Getting my feet wet

[Pruneau]

Hi Folks,

I am new to the forum. Have some very basic experience in OC'ing (i.e. I know what it is) but not a lot of experience.

I have decided to upgrade, and am pretty much decided on a water cooling system. I have done some massive lurking on various forums, and have accumulated a mass of info, including tips, instruction videos, expert opinions, and more.

Now is the time to spend my hard earned cash, and although I think I have all the info required, I am a bit afraid to get my feet wet.

My problem is: what must I buy?

I mean I know I will need a pomp, I want a cooling block for my processor (I think a P4@2400-FSB800), and extra coolers for my GFX card, chipset, and 2 HD's. I will probably need a reservoir, although I have seen some setups without. I need a rad with a good low noise fan.

The thing is: what cooling blocks do I buy? Will a GFX cooling block fit on a radeon 9800 or a FX 5900? What diameter and typer of tubing is best? I know this is vague. Let me try to tell you where I stand:

1. At the moment I think I will purchase the smaller Eheim pump. MY only worry is the line of 5 cooling elements might be a bit much for it. Anyone have experience with that?

2. I think about buying a simple radiator, rather than making one myself. Will a 120 mm fan radiator have enough cooling power for 5 cooler blocks?

3. I am thinking about doing this without a reservoir, if at all possible, or make one myself, based on some designs I saw here, with some hard pvc tubing and common plumbing stuff.

4. I wonder if it is possible to use copper tubing or stainless steel tubing instead of plastic? If not, what must I get? Is the only reason for plastic the look?

As I said, I am fairly new to this, but I am handy enough, and I have good basic tools. I am looking forward to your opinion and input very much. Thanks for bearing with me. I keep trying, but I never seem to be brief :)

[Drake]

:D:DWELCOME:D:D to Liquid Ninjas, Pruneau!

1) The I doubt the Eheim could handle that many system components, so I'd say at least a 1250 or a similarly powerful pump. However, HDs do not need to be cooled. A simple fan would suffice.

2) A heatercore or BIX would suit you fine, though I'd like to see a home made resivoir :)

3) Home-brewed resivoirs aren't uncommon. I know that several people on these boards use a sealed electrical box in their systems. If you want something a bit less expensive you can just buy a t-splitter and use that as your resivoir.

4) I've seen metal tubing used before, but I don't know what's involved in using it. Is there a risk of corrosion if the tubing and other metals react?

[vipur04]

I do know that I was talking to one of my manager's at work one time about some extreme cooling solutions, and he told me that they used to use copper piping and freon. Only thing with copper that you have to be good at is bending it, and soldering it. Other than that, I would say to use copper :) It's quite nice.

[darksaint]

don't mix metals.
THey corod(sp?).
Like
copper/brass
copper/steel
copper/iron.

So provided that you do not have any steel and coper touching with water running over it you should be fine.

I learned that at home depot while waiting for them to get some copper fittings for my house.

Over long periods you will have to flush pipes out with a mild acid solution to get deposits away.

[Pruneau]

Thanks for the replies.

Would that corrosion thing also occur if I use copper cooling blocks - say DD- and stainless steel 10 mm pipes?

I have read about a radiator that allows fan free cooling, from Meca or Mera or something like that. Does anyone have good experiences withthat setup, while still having a good OC?

[dicki]

welcome to the board :)

are you seriously going to use metal pipes? good luck! your a braver man than me... most people use tygon or clearflex... much simpler...

[darksaint]

you have to use a rubber seprator if the metals are going to touch.