Watercooling on a Budget

[Hayabusa1989]

Hi,

 

So i have a £150-160 max budget to build a loop,
I already have the GPU Block for my Titan X (also came with a backplate)

 

 

 

I need to obvs build a full loop around it. 

I am relatively new to Watercooling despite doing this myself with some cheap pump and old bits of AIO coolers - yes silly i know but fun : 

 

 

 

Anywho i have £150 roughly to spend and need enough cooling power to cool the Titan X and the CPU - I will admit the CPU is an awful overclocker. 

The Titan X i really want to be able to push into the 1500mhz range though. 

 

 

Can you guys help me ?!?!?

 

 

 

Edit : i was hoping to use  7/16" ID 5/8" OD 16/11mm  tubing as i already have lots (see picture)

[Moress]

You need to list exactly what you want and have. 150 pounds isnt terribly much if you need Rads, a cpu block, a pump and fittings.

[atomicus]

I don't know how this would be remotely possible unless you got really lucky with second hand stuff. Hell, a good pump alone (any worth having anyway) is going to be £100-110 at least! Factor in rad(s), block, coolant and fittings, and you're easily double your budget. I just don't understand this CHEAP watercooling mentality... WHY?? You're sacrificing performance, aesthetics and perhaps more importantly increasing the chance of something going wrong! I'm not advocating spending top whack on everything Bitspower or anything like that, but common sense surely must come in to play here?? You won't achieve this with new components on your budget, second hand is your only hope, and even then it's tight and comes with increased risk. I would just save your money until you can do it right.

[Alec M]

This pump is crazy silent, especially if you put some kind of padding under it.

http://www.performance-pcs.com/topsflo-tdc-silent-dc-water-cooling-pump-w-g1-4-thread-top.html

[Alec M]

2 hours ago, Hayabusa1989 said:

Edit : i was hoping to use  7/16" ID 5/8" OD 16/11mm  tubing as i already have lots (see picture)

Umm, If you want it to look decent(ish), you are going to want to use compression fittings, but that isn't a super common size of tubing for watercooling, so I guess you could just use barbs and zipties like you have.

 

[Hayabusa1989]

14 hours ago, Alec M said:

Umm, If you want it to look decent(ish), you are going to want to use compression fittings, but that isn't a super common size of tubing for watercooling, so I guess you could just use barbs and zipties like you have.

 

I managed to pick 2 of these up so hopefully that covers the compression fitting issue (i will buy more as i need)

 

[Hayabusa1989]

And for those wanting a list : 

I have a Titan X Waterblock with backplate. 
I also have De-Ionized water although would buy another coolant if needed
Thats about it at this stage lol.

Why can't i do this ? 

 

[Hayabusa1989]

15 hours ago, atomicus said:

I don't know how this would be remotely possible unless you got really lucky with second hand stuff. Hell, a good pump alone (any worth having anyway) is going to be £100-110 at least! Factor in rad(s), block, coolant and fittings, and you're easily double your budget. I just don't understand this CHEAP watercooling mentality... WHY?? You're sacrificing performance, aesthetics and perhaps more importantly increasing the chance of something going wrong! I'm not advocating spending top whack on everything Bitspower or anything like that, but common sense surely must come in to play here?? You won't achieve this with new components on your budget, second hand is your only hope, and even then it's tight and comes with increased risk. I would just save your money until you can do it right.

Really a pump is gonna be £110 for the little bit i want to do ? Sorry but that seems extreme. 

[Hayabusa1989]

15 hours ago, Alec M said:

This pump is crazy silent, especially if you put some kind of padding under it.

http://www.performance-pcs.com/topsflo-tdc-silent-dc-water-cooling-pump-w-g1-4-thread-top.html

$40 is not bad at all ! far cry from the £500,000 quoted for a pump in this post...


Edit : Sorry @atomicus if this seems to come across as rude its not my intention i just think £110 for a pump is extreme.

[atomicus]

2 hours ago, Hayabusa1989 said:

And for those wanting a list : 

I have a Titan X Waterblock with backplate. 
I also have De-Ionized water although would buy another coolant if needed
Thats about it at this stage lol.

Why can't i do this ? 
 

 

2 hours ago, Hayabusa1989 said:

Really a pump is gonna be £110 for the little bit i want to do ? Sorry but that seems extreme. 

 

1 hour ago, Hayabusa1989 said:

$40 is not bad at all ! far cry from the £500,000 quoted for a pump in this post...


Edit : Sorry @atomicus if this seems to come across as rude its not my intention i just think £110 for a pump is extreme.

 

Unlikely that small pump in the AIO would be enough, but I can't say for sure. AIOs aren't much better than top end air coolers in most cases, and you would be asking even more of it with GPU and CPU in the loop. I doubt you'll end up with performance that is worth it.

