Upgrade path & Watercooling help

[Tongral]

Budget (including currency): £2000-£2500

Country: United Kingdom 

Current set up:

Motherboard: Asus prime x299-a ii

cpu: intel corr i9-10900x

gpu: 8gb nvidia geforce rtx 3060ti

ram: 32gb (4x8gb) corsair vengeance rgb ddr4 3200mhz

storage: samsung evo plus m.2 2tb

power supply: corsair 750 RMx series 

aio: corsair h115i rgb xt hydro series 

Case: corsair 500d se

 

Hello everyone, ive had my set up for a few years now and i think its time for an upgrade, i have always wanted a hardline watercooled computer since i was a kid because ive always thought they looked so cool. I just need a bit of help to figure out what to put into the upgrade, this would be the first time I’ve attempted to watercool a computer.

 

possible upgrade path:

Motherboard: ????

cpu: ????

gpu: AORUS GeForce RTX 3080 Ti XTREME WATERFORCE WB 12G

ram: 32gb (4x8gb) corsair vengeance ddr4 3200mhz

storage 1: samsung evo plus m.2 2tb

storage 2: samsung evo plus m.2 2tb

storage 3: samsung evo plus m.2 2tb

(raid 0)

power supply: ????

pump/res: corsair Hydro X Series XD7 RGB 

cpu block: corsair xc9 

Rear radiator: corsair xr5 120 mm

top radiator: ????

 

Preferably to save a bit of the budget, id like to reuse the aio I currently have and use the radiator off of it. Is that possible or do i have to get a replacement one for the custom loop?

 

To clarify, this is the first loop i would have ever done so im trying to work out exactly what i need without the knowledge or experience of how to do it myself or what to get. I was looking at corsairs “design your loop” and i was a bit confused with some of the components and power usages, i know im going to need to upgrade the psu especially adding a 3080 ti into the mix (i wouldve gone 3090 but i love my case and it will not fit in there apparently?). What size power supply would you recommend? And have you got any suggestions on what to charge out? Cpu? Motherboard? 
 

[SorryBella]

1 hour ago, Tongral said:

Current set up:

Motherboard: Asus prime x299-a ii

cpu: intel corr i9-10900x

gpu: 8gb nvidia geforce rtx 3060ti

ram: 32gb (4x8gb) corsair vengeance rgb ddr4 3200mhz

storage: samsung evo plus m.2 2tb

power supply: corsair 750 RMx series 

aio: corsair h115i rgb xt hydro series 

Case: corsair 500d se

Youll be surprised at how much LGA 2066 platform will fetch, especially for working board. The RTX 3060Ti still fetch a lot of money on used market too, around 200-300 from what i found from quick scour on ebay. But beyond that, id like to know your current tool arsenal. Do you have heat guns already? Id love to factor that in as well.

[Zomeguy]

If you're wanting to stick with DDR4 then Intel 12th or 13th gen is the way to go. A Z690 (may require bios update if you go 13th gen) or Z790 are good option with boards varying in price from from about £160 and up.

 

For the the water cooling if you stick with that case and want the Corsair Hydro X Series XD7 RGB then you're looking at a 240mm or 280mm on top with the 120mm in the back for enough cooling. It's going to be tight and a lot of runs to connect 2 radiators and the res/pump block plus the CPU and GPU.

 

[Penpilot]

41 minutes ago, Zomeguy said:

If you're wanting to stick with DDR4 then Intel 12th or 13th gen is the way to go. A Z690 (may require bios update if you go 13th gen) or Z790 are good option with boards varying in price from from about £160 and up.

given his other choices i think that the guy will want to get a Xeon or thread ripper system but IDK if there are waterblockes for them

[Tongral]

2 hours ago, SorryClaire said:

Youll be surprised at how much LGA 2066 platform will fetch, especially for working board. The RTX 3060Ti still fetch a lot of money on used market too, around 200-300 from what i found from quick scour on ebay. But beyond that, id like to know your current tool arsenal. Do you have heat guns already? Id love to factor that in as well.

 I was considering selling the used stuff after the upgrade, maybe worth considering though! and i have a few heat guns but i was going to order a hard line bending kit to make sure it wouldnt stain or mark the new tubing. 

[SorryBella]

2 hours ago, shreshta said:

given his other choices i think that the guy will want to get a Xeon or thread ripper system but IDK if there are waterblockes for them

Being able to afford it ≠ buying it. OP use case still doesnt need a full blown workstation with a lot of pcie lanes straight from the CPU. An NVME RAID is dubious in value but you can run the carrier card on an x8 4.0, and then the GPU is x16 5.0, an X670 chipset by AMD has enough lanes for all of that.

 

23 minutes ago, Tongral said:

 I was considering selling the used stuff after the upgrade, maybe worth considering though! and i have a few heat guns but i was going to order a hard line bending kit to make sure it wouldnt stain or mark the new tubing. 

