Watercooling advice

[IAmAndre]

Hi,

 

I would like to watercool my Vega 56 because of the horrible noise it makes and the fact that aftermarket air coolers for Vega are pretty scarce these days and not particularly good-looking. For starters, I'm very new to watercooling and just started looking into it. So I have two options. The first one is the Alphacool Eiswolf 240. It would cost me $200-300 with shipping included. While it's the cheaper solution, I'm a little annoyed by the mounting process and it's also not particularly cheap and quite limited in terms of compatibility/evolution so I'm not sure if it's a good investment.

 

The other solution is a custom loop. I've used the configuration tool on the EKWB website and got this suggestion for watercooling the whole system at $500, shipping included. Now I'm sure I can make the price lower by replacing some components. For example, I don't need those RGB fans and I have already 3 front case fans that I can reuse. I can buy the GPU waterblock for now, and the CPU one later, along with the extra tubing. I also noticed that Linus uses plain water instead of coolant, so maybe I should go this way too. This would bring the total down to around $300 with shipping. There also might be cheaper alternatives on the EKWB website with similar performance.

 

My current case is an Aerocool Shard so it's not particularly designed for custom loops but it's listed in the EKWB configurator so I believe those parts were picked accordingly.

 

Another option would be to just replace my GPU and buy something more recent and more silent like a 5700XT. However this would cost me around $600 at least with shipping and import fees, and I'm not sure how much I could sell the Vega 56 for and how silent the 5700XT would be.

 

So which route would you recommend going? Do you have any suggestions of watercooling parts?

[Applefreak]

For someone new to water cooling, the Eiswolf is a great way to start. Building a custom loop is great but nothing you will need a whole day for assembly, routing and more importantly, cleaning everything before you can use it. Linus is running tap water because those systems only run for a couple of days at most. Long term you would have a lot of issues with that and I believe he mentions that as well sometimes. The Eiswolf has the advantage that the system could be upgraded in the future if you plan to cool the cpu as well. 

[IAmAndre]

5 minutes ago, Applefreak said:

For someone new to water cooling, the Eiswolf is a great way to start. Building a custom loop is great but nothing you will need a whole day for assembly, routing and more importantly, cleaning everything before you can use it. Linus is running tap water because those systems only run for a couple of days at most. Long term you would have a lot of issues with that and I believe he mentions that as well sometimes. The Eiswolf has the advantage that the system could be upgraded in the future if you plan to cool the cpu as well. 

Interesting.  After watching the Gamers Nexus build log I got a bit turned off with all the thermal pad cutting and aligning. It just looked cheap while the product isn't particularly cheap.

 

How long can the liquid in it be used for? Do you think this could handle a Ryzen 5 or 7 as well?

[Applefreak]

Well it as 240 mm radiator so it should be able to handle both. But I would add another 240 or 120 for extra headroom later. The Eiswolf is basically a custom loop construction so maybe 2 to 3 years. Draining and refilling can be done within a couple of minutes.

[IAmAndre]

4 hours ago, Applefreak said:

Well it as 240 mm radiator so it should be able to handle both. But I would add another 240 or 120 for extra headroom later. The Eiswolf is basically a custom loop construction so maybe 2 to 3 years. Draining and refilling can be done within a couple of minutes.

Good. One last thing: I checked the pricing again and I'm really annoyed by the idea of having to pay over €120 for shipping only while I can have a custom loop for the same price and free shipping. I'll give it a second thought.