How much water cooling do I need?

MoBo · June 20, 2014

Hi guys , this is a stupid question but how much water cooling do I need?

I am going to upgrade my system later to a AMD FX 9590 because of the 4.7 Ghz, right now I have a R9 290 so i would have this beast water cooled because it heats up really fast when i oc it, I might but a 2 card in for better performance and water cool both. So I was wondering how much I need (I will upgrade my case to a Caselabs Merlin Sm8 With all the Quad Radiator mounts and a extra 280mm Mount in the bay) so I went on Frozencpu.com and looked at the radiators i saw the Alphacool Monsta 8 cm thick radiators so i thought why not get them but is 8 cm overkill or is 4 or 6 cm overkill? I am trying to max out a lot of my things.

And I will be cooling my motherboard and my ram too, what pump do I need? I am right now thinking to go with the Swiftech MP-665 because it has so many good reviews. But do I need a second pump or is one fine?

Thanks

Aleks · June 20, 2014

Water-cooling your RAM is pretty unnecessary. And Having quad radiators for a single GPU loop like that seem s a little overkill as well. This being YOUR build I am not going to tell you what to do but make sure you are making efficient choices with your loop. I am not much of a water-cooling expert myself but I would assume one pump is fine. The swiftech one is really good indeed.

Jimstah87 · June 20, 2014

You don't need any, really, all those components are designed to work with their reference coolers just fine, you only really water cool for the aesthetic appeal and hobby side of it. If you do decide to water cool just make it look good and balanced for what it's worth.

Shaqo_Wyn · June 20, 2014

Why the AMD CPU? Intel makes the better CPU's. For a high end CPU and two GPU's + motherboard you'll be fine with two 360's or a 360 and 240. RAM cooling is purely aesthetics. You could go with 2 480's if you want a bit overkill. The Monsta's are great but Black Ice SR-1 are 54mm thick, lighter and low fpi (so you can run fans at low rpm) and give almost as good performance. The Swiftech pump you mentioned is the best!