 

Check out the XSPC Ion... it's a bit noisy but cheap. Still a better option than the AIO route you have suggested.

 

If you want to spend £30 on a pump, go for it, but generally you will get what you pay for. I've read many tales of people going cheap on watercooling and regretting it. I always ask people WHY they want to do this. Is it temps? Quietness? Aesthetics? Why have you specifically ruled out air cooling? The words 'budget' and 'watercooling' really are somewhat incongruous, particularly when you're talking about such a low amount of money to achieve it.

 

 

[Hayabusa1989]

3 minutes ago, atomicus said:

 

 

 

Unlikely that small pump in the AIO would be enough, but I can't say for sure. AIOs aren't much better than top end air coolers in most cases, and you would be asking even more of it with GPU and CPU in the loop. I doubt you'll end up with performance that is worth it.

 

Check out the XSPC Ion... it's a bit noisy but cheap. Still a better option than the AIO route you have suggested.

 

If you want to spend £30 on a pump, go for it, but generally you will get what you pay for. I've read many tales of people going cheap on watercooling and regretting it. I always ask people WHY they want to do this. Is it temps? Quietness? Aesthetics? Why have you specifically ruled out air cooling? The words 'budget' and 'watercooling' really are somewhat incongruous, particularly when you're talking about such a low amount of money to achieve it.

 

 

temps, Queitness and Aesthetics for me lol. also with all due respect Air Cooling - i have that and its awful noisy and looks total crap. 

I can't see why i should spend 20k on a loop it seems insane. Im not trying to set world records. 

[atomicus]

Just now, Hayabusa1989 said:

temps, Queitness and Aesthetics for me lol. also with all due respect Air Cooling - i have that and its awful noisy and looks total crap. 

I can't see why i should spend 20k on a loop it seems insane. Im not trying to set world records. 

 

OK, well you are categorically doing air cooling wrong if you find it "awful, noisy and looks total crap", and if you think going water is some kind of magic solution you are wrong. Plenty of people go this route and end up with noisier systems that perform worse! You don't need to spend a fortune, but going absolute bargain basement with ANYTHING in life is only ever going to achieve mediocre results, so don't worry about accidentally breaking a world record lol! That's just common sense. Your budget is a pittance, and you will significantly compromise on temps, noise and aesthetics with it being so low.

[Hayabusa1989]

1 minute ago, atomicus said:

Your budget is a pittance

thats nice.

[Hayabusa1989]

Seeing as Alphacool sell the AIO in question with parts to expand it i think i am going to have to fucking sue them as it clearly won't work : THEY DIDNT EVEN SPEND £9000 on a Radiator and the pump well lets just say they shoulda spent £80,000 MINIMUM

Seriously Have you heard the stock cooler on a Titan X, its noisy as fuck.

[atomicus]

4 minutes ago, Hayabusa1989 said:

thats nice.

 

Well it is. £150 for a GPU + CPU loop... no. It's do-able yeah, but you are literally going to be buying the cheapest of everything and putting it inside your system which is clearly worth quite a lot of money. Money you can't afford to lose I'm sure. Putting aside the whole performance/aesthetics side of things, the added risk of doing this just isn't worth it. Would you put cheap tyres you got from some bloke down the pub on your sports car before you took it out on the racetrack? Probably not.

 

2 minutes ago, Hayabusa1989 said:

Seeing as Alphacool sell the AIO in question with parts to expand it i think i am going to have to fucking sue them as it clearly won't work : THEY DIDNT EVEN SPEND £9000 on a Radiator and the pump well lets just say they shoulda spent £80,000 MINIMUM

Seriously Have you heard the stock cooler on a Titan X, its noisy as fuck.

 

You don't need to be so sensationalist. There are guidelines for watercooling, and using an AIO in the fashion you describe is really pushing too far. Your budget for doing this RIGHT is probably half, so are you really THAT broke and incapable of scraping together another £150 or so to do this properly?? 

[Hayabusa1989]

6 minutes ago, atomicus said:

 

Well it is. £150 for a GPU + CPU loop... no. It's do-able yeah, but you are literally going to be buying the cheapest of everything and putting it inside your system which is clearly worth quite a bit of money. Putting aside the whole performance/aesthetics side of things, the added risk of doing this just isn't worth it. Would you put cheap tyres you got from some bloke down the pub on your sports car before you took it out on the racetrack? Probably not.

 

 

You don't need to be so sensationalist. There are guidelines for watercooling, and using an AIO in the fashion you describe is really pushing too far. Your budget for doing this RIGHT is probably half, so are you really THAT broke and incapable of scraping together another £150 or so to do this properly?? 

