First Time Watercooling

[evan_7899]

I am thinking about doing a custom watercooling in my Enthoo Pro but have no actual experience. I want to do the CPU, and the GPU with a 240mm rad in front, 360 up top and a 120mm in the back. I have done a quick sketch and this is what I am looking to do. The red is tubing, waterblocks, and the pump at the bottom, the yellow are fans, and the blue is liquid to indicate a reservoir.  Is there any suggestions to improve this and how much would this cost abouts with PETG tubing?

 

[Mug]

• You gan forego the radiator in the back, it might cause compatibility issues ans will give you no benefit

The reservoir needs to be directly on top of the pump in the ideal world

What country are you in so that I can assist you?

[evan_7899]

 

• You gan forego the radiator in the back, it might cause compatibility issues ans will give you no benefit
• The reservoir needs to be directly on top of the pump in the ideal world
• What country are you in so that I can assist you?

 

Canada. Hmm I thought maybe that rad in the back would take a few degrees off of the CPU temp but what do I know. Should I maybe opt for a pump res combo to mitigate extra tubing and fittings?

[Mug]

Canada. Hmm I thought maybe that rad in the back would take a few degrees off of the CPU temp but what do I know. Should I maybe opt for a pump res combo to mitigate extra tubing and fittings?

Yeah. Plus you save about £30 that way.

 

For the fittings (if you want to save money) you can go for barbs and hte tube is very little expense.

 

I would go for a Universal GPU cooler because they're usually on offer and you can also forego the 240mm radiator but it will lose you a couple of degrees.

[evan_7899]

Yeah. Plus you save about £30 that way.

 

For the fittings (if you want to save money) you can go for barbs and hte tube is very little expense.

 

I would go for a Universal GPU cooler because they're usually on offer and you can also forego the 240mm radiator but it will lose you a couple of degrees.

Sorry I may have given the wrong impression but cost isn't top priority. Of course I am not made of money and am a student so I will definitely be keeping this to a budget but if I am going to watercool I want to do it properly the first time around. I do plan on using up all of the radiator space I have available because a 360 isn't much more expensive than a 240 from what I am seeing so might as well. Plus fittings and all how much do you think this would run me?

[Mug]

Sorry I may have given the wrong impression but cost isn't top priority. Of course I am not made of money and am a student so I will definitely be keeping this to a budget but if I am going to watercool I want to do it properly the first time around. I do plan on using up all of the radiator space I have available because a 360 isn't much more expensive than a 240 from what I am seeing so might as well. Plus fittings and all how much do you think this would run me?

for me, I was going to go with a 280mm radiator, cpu and gpu, normal fittings etc and it was like £250 which is like $375 or something like that. So I swerved eventually.

I've done a couple for customers though.

[evan_7899]

So I just decided to do some research and after taxes and exchange rate a 360 rad comes out to be around 120 Canadian. So in radiators alone that will be about 200. I'll probably spend around 30 in PETG. About 100 in fans. Then I have no clue what pump is good, or what fittings I'll need.

[evan_7899]

Ok so I did what I think I need for this to work. Is this shopping list good? What should I change and where could I shave down a the cost. This is in USD and before tax so this is well over 1200 CAD. So no this will not work. Just a starting point.

 

Maybe I wont do the CPU loop yet and save ~230 dollars because it is already on a H80i GT and is working well enough. 

[Vudian]

Ok so I did what I think I need for this to work. Is this shopping list good? What should I change and where could I shave down a the cost. This is in USD and before tax so this is well over 1200 CAD. So no this will not work. Just a starting point.

 

Maybe I wont do the CPU loop yet and save ~230 dollars because it is already on a H80i GT and is working well enough. 

you can switch the the ek supremacy mx, just buy the intel or amd one depending on what you have and save $50, there really isnt a performance difference between the two.

[evan_7899]

you can switch the the ek supremacy mx, just buy the intel or amd one depending on what you have and save $50, there really isnt a performance difference between the two.

Ok that helps but what about the rest. Where can I shave down the cost because this is rather expensive.

[Vudian]

honestly if your looking to use good parts, your not going to get much cheaper then that, if you use other sites like http://www.performance-pcs.com/ and look at there cheaper rads and fittings. thats about all you could do to make it cheaper. if you do deside to just do your gpu you can use just the 240 rad to cool it with no problems or even the 360 to keep it just a few degrees cooler. and cut some price off of that way.

