Really new to water cooling, I need some ball park spending figures

[lewdgripp]

I built my first computer roughly 6 months ago and I just did a barebones build. I accidentally bought an overclocking cpu but I have been using an Intel stock cooler, now that I've been in the game for a little bit i figure, hey, go big or go home. I am also going to water cool my GPU because why not. I have an nVidia GeForce gtx 750 ti 2GB Ftw acx graphics card, I was wondering if I could get an AIO for a single loop GPU/CPU or if that would be custom, either way I need to know a minimum and recommended spending range. I don't really have a budget, since it isn't time sensitive I'll just save up if I need to. Thanks!

 

[EarthDog]

Honestly, I wouldn't bother water cooling a 750Ti 2GB. Its a weak card, doesn't use a lot of power in the first place and being the ACX from EVGA, its likely pretty darn quiet already.

That said, you didn't mention what CPU you actually have.

I would put an AIO on the CPU, and upgrade the GPU if you game at 1080p as 2GB isn't really enough for a lot of titles already, and it doesn't really have a lot of horsepower in the first place.

 

[CAPSLOCKSTUCK]

Hi, welcome to TPU.

fill in your specs here

http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/account/specs


what region are you in?

 

[Outback Bronze]

Hi there and welcome.

Your probably after something like this: https://www.ple.com.au/ViewItem.aspx?InventoryItemId=620662

 

[peche]

getting an AIO watercooler is the best option, simple to use, maintenance free, and also pretty great performance, don't waste money on waterblocks for 750ti video card,
fill your speces here… don’t know why people don’t fill them …

 

[lilhasselhoffer]

I built my first computer roughly 6 months ago and I just did a barebones build. I accidentally bought an overclocking cpu but I have been using an Intel stock cooler, now that I've been in the game for a little bit i figure, hey, go big or go home. I am also going to water cool my GPU because why not. I have an nVidia GeForce gtx 750 ti 2GB Ftw acx graphics card, I was wondering if I could get an AIO for a single loop GPU/CPU or if that would be custom, either way I need to know a minimum and recommended spending range. I don't really have a budget, since it isn't time sensitive I'll just save up if I need to. Thanks!

1) Now what do you mean by "overclocking CPU." This traditionally means something with either k or x designation (from Intel) or almost anything from AMD. It's been stretched recently to include the Pentium Anniversary edition. Even assuming a few things (Intel, and the like), that gives you no idea what kind of cooling you'll need (new enthusiast platform, mainstream platform, and what generation).

2) You've got a GPU that costs just over $100 in the US. You are going to try and water cool that? The cost to performance would be a joke, especially considering water blocks (if even available) would likely cost almost as much as that card.

3) Scale. I used a one word response here because you're going from a beginner's build up to an experienced build. You likely don't have the skills. This isn't meant to discourage, but destroying a system because of a water leak makes everyone a slight bit touchy. I don't want anyone to be turned off the hobby because their first experience was terrible and a huge money pit.



Now that we've got the preliminaries out of the way, allow me to give you some advice. Buy a high end air cooler. It's just about as effective as an AIO, and they generally are a small fraction of the price. That will put you miles ahead of the stock coolers, that aren't fit to use as doorstops.

Once you've got the air cooler, play around with overclocking. Get that CPU to a stable overclock, then play around with it to improve the thing. A decent air cooler can cover everything but aggressive overclocks and high end systems. If you chose a 750 video card you're not really capable of either.

Once you've got the overclock at its maximum, likely at a thermal limit, think about buying an AIO. Unless you're doing some heavy computing, it's unlikely you'll need to overclock more than an air cooler can provide. If you do need it, the AIO is a good and idiot proof system. Remember, everyone's an idiot until they've made mistakes and discovered what not to do.

Now that your CPU is setup, play with the GPU. Honestly, the 750 doesn't have a lot of overclocking potential (from my limited experience). What it does well is drop in, stay relatively cool, and work with little intervention.

