Best water pump for 2020?

[Tiderfish]

Greetings, all

 

I have been watching Linus for a few years now, and noticed he has a few favorite water pumps. The D5 seems to stand out in my brain. However I never really paid much attention because I never planned on water cooling my systems. 

 

I recently purchased my friend's old gaming rig, and some of his water cooling tech. It is a Asus Maximus V Formula motherboard, and a i7-7700k CPU. The motherboard has a VRM cooling block. At this time I am not planning on cooling the GPU but I probably will once I save up some cash. 

 

I searched his channel, and the only review for a water pump was from 2011 for Swiftech MCP655. I figure there must be a better solution by now. All the pumps they are using now have a built in reservoir. This would be ideal, because the case I am planning on using does not have a 5.25" bay to mount the reservoir I was given. 

 

My main concerns are low noise/vibration and high reliability.

 

I have looked around a bit and am astonished how much they cost, so my budget is around USD$100. 

 

Thanks for your help, and I look forward to this community. 

 

PS. I did read the water cooling for newbs sticky, and while it has great information its from 2013, and doesn't really focus on specific parts. 

 

Thanks again, 

 

Matt|ttaM

[Shimejii]

Do not do custom water cooling. Your budget is not even 1/8th of what is needed for proper cooling. You could Potentially get a 350$ kit from Corsair or phanteks etc, but its simply not worth it. Save your money

[Stahlmann]

For watercooling to be worth it you really have to push your 7700K. For your money you can get the best of the best in terms of air cooling for your processor. Both the Noctua NH-D15 and the BeQuiet Dark Rock Pro 4 will perform close enough to watercooling while being mostly quieter because they dont have the pump noise and very high quality fans.

 

Edit: Even with overclocking a nice air cooler will max your 7700K out aswell. You'll face instability before running into temp issues.

[Oshino Shinobu]

A Laing D5 vario/PWM is still the best really. Nothing much has changed in the watercooling world to be honest. Everything is basically the same as it was 6 years ago when I did my custom loop. It seems like no-one is bothering to develop anything new other than waterblocks for new hardware. 

 

And by the way, the Swiftech MCP655 is just a re-branded Laing D5, it's literally the same pump.

 

My advise though, like others above, is to not go for custom watercooling with such a small budget. For the money you can get a top tier air cooler which will be quieter and will match or outperform a 240mm radiator cooler. When I did my custom cooling I spent more than your budget just on fittings, it's expensive. 

[HM-2]

Just to clarify, $100 for the pump and pump top, or $100 to water cool the whole system?

 

There are edge cases where a DDC is preferable to a D5 (high restriction loops, limited available space) but 99% of the time the correct answer is "D5". All the big name brand ones are much of a muchness.

[Nakedpeanut]

I was doing the same research a few weeks back as I wanted to get back into water cooling - more for the look and lower temps for 24/7 over-clocks on my little i5 7600k

But I decided to go with a delid first. Man! That alone has let me run the i5 @ 4.7Ghz under a little CM 212 Evo with max temps <85C in stress testing

 

Anyways; if you are still looking at pumps, and specifically combos, then:

Corsair Hydro x is very appealing, pump/ reservoir combo + fan mounting bracket for ~ $140.00

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/jZBTwP/corsair-hydro-x-series-xd5-rgb-pumpreservoir-combo-rgb-lighting

 

Another cheaper combo option is the EK x-res 140 but this uses a cheaper pump and you can get it for ~ $89 (search for the tech powerup review)

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/42tQzy/ekwb-ek-xres-140-spc-pwm-classic-rgb-includes-pump

 

If you have a bit more cash, I like the look of the XSPC Photon 170 v2 D5  ~ $160

https://www.performance-pcs.com/water-cooling/combo-pump-reservoir/xspc-d5-photon-170-reservoir-pump-combo-v2-xspc-d5-photon-170-v2.html

 

5 hours ago, Tiderfish said:

I have looked around a bit and am astonished how much they cost, so my budget is around USD$100.

[zogthegreat]

Hi @Tiderfish, welcome to the forum!

 

I'm using a Bylski B-PMD3-X DDC:

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/BYKSKI-B-PMD3-X-DDC-Water-Pump-600L-H-Maximum-Lift-6-Meter-Liquid-Cooling-AI/254583909321?hash=item3b46622bc9:g:EqYAAOSw2fhelwh4

 

So far I'm really happy with the pump, although sometimes I will place my fingers on it to make sure that it's running... it's that quite. And at $25 USD, it's a real bargain compared to some of the big names. 

 

If your worried about the brand name, don't. Steve over at Gamers Nexus did a series on Chinese factories. There are only about 3 factories that make pumps. Essentially most "big name" pumps are made at the same factory as this pump. 

 

Barrowch is also a Chinese water cooling company that also offers high quality water cooling products for a lower price than EKWB, Corsair etc.

 

Good luck with your build and please post up pictures of your build for everyone on the forum!

[Tiderfish]

Thanks everyone for the helpful tips and options. 
 

I should clarify, my buddy sold me everything I need to water cool the CPU, and VRM. The only thing I do not have is the pump. Well the pump and the reservoir since the one he gave me fits in a cdrom bay, and my case does not have one. 

 

To me this is kinda a starter system into water cooling. In the past, I bought a used system that was water cooled, but it was on a dead end AMD single core platform,  I used it for a while, then disassembled it. 

 

I just want to get my feet wet... 

 

Basically I have  the CPU block, VRM block is integrated on the motherboard, I have some barbs, hoses, and two radiators. I think one is 1x120mm, and the other is 2x120mm. 

 

The pump / reservoir is all I need to get started. After that, I will prolly replace the radiators with the largest the case will fit. 

 

[HM-2]

43 minutes ago, Tiderfish said:

I should clarify, my buddy sold me everything I need to water cool the CPU, and VRM. The only thing I do not have is the pump. Well the pump and the reservoir since the one he gave me fits in a cdrom bay, and my case does not have one. 

Just checking, you have all the fittings and tubing required too? Don't underestimate the cost of fittings in particular. 

 

Something like the Alphacool Eisbecher D5 150mm should be attainable around your budget and gives you both a D5 pump and reservoir. About £80 here in the UK.

[bowrilla]

Quite frankly, for the average system without any crazy configurations, extreme restrictions in the loop, etc ... it doen't really matter if you choose a D5, a DDC or even an SPC. They are all fine for the job. Just don't buy the cheap stuff from no-name brands.