First off I just want to say: Man this shit is fun, digging through sketchy parts and waiting for them to show up is making me giddy. Some might say I'm wasting money on crap, but its worth it for me, I've been curious for a long time wondering about the quality and performance of these parts, and really I just have to say: Science costs, and if I don't do it then who else will? I've learned a lot with my recent research however, and man this is going to be one hell of a forum post(when its done) because I am going to be as thorough as possible and investigating “cheap watercooling” from about every aspect. For now though I just want to talk about the “what I have for now”, because I really want to document this stuff before I forget it. So, here we go:

Reservoirs: Unless if you are buying a big name brand, these are surprisingly hard to find. Nobody really makes them, and the only few I could find is a rectangle box sold from a budget liquid cooling seller located in New York, and 5.25” bay reservoirs which are sold by a similar guy. The rectangle box's are cheap, like ~$7.00 +shipping cheap. Essentially they are a box made out of acrylic and have 3 holes in them(threaded of course). Some just come with a cap, others also come with barbs. The bay reservoirs are built the same way, but these can can have cool things in them, like flow meters, LED's, Pumps, and temp sensors, but these range from ~$22-60. Of course, all of these are imported, but you can buy them from Hong Kong if the US stock runs out or if you are in the EU.

Pumps: I'm an engineer and let me tell you something. All watercooling parts have one potential problem: leaking. The pump however has another potential issue: mechanical/electrical failure. So the pump is something you want to really don't want to cheap out on. This would be great advise if you were spending $200-500 on a cooling system, but we are going extremely cheap, and the pumps I found were anywhere from $6-30, and the one I bought specifically usually costs $7, yikes. Modern pumps are fairly simple though, and my only fear is the rotor locking up(just like my Thermaltake pump). My specific pump is tiny, and all I hope is that it has enough head pressure to circulate my system. Also beware, not all pumps come with a power connector, so either shop carefully or get your tools out.

Waterblocks: There are two types of waterblocks you will find when searching on the “budget” market: “decent” looking blocks, and blue blocks. The “decent” looking blocks look great... look... but there are some proximity errors with the images. Most blocks have a cross “waffle” pattern, however on some of the images it shows them with the parallel fins. Hmm, I suspect the bait and switch, but I'll just have to wait and see. One thing that I really don't want to happen, but it just might, is there are some waterblocks that have no “fins” what so ever, its just a flat piece of copper with a acrylic top. These probably suck, and if the bait and switch is a thing then... ugh. I'll just have to wait and see, but I'm actually more interest in the cheap ass blue blocks. These are funny they are cheap, like sub $5 cheap, have no mounting hardware whatsoever, and the internal fin design is unknown since you cant actually see inside if it(whats worse is that between sellers they use different diagrams). I'm honestly curious to see the performance for myself, because from what I see from other forum users is that for sub $5 its actually not bad. What sucks with these tough is if you do want mounting hardware, they charge a freaking arm and a leg for it. For $25 you get a $5 waterblock, 4 bolts, 8 washers, 4 nuts, 4 thumbscrew nuts, and a rectangle sheet of metal with holes in it. What a joke...

Radiators: These are funny. So there are two types you will find: ones with pre attached barbs and ones with G1/4 fittings. The G1/4 radiators on “the budget market” are all aluminum, but for $20-50(dependent on size) honestly you cant match that from a name brand. At first I thought “oh these are just made for some niche thing and they are just being sold as PC stuff” but then I looked at the Rajintek Trition. Holy shit, the 240mm radiator Rajintech uses is the same exact thing as these eBay ones. So, even though these radiators are cheap, they are at least proven(to be good). But then the thought crossed my mind “if you can find a no brand Rajintek on eBay, then where do the pre-barbed ones come from” and then I started digging through AIO's. The Cooler Master Seidon 120m/v looks very similar to the radiator I bought on eBay, but there were enough differences for me to dimiss them as “different”. I hit up bing search and there it was, I now know the origin of my cheap ass radiator: Enermax. Either they manufacture these or they order them, but I have the radiator from a Enermax LIQMax 120S, and its exactly the same. I expect it to perfrom well, considering Enermax rates it as a 300w thermal disipation, but for $15 I don't know. The pre barbed ones(AKA, not finished AIO) cost anywhere from $10-30 depending on size(Note: If this radiator works well I'm getting a 80mm rad for a sleeper build).

Tubes/fittings: I'm not going to buy tube from an unknown manufacture and material, sorry. There isn't much selection either so it appears that the sellers know that the demand for it is low. I will buy tube from Home Depot, and the 25ft. $7 stuff I bought earlier this year worked great. I do see a potential issue though: size. The tube is 3/8 sized, but none of the parts I bought were measured in imperial. Okayy so just convert it right? Well, did the math, some parts fit, but this is where the fragmented “standard” size is exposed. Some parts use 10mm barbs, some 9.5 or 9mm, and some even go to 8.5mm(I think, there are tons of sizes). I planned around this, and most of the things I bought should work, but this is an issue for people that don't fully do their own research. The last thing I want to bring up about the barbs is that compression fittings are nowhere to be seen from no-name manufactures, which is a good thing. Regular barbs can be found, they are roughly $1 each but come in packs of 2, and they look fine to me(I didn't buy any, but if I need to I will).

Research: It took me about 2 days to learn the market, and observe how... simple it is? In the unrestricted market, you would expect a ton of parts right? That's actually not the case. Everything is basically the same shit, just a different seller, I actually imagine each part in its category being made in the same factory. So really when it comes to research, all you need to do is find the parts you want(since the selection is poor there isn't much choice, making the decision easier), make sure the fittings are the same size, and find a trustable seller. The only other hard thing is finding stuff in the US, I hate waiting for shit to ship and when stuff comes from Hong Kong it takes forever.

I'm now tired of typing, will update/post when parts come.