Liquid Cooling Noob Question

[Hendricks3]

is a cheap water cooling loop actually possible? something like this guy did. 

 

[LIGISTX]

3 minutes ago, Hendricks3 said:

is a cheap water cooling loop actually possible? something like this guy did. 

 

Possible, yes, is it good? eh. 

 

You can go full aluminum parts from cheap chinese or indian sites, cheap pump, and cheap fans. But the cooling will not be great. For 100 bucks, I would rather use a Noctua heatsink.

[Hendricks3]

2 minutes ago, LIGISTX said:

Possible, yes, is it good? eh. 

 

You can go full aluminum parts from cheap chinese or indian sites, cheap pump, and cheap fans. But the cooling will not be great. For 100 bucks, I would rather use a Noctua heatsink.

how do you think that loop right would perform in modern day hardware?

[LIGISTX]

28 minutes ago, Hendricks3 said:

how do you think that loop right would perform in modern day hardware?

Not great. A single 240 rad for CPU and GPU won't perform very well. If they are low power parts, it would be ok, but if they are anywhere near "high end hardware" which is really the only hardware worth watercooling, it won't perform well.

 

Remember, water cooling is expensive, and generally not worth it at all. I have ~750 bucks in my loop, and the only reason its "worth" it is because of the noise reduction it provides. Yes, the GPU runs very cool on water, but it clocks the same as it would on stock cooling, at least within 50 Mhz which you wouldn't ever notice anyways. CPU runs very similar in temps to a good air cooler. The difference.... I can't hear my PC, ever. And thats the "point" of water cooling. You can add a huge amount of cooling surface area which allows you to run the fans very low. Yes, I could run the fans at max and run things cooler, but there is no point in that. The GPU won't go any faster unless it was sub zero, and same with the CPU.... So I let the CPU run in the 60's in game load, GPU is usually high 40's to low 50's, and I run my fans at 750 RPM in games, and all except my top rad fans are off at idle, and those are at ~600 rpm at idle.

 

But, this is only "worth" it if you already spent big money on the actual PC parts... Unless noise is super important to you, spending money on faster parts is a much better bank for the buck than water cooling. Just my two cents

[Hendricks3]

5 minutes ago, LIGISTX said:

Not great. A single 240 rad for CPU and GPU won't perform very well. If they are low power parts, it would be ok, but if they are anywhere near "high end hardware" which is really the only hardware worth watercooling, it won't perform well.

 

Remember, water cooling is expensive, and generally not worth it at all. I have ~750 bucks in my loop, and the only reason its "worth" it is because of the noise reduction it provides. Yes, the GPU runs very cool on water, but it clocks the same as it would on stock cooling, at least within 50 Mhz which you wouldn't ever notice anyways. CPU runs very similar in temps to a good air cooler. The difference.... I can't hear my PC, ever. And thats the "point" of water cooling. You can add a huge amount of cooling surface area which allows you to run the fans very low. Yes, I could run the fans at max and run things cooler, but there is no point in that. The GPU won't go any faster unless it was sub zero, and same with the CPU.... So I let the CPU run in the 60's in game load, GPU is usually high 40's to low 50's, and I run my fans at 750 RPM in games, and all except my top rad fans are off at idle, and those are at ~600 rpm at idle.

 

But, this is only "worth" it if you already spent big money on the actual PC parts... Unless noise is super important to you, spending money on faster parts is a much better bank for the buck than water cooling. Just my two cents

i was thinking this coulda been worth it for my r3 3300x and gtx 1080 mini as i would love to try and dabble for the first time in water cooling tho im a very pc enthusiast i LOVE pc hardware i dont always buy the high end just buy whatever fits my needs for gaming streaming and a little editing like i upgraded my main pc to a r5 3600 and a 5700xt and an ultrawide 1440p monitor and gave my old 2600 to my wife's rig and since i sold my living room pc to my brother im rebuilding it with my old 1080 mini for 4k gaming and thought maybe with that little loop could dabble into water cooling since im paranoid af and dont really trust aio 100%

[LIGISTX]