Cool! Also, i didnt realized you didnt specify what build this will be for. Is it for just high resolution gaming?

[Tongral]

3 hours ago, SorryClaire said:

Being able to afford it ≠ buying it. OP use case still doesnt need a full blown workstation with a lot of pcie lanes straight from the CPU. An NVME RAID is dubious in value but you can run the carrier card on an x8 4.0, and then the GPU is x16 5.0, an X670 chipset by AMD has enough lanes for all of that.

 

Cool! Also, i didnt realized you didnt specify what build this will be for. Is it for just high resolution gaming?

depending on the price it may be an option, im pretty open for suggestions. Im quite happy to keep with intel if its a good choice moving forwards?

Im currently trying to learn how to code (front end development), im not sure how much processing power would be necessary for that though, but yeah other than that it would be high res gaming.

[Tongral]

7 hours ago, Zomeguy said:

If you're wanting to stick with DDR4 then Intel 12th or 13th gen is the way to go. A Z690 (may require bios update if you go 13th gen) or Z790 are good option with boards varying in price from from about £160 and up.

 

For the the water cooling if you stick with that case and want the Corsair Hydro X Series XD7 RGB then you're looking at a 240mm or 280mm on top with the 120mm in the back for enough cooling. It's going to be tight and a lot of runs to connect 2 radiators and the res/pump block plus the CPU and GPU.

 

Would the i9-13900k be a good choice? And looking at boards (z690 and z790) on partpicker, there are loads of different options. Any particular one you would recommend?

 

And thats good point, I knew that it was going to be a lot of runs but I figured it will look amazing once its done dispite of the pain of how much is going to be crammed in there 

[Zomeguy]

On 3/13/2023 at 4:38 PM, Tongral said:

Would the i9-13900k be a good choice? And looking at boards (z690 and z790) on partpicker, there are loads of different options. Any particular one you would recommend?

 

And thats good point, I knew that it was going to be a lot of runs but I figured it will look amazing once its done dispite of the pain of how much is going to be crammed in there 

If you want the best Intel has then yes the i9-13900k will be great for code compiling and get the best out of your GPU.

 

If you're willing to put in the work yes it will look great.

 

Personally I'm a bit lazy so I went soft tube and I'm using a Thermaltake P5 which is super easy to work in as without the glass (which is super easy to remove) it's like an open air stand/case.

 

https://www.thermaltake.com/core-p5-tempered-glass-edition.html

 

[Tongral]

3 hours ago, Zomeguy said:

If you want the best Intel has then yes the i9-13900k will be great for code compiling and get the best out of your GPU.

 

If you're willing to put in the work yes it will look great.

 

Personally I'm a bit lazy so I went soft tube and I'm using a Thermaltake P5 which is super easy to work in as without the glass (which is super easy to remove) it's like an open air stand/case.

 

https://www.thermaltake.com/core-p5-tempered-glass-edition.html

 

Is it worth waiting for the 14th gen to be released, apparently it may be released some point this year but im unsure on how true this is? Im in no major rush so if something betters around the corner id rather wait. I would like to do my research and ask questions where my knowledge is slacking before commiting to and buying anything.

 

Ive always loved how clean hard tubing looks aesthetically, id rather take the time and make it look the best i can with the knowledge i have which admittedly is very limited haha

 

I would love to see a picture of your set up, that case looks awsome! 

[Zomeguy]

20 hours ago, Tongral said:

Is it worth waiting for the 14th gen to be released, apparently it may be released some point this year but im unsure on how true this is? Im in no major rush so if something betters around the corner id rather wait. I would like to do my research and ask questions where my knowledge is slacking before commiting to and buying anything.

 

Ive always loved how clean hard tubing looks aesthetically, id rather take the time and make it look the best i can with the knowledge i have which admittedly is very limited haha

 

I would love to see a picture of your set up, that case looks awsome! 

Not sure on 14th gen haven't been keeping up on release dates as I'm not in the market as I just upgraded to a Ryzen 7 5800x3d.

 

For the water cooling do you ever watch Jayz Two Cents? He does a bunch of water cooling stuff and gives tips so good place to get some basic info as he does like hardline as well.

[Tongral]

4 hours ago, Zomeguy said:

Not sure on 14th gen haven't been keeping up on release dates as I'm not in the market as I just upgraded to a Ryzen 7 5800x3d.

 

For the water cooling do you ever watch Jayz Two Cents? He does a bunch of water cooling stuff and gives tips so good place to get some basic info as he does like hardline as well.

Ah fair enough man, how are you finding the 5800x3d? I might have to look into it a bit further then
 

Oh really? I havent heard of him before, ill give him a watch tomorrow. 

[IkeaGnome]

I'd argue that for the price, the 13700k makes more sense while also being easier to cool. 

https://www.techspot.com/review/2554-intel-core-i7-13700k/

https://www.techpowerup.com/review/intel-core-i7-13700k/7.html