Cutting Costs?

[CornOnJacob]

Hello,

    I have a question on how to cut costs when building a loop. I just added up the cost of my water cooling components and not including radiator fans, lighting, or a GPU backplate, it comes to roughly $625. :(

    This pricetag seems kind of absurd, but I don't know what to cut out. I have reasons for what I picked (e.g. I picked hard tubing because of aesthetics and mainly the fact that it wont degrade with dyes/coolants). I don't want to water cool just for performance (although the OCs will be nice), I want to watercool to get a silent, and most importantly, awesome looking system. Is there a way to cut this down or do I just need to accept the fact that watercooling "the right way" comes with a hefty price tag?

 

Here are the parts I was looking at:

[spoiler=]

EK Supremacy Clean CSQ Nickel Plexi CPU Block

EK Clean CSQ Nickel GTX 770 Block

Alphacool NexXxoS XT45 240mm Radiator x2

Swiftech MCP655 Pump

Bitspower Acrylic Pump Mod Top

Bitspower MCP655 Matte Black Mod Kit

Bitspower Water Tank Z Multi 150 POM Reservoir

PrimoChill Rigid Tube Fittings x10

Primochill 24in Rigid Tubing 4pack x2 (plus two additional fittings at $6.95 each)

Bitspower Mini Valve

Mayhem's X1 Clear Concentrate

Mayhem's Emerald Green Dye

[Samdb]

Do not cut when building your own loop, performance will not be adequate and components will not be of good quality.

[Ghost]

• Forget the pump Bitspower pump top, just use the normal top. (buy a more reasonable res)

Use soft tubing with EK fittings.

Drop the valve (and two fittings)

Use XSPC/EK coolant

Drop the dye

[CornOnJacob]

 

• Forget the pump Bitspower pump top, just use the normal top. (buy a more reasonable res)
• Use soft tubing with EK fittings.
• Drop the valve (and two fittings)
• Use XSPC/EK coolant
• Drop the dye

 

I'll take all of these into consideration--thank you.

 

If I drop the valve, I would need quick disconnects which wouldn't save me much money. How can I drop the two other fittings? I thought I needed two per radiator, two for the CPU block, two for the GPU block, and two for the pump/res. If I dropped the mod kit, I would actually need two extra fittings (to go between the pump and res).

[CornOnJacob]

@Ghost @Samdb

Do you guys recommend buying parts secondhand? If so, which ones?

[Samdb]

@Ghost @Samdb

Do you guys recommend buying parts secondhand? If so, which ones?

 

I wouldn't buy second hand components, you can't really guarantee the quality of them.

[CornOnJacob]

Do not cut when building your own loop, performance will not be adequate and components will not be of good quality.

 

 

 

• Forget the pump Bitspower pump top, just use the normal top. (buy a more reasonable res)
• Use soft tubing with EK fittings.
• Drop the valve (and two fittings)
• Use XSPC/EK coolant
• Drop the dye

 

I think Samdb is right. As much as I want to save money, I'd rather build the rig I want and have to save up more. Thanks for your help guys