Budget for Water Cooling Project

harvey.l12 · 9 Jan 2018 at 21:15

Just wondering what sort of budget I am looking at for a full water cooler project (CPU and GPU).

And does anyone have any good sources which I can research into as this is something I’ve not done yet.

Would be wanting I7 proecessor and half decent GPU. What are some good brands to get water cooling components from?

trawetSluaP · 9 Jan 2018 at 21:41

EKWB's configuration is a good place to start -

https://www.ekwb.com/custom-loop-configurator/

My entire loop is EK and I'm more than happy with it.

I'd guess a loop with CPU and GPU and two radiators would be around £400-500 (ish)

harvey.l12 · 9 Jan 2018 at 21:47

Okay I will take a look. So is that £500 just for the water cooling or does that include CPU and GPU price?

What would be an average cost of components for the full system?

trawetSluaP · 9 Jan 2018 at 21:51

Oh sorry, that's just be the loop probably.

I couldn't give you a price without knowing more about the needs in terms of what you'll be using the PC for.

I'd research that a bit more as there are SO many options.

For example a new i7 CPU will probably set you back at least £200 for a start.

harvey.l12 · 9 Jan 2018 at 22:11

Yeah okay, I’ve built custom PC’s a fair few times, just never fully water cooled, sounds like it will be a fair bit more expensive

vintage-x · 10 Jan 2018 at 01:07

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/ek-w...rformance-water-cooling-bundle-wc-9j9-ek.html

something like that would be a good place to start. Contains everything you would need.

just make sure if you get another rad its Aluminium

harvey.l12 · 10 Jan 2018 at 01:13

Okay I will take a look

Robzere31 · 10 Jan 2018 at 10:02

Ballpark figure when I did mine was around £500

That was for CPU & GPU block, GPU backplate, 2x radiators, 4x fans, pump/res, tubing, liquid & various fittings.

Plus side is once you've got most of the parts they can be resued, such as the fittings, fans, radiators, pump etc.

trawetSluaP · 10 Jan 2018 at 10:14

Robzere31 said:
Ballpark figure when I did mine was around £500

That was for CPU & GPU block, GPU backplate, 2x radiators, 4x fans, pump/res, tubing, liquid & various fittings.

Plus side is once you've got most of the parts they can be resued, such as the fittings, fans, radiators, pump etc.

Plus they can be extended, or shrunk down to meet your needs. I love the loop I have now!

harvey.l12 · 10 Jan 2018 at 10:44

trawetSluaP said:
Plus they can be extended, or shrunk down to meet your needs. I love the loop I have now!

By 'loop' do your mean the water coolign system? The flow of water? Reservoirs and pipes etc.

trawetSluaP · 10 Jan 2018 at 10:54

harvey.l12 said:
By 'loop' do your mean the water coolign system? The flow of water? Reservoirs and pipes etc.

Yes the entire water cooling set-up:
CPU block, GPU block, radiators, fans, tubing, fittings, pump/res combo and coolant.

harvey.l12 · 10 Jan 2018 at 11:48

trawetSluaP said:
Yes the entire water cooling set-up:
CPU block, GPU block, radiators, fans, tubing, fittings, pump/res combo and coolant.

Okay cheers, how often does the coolant have to be changed?

And are the pumps quiet? Is a full watercooled system quieter than hybrid water cooled CPU cooler like a h100i

trawetSluaP · 10 Jan 2018 at 11:52

harvey.l12 said:
Okay cheers, how often does the coolant have to be changed?

And are the pumps quiet? Is a full watercooled system quieter than hybrid water cooled CPU cooler like a h100i

I've only recently set my watercooling loop up so haven't had to change coolant yet. I believe the general consensus is to change it and clean everything once a year.

In terms of noise I find a custom loop to be much more quiet than a H100i as the pump (imo) is of higher quality and can also, in EK's case, be speed controlled so it doesn't have to run at full speed all the time (unless you want it to).

harvey.l12 · 10 Jan 2018 at 13:05

trawetSluaP said:
I've only recently set my watercooling loop up so haven't had to change coolant yet. I believe the general consensus is to change it and clean everything once a year.

In terms of noise I find a custom loop to be much more quiet than a H100i as the pump (imo) is of higher quality and can also, in EK's case, be speed controlled so it doesn't have to run at full speed all the time (unless you want it to).

What sort of idle temps are you getting with yours and stressed temps?

trawetSluaP · 10 Jan 2018 at 13:14

CPU idles at 25C, under load gets to around 60C but bare in mind that's high due to Intel being lazy and only using thermal paste on their new CPUs instead of solder. I had an i7-6850K briefly being cooled by the loop and that had a max temperature of 45C

GPU Idles low 20's and gets to around 40C under load.

harvey.l12 · 10 Jan 2018 at 14:24

Okay, still good though anyway

Robzere31 · 10 Jan 2018 at 16:41

trawetSluaP said:
CPU idles at 25C, under load gets to around 60C but bare in mind that's high due to Intel being lazy and only using thermal paste on their new CPUs instead of solder. I had an i7-6850K briefly being cooled by the loop and that had a max temperature of 45C

GPU Idles low 20's and gets to around 40C under load.

Similar temps to me, although last night when I was just idling in windows my GPU was down to 16c

Gaming it tends to max out around 40c, plus side is how quiet the machine is even when running flat out.

CPU is around 50c under load, however mine is de-lidded & running 5ghz.

harvey.l12 said:
Okay cheers, how often does the coolant have to be changed?

And are the pumps quiet? Is a full watercooled system quieter than hybrid water cooled CPU cooler like a h100i

I've had watercooling for a couple of years now & only ever changed mine twice.
First time was because I changed the GPU so though I might as well. Second time was when I had a change of colour scheme.

I watercooled partly for better temps, but partly because I wanted the challenge of fitting it all & with a windowed case it does look good.

Robert Manziel · 14 Jan 2018 at 10:37

I really need to have a water cooling set up for my PC. I am an avid gamer and have turned my man cave into a mini arcade. I can play on it for hours and rally need to have a cooling system to protect my PC.

midweek · 24 Jan 2018 at 16:01

I recently went from an air cooled GTX1080 with a Ryzen 1700 with a mild overclock to 3.8GHz under a Frostflow 240 AIO to a full loop (all EK parts).

Temps on the CPU and GPU dropped a good 20 degrees under load (both idle in the mid 20's and only get up to 40-50 degrees under load depending on how quiet I keep the fans. Loop sits about 40 degrees max under load according to the wee XSPC temp guage). EK pump I got is PWM so I can control the speed but even at full whack it's virtually silent.

I bought in the EK black Friday sale so got the whole thing for about £420 (360 +120 Rads, CPU block, GPU block, fittings, Res/Pump combo, PETG tubing, 4 x fans).

It's a lot of money but it's cooler, quieter and, put simply, it looks the dog's danglies compared to my old setup. Great experience setting it all up too.