Putting together a new custom water cooling loop....

[phill]

I was wondering as it's been a while since I've bought new water cooling hardware, what do people go for when they buy custom loops? Do people go for just EK or do they go elsewhere like Black Ice rads, Alphacool, Heatkiller etc?

The reason I ask, is that I plan to put a few loops together and the last few water cooling parts I had bought where Thermochill rads and XSPC (I think that's the right way around!! lol) res tops with the Lang 18w pumps.. A little old school I guess...

I've seen some of the newer D5 pumps and res's, they look great I'm considering some 560mm rads for CPU loops and possibly the same for the GPUs but whilst I was looking at some of the performance orientated Black Ice rads such as the GTR (favourite type of car also....) I wondered as I'm considering the noice (3000rpm fans can get a little boring over time..., especially 8 or so of them...) I'd like to consider possibly something better...

Could anyone suggest anything? I'm not a massive fan of RGB but I do love some subtle lighting

 

[kapone32]

My go to is Alphacool

 

[EarthDog]

For all intents and purposes, brand preference is your choice.

It is hard to suggest the right parts without knowing the general loads that the loop will be under.

5x120mm or 4x140 worth of radiator for just the CPU or GPU is quite frankly a waste of money. Generally it is held that for every 100W of load, you would want at 1x120mm worth of radiator. The waste portion comes with the CPU only being able to output so much heat... so more overkill radiator is as bad (or worse) than overkill PSUs.

With that amount of radiator, you can easily get away with quiet fans running a lot slower since you are 'over' radded.

 

[mstenholm]

I was wondering as it's been a while since I've bought new water cooling hardware, what do people go for when they buy custom loops? Do people go for just EK or do they go elsewhere like Black Ice rads, Alphacool, Heatkiller etc?

The reason I ask, is that I plan to put a few loops together and the last few water cooling parts I had bought where Thermochill rads and XSPC (I think that's the right way around!! lol) res tops with the Lang 18w pumps.. A little old school I guess...

I've seen some of the newer D5 pumps and res's, they look great I'm considering some 560mm rads for CPU loops and possibly the same for the GPUs but whilst I was looking at some of the performance orientated Black Ice rads such as the GTR (favourite type of car also....) I wondered as I'm considering the noice (3000rpm fans can get a little boring over time..., especially 8 or so of them...) I'd like to consider possibly something better...

Could anyone suggest anything? I'm not a massive fan of RGB but I do love some subtle lighting

@phill Custom water cooling is for a) people that like to show of their bench results, b) people that run 24/7 with the PC in the same room where they sit, c) people with that don't like to run to close to thermal throttling limit, d) people that really want to optimize their system no cost, e) people that would like to by a new 3990X AMD. f) people with small cases living in warm climates. I know that you fall into the b+e category.

Forget about the GPU cooling, the newer GPUs are so efficient that you will have a hard time to compete with a custom loop noise wise and the power limit will still be there even if you manege to keep it below 40 C. All of my GPUS can go below 50 C on their own folding and it is not GPU noise that I hear. The last 10 degree C only give me one or two step at the most.

I have to assume that you are aiming for a +280W TPD and a constant load. The speed gain from going from 80 to 60 degree on a new AMD is less than 100 MHz all core. This is only based on my very limited experience with my 3900x.

As for hardware there seem to be just small differences between blocks. You will be limited by the heat transfer from the CPU to the block even with with a high flow system and by the radiator as well. Since I value low noise I would go for a bigger rad and slow (1200-1400 rpm) fans and depending of the number of GPUs inside the case, maybe place the rad outside the case.

 

[moproblems99]

I have been using a lot of XSPC with no complaints.

 

[GorbazTheDragon]

I went alphacool for my loop aside from the Heatkiller block, all working well so far...

 

[John Naylor]

Like anything else ... it depends on ya goals.

-CPU Blocks - EK had this sewn up but other players now in the mix. The Heatkiller Pro IV of late has turned in most of the '"coolest" test results
-GPU Blocks - As above
-Radiators - The EK Coolstream XT and XTX series as well as the HW Labs SR-2 series are the best performers for thick rads. For medium thickness, the Alphacool XT45 series, HW Labs Alpha Extreme III and if you must go slim, th HW Labs Nemesis. The EK XE has slightly better performnce but the HW Labs has a full array of ports that make it my preference.
-Pump - If the budget if there I use the Swiftech 35X2 w/ stand, heatsink and fan. Otherwise the Swiftech MCP655TM
Reservoir ... primarily an aesthetic thing
Fans - Phanteks PH-140SP / Silent Wing 3's have the best numbers. No need for Hi or medium SP with modern low fpi rads ... if you don't mind fan noise, then medium SP (1500 rpm) fans with medium to hi fpi rads will work for small cases. I can't sit in same room with Hi SP fans. Recognize that evey fan out there will produce, at most, about 50% of the cfm it says on the spec sheet.

