Building Cooling Loop
Posted by Rod Chedister | Filed under Uncategorized
I have a heavy preference for building a cooling loop from individual parts as opposed to going with a kit. That usually results in better performance and a much better price. Putting together a loop isn’t any more difficult to install than many of the kits (the exception being those all-in-one-box jobs that are pretty much plug and play)
usually you need the following:
waterblock for CPU (danger den, swiftech, dtek, etc. have great options)
heat exchanger (a heater core or commercial H2O rad like a thermochill or black ice)
fans for the heat exchanger - usually one or two 120mm fans.
pump (swiftech and danger den both have good ones that run off of 12 volts now so they plug right into a molex)
Tubing - I normally go with 1/2″ ID clearflex - danger den carries it - get about 8-10 feet just to make sure you have enough
reservoir - this one is pretty much optional as you can use a T-Line instead but if it is your first H2O setup, I’d go with a res for easier filling and bleeding. The new bay res from danger den looks very promising.
coolant - distilled water with a touch of antifreeze - usually about 75-90% distilled water + the rest antifreeze normally works well.
hose clamps - get the metal worm drive ones like those used on automobile cooling system hoses - autozone, pepboys, etc. has them for cheap.
cooling loop setup:
pump -> heat exchanger -> CPU block -> reservoir -> back to pump.
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