CL advice needed

[RevGAM]

I am in need of immediate advice on what to buy from frozen cpu for all the parts. Please don't waste time trying to dissuade me. This will be my first CL.

 

My system specs are in my profile. I intend to build part of the loop outside of the case, including the radiator, so I'll need a pump with enough power to push the water higher than the case. I need complete recommendations for both hard and soft tubing. For hard,  I'll use PPMA, so I'll also need a recommendation on a hot air gun to bend it and any other tools. 

 

I'm not sure of the budget so please tell me ll what would be a low,  a mid and a high budget. I'm in the US.

 

NO LIGHTS OR OTHER AESTHETICS LIKE COLORED LIQUID, including for the connectors and reservoir. I'm not looking for a fancy appearance and, if I go with hard tubing, I'll have fun shaping it. 

 

Thanks in advance!

[SorryBella]

8 minutes ago, RevGAM said:

so please tell me ll what would be a low,  a mid and a high budget

There's only 2, janky chinese parts thats fine for the most part but would be pain in case things goes wrong, or the best of the best. There's no so called inbetween. But yeah the hardest point would be the 6800XT, the only 2 manufacturer i can found is Bykski (squarely former) and Alphacool. For cooling you should only need 1 360mm rad for mostly stock op.

[filpo]

25 minutes ago, RevGAM said:

I'm not sure of the budget so please tell me ll what would be a low,  a mid and a high budget. I'm in the US.

Low would be aliexpress sh*t, mid would probably be a mix of some cheap Corsair stuff (don’t even know if that’s possible) and expensive would be EK balls to the walls

[RevGAM]

44 minutes ago, SorryClaire said:

There's only 2, janky chinese parts thats fine for the most part but would be pain in case things goes wrong, or the best of the best. There's no so called inbetween. But yeah the hardest point would be the 6800XT, the only 2 manufacturer i can found is Bykski (squarely former) and Alphacool. For cooling you should only need 1 360mm rad for mostly stock op.

What would be the usual budget for an external loop? No janky stuff. 

[RevGAM]

37 minutes ago, filpo said:

Low would be aliexpress sh*t, mid would probably be a mix of some cheap Corsair stuff (don’t even know if that’s possible) and expensive would be EK balls to the walls

I like my balls where they are, thank you.   

[filpo]

9 minutes ago, RevGAM said:

I like my balls where they are, thank you.   

Didn’t exactly mean it in that way but alrighty then whatever floats your Noah’s ark of custom loop lol

[SorryBella]

6 minutes ago, RevGAM said:

What would be the usual budget for an external loop? No janky stuff. 

I mean it varies A LOT. Its all in what you want, the tools available to you, how many margin of errors you wanna afford to yourself, and everything else in between.

 

Also i forgot to ask and didnt realize it but you were using NH-U12A for 12700K. It barely fits in temperature wise, have you considered trying out 360mm AIO or dual tower coolers like AK620 by Deepcool? Unless of course, youre here for the fun of it.

[RevGAM]

3 minutes ago, SorryClaire said:

I mean it varies A LOT. Its all in what you want, the tools available to you, how many margin of errors you wanna afford to yourself, and everything else in between.

 

Also i forgot to ask and didnt realize it but you were using NH-U12A for 12700K. It barely fits in temperature wise, have you considered trying out 360mm AIO or dual tower coolers like AK620 by Deepcool? Unless of course, youre here for the fun of it.

I already bought the PA120 but, yeah, for the fun of it. 

 

My request is vague because the sale pushed up my timeline, and I haven't researched enough to be very specific. I wasn't sure if my GC should be in the loop, but let's include it so it'll last longer. I have no specific timeline for installation. I will do all the external stuff first before working inside once I start. 

 

Just assume I know nothing and give me your best advice, guys,  without all the useless crap. I want performance, not beauty, so a big reservoir is fine. I'll have to figure out how to stabilize it. 

[SorryBella]

Just now, RevGAM said:

I wasn't sure if my GC should be in the loop, but let's include it so it'll last longer.

From my experience putting the graphics card in the loop makes it harder to sell if you lose the original cooler, but beyond that it should be fine.

3 minutes ago, RevGAM said:

Just assume I know nothing and give me your best advice

"1st rule of fight club custom water cooling, we dont talk about fight club do custom watercooling." That would be my first advice, same as everyone else most likely.

