow, that Swiftech PCB keeps RPMs very high.

[drdeathx]

Originally Posted by MT Alex

I also run a MCP-35X, which is different than the standard Laing pumps that you are referring to. Same footprint, but higher performance.

More head pressure than MCP655.

[MT Alex]

Originally Posted by radrok

Yeah that thing has a very good flow, that Swiftech PCB keeps RPMs very high.

http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/6623/35xvs325xspc2.png

Yup, it's definitely not a silent pump unless kept below 3500 rpm.

Originally Posted by drdeathx

More head pressure than MCP655.

Right. Most DDCs do, while the D5s are known for flow.

[Sasqui]

Originally Posted by T4C Fantasy

reliable

Koolance used to have a temp monitor that would shut the system off in case of either a pump failure or catastrophic leak. Sensor goes on waterblock... if sensor goes over some preset value (say 95f), system shuts down.

It saved my ass once when I forgot to plug in the pump. Took it off an old Koolance case and it's now in the top bay of my HAF 932. Looks good too and watching the waterblock temperature is interesting.