Custom loop

[Armakar]

Considering a custom loop. My only question is -  how do I hook the graphics card up while keeping it looking sleek? I have an MSI 1070 Gaming X - afaik people just take the stock coolers off and use zipties or something to put the waterblock on the core? That looks ugly as fuck and would ruin my build for me. I know you can buy cards suited to have the holes for the tubes in them already but that would mean selling my 1070 and buying it again brand new.. not worth it.

 

Thanks!

[Lurick]

Zipties to hold a waterblock on a graphics card? No, that's just wrong and anyone doing that is doing it wrong. *shudder*

 

What kind of custom loop are you going for? A full on loop or a prefilled one and then adding a GPU block to the mix?

[kelvinhall05]

26 minutes ago, Armakar said:

Considering a custom loop. My only question is -  how do I hook the graphics card up while keeping it looking sleek? I have an MSI 1070 Gaming X - afaik people just take the stock coolers off and use zipties or something to put the waterblock on the core? That looks ugly as fuck and would ruin my build for me. I know you can buy cards suited to have the holes for the tubes in them already but that would mean selling my 1070 and buying it again brand new.. not worth it.

 

Thanks!

 

Don't ziptie your waterblock to your gpu, buy an aftermarket aio to attach to it. BTW, did you get the ziptie idea from Tech City? Just curious.

[Armakar]

On 10/15/2016 at 0:34 PM, Lurick said:

Zipties to hold a waterblock on a graphics card? No, that's just wrong and anyone doing that is doing it wrong. *shudder*

 

What kind of custom loop are you going for? A full on loop or a prefilled one and then adding a GPU block to the mix?

Full custom loop.

 

On 10/15/2016 at 0:38 PM, kelvinhall05 said:

Don't ziptie your waterblock to your gpu, buy an aftermarket aio to attach to it. BTW, did you get the ziptie idea from Tech City? Just curious.

I don't remember where I saw it.  Why would I buy an aftermarket AIO if I'm using a custom loop to cool my CPU?

[Lurick]

2 hours ago, Armakar said:

Full custom loop.

Alright, well to answer the question more in depth, a liquid block attaches to the GPU the same way the air cooler does, with screws and a backplate. If you want to see more there is a gallery at the top of this sub-forum where you can check out other peoples builds.

 

As for the actual loop itself how much are you looking to spend?

[kelvinhall05]

2 hours ago, Armakar said:

I don't remember where I saw it.  Why would I buy an aftermarket AIO if I'm using a custom loop to cool my CPU?

Lol, didn't read the whole thing. Good point 

[atomicus]

Zipties LOL! Where did you see this? I want to see this for the laughs.

[Armakar]

16 hours ago, atomicus said:

Zipties LOL! Where did you see this? I want to see this for the laughs.

I don't remember. It wasn't even that long ago - I just remember watching a PC building video ( it was 100% from a larger channel because I nly watch linus, jaystwocents , paul etc )

But yeah, seemed kind of fucked up to use zipties, but he said something like the block didn't fit on exactly so he just ziptied it.

[THFourteen]

Assuming this is your card, you should be able to get one of these full cover waterblocks 

 

https://www.ekwb.com/configurator/step1_complist?gpu_gpus=2035

 

You won't need zipties!

[Armakar]

Can anyone design me a QUALITY custom loop for my build? I'm looking for quality, nice looks and performance. I don' want to spend more then £200 but if it's justified I will. I'd want hose compression's and quality blocks.

 

I have a red / black themed build, specs can be seen in my signature. I'm completely new to open-loop watercooling so I have no idea what I'm shopping for. Thanks!

[Guest]

According to jaz2cents, you should at least double your budget?

[Cereal5]

If you need someone else to design a loop for you then IMO you shouldn't be doing a custom loop. Look at something like this:

https://www.ekwb.com/shop/aio/predator its EK Water Blocks custom AIO with quick disconnect to add extra parts like a GPU block if you want it.

EKWB also has kits like this:

https://www.ekwb.com/shop/kits

[jj9987]

I am not sure if you can get all that in such tight budget. GPU block is already about 100$, add rest of the components too.

[Gonio]

You want good custom, you will need to pay more. Custom liquid cooling is very expensive. There is a reason why most people don't have it + have no need for it besides looking awesome.

[atomicus]

As mentioned, if you need someone to 'design' it for you, then don't do it. If you want to do this for pure aesthetics and having a cool looking PC, that's fine, but you will REALLY struggle to do that with £200! Impossible I'd say, unless you trawl ebay, gumtree and forums looking for people selling on WC gear... you may get lucky. Otherwise, I would suggest you look at the EKWB Predator. It's as close as you'll get to custom in terms of performance and component quality, but with ZERO maintenance, plus it's all black so will fit with your build nicely. And it's much cheaper than going custom... but if you want CPU and GPU cooled, it still won't be do-able for £200, as you'll need the QDC 240/280 version at least, plus the pre-filled EK GPU block, which is going to be around £300 total... but as mentioned, you'll spend more than that on a quality custom loop.

[Phate.exe]

On 10/15/2016 at 1:09 PM, Armakar said:

Considering a custom loop. My only question is -  how do I hook the graphics card up while keeping it looking sleek? I have an MSI 1070 Gaming X - afaik people just take the stock coolers off and use zipties or something to put the waterblock on the core? That looks ugly as fuck and would ruin my build for me. I know you can buy cards suited to have the holes for the tubes in them already but that would mean selling my 1070 and buying it again brand new.. not worth it.

 

Thanks!

Attached is my ghettocooled R9 270x.  My cheapo GPU waterblock came with mounting screws and spring nuts, so no zipties needed..  Card is way smaller than it was with the heatsink/fans.

 

Note:  The stock cooler did not include VRM cooling beyond blowing some air on them.  Only recently decided to start leaning on the card, so I'll probably end up getting some tiny little heatsinks for them.