[PandorasParadox]

Hi all,

I've been lurking here for some time and am looking to get into watercooling for my first time. After looking around and slowly gathering pieces from the threads found here I put together this system. I still don't know how much tubing, compression fittings and if I should get a T thingy for draining and what type? (I would like to try and stay with black and red components if I can to stay in color scheme, but I could be moved from that for enough preference gains

)

Case is a Haf-X(System is as below)

CPU Block EK-Supreme HF High Flow - #1, fits any CPU
Radiator Black Ice Xtreme 3 High Performance Radiator
Fans 3X SCYTHE "ULTRA KAZE" 120 x 38 mm 3000 rpm Quiet Case Fan
Fan ControllerLamptron FC5
Reservoir XSPC Tank Reservoir and pump top
Pump Swift - tech MCP355
GPU Block EK-FC470 GTX for Nvidia GTX 470

Please feel free to give any input since this is my first build I would be happy to hear from one and all. I want to stay around this price range which I summed up to be around 430 if I can. I want to ideally hit 4.4(My dream) or at least 4.0 with overclocking my graphics card and ram as well based on my oc of my processor oc.

 

[RatDog]

Quote:

Originally Posted by PandorasParadox Hi all, I've been lurking here for some time and am looking to get into watercooling for my first time. After looking around and slowly gathering pieces from the threads found here I put together this system. I still don't know how much tubing, compression fittings and if I should get a T thingy for draining and what type? (I would like to try and stay with black and red components if I can to stay in color scheme, but I could be moved from that for enough preference gains ) Case is a Haf-X(System is as below) CPU Block EK-Supreme HF High Flow - #1, fits any CPU Radiator Black Ice Xtreme 3 High Performance Radiator Fans 3X SCYTHE "ULTRA KAZE" 120 x 38 mm 3000 rpm Quiet Case Fan Fan ControllerLamptron FC5 Reservoir XSPC Tank Reservoir and pump top Pump Swift - tech MCP355 GPU Block EK-FC470 GTX for Nvidia GTX 470 Please feel free to give any input since this is my first build I would be happy to hear from one and all. I want to stay around this price range which I summed up to be around 430 if I can. I want to ideally hit 4.4(My dream) or at least 4.0 with overclocking my graphics card and ram as well based on my oc of my processor oc.

Great choices of components, I think you will be very happy. Just be aware those 38mm fans are not that quiet especially at full RPM, but you can use your fan controller to match performance with sound as your load changes.

Tubing is relativity cheap so I usually recommend getting a bit extra. 8' - 12' should be plenty and give you a bit of extra if you want to ever reconfigure your rig.

I think you might already know this, but compression fittings are strickly for look and cost considerably more than barbs with clamps. Knowing that, you would need 2 for the CPU block, 2 for the GPU block, 2 for the Res, 2 for the rad, and 2 for the pump. So 10 fittings for what you have listed.

Since you are considering compression fittings I take that as your have some room in your budget. One of the nice things with fittings, and this can be done with barbs or compression, is you can get rotary angle fittings. These minimize the bends in your tubes and allow you to have shorter tube runs. The rotary part means you can twist them without it unscrewing so you can match the angle to the direction your looking to send your tubing.

You can see in my rig how I have several 45 degree, 1 90 and a few snake fittings.

Here is a close up of the bottom and you can see the fittings making the tube runs easier:

The only challenge here is you have to sort of have a plan on how you want to run your tubes before you order your fittings.

Black and red is easy, you can get black bitspower fittings and red primochill tubing. Just match the ID and OD of the compression fittings to the tube size.

 

[PandorasParadox]

Cool, thanks for the response! Also you are true in that I have a bit of wiggle room and Ill have to consider those fittings, were would you suggest I buy these things? I have heard stories that performance-pcs does not have that great customer service but they do seem to have most of the parts? Looking at the other sellers in the essentials thread I don't see any others(I have by no means looked at them all yet) that I can get the majority of my pieces from?

Thanks in advanced! Also +rep for the help and in depth answer!

 

[charliehorse55]

Great parts. The exact list I would recommend.

Also, I don't know where you got the word "quiet" with reference to the Ultra-Kazes, they are pretty loud at 100%. Luckily the do undervolt well so that fan controller will work wonders in keeping the volume down.

Are you getting the version of the Supreme HF with the Red plexi top? It would fit your color scheme nicely:

EDIT: @RatDog, he's using the XSPC Reservoir Top for his 355, so he only needs 2 fittings for his pump/reservoir.

That brings his total to 8 fittings. Also, on the cost of compression fittings, they are $3 more per fitting, so with 8 fittings you're looking at $24 more than barbs. However, you will NEVER need to replace fittings, so spending that extra money now is probably worth it in the long run, especially if you are going to look at your case a lot.

It should be noted that both fittings have an equal chance to leak if they are installed correctly.

 

[PandorasParadox]

Ooo, I didn't see that HF where do you get it? I most likely got the quite from when I was looking at the 2000rpm version on performance-pcs among other fans and had a c/p error. The fans I'm looking at CAN be quite though with the fan controller correct?

 

[charliehorse55]

Yes the kazes can become really quiet, although not silent with a fan controller. You can purchase that waterblock from performance-pcs.com.

 

[RatDog]

Quote:

Originally Posted by PandorasParadox Cool, thanks for the response! Also you are true in that I have a bit of wiggle room and Ill have to consider those fittings, were would you suggest I buy these things? I have heard stories that performance-pcs does not have that great customer service but they do seem to have most of the parts? Looking at the other sellers in the essentials thread I don't see any others(I have by no means looked at them all yet) that I can get the majority of my pieces from? Thanks in advanced! Also +rep for the help and in depth answer!

I got all my fittings from performance-pcs, I had no problem. In fact I was missing some stop fittings and didn't even realize it when they contacted me and overnighted them. Your mileage my vary. I have also heard great things about sidewinder, jab-tech, and frozen CPU

@Charlie, good catch I missed the res top, I was thinking it was just the top. So that lowers it by 2 fittings.

As far as cost goes: Barbs = 1.50, straight compression = 4.50, rotary straight compression 11.50, 90 / 45 rotary = 17.00, snake fittings = 25.00. So the fancier the fittings you can really quickly drive up your costs. I have ~ 200 just in fittings for my rig.