1. Always have contingency on leaks. This means no important data inside of the computer, no parts with sentimental values, and an open bank account just in case. And if you can, although very overkill, put your computer on a different breaker or atleast an additional surge protector.
2. Follow guides on everything. Thermal pad thickness, part mounting orders on a monoblock and GPU block, filling guide according to the reservoir, and others. And of course if you can find tips and tricks from others far more experienced whether its from youtube or other folks in this thread, follow them if theyre sound.
3. For first loop, i highly recommend soft tubing before going for any hard tubing. This lessen the tool requirement and routing difficulty down a lot. Read reviews on the soft tube stiffness. Preferably you want something inbetween not too hard nor too soft.
4. ALWAYS. USE. DISTILLED. WATER. Unless if you have an additive with biocide and anticorrosion on standby you should never try to risk mineral or tap water. Youll break your loop.
5. Never mix Aluminum parts with anything else. Aluminum is very reactive and would turn the entire loop to a one large electroplating bath thatll cause galvanic corrosion that clogs the fins stack and radiator. And ideally if you can, dont mix metals at all if you can find them all in 1 configuration (copper with copper, nickel plated with nickel plated, etc.)
6. Be very patient. You wont be able to use your PC for a while anyway, not taking your time would make more mistake that would be very costly.

[RevGAM]

28 minutes ago, SorryClaire said:

From my experience putting the graphics card in the loop makes it harder to sell if you lose the original cooler, but beyond that it should be fine.

"1st rule of fight club custom water cooling, we dont talk about fight club do custom watercooling." That would be my first advice, same as everyone else most likely.

1. Always have contingency on leaks. This means no important data inside of the computer, no parts with sentimental values, and an open bank account just in case. And if you can, although very overkill, put your computer on a different breaker or atleast an additional surge protector.
2. Follow guides on everything. Thermal pad thickness, part mounting orders on a monoblock and GPU block, filling guide according to the reservoir, and others. And of course if you can find tips and tricks from others far more experienced whether its from youtube or other folks in this thread, follow them if theyre sound.
3. For first loop, i highly recommend soft tubing before going for any hard tubing. This lessen the tool requirement and routing difficulty down a lot. Read reviews on the soft tube stiffness. Preferably you want something inbetween not too hard nor too soft.
4. ALWAYS. USE. DISTILLED. WATER. Unless if you have an additive with biocide and anticorrosion on standby you should never try to risk mineral or tap water. Youll break your loop.
5. Never mix Aluminum parts with anything else. Aluminum is very reactive and would turn the entire loop to a one large electroplating bath thatll cause galvanic corrosion that clogs the fins stack and radiator. And ideally if you can, dont mix metals at all if you can find them all in 1 configuration (copper with copper, nickel plated with nickel plated, etc.)
6. Be very patient. You wont be able to use your PC for a while anyway, not taking your time would make more mistake that would be very costly.

Ok. 

 

Now, what parts and tools do I need? Soft and ppma.

[SorryBella]

14 minutes ago, RevGAM said:

ppma

*PMMA. That would still fall under hard tubing.

 

For parts, here are the basics. There are many extra peripherals in the scene but ill leave it up to you and your curiosity.

1. Radiator
2. Reservoir
3. Fittings (one for each ends where tube goes, so minimum of 8)
4. Waterblocks (pretty much everything has a waterblock if you have a working CNC machine or deep enough googling)
5. Coolant (This can be in form of a distilled water with watercooling additives like Cryofuel Concentrate by EK, or other chemically and thermally stable fluids with very low viscosity but of course youll have it even harder when it comes to replacing the coolant as youll inevitably have to flush and clean everything and then refill it again. Generally, the former will always be better than even tinted water)
6. Thermal Pads for the GPU (Read what the waterblock manual says to put in, sometimes its not the stock thermal pad thickness)
7. Thermal Paste for the CPU and GPU die (Just anything you want, but considering youre probably around 500$ deep, youll want to splurge)

For tools, atleast for soft tubing, besides what Linus outlined in his Last Guide Youll Ever Need, Youll also need:

1. Scissors
2. Allen Key (EK commonly uses 6-9mm)
3. Leak Tester (Optional really, but if you do have a massive anxiety on leaks you might wanna pick one up or borrow one)

[IkeaGnome]

2 hours ago, RevGAM said:

Now, what parts and tools do I need? Soft and ppma.