 

Edit: you could also buy one of eks kits and then just buy the extra parts needed to put a gpu in the loop. that might save alittle money that way

[evan_7899]

honestly if your looking to use good parts, your not going to get much cheaper then that, if you use other sites like http://www.performance-pcs.com/ and look at there cheaper rads and fittings. thats about all you could do to make it cheaper. if you do deside to just do your gpu you can use just the 240 rad to cool it with no problems or even the 360 to keep it just a few degrees cooler. and cut some price off of that way.

 

Edit: you could also buy one of eks kits and then just buy the extra parts needed to put a gpu in the loop. that might save a little money that way

Eh maybe I will hold off watercooling for a while. It is just too expensive to do it properly. I do only have a 970 and a FX-6300 so watercooling this rig would be sort of bad prioritization. I should probably spend the money upgrading to an Intel Platform later down the line. So that will be a new Mobo, CPU, and RAM.

 

Ugh why do I like such an expensive hobby. 

[Brandonberg]

Canada. Hmm I thought maybe that rad in the back would take a few degrees off of the CPU temp but what do I know. Should I maybe opt for a pump res combo to mitigate extra tubing and fittings?

 

You will almost certainly have compatibility issues with a rear and top radiator w/ fans. A double/triple rad up top and a double rad in the front is more than enough cooling for a GPU and single GPU. If you want more radiator real estate you would probably be better off going with a slightly thicker radiator in the front (thick rad in the top might cause issues with motherboard) but unless you have multiple overclocked GPUs you will not having any cooling issues with thin top and front radiators.

[Vudian]

Eh maybe I will hold off watercooling for a while. It is just too expensive to do it properly. I do only have a 970 and a FX-6300 so watercooling this rig would be sort of bad prioritization. I should probably spend the money upgrading to an Intel Platform later down the line. So that will be a new Mobo, CPU, and RAM.

 

Ugh why do I like such an expensive hobby. 

nothing wrong with watercooling a 970. im cooling 2 of them. i use to have that same cpu with my 970 even ocing the fx6300 it was holding my gtx970 back, so i would replace that.

[evan_7899]

nothing wrong with watercooling a 970. im cooling 2 of them. i use to have that same cpu with my 970 even ocing the fx6300 it was holding my gtx970 back, so i would replace that.

Ya I'm at 4.8GHz on this one and it still holds back my firestrike score quite a bit. My 970 hits around 1539MHz but the CPU is bottlenecking it. I get around a 9230 on firestrike regular. I plan on replacing this with Intel's next line of CPU's.  

 

EDIT: I know synthetic benchmarks mean nothing and the only true test is real world use so the 6300 performs well enough in games for me, no noticeable bottlenecking I have seen.

[Vudian]

Ya I'm at 4.8GHz on this one and it still holds back my firestrike score quite a bit. My 970 hits around 1539MHz but the CPU is bottlenecking it. I get around a 9230 on firestrike regular. I plan on replacing this with Intel's next line of CPU's.  

 

EDIT: I know synthetic benchmarks mean nothing and the only true test is real world use so the 6300 performs well enough in games for me, no noticeable bottlenecking I have seen.

really? because on ffixv arr just changing from the fx6300 to a 3790k netted me over 20fps difference.. but ether way i highly recommend a upgrade from the fx6300. my experience with it in gaming was so terrible i only had it for a week before i made to choice to upgrade again.

[evan_7899]

really? because on ffixv arr just changing from the fx6300 to a 3790k netted me over 20fps difference.. but ether way i highly recommend a upgrade from the fx6300. my experience with it in gaming was so terrible i only had it for a week before i made to choice to upgrade again.

Really that much??? I just blew a load of cash on the PC getting a 970 and a new case so the upgrade will have to wait, I will probably get the Kaby Lake version of the 4690k or even the 4790k if the price is right. How overclocked was your 6300 because 20FPS is HUGE.

[teeejay]

I would rather place that 240mm elsewhere, right under the MOBO, otherwise that space looks so empty. Trust me, I know, got almost identical setup in my Enthoo Primo

[Benji_w]

Speaking from experience, the rad at the back is a PITA so remove it, the 360 up top as exhaust should have the fans above the rad to reduce in dust build up, pull is better for less dust.

 

You can get cheaper PETG tubing from PETG stockists or dealers so that might bring down cost a bit. A second hand pump/res will also bring costs down and if you're getting a D5 it will be fine. Second hand rads will also bring down costs a lot too from experience.