First water cooling build

[Deceptor222]

What water blocks, radiators do you all recommend?

EK, Swiftech.... etc. 

funds are not an issue. 

[iTonyy]

Depends on what style you like.

I'm personally a fan of XSPC's raystorm and razor blocks.

[Deceptor222]

I've been checking those out too and I really like how they look. Only issue is that my R9's are both the oc edition of gigabytes windforce. I know there are some changes with some of the design on the pcb. Looking around I see EK has water blocks that are compatible with the cards (rev 2.0), and I believe I may be stuck with EK....

[xToFxREAPER]

In terms of waterblocks.. I really like swiftech water blocks however if you have a non reference card you will have to find a water block that matches that specific card, For example my gtx 780 lightning edition gpu's have a very heavily customized pcb. The only company that makes a water block for that specific card at the time i was purchasing water blocks the only company that made a block for it was EKWB (Bitspower made one as well soon after that) If your luck enough to have a totally reference pcb though then you can go for any water block maker under the sun, they are all going to be within a few degree's of each other in terms of performance.

 

When it comes to readiators... I really like the ek coolstream series of rads, I have a coolstream xt 240mm radiator in my system and its awesome. With radiators though it mostly comes down to what kind of fans you want to run whether your aiming for low rpm low noise or if you dont really care about the noise you can go towards something that you would be running your fans at mid to high rpm's. There is a nice water cooling 101 sticky (should be at the top of the water cooling section, i would link it but im on my ipad as im diagnosing some serious issues with my desktop atm) That will explain in pretty great detail just about any question you could ever have about water cooling, if it doesnt we can usually help quite a bit.

[Deceptor222]

Yeah I'm pretty much stuck with EK for the GPU. For the CPU I'll most likely go with XSPC. Radiators I have a full understanding of  (most likely EK for the whole chassis). My last and only concern would be the fittings for everything. I know I'm going to go with G1/4 x 1/2" barbs (hope I'm right) but as you can see in this link

http://benchmarkreviews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Thermaltake-Urban-T81-Computer-Chassis-Introduced.jpg

The motherboard comes with its own vrm waterblock but look at how that exhaust radiator is positioned, it's a pretty hard spot and have no idea how to approach this. I would also like to know what the probable thickness of that exhaust radiator is. Just a good guess....

[Deceptor222]

http://benchmarkreviews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Thermaltake-Urban-T81-Computer-Chassis-Introduced.jpg

[Shaqo_Wyn]

What water blocks, radiators do you all recommend?

EK, Swiftech.... etc. 

funds are not an issue. 

 

Rads: Alphacool ST30 / XT45 / UT60, Swiftech, EK XTX, Hardware Labs Black Ice

Water blocks: EK or Swiftech

[asim1999]

Depends on what style you like.

I'm personally a fan of XSPC's raystorm and razor blocks.

I have never done watercooling

But my maths teacher loves XSPC (hes been watercooling since the days of Nvidia 7800GTX which was his first watercooled GPU) 

[brandishwar]

In my build, I went with Koolance for the CPU block, and it performs pretty well. EK might net you somewhat better performance, but it certainly looks better despite the higher price tag. Another to consider is Watercool -- I use their GPU blocks and they perform very well. They also look great if you're going for an all-metal kind of aesthetic. Aquacomputer's Kryos blocks are similar to Watercool in that regard.

 

For the radiators, I went with the AlphaCool ST30 lineup. If you're going with low RPM fans (under 1400 rpm), they're some of the best performing radiators on the market at a very good price. I run two of the 240mm and one 360mm ST30 radiator in a 750D. If you're going higher RPM fans (such as the Corsair SP120), then you'll want the XT45. The UT60 is one of the top performing radiators across all RPM speeds making them perfect for a fan controller, but, as the name implies, they're 60mm radiators (and a bit pricey), whereas the ST30s are 30mm and XT45 is 45mm. The XT45 is a good mid-range radiator, but if you're going to stick with low RPM fans, go with the ST30 and you'll save money (meaning you can buy more if you have room) but still get some good performance out of it.

[spwath]

I would not recommend xspc.

Both my res and CPU block had problems with threading. You don't make plastic threads.

And the acetal ones were not fitting well.