If you did want to do a custom loop you're looking at $50-150 for the pump, $60-150 for the block, $40-200 for the radiator, $20-80 for the reservoir, and another $10-30 for the tubing. Depending upon the tubing, you've also got to invest into fittings, which are anywhere from a few cents (barbs and ratchet clamps), to $10 a piece (threaded compression fittings). I'd recommend that if you really want to get some experience you buy one of the introductory kits, to make sure you've got everything for a CPU loop. Again, that GPU just is not worth the effort.

 

[MxPhenom 216]

getting an AIO watercooler is the best option, simple to use, maintenance free, and also pretty great performance, don't waste money on waterblocks for 750ti video card,
fill your speces here… don’t know why people don’t fill them …

If your only cooling a CPU sure, but if you are wanting to cool a GPU or multiple GPUs in addition to the CPU, you most definitely will need to do a custom loop or get one of the swiftech kits and expand it in the future. And for the OP, it will be a waste of time and money watercooling such a low end GPU.

I'm not totally a fan of AIO unless its the swifteech kits but that's just me. I know plenty of people happy with their AIO.

1) Now what do you mean by "overclocking CPU." This traditionally means something with either k or x designation (from Intel) or almost anything from AMD. It's been stretched recently to include the Pentium Anniversary edition. Even assuming a few things (Intel, and the like), that gives you no idea what kind of cooling you'll need (new enthusiast platform, mainstream platform, and what generation).

2) You've got a GPU that costs just over $100 in the US. You are going to try and water cool that? The cost to performance would be a joke, especially considering water blocks (if even available) would likely cost almost as much as that card.

3) Scale. I used a one word response here because you're going from a beginner's build up to an experienced build. You likely don't have the skills. This isn't meant to discourage, but destroying a system because of a water leak makes everyone a slight bit touchy. I don't want anyone to be turned off the hobby because their first experience was terrible and a huge money pit.



Now that we've got the preliminaries out of the way, allow me to give you some advice. Buy a high end air cooler. It's just about as effective as an AIO, and they generally are a small fraction of the price. That will put you miles ahead of the stock coolers, that aren't fit to use as doorstops.

Once you've got the air cooler, play around with overclocking. Get that CPU to a stable overclock, then play around with it to improve the thing. A decent air cooler can cover everything but aggressive overclocks and high end systems. If you chose a 750 video card you're not really capable of either.

Once you've got the overclock at its maximum, likely at a thermal limit, think about buying an AIO. Unless you're doing some heavy computing, it's unlikely you'll need to overclock more than an air cooler can provide. If you do need it, the AIO is a good and idiot proof system. Remember, everyone's an idiot until they've made mistakes and discovered what not to do.

Now that your CPU is setup, play with the GPU. Honestly, the 750 doesn't have a lot of overclocking potential (from my limited experience). What it does well is drop in, stay relatively cool, and work with little intervention.

If you did want to do a custom loop you're looking at $50-150 for the pump, $60-150 for the block, $40-200 for the radiator, $20-80 for the reservoir, and another $10-30 for the tubing. Depending upon the tubing, you've also got to invest into fittings, which are anywhere from a few cents (barbs and ratchet clamps), to $10 a piece (threaded compression fittings). I'd recommend that if you really want to get some experience you buy one of the introductory kits, to make sure you've got everything for a CPU loop. Again, that GPU just is not worth the effort.

Quite the long winded post.

 

[EarthDog]

Never anything concise from the lilhof!

....but typically informative nonetheless!

 

[lilhasselhoffer]

If your only cooling a CPU sure, but if you are wanting to cool a GPU or multiple GPUs in addition to the CPU, you most definitely will need to do a custom loop or get one of the swiftech kits and expand it in the future. And for the OP, it will be a waste of time and money watercooling such a low end GPU.

I'm not totally a fan of AIO unless its the swifteech kits but that's just me. I know plenty of people happy with their AIO.



Quite the long winded post.

I tried short, and people act as though I don't know what I'm talking about. If you're offended, just click on that little ignore button. I don't care enough to be offended by that.

I don't have enough "give a craps" left to offer anything else.

 

[Ithanul]

Probably best to go CPU water cooling first to get the idea for it. Putting a water block on a CPU is far easier than a GPU. Plus, usually you only water cool the high end cards unless you plan to fold 24/7 and OC the crud out of a low end card (like the poor 960 I have with a H55 smacked to it).

