After noticing quite a number of newcomers being all lost and such over many aspects of watercooling, I thought that it was time that it was time a basic set of tips be written to give you guys some inkling. The reason why one uses watercooling, I leave it to you to decide. This is just here to help the new guys. I'm gonna cover a few main aspects in the following:

Pump

The first thing one must understand is that for a looped system such as these, maximum head pressure which is measured in terms of either feet or meter of a column of water is more of an important consideration rather then maximum flow rate of the pump measure in either liter or gallons per hour. This is due to the fact the greater the maximum head pressure, the flow of water is smoother and has a higher flow rate even after going through various restrictions such as tubing bends, the water block (which varies with design, but I'll get to that later), and other components especially when you're going higher end. Do bear that in mind.

Why some pumps are costlier then others? It's for a few reasons. One is the fact even though the cheaper one has a similar rate, but that is the maximum. Costlier one's can sustain the rated value better over time compared to the cheaper one's. Then there's the reliability issue. The costlier one's use better quality motors (armature windings, magnets and such), better sealed impellers and have generally a lower heat emission. All these mean a longer operational lifetime.

Now for Nirox pump users, this is my personal observation and experience. The plastic barbs which are provided? Ditch it. Will save you a whole lot of heartache later as one of these days removing and reattaching the tubing's to it will lead it to snap it too much force is applied. And if it snaps at the base of the tappings, you're finished. No amount of gluing or whatever method you choose to refit it again will save it. Save the effort by sourcing out the proper brass barbs for it. Then there's the frequent complaint that they fail easily. A few reasons why. Number one; do not EVER run the pump dry. Even for a few seconds will cause it's lifespan to be shortened. Secondly if you have to fix the impellers yourself, make sure you fit it snugly. Too loose and at times the rod will spin freely requiring you to give it a few knocks to make sure the impeller catches on to the impeller. Too tight and you might suffer resistance at the impellers resulting in having the motor unnecessarily stressed and causing failure. Thirdly, make sure that clean current is supplied to the pump as it's sensitive to voltage and current fluctuations. So get a good surge protector at least. Lastly, give the pump proper ventilation so that heat is properly dissipated from it. It'll help extend it's lifespan.

Tubings

When you setup your loop, try to make it as short as possible. Think outside the box. Find innovative ways to place your components so that overall loop is shorter. This is helpful to maintain the flow rate of the water at a higher rate. It will help to reduce the strain of the pump as the better the flow rate of the water entering the pump, the less it has to work to suck in the water (if someone helps you push a cart, the less effort you need to pull it right?). Don't bend it too much though. If it starts to flex slightly, stop. That's as far you can go, as more will lead to having a bottleneck in the waterflow thus slowing down and reducing the water's pressure. another tip, make the length of tubing as short as possible from the pump to water block. There's a gain to be had in terms of temps. I gained a 5C reduction in mine by doing so

Reservoir

This maybe the simplest component in the loop, but there are some little things to consider in order to make things easier for you. Those using CD bay type devices, to make air lock bleeding easier for you, create a raised area around the fill hole. This is because air is always rising in a liquid due to the differences in pressure due to depth. So if you create an opening which is slightly higher then the top acrylic of the reservoir, the air bubbles will find it's way to there. In my case, I glued to the opening of my reservoir a coke bottle cap (sawn off) and it works like a charm. It's sorta like a bleed tank.

Those who are using reservoir's similar to bulkhy's cylindrical acrylic reservoir, to prevent bubbling inside it, use a thin piece of foam or sponge and wrap it around the inlet barb where the water comes out into the reservoir. This will slow down the water and reduces splashing which causes bubbles to be introduced. Imagine pouring water into a glass slowly and then rapidly, and you will see what I mean.

Radiator

A simple tip, try to make the water stay longer in the radiator as much as possible as it will allow better heat transfer. Fan placement I leave it to you. Some prefer push, other pull, some even push-pull. I personally prefer pull as it causes lesser air friction hence lower noise rates.

Water block

This is the hardest component to consider. For the best of your money, you'd want to look for a block which has the best Delta values versus head pressure. Delta value is the difference in temperature between the hot surface and the water in the block (usually measured at the barbs). The lower, the better. The trade off is that the block is more restrictive so as to allow the water to stay inside a bit longer and absorb the heat more. But too long it stays and you're gonna have a "chicken and egg" situation as the block will be warmer. What do you do? Get a higher head pressure rated pump (Now do you see what I mean when I mentioned about pumps?). The differences in the design of the blocks are numerous and it's best to do some googling about it as it will be too long to explain here. But for the best performance, look for those whose barbs which are of ½" OD for the best flow rate. In fact the whole loop is recommended to be of ½" diameter overall.

