To the Future and back with EK

#5630224 Posted on: 01/22/2019 11:36 AM

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I like EKWB. Their reservoirs aren't that pretty, but I recently built my first custom loop with their products.
I like the classic pump-res combo, I would have bought that one had it been released a few weeks earlier.

#5630260 Posted on: 01/22/2019 01:47 PM

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I personally try to stay away from acrylic these days.... With a warping/cracking temperature around 50-55C I do not care for anything using it any more due to potential failure.

I have had XSPC's triple DDC pump tops fail on three seperate occasions. Now i use Bitspower (POM) polyacetal blocks and never had a problem since. Even though my liquid temps never saw 45C the XSPC blocks still had failures due to silly design flaws.

#5630335 Posted on: 01/22/2019 05:41 PM

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I have newer have had any water cooling solution.

If I want to water-cool my "future" Ryzen 3 cpu and my "future" gtx 2080 ti

¿which items of the list do I have to buy?

1 x EK-Supremacy Classic RGB – AMD Nickel + Plexi
1 x EK-FC RTX 2080 +Ti Classic RGB – Nickel + Plexi
1 x EK-XRES 140 SPC PWM Classic RGB – Plexi (incl. Pump)

¿Is that correct?

¿I will need to buy more things like tubes? cooling liquid?

Thanks, and sorry for my ignorance.

Greetigs

#5630406 Posted on: 01/22/2019 09:56 PM

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I have newer have had any water cooling solution.

If I want to water-cool my "future" Ryzen 3 cpu and my "future" gtx 2080 ti

¿which items of the list do I have to buy?

1 x EK-Supremacy Classic RGB – AMD Nickel + Plexi
1 x EK-FC RTX 2080 +Ti Classic RGB – Nickel + Plexi
1 x EK-XRES 140 SPC PWM Classic RGB – Plexi (incl. Pump)

¿Is that correct?

¿I will need to buy more things like tubes? cooling liquid?

Thanks, and sorry for my ignorance.

Greetigs

You will need those parts you mentioned, and also at least one radiator, tubes, fittings matching your tubes (8 of them, 2 for the CPU block, 2 for the GPU block, 2 for the pump-res combo, 2 for the radiator) and of course, some cooling liquid. Angled fittings could also make your life easier.

#5630445 Posted on: 01/23/2019 12:26 AM

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I have newer have had any water cooling solution.

If I want to water-cool my "future" Ryzen 3 cpu and my "future" gtx 2080 ti

¿which items of the list do I have to buy?

1 x EK-Supremacy Classic RGB – AMD Nickel + Plexi
1 x EK-FC RTX 2080 +Ti Classic RGB – Nickel + Plexi
1 x EK-XRES 140 SPC PWM Classic RGB – Plexi (incl. Pump)

¿Is that correct?

¿I will need to buy more things like tubes? cooling liquid?

Thanks, and sorry for my ignorance.

Greetigs

If you want to buy the best, you will buy Watercool.de products, unlike EK that IMO makes mostly expensive plexi covered products, watercool.de makes fully copper top/bottom CPU blocks and GPU blocks that cover the video card from one edge to another Watercool.de Heatkiller IV GPU blocks are 900gram of copper, thats about 1.8 pounds
Prices are comparable, also if you live outside EU you dont have to pay EURO taxes and they will be removed during checkout, so you pay LESS then whats on the web site.