1 minute ago, Hendricks3 said:

i was thinking this coulda been worth it for my r3 3300x and gtx 1080 mini as i would love to try and dabble for the first time in water cooling tho im a very pc enthusiast i LOVE pc hardware i dont always buy the high end just buy whatever fits my needs for gaming streaming and a little editing like i upgraded my main pc to a r5 3600 and a 5700xt and an ultrawide 1440p monitor and gave my old 2600 to my wife's rig and since i sold my living room pc to my brother im rebuilding it with my old 1080 mini for 4k gaming and thought maybe with that little loop could dabble into water cooling since im paranoid af and dont really trust aio 100%

I would trust an AIO a lot more than cheap water blocks... Asatek has a pretty solid reputation, so anything made by them will be fine (corsair is the big one). Id trust the engineering behind those a lot more than random cheap water blocks all day every day. Just takes one bad o-ring or one bad o-ring design, and your having a really crappy day.

 

If you double up the radiators and do dual 240's, that would be fine. A single 240 though just isn't much, its just not worth the money, unless you don't mind using some high static pressure fans and running them at pretty high RPM. Or, just put the 1080 on water and leave the CPU on air. But..... I wouldn't really run a 1080 on water unless you do a full cover block. The VRM and the memory can get pretty warm. Can this be fixed with little heatsinks and direct airflow? Sure. But imo that just isn't ideal. 

[Hendricks3]

4 minutes ago, LIGISTX said:

I would trust an AIO a lot more than cheap water blocks... Asatek has a pretty solid reputation, so anything made by them will be fine (corsair is the big one). Id trust the engineering behind those a lot more than random cheap water blocks all day every day. Just takes one bad o-ring or one bad o-ring design, and your having a really crappy day.

 

If you double up the radiators and do dual 240's, that would be fine. A single 240 though just isn't much, its just not worth the money, unless you don't mind using some high static pressure fans and running them at pretty high RPM. Or, just put the 1080 on water and leave the CPU on air. But..... I wouldn't really run a 1080 on water unless you do a full cover block. The VRM and the memory can get pretty warm. Can this be fixed with little heatsinks and direct airflow? Sure. But imo that just isn't ideal. 

yea i just seen and heard a lot of bad stories about aio tho the new arctic i heard its the best cheapest on the market

[Lipe123]

For $100 .. No but you can get a pretty decent kit for $200-$300 if you order from China.

 

Really depends mostly on your case and exact part model numbers if you want to get the gtx 1080 as well.

 

I have an old gtx 970 and a R5 3600 on 2x 240mm rad's my gaming temps is around 60C and idle temps around 45C.

So if you case doesn't have room for 360's you should be ok with 240's.

 

Anyways, you could start with something like this: https://www.formulamod.com/bykski-b-ads-kit-rbw-5v-3pin-soft-tube-program-kits-multiple-programs-for-intelamd-cooling-kit-beginner-and-advance-level-kit-p2580081.html

Then just add a second rad, more tubing and fittings.

 

All in with shipping you'll probably be in the $300's but those are all brass/copper parts. Those kits are on amazon.com also but  I see they are like $400 for the same kit that's $250 on this site.

 

 

[Hendricks3]

19 minutes ago, Lipe123 said:

For $100 .. No but you can get a pretty decent kit for $200-$300 if you order from China.

 

Really depends mostly on your case and exact part model numbers if you want to get the gtx 1080 as well.

 

I have an old gtx 970 and a R5 3600 on 2x 240mm rad's my gaming temps is around 60C and idle temps around 45C.

So if you case doesn't have room for 360's you should be ok with 240's.

 

Anyways, you could start with something like this: https://www.formulamod.com/bykski-b-ads-kit-rbw-5v-3pin-soft-tube-program-kits-multiple-programs-for-intelamd-cooling-kit-beginner-and-advance-level-kit-p2580081.html

Then just add a second rad, more tubing and fittings.

 

All in with shipping you'll probably be in the $300's but those are all brass/copper parts. Those kits are on amazon.com also but  I see they are like $400 for the same kit that's $250 on this site.

 

 

my parts are as follows r3 330x, asrock b450m pro4-f, corsair vengeance 16gb 3600mhz evga 600b and zotac gtx 1080 mini case: masterbox q300l

[Eragaurd]

look for bykski on aliexpress. It won't be 100$, more around 400, but that's still a alot cheaper than a hardtube build from EK for example. They also have their own website, and that is still a bit cheaper than EK, but around 500$. This is with cooling both gpu and cpu with a 360 rad.