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1hitwonder
By 1hitwonder
in Custom Loop and Exotic Cooling
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I have read countless reviews and forum posts but I find myself asking the a question I can't find an answer too.  What is the best way to get started in liquid cooling.  I currently have an Antec Eleven Hundred case which isn't very good for liquid cooling. I also have an 3570K currently cooled by an NH-D14 and a EVGA 780 Superclocked ACX 2.0.  My ideal situation would be to pick up a R5, H440, or Enthoo Pro and do a full custom liquid cooling setup with maybe a starter kit like at EK L360 with an added on GPU waterblock BUT that just isn't in the budget.  SO how do I move forward? What I'm most concerned about is that the 900 series cards are out and the waterblocks for the 780 I fear will be harder and harder to obtain.  However to buy a pump, rez, radiator, and GPU waterblock without the CPU block is just stupid expensive, but getting a starter kit doesn't leave money for the GPU block?  So as stupid as it sounds I'm thinking about getting a case and a GPU  block without getting a functional loop. Atleast that way I could pick up a Swiftech H-220 or 240 x cooler in a few months and expand it too a fully loop..  Any thoughts  about that?  How long do you guys think 780 blocks will be available?

 

 

Thanks in advance...

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The water blocks for a 780 will be available for at least another full year, probably longer.  The block for a 780 is the same block used for many GPUs, they aren't just going to disappear.  If budget is your biggest restriction, go with a starter kit for now and buy the GPU block when you can afford it.  

 

I can tell you from experience, I wouldn't recommend the H440 for watercooling.  I currently have the H440 and my radiators seriously struggle to get fresh air.  Aesthetically, I absolutely love the case, but I have to keep my fans on high or pop the front and top panels off (only under extended full loads) to keep it at comfortable temps.  I'm upgrading to a 900D next month.

"There are 10 types of people in the world: those that understand binary and those that do not."

 

 
CPU:  4790K @ 4.7GHz  Motherboard:  ASUS Maximus VI Formula  RAM:  32GB Corsair Vengeance Pro 2400MHz  GPU:  (2) GTX 780 Poseidons in SLI  Case:  NZXT H440  Storage:  (2) Samsung 840 EVO 500GB SSDs and (1) 4TB WD Black HDD  PSU:  EVGA Supernova G2 850w  Cooling:  Custom loop - Koolance 380i CPU block, (built-in waterblocks on GPUs), Alphacool VP655 pump, (1) 360mm XSPC radiator, (1) 240mm XSPC radiator, Bitspower 150 reservoir
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If you are just getting into watercooling I would buy a starter kit as mentioned above. Depending on the support of the case you choose determines which kit you can get. EK makes a great starter kit for a good price. You can choose from 120, 240, 360, or 480mm radiators for the kits giving you plenty of choices. The kits come with everything but coolant to cool your cpu in a custom loop. It even has a bottle of their coolant additive in blue so all you need it distilled water. And to add a gpu you just need the block and fittings. I suggest buying from frozencpu.com

Good luck

AMD diehard & Nvidia Enthusiest

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