Watercooled system

[Jordie]

Hello mmo-c community

I currently have lined up in the works my first watercooled system, now I'm rather inexperienced in regards to what's needed and what's not needed to make it watercooled..but I have been looking into these pre assembled bundles which gives a slight idea.

So lets look at the system specs so you have a general idea of what's inside

Case: Cooler Master HAF X Nvidia Edition
MB: Gigabyte G1 Sniper 5 Z87
CPU: Intel i7 4770k / Intel i5 4670k (undecided)
RAM: Avexir Venom Series 8GB 2133Mhz
PSU: Corsair 860 Platinum
GPU: Nvidia Titan Watercooled
Storage: 256GB Crucial M4 x2 + 2TB Seagate Baracuda x2 + 60GB Crucial cache SSD
(May notice the whole green/black pattern going around)
And then cables being braided in green to keep to the layout

Priced stuff up without cooling features it hits around £2200ish mark.

I got a picture of how I want to route the tubes around the system, ideally I want some advice in regards what parts I need to acquire to watercool this system (money isn't a major issue but don't want too go to over the top on cooling), with the pre assembled bundles I've seen online they only cover the cooling with the CPU in mind I think...if that is the case would an extra radiator be required for cooling the GPU? can fit a 140mm rad on the back vent if so.
Also to mention I've seen reservoirs/pumps built into one component would they be ideal over them being two separate components?.
Lastly I noticed on the new 1150 G1 Sniper board it has water cooling fittings on the top left of the board, now this part I haven't thought of cause I've just noticed it after reading through I guess those fittings are smaller than the standard fittings you'd attach to parts like the water locks and so forth?.
Maybe one more thing...if I plan to SLi the Titan at a later date how much of a hassle is it to add the additional card?

All that I can seem to think of currently, apologies if it looks a bad read everything seems to look slightly better on an ipad than it does my monitor.
I thank you for reading and await some answers too my rather obscure questions

Jordie

Edit: guess I should show an example of the bundles I was looking at: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...962&catid=1532

[Deleted]

This isnt so much a comment about the watercooling. I dont have any experience with that.

But about the gpu. Do you actually need the titan for anything special?
If not, I would get a 780 instead. It is just as good, if not better. And with the money saved, you can look into some higher end WC stuff.

[Jordie]

I haven't thought much about the 780 if I'm honest, what makes it on par if not better than the Titan? The more info I can gain before I buy the parts the better so I know I haven't wasted on something I could get for half the price.

Jordie

[Shadowsblood]

On the subject of pump/res combo's....it's just for ease of use and for beginners really.

I personally wouldn't opt for a bay res as that's what I started with and it looks so much better with a proper reservoir tank and pump separate (you also may get a humming/vibrating noise if it's in a HDD bay)

If you want to cool both CPU and GPU then general rule of thumb is about 240mm of rads for each...how many rads can your case hold? You'll probably want around 480mm worth of rad (i.e. 1x 120mm, 1x360mm or 2x240mm) if you do both
You also want decent high pressure fans (i.e. http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...=2331&subcat=4)

Have you ever built a PC before btw? I only ask as you're asking if it's hard to SLI a card...it isn't but your mobo has to have enough PCI slots (most do...)

I would personally go for a water cooling kit first, and start with the CPU. When you've got it all sorted then add the GPU into the loop. Even though I said I wouldn't go for a pump/res combo...it's good for beginners (but tbh it's not hard to set it up separately although you may need to do some DIY for your case if, like mine, it doesn't have holes to mount a res)

This is my latest watercooling (didn't take a pic after I finished leak testing so that was the only pic worth looking at)..I'm adding the GPU into the loop soon.
http://i558.photobucket.com/albums/s...ps8584696a.jpg

[Jordie]

Thanks for the input appreciate it all..

Lets see uh the kit I saw has the res/pump fitted into the front of the case (disk drives).

The kit I saw comes with 3 of those corsair fans with that I had a general idea that I should opt for those and you confirmed that so thanks

Made myself look rather stupid there, yeah I can build systems sorry for misleading that I meant in terms of adding an extra card into the loop how much of a hassle that would be.

I'm regards to radiators I've understood that you can fit a 360mm rad I'm the top of the case after removing the 200mm fans and a 140mm exhaust vent at the back, so you can fit two in it atleast.

Thanks for the input again really do appreciate it

Jordie

[Deleted]

I haven't thought much about the 780 if I'm honest, what makes it on par if not better than the Titan? The more info I can gain before I buy the parts the better so I know I haven't wasted on something I could get for half the price.

Jordie

The 780 uses the same chip as the titan. It only has 3 GB vram instead of 6 and I think one cluster less activated. But performance wise, custom cooled 780s are on par with the titan.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/M..._Gaming/1.html

Of course you will put a waterblock on them, so performance could even be a bit better. The reason why the 780 performs on par with the titan is due to the cooling. The 7xx series has Boost 2.0, which overclocks the gpu if the temps allow it. I think they stop overclocking the moment they reach 80 degrees, but with the cooling they hardly reach that. So you get more performance

It seems that the waterblocks of the titan also fit on the 780, according to EK waterblocks.

http://www.coolingconfigurator.com/step1_complist (You have to pick a 780 yourself )

So in the end, you can get a 780 + waterblock for the price of 1 titan (I havent looked at the prices of the titan, but if they havent changed it should hold true)

[Killora]

I haven't thought much about the 780 if I'm honest, what makes it on par if not better than the Titan? The more info I can gain before I buy the parts the better so I know I haven't wasted on something I could get for half the price.

Jordie

The 780 is based off of the same chipset as the titan; The GK110. The only difference is theres one core cluster disabled on the 780, as well as a little less texture units. This only amounts for a ~10% ish performance loss, depending on the game, and that's assuming stock cooling. With an aftermarket cooler the two are on par.

Meanwhile you save...$400?

[Jordie]

appreciate the response seems that my mind has been altered then, if that is the case then I may as well save about £600 and get the 780 and spend that little more on the i7 CPU and a few extras possibly.

saving around £500 in total from the build so looking at around $750ish Killora.

Many thanks for your input Zeara and Killora saved me a fair amount of cash

Jordie