For hard tubing, I got this kit. https://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Hydro-Hardline-Bending-Toolkit/dp/B08CS26SL8

My only real complaint is that the plastic of the block you put the tubing in is really soft. It makes it very easy to accidentally cut. Blade lasted about long enough to do 2 computers then started to dull. Was still usable, but I just switched to a saw I had out in the garage. 

For the heat gun, I just use a generic heat gun from my tool set as well. Similar to one of these, but it also has a way to stand it up upside down on the table. Let's me set it on the table, and use both hands to rotate, bend and what not. https://www.homedepot.com/p/BLACK-DECKER-Dual-Temperature-Heat-Gun-HG1300/202516290

It doesn't need to be super hot to bend, and those are too much if you have the tubing too close.

 

I'd highly highly recommend a leak tester. 

https://www.ekwb.com/shop/ek-loop-leak-tester-flex

EK's is cheaper than Corsair's and will do just as well. 

 

As for specific parts, for my first one I went all Corsair. I used their configurator, and got everything I needed, except my gpu water block. They didn't/don't have one for the card I was using. I went with a Bykski block, and went with one again on my 4090. 

 

If I could do it over again, and probably will at some point, I would have gone with more Bykski for fittings, cpu block etc, and EK for the pump. The Corsair pump I've got it starting to make noises like I cavitated it, but I didn't. I need to open an RMA and see what they'll do there if they do anything. If they easily RMA it, I'd probably stick with their water cooling parts where I can in the future. 

 

If you go hardline, patience. Patience, patience. Don't over heat, you'll bubble your tubing and ruin it. Grab some spare 90 degree fittings for tubing that will need multiple bends just in case you can't quite get it and it starts to bug you. Spare fittings. If you think you need 8 straight fittings, I'd get 10. You'll find somewhere else that you forgot. 

[RevGAM]

@SorryClaire @IkeaGnome @filpo what size tubing and fittings? How do I know which pump has enough head?

[IkeaGnome]

1 minute ago, RevGAM said:

@SorryClaire @IkeaGnome @filpo what size tubing and fittings? How do I know which pump has enough head?

I went with 14/10mm tubing. 

As far as head pressure, I wouldn't worry too much about that. A DD5 has more pressure than you need and should do just fine as long as you're not running the rads out of the case and across the room. 

[SorryBella]

3 hours ago, RevGAM said:

@SorryClaire @IkeaGnome @filpo what size tubing and fittings? How do I know which pump has enough head?

Doesnt matter since 2008.

 

[RevGAM]

@SorryClaire @IkeaGnome @filpo

Can you guys please look at what's left on Frozen CPU and advise me what to get before it's all gone...? Please.

[IkeaGnome]

19 minutes ago, RevGAM said:

@SorryClaire @IkeaGnome @filpo

Can you guys please look at what's left on Frozen CPU and advise me what to get before it's all gone...? Please.

What's in your cart so far?

[RevGAM]

8 minutes ago, IkeaGnome said:

What's in your cart so far?

Nothing. I'm conf00zled.

[IkeaGnome]

7 minutes ago, RevGAM said:

Nothing. I'm conf00zled.

Bare minimum would be a radiator, a cpu block. Sounds like you want to do your GPU also. Pump. Are you doing a res/pump combo? Hard line or soft line tubing. 2 fittings for each component in your loop for the right size and kind of tubing you picked. Think about having a drain port and a plug for it. 

[RevGAM]

7 minutes ago, IkeaGnome said:

Bare minimum would be a radiator, a cpu block. Sounds like you want to do your GPU also. Pump. Are you doing a res/pump combo? Hard line or soft line tubing. 2 fittings for each component in your loop for the right size and kind of tubing you picked. Think about having a drain port and a plug for it. 

Res & pump, yes. I need advice for both hard and soft. Things are selling really fast. Definitely want a drain port and plug, or even a spigot...For those long, thirsty nights.  

[IkeaGnome]

10 minutes ago, RevGAM said:

Res & pump, yes. I need advice for both hard and soft. Things are selling really fast. Definitely want a drain port and plug, or even a spigot...For those long, thirsty nights.  

Soft is going to be much easier and more forgiving to do, hard can look really really good when done right. Hard will take more tools and more patience. With hard line you'll also notice any imperfection and resist every urge to tear it all back down. 

 

There's a couple ways to do the drain valve. I have a pump/res combo. It has 2 outlets. I used one for a separate tube that I can aim out side my case and then turn the ball valve. You can also get 3 way fittings that would go in the middle of your lowest run to attach a valve on the third port. Which one you go with comes down to personal preference.