Venturing into the world of water cooling

**Razer** · #1 15th Sep 2009, 12:16

I've decided to venture into the world of water cooling, a world where electricity and water go on in perfect harmony.

Problem is, I want to cool RAM, CPU and GPU and can't find a kit in the UK that does this for a reasonable price. I'm not expecting this to be cheap but £250 for water and tubes seems a tad expensive to me.

What I'm awkwardly asking is what components do I need for a complete set to cool the CPU (Quad core) RAM (DDR2) and GPU (4870 1Gb). I'm looking to get my graphics card cooler and CPU cooler because they run at a higher temperature than I'd like and my card keeps freezing.. I thought I'd chuck RAM in there since my RAM is naked and RAM sinks are apparently of decent use.

Any help would be great here! Thanks guys

**Carbon** · #2 18th Sep 2009, 23:32

Personally I wouldn't bother with water cooling except for the novelty factor if I had a lot of money to spend.

You can throw a nice HDT HSF on the CPU for £30 (even a ridiculously XXXTREME one like the Coolermaster V8, much less a modest Xigmatek or other clone), and grab an Accelero passive heatsink for the GPU. This will also end up significantly more quiet than a water cooling setup - one 120mm fan beats a bunch of radiators.

Also water-cooling RAM is frankly a waste of money. RAM has covers because they're cheap and good marketing, not because they're really needed.

**4D(Fordy(Ford) Ollie** · #3 19th Sep 2009, 02:08

However if you are intent on watercooling, for the novelty factor, have a look at this site. It's the best I've ever found in the UK (Some US ones do ship over here.. but of course that's costly, and returns would be a nightmare)

www.watercoolinguk.co.uk

First step is to decide on a barb size (The internal measurement of tubing, and external of the connections)

Unless you're a mad gamer where everything has a reason that makes no real world difference - the size doesn't matter.

However pumps often don't support a certain size, so just go with what is common on all your components:

1) Pump
2) CPU block
3) GPU block
4) RAM blocks and inter-connectors
5) Radiator
6) Reservoir
7) Tubing
8) Coolant

**Razer** · #4 19th Sep 2009, 02:17

Cheers Carbon and 4D, I'll take a look into water cooling, I like novelties, but I'll also have a look into a decent CPU and GPU cooler which doesn't require liquid flowing round £900 of computer..

I'm not going to look at the V8's or V10's cos they're mainly for overclockers which I don't do. I always thought RAM sinks were useful since the XMS2 and such came with them and thought if they were watercooled, it would only be better lol.

I'll check out the coolers and watercooling components, price them up and see what comes out best price/performance. (Then I'll find out my GPU and CPU is fine and it was all a waste of time haha)

**Carbon** · #5 19th Sep 2009, 02:49

The V8 is just a HDT heatsink equal in performance to the Xigmatek S1283 - I only mentioned it because it's a ridiculous sort of novel air cooler but it costs way less than a comparative WC setup.

**Razer** · #6 19th Sep 2009, 05:03

How does it's price compare to the Xigmatek? If it's twice as much for the same performance I'll pick up the Xigmatek one. No sense spending loads of money when there's no need!

As far as that Accelero goes, you say it's passive.. Will it stand up to the heat when an active cooling system isn't good enough?

**Carbon** · #7 19th Sep 2009, 05:20

The Xigmatek is the same/better for half the price in the US at least.

Accelero pretty much ties active cooling as far as I know, and you can stick a 120MM fan or something on top too and still get the benefits of both systems with a lower RPM fan.

**Razer** · #8 19th Sep 2009, 12:52

Xigmatek is £30 or so round here, can't seem to find a V8 or V10 at any of my usual stores so I'll stick with that. Looked on Scan, CCLOnline and MicroDirect, cant see many decent GPU coolers though..