AIOs are far easier to deal with. If going custom, research, research, research, plus ask questions to ensure parts you want will work together.

 

[CAPSLOCKSTUCK]

I tried short, and people act as though I don't know what I'm talking about. If you're offended, just click on that little ignore button. I don't care enough to be offended by that.

I don't have enough "give a craps" left to offer anything else.

If i was a quicker typist i would type more, i ALWAYS appreciate a full and complete opinion and am grateful for the time that people take.


I have Corsair H50 which is good, reasonably priced and simple to fit i am using it on a Phenom ii550 with a 25% o/c
I have Corsair H100 which is very good, costs more and is simple to fit, i am using it on a Xeon X5670 with 55% o/c

 

[theonedub]

The 750ti has excellent OC potential- especially the EVGA ACX model w/ 6pin. Plenty of posts on forums with easy to follow guides that can take the 750ti to very high clocks. I used the EVGA 750ti SSC in a spare parts build not too long ago and got great results and that was without the 6pin. In either case, you will not need to water cool that card at all.

 

[Kanan]

I always post more info if people ask for more, my first post is always short, nice and to the point to be useful enough to answer the question asked and that's what most people want I think.

@OP: get a good air cooler or AIO water cooler and maybe a new graphics card too, seems like a unbalanced build to have a expensive Intel K-CPU with a low budget card like the 750 Ti. If you want to do some serious overclocking with that CPU get yourself a nice big cooler with 1 or 2 120+ mm air units on it. BeQuiet, Noctua, Coolermaster, Thermalright ... and a lot more, just to name a few, are good brands. If you still want a water cooler Corsair is a good brand, Swiftech etc. as people already posted.

 

[lilhasselhoffer]

The 750ti has excellent OC potential- especially the EVGA ACX model w/ 6pin. Plenty of posts on forums with easy to follow guides that can take the 750ti to very high clocks. I used the EVGA 750ti SSC in a spare parts build not too long ago and got great results and that was without the 6pin. In either case, you will not need to water cool that card at all.

I'm happy to eat my words here. I bought a Gigabyte 750 ti for a little Linux machine running as an arcade machine. The thing couldn't maintain consistent voltages with a 10% overclock (though I was honestly just putzing around to see how high it would go). At the same time, it did a very admirable job pushing a 1920x1080 monitor with moderate settings, so I considered it a success without needing that overclock. I got steam up and running with Team Fortress 2 and figured that the machine wouldn't even be pushed that far in the future.


There's a reason I said "my limited experience." Glad to find it was more of an isolated situation than a genuine limitation of the card.


Edit:
Wrong again. It wasn't even a ti. It was a standard 750.

 

[cadaveca]

either way I need to know a minimum and recommended spending range. I don't really have a budget, since it isn't time sensitive I'll just save up if I need to. Thanks!

Swiftech, Coolermaster and EK sell "AIO" units that you can add a GPU block to, if you want. They cost under $200 pretty much globally, as a basic GPU-only block costs between $40-$60. So you should be able to build a complete "custom" loop for around $250 USD or less.

 

[Jadawin]

I don't know if this is available in your area, but this is worth a look:

http://www.raijintek.com/en/products_bycategory.php?CategoryID=1&SubCategoryID=24

Very good prices around here and expandable!

 

[Orijin16]

If it's your first build I'd recommend you just get a decent air cooler and be done with it, you said you "accidentally" bought an overclocking cpu so I'm guessing actually overclocking the balls off it is not high on your list of priorities, a decent air cooler will allow for some overclocking if you wanted to dabble a bit without the cost or hassle of a full water loop.

And at the risk of sounding like everyone else don't even think about wasting money on a water block for the 750ti, completely unnecessary and a waste of money (unless you like wasting money, then go for it!)

With that said, watercooling is fun if you enjoy that sort of thing, and it's given me amazing temps at very low noise levels, but it is expensive (my CPU only loop cost somewhere around £250-£300) and does carry a few risks.

In summary I say to just do your research and decide on your own what you're wanting to achieve from your build and what will be your best options to get there.