First time water cooling

Madster · January 18, 2015

Hey guys, this is my first time water cooling, and i'm defiantly going to need some help. To start off, here is my current build:

motherboard: Gigabyte GA 990FXA-UD3 AM3+ AMD 990fx

cpu: AMD FX 8320 Vishera 8-core 3.5GHz(socket it AM3+)

graphics card: Sapphire 100364L radeon R9 270X 2GB

mem: G.Skill ripjaws X series 8GB

and then I have a few hard drives and two SSDs.

Here is what im looking at doing, cooling the CPU, and graphics card. What I have found so far that I like(and actually my dad had the version before this one) is the Zalman Reserator 1v2.

It says its AM3 socket compatible, and if im able to use it, then its the one i'd like to use. My issue is I cant find a water block for my graphics card anywhere.. If anyone has any suggestions or tips for a first time water cooler, that'd be awesome!

Zalman reserator:

http://www.zalman.com/eng/product/Product_Read.php?Idx=183

Mao_Zedong · January 18, 2015

No, just no...

It isn't even close to worth watercooling those components, just get a good cpu like an i5 and a good gpu like the 970 or 290.

Madster · January 18, 2015

No, just no...

It isn't even close to worth watercooling those components, just get a good cpu like an i5 and a good gpu like the 970 or 290.

Well if I had the money to get that, and do water cooling I would. Trust me, it's not like im planning on staying near this build, I figured water cooling now, and when im ready, I can upgrade my parts to better quality. Nothing wrong with that.

TBNRunity · January 18, 2015

I would upgrade parts first then water cool

Spev · January 19, 2015

I would upgrade parts first then water cool

Def agreed. @Madster You could get better performance now...IMO custom or "extreme" water cooling like this is only excusable when you already have the highest end components. Take my build for example, sure a 4790k and a GTX980 (not 970 anymore, sig is wrong), isn't exactly the "best" hardware available, but for gaming would I need anything better? Sure I could have gone with a Titan Z and the highest end x99 CPU, but that woulda been a waste of money. My components are perfect for a gaming build, hence my decision to go with a custom CPU/GPU loop, as upgrading my CPU would have been a bit silly. Some would even argue I could have gone SLI instead of water cooling, which I thought of, but I don't play many SLI games.

Reason I'm telling you is this...most water coolers will tell you the same, never water cool (especially custom loop, AIO is one thing) at the expense of performance. Never go with expensive custom water cooling when you got a R9 270. You're equipment isn't bad, but you're WAY better off spending that money buying a new GTX 970 or 980, or upgrading your CPU.

Like I said....custom water cooling is only sensible in one situation: When you have all the hardware specs you need to run anything you want at full potential. Once you reach a point where upgrading your CPU, doubling up on ram, or similar things won't actually benefit you in any way, water cooling is sensible. It is not in any other situation IMO.