Water

Now here comes the most widely discussed aspect. There are many schools of thoughts on this. Ideally, one would go for distilled water with a bit of water wetter solution. This is the best as calcium build up will be minimal and bacterial build up is almost eliminated. Too much water wetter will screw up your tubing's as it will cause deterioration along the tubing's wall. Use at most 2 capfuls. Others have been known to use instead coolant to prevent corrosion but personally, it only causes an increase of temps by about 2C and if left too long in the loop, will mess your tubing's and cause sludging (gooey build up on the surface of the loop) which is a pain to clean. If you're still determined to use a water + coolant mixture, I'd say again about 2 capufuls of coolant would suffice. Want the UV effect? then use neon dye instead. But for the best compromise in terms of cost and protection, just use only distilled water, and flush and clean your loops constantly. Those who find getting distilled water a chore, filtered water is a good option but you have be more constant in your servicing intervals.


That's all I can think of right now. Hoped that helps. Others are welcome to give their own 2 cents of tips to help the newbies out there

At the moment, We're gonna do a budget end pump shoot out. We have the other necessary parts and it's better to have lesser variables then more variables to say the least. If this one goes well, we might move on to a radiator/heatercore analysis

This is not mine, rather it's from Leeum of Xtremesystems.org which I think would be useful

Radiator repair guide

What you will need:

Soldering iron
Solder with flux (I find the best stuff is the 50/50 tin and lead)
Wet and dry sandpaper
Waterproof glue



The first task is to locate the leak, the most common place for damage and a leak to occur is on one of the tubes.

These tubes run between the rows of fins on the radiator. If you have trouble spotting the damage, fill the radiator with some water to see where it runs out.



Here’s the damaged area. As you can see there’s a small hole in the tube which has been pierced by a screw. This guide only really applies to small holes, if you’re dealing with something more severe then you’re going to have to consider brazing.



The next task is to get the surrounding area of the tube rubbed down with some wet and dry to remove the paint and see the extent of the damage.



Next get your soldering iron and slide it up the tube to the damaged area, get it nice and hot and then proceed with the soldering stage.

With a bit of luck you should be able to solder right over the top of the damaged area. Just to be sure, reach for your glue (in this case, waterproof angling glue) and coat the soldered area with it.



Then get some water flowing through the radiator for a good few hours and watch the repaired are for any sign of dripping water. If you do, rub down the surrounding area and repeat the process of soldering again.

If all goes well you shouldn’t see a drop come through

This is from Maxxracer of XS concerning the current hardware avaialble in the WC scene

Guide To Current WaterCooling Components
In this guide I will give a listing of all of the current watercooling hardware on the market. For each item I will give a short description, along with the appropriate use for that item.

Most of the items in the guide are U.S. / U.K. based due to the largely english speaking and located readership. Also, most of the 'Euro' based components are not easily compatible with regards to fittings with 'American' components. As such, for simplicities sake I will omit them.

CPU WaterBlocks

1. Swiftech Storm - 75USD - this is the top performing waterblock currently in retail. It is better suited to more powerful pumps, but still performs well with low flow/power pumps. The storm is now discontinued, being replaced by the Apogee. Will update if no longer discontinued
Due to repeated incidents in which the storm is improperly installed, please be advised that the proper way to install the tubing on the storm is as follows: inlet in the center and outlet towards the outer edge.

2. Swiftech MCW6002/6000 - 45USD - for low power/flow pumps these waterblocks are top performers.. with moderate restriction these waterblocks matched with low power pumps will net decent flow to allow usage of a second waterblock

3. Cooltechnica MP-05 - 50-65USD - a high restriction waterblock with excelent performance. while it does not outperform the Storm per pump power, its lower pricetag makes it an attractive choice.

4. Danger Den TDX - 52USD - while a good waterblock, it is not an optimum choice of waterblock for a high or low power pump system. I list it merely for completeness of the guide.

5. Danger Den RBX - 52USD - Again, a good waterblock, but not worth considering unless you have some desire for a 3 barb waterblock.

6. WhiteWater LE (all copper version) - 44USD - Origionaly designed by Cathar, this 3 barb waterblock performs well, but uses a dated design and is not optimal for maximum performance.

7. Swiftech Apogee - 45USD - The newest block from Swiftech that takes a step backwards in performance. It is essentially a MCW5000 respun with a new manufacturing process (cheaper), and new delrin top. While Swiftech says its the best thing since sliced bread and Television, please try to avoid it as EVERY other block on this list performs superior to the Apogee.



GPU WaterBlocks

1. Danger Den Maze4 Acetal - 45USD - this is an excelent gpu waterblock with incredibly low restriction and great performance. I personally use one and generally reccomend them to everyone.

2. Cooltechnica MP-1 - 45USD - A newcomer to the gpu cooling segment, the MP-1 shows great potential, but with no publicly available data it cannot yet recieve my top reccomendation. With that said, sources say the waterblock performs several centigrade better than the Maze4.