To size the rads, I used data from MartinsLiquidLabs to create this ... been used 100s of times ... accuracy is far better than I thot possible.

Radiator Size Estimator

www.overclock.net

As to the why ... years ago, overclocking meany custom loops. Since 2013 or so, I generally find I hit the voltage wall before I hit the temperature wall, at least with Intel. So for me it's about dead silence... I mean absolute dead silence. GPU cooling OTOH is a matter of degree. Certainly of you are below 80, you're not going to be experiencing any throttling of significance.... but are you getting the most out of your card ... well let the numbers decide:

https://cdn.videocardz.com/1/2016/06/MSI-GTX-1080-GAMING-X-clocks-vs-temp.png

Note that the card hist 1910 Mhz and stays there steadily ... a testament to the MSI AIB design of the 1080

https://cdn.videocardz.com/1/2016/06/GTX-1080-FE-clocks-over-time.png

As you can see in the 1st pic, the when the temp hits 65 and then ranges from 68-69 ... the card maintains a solid 1910 MHz. But at 62, it's 1923 ... and at 55 it's 1935 Mhz ... sure, it's less than 2% ...but the *is* a performance impact. The value here again is this ... absolute dead silence. If i can tell the PC is on with my ears, I'm an unhappy man.

Half the time Im working ... usually AutoCAD, spreadsheets, word processor and browser open ... the fanms are off more oten than not. When gaming on the MMO I most often play ... rad fans will go on, 400-450 rpm, at most ... case fans may cycle on and off. If playing something very demanding ... rad fans will spin to 550-650 rpm ... under Furmark, they can hit 750 - 800 rpm or so but you can't detect any sound until ya get above 850.

Other tips ... To save money and reduce wire clutter, use Fan PCBs. ModMyToys PCbs work great from PWM headers on PWM fans or DCV headers on DCV fans. The Phanteks PCBs (Hubs) will use can use PWM or DCV headers on DCV fans. Can use up to about (6) DCV fans on a DCV header and (11) DCV fans on a PWM header

 

[moproblems99]

Snip

The first sentence pretty much sums up water cooling without the dissertation.

 

[HUSKIE]

Buy a branded and well-known company. No need to debate. Lol

 

[phill]

Thanks to everyone who replied

So with regards to what I'm looking to cool..

I've a few systems that I'd eventually like to get sorted out, for example, my two X99 rigs, X299 and eventually a replacement rig for my main daily PC. Due to the size of the cases I'd previously bought and because of this, I'd wanted to fill them with cooling, in my head, why else buy such a big case Example, my two Danger Den DD 21 custom cases, amazing cases and they have housed some brilliant hardware and they still do. They fit in 2 480mm rads and a 360mm rad as well. So when I used those, I had a triple loop system in them. One for the CPU (at the time a 920 D0) then another for eventually for the GPUs (at the time, dual or tri SLI GTX 580 3Gb cards) and then the motherboards themselves since the standard air cooling on them both where shall I say, rather poor.

So what I'm after really is something to fill up a Thermaltake X9 and a Thermaltake WP100 for starters. With my second X99 system, I'm wondering if I could get something that might cool the CPU and GPU as I'm wondering about doing something daft with it by putting in a high core Xeon in there... I'm still out on that one... The X299 I'm looking at 7980XE/9980XE/10980XE CPU at some point. Mainly for just using the board but also hoping to do some testing with the platform and then general crunching with it for our amazing WCG team (Solar panels, gotta make the most of them!! )

As for the replacement system, a high core AMD system is definitely a consideration. I'm thinking that the 3950X is definitely the top choice, where as the 3960/3970X etc CPUs are going to be too expensive and I don't think will handle the gaming sooooo great (so I could drop over to the X299 but.....)

So there's some ideas of mine...

Pump and res combo - Might consider a bigger res to fill the case a little
480 Quad 38mm thick or 480 Quad 60mm thick or the 560mm version, 560 Quad 45mm or
GTX 480 quad or GTX 560 quad or GTR 480 quad or GTR 560 quad
CPU block, something like this or something like this....
EK Vardar fans 120 or 140mm or Noctua Industrial fan - I have a fan controller
Tubing I believe I should go with Primochill?? Primochill white tubing... 7/16 size

Is there anything else or other products I should consider?

I am a performance user, much like a lot of people using the forum so looks and flashy lighting for me is on the back burner so to speak, it's just mainly down to how it performs and hopefully that's extremely well..
My 920 D0 and 7970's where very happy in separate loops. Yes they might have been overkill but I find chasing the high numbers from myself or beating a friends score quite fun as long as neither of us kills the hardware... To me that's just hardware abuse But still... Maybe that will clear up a few things