I just proposed to my Girlfriend and am getting married next september - this literally is the last computer based thing i can do before we fly away for a year next xmas so yes its honestly that bad.

So the machine literally has to last 1 year and be half decent. 

[Hayabusa1989]

Lets go Simpler for now, 

How many Rads do i need - i am cooling a GPU and CPU

Honestly i would happily JUST cool the GPU at this stage the CPU does not like any kind of overclocking at all. 

 

[atomicus]

Just now, Hayabusa1989 said:

I just proposed to my Girlfriend and am getting married next september - this literally is the last computer based thing i can do before we fly away for a year next xmas so yes its honestly that bad.

 

Well if you're going away for a year you'll need to drain you loop, and you haven't allowed for any draining of the loop here... fittings for that etc. Unless you plan on selling your system or giving it to someone, but even then, not allowing for drainage is an issue. You WILL need to do that at some point.

 

Just now, Hayabusa1989 said:

Lets go Simpler for now, 

How many Rads do i need - i am cooling a GPU and CPU

Honestly i would happily JUST cool the GPU at this stage the CPU does not like any kind of overclocking at all. 
 

 

Typical recommendation is 240mm of rad space per main component. So if you just want to cool the GPU, then a 240 is fine. 

 

For ease and no maintenance you would be best served to use the Hydro Series HG10 N980... this will work with a Titan X. You would then just need a Hydro Series liquid CPU cooler.

[Hayabusa1989]

7 minutes ago, atomicus said:

 

Well if you're going away for a year you'll need to drain you loop, and you haven't allowed for any draining of the loop here... fittings for that etc. Unless you plan on selling your system or giving it to someone, but even then, not allowing for drainage is an issue. You WILL need to do that at some point.

 

 

Typical recommendation is 240mm of rad space per main component. So if you just want to cool the GPU, then a 240 is fine. 

 

For ease and no maintenance you would be best served to use the Hydro Series HG10 N980... this will work with a Titan X. You would then just need a Hydro Series liquid CPU cooler.

and then sell the EK block and have a crappy looking black tubed affair that looks horrorawful lol 

i had one with my 780ti it looked properly shit lol. 

[Hayabusa1989]

7 minutes ago, atomicus said:

Well if you're going away for a year you'll need to drain you loop, and you haven't allowed for any draining of the loop here... fittings for that etc. Unless you plan on selling your system or giving it to someone, but even then, not allowing for drainage is an issue. You WILL need to do that at some point.

 

This i do realize. What would be the best thing to include to drain the loop ?

is it the hose looking things ?

[atomicus]

7 minutes ago, Hayabusa1989 said:

and then sell the EK block and have a crappy looking black tubed affair that looks horrorawful lol 

 

Forgot you had that block already. Well, you could get the XSPC ION pump which is about £35, a cheap rad for £30 (Magicool G2 is cheap), you'd need fittings of course, x2 for each component, so x6 minimum, and they'll be £4 each, so that's another £25. Don't if you have fans, but that's another £15-20 most likely, for rad optimised ones. You can have a drain valve located anywhere, ideally lowest point, so fittings for that will be around £15-20. XSPC do a good value one, but you'll need some other fittings either side of this of course, so you need to factor that in to the cost.

 

 

[Hayabusa1989]

3 minutes ago, atomicus said:

 

Forgot you had that block already. Well, you could get the XSPC ION pump which is about £35, a cheap rad for £30 (Magicool G2 is cheap), you'd need fittings of course (x2 for each component, so x6 minimum, and they'll be £4 each, so that's another £30. You can have a drain valve located anywhere, ideally lowest point, so fittings for that will be around £15-20. XSPC do a good value one, but you'll need some other fittings either side of this of course, so you need to factor that in to the cost.

 

 

I currently have 2 fittings. In the mail not included on budget.

also thanks for the links! and okay i could 100% include the drain valve.

[atomicus]

2 minutes ago, Hayabusa1989 said:

I currently have 2 fittings. In the mail not included on budget.

 

Well I'd get that XSPC Ion pump and the cheapest slim rad you can get (slim is better for low fan speeds if you want quiet), more fittings and just go at it. 

[Hayabusa1989]

1 minute ago, atomicus said:

 

Well I'd get that XSPC Ion pump and the cheapest slim rad you can get (slim is better for low fan speeds if you want quiet), more fittings and just go at it. 

Whats better for temp though ? Abit of noise is never going to bother me its just the insanity the titan x does is annoying. 

[atomicus]

Just now, Hayabusa1989 said:

Whats better for temp though ? Abit of noise is never going to bother me its just the insanity the titan x does is annoying. 

 

You're talking a few degrees difference at most... just a matter of what you prioritise. You're mostly going to be dictated by budget here anyway as thicker rads are more expensive generally.