You also need to buy tubes and fittings, for first use i recommend soft tubes
Best soft tubes are the black made of natural rubber called EPDM, they soft and easy to use, but get one with thick wall 10mm by 16mm if you go in inches = ID 3/8" - 5/8" OD
You need fittings that support 10/16 tubes
Radiator, at least 360mm for one CPU and one GPU,if you dont want to use more radiators and want just one but one of the best, that will be Black Ice Nemesis 360GTX
And you need Pump with reservoir combo, here you need to measure the space that you have in your case, if you dot have much space then go for DDC pump with smallest reservoir like 8cm, if you have tad more space go for D5 pump and 90mm reservoir if you have lots of space go for D5 pump and any reservoir you want.
Extras: If you have modern motherboard like GIgabyte, Some FAN connectors allow to change their setting from FAN RPM to measuring liquid, so you can get digital Flow Sensor
Most motherboards have Temperature sensor connectors, so you can get Temp Sensor, they very cheap, if you want to spend more you can get one with LCD screen.
Some people install metal filter before the water flows into the reservoir pump combo.
Personally i have one European D5 Lowara pump and backup pump made by Chinese Barrow brand

water cooling is not cheap, without the GPU/CPU blocks im up to 600USD i think and i saved money by getting fittings from China and pumps + accessories also from China
I got reservoir and pump "armor" also from China
got Noctua fans and Radiator and water liquid pre-mix and system cleaner from USA on Amazon.com
And CPU/GPU block + rubber tubing, liquid metal thermal "paste" from Germany on watercool.de

#5630512 Posted on: 01/23/2019 07:08 AM

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If this thing would become a regular, we'd need a watercooling subforum

Yeah, also thinking about possibly doing another watercooling build in 2019, latest 2020...

#5630640 Posted on: 01/23/2019 03:06 PM

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I personally never really understood why watercooling was so expensive. I never really did it since I felt the benefits were heavily outweighed by the costs (where a very large air cooler was usually plenty sufficient). In my main gaming PC, I'm still using this large tower heatsink for socket AM2 and 775, and it still holds up just fine in modern hardware.

However, since my BOINC rig involved an overclocked 6-core running at full load 24/7, I felt I needed something a bit more powerful. So, I made my own liquid cooling system, mostly out of modified spare parts or cheap stuff from ebay. Except for the CPU block, none of it it could be considered standard liquid cooling parts, not even the tubing, and even then, the CPU block is some cheap no-name Chinese model. Although it isn't very quiet, the whole thing is worth maybe $60 and keeps the CPU temps around 50C.

#5630656 Posted on: 01/23/2019 03:58 PM

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I personally never really understood why watercooling was so expensive. I never really did it since I felt the benefits were heavily outweighed by the costs (where a very large air cooler was usually plenty sufficient). In my main gaming PC, I'm still using this large tower heatsink for socket AM2 and 775, and it still holds up just fine in modern hardware.

However, since my BOINC rig involved an overclocked 6-core running at full load 24/7, I felt I needed something a bit more powerful. So, I made my own liquid cooling system, mostly out of modified spare parts or cheap stuff from ebay. Except for the CPU block, none of it it could be considered standard liquid cooling parts, not even the tubing, and even then, the CPU block is some cheap no-name Chinese model. Although it isn't very quiet, the whole thing is worth maybe $60 and keeps the CPU temps around 50C.
IMO, watercooling was more beneficial in the old days. Back then, heatsinks for air-cooling were relatively small and were solid metal whereas nowadays they are massive with multiple heatpipes (same goes for GPUs). Nowadays, watercooling is more for aesthetics or the geek factor than anything else.

I first got into watercooling for my GPU - a GeForce 9800 GX2 which used a blower design and ran notoriously hot (not too surprising since it was basically two 9800 GPUs in SLI sandwiching a heatsink). During the summer it was particularly bad, going into the upper nineties and pumping out scorching hot air while sounding like a jet. I decided to experiment with watercooling and built my first loop and the difference was night and day - temps were cut in half and it made virtually no noise. Since then, I've watercooled all my GPUs (and CPUs as well, because why not) but recently I've begun to go back to air-cooling. Doing any kind of maintenance/upgrade is a hassle and I cannot easily sell parts without an air cooler. Temperature and noise differences also aren't as big as they used to be. My workstation system is still on water but my gaming system is now completely air-cooled and I plan on keeping it that way.