3. Swiftech MCW-55 - 50USD - A revamp of the proven design of the MCW50. with improved flow characteristics it provides lower flow restriction and increased performance compared to the older, aluminum topped, MCW50. The waterblock performs on par with the Maze4. It should be noted that the performance data on this waterblock provided by swiftech should not be trusted. While their data is generally excelent, in the case of the MCW-55, it is.. in a word.. rubbish.

4. Cyclone Fusion HL - ~60USD - An Aussie waterblock of excelent construction and performance that is said to perform better than the Maze4. While this may be true there is no data as of yet to validate this. While an excelent block its lack of availability in the US and expense make it a less attractive option. For those in the UK and AU this waterblock should deffinetly be considered.



Radiators

Before I list the products I will explain why I broke them up into two categories. There are generally two users out there: the gunho, tone deaf, noise doesnt matter, and the silent computerist. So to cater to this, I broke the radiators into the low noise and high noise orientated groups.

Note: With high power fans, the "high noise" radiators will outperform the low noise radiators, but when coupled with low noise fans the "low noise" radiators outperform the others.

Low Noise

1. HWLabs Black Ice Pro (1, 2 and 3) - 29-45USD - The Black Ice Pro's have been around for a long time and are excelent performers. Currently they are the only 2 and 3 fan radiators that are orientated to quiet computing.

2. Thermochill PA160.1 - 80-130USD (price varies wildly between retailers) - The PA160 is a revolutionary radiator designed in part by Cathar. It is a single 120mm fan radiator that performs close to that of dual fan radiators. Due to its expense (outside of the UK) to performance ratio its hard to recomend it in any but very special situations, but it is still a great radiator.

3. Thermochill PA120.X - 80 to 120 USD - Described as the new king of cool, I highly reccomend these rads. They are pretty much the perfect radiator.. High cooling capacity while optimized for low noise fans.. Not much more you can ask for in a radiator. I should note that as of writing this there has not been any test data presented, but from calculations provided by Cathar, these radiators should not fail to live up to their name.


High Noise

1. HW Labs Black Ice Xtreme (1, 2, 3) - 45-78USD - These radiators provide excelent high power fan (110+CFM) performance while having a lower pricetag than the Thermochill HE series. There are rumors that the HE's perform better than the BIX series, but I really wont make such a claim as I have not seen any test data to backup such claims.

2. Thermochill HE120.X - 80 - 120 USD - Formerly Thermochills main line of radiators, they are still an excelent choice if you plan to use fans that are over 110CFM. For users in the UK who want such a radiator the Thermochills would probably be a better choice (compared to BIX's) due to cheaper costs over there.

Pumps
(Note: For simplicity's sake and the fact that some of thr 1337 pumps are not available, I've decided to omit the Iwaki's and such)

12volt Pumps:
AquaExtreme 50Z / MCP600 Rev2.0
This pump is actually better than the lainD4. I will say that right off the bat. Here is why. 1.It has more head pressure 2. Its cheaper. If you are in the market for a pump and dont want to spend the extra dough on an iwaki pump this IS the pump to get. and if you want a little lower temps go with 2 of them in series. This setup cannot be beat. It will give you approximately the same temps as running a iwaki md20RZ.
This pump was the previous version of the 12v pump that swiftech carried. They no longer carry it due to supply line issues, but it is a good pump. The rev 1 version had reliability issues with the impeller, but that is fixed now. The pump is called the 50Z and can be boughten at CoolTechnica. This particular pump is not nearly as popular as the Laing D4's now, but I have heard reports that head to head, this pump will sometimes outperform the d4 in high pressure systems. Note that I do not have any hard proof of this (I am working on that), but there are reports. The specs are 3gallons per minute and 10.5 feet of head, with 1/2inch barbed fittings. The price is around 80 dollars over at cooltechnica. It sucks about 7 watts of power

MCP655 (D5)
This is the newly released laing pump that offers a considerable improvement over the previous D4. (April 2005 release date). Some of the imrpovements include reduced noise (D4 has a horrible whinning noise, though some say it is not noticeable), input all the way up to 24volts so you can overvolt it ALOT without voiding the warranty.(NOTE: Anything above ~12.8volts does not net more performance but rather just increases heat output and is not suggested to be overvolted above 12.8volts) The other feature that is noteable is the adjustable dial on the back of the pump that allows you to adjust the speed of the pump down when maximum performance is not needed. The power consumption of this pump is not know as of yet, but heat dump is reported to be around 25watts. The maximum head pressure is 13.8 feet and maximum flow is 5.2gpm. The price is the same as the D4 and is replacing the D4.

Laing D4 - Pump out of production - No longer reccomended
This is a great little pump that is marketed by danger den and swiftech. It replaced the mcp600 because of failures with the pump. But that is now fixed. It is actually weaker and more expensive than the mcp600, but it does improve on the operational life of the mcp600. So if you are going to have you pump for a very long time this might be a better choice. Other than that, the pump really does not provide the value and performance that the mcp600 does. it can be had over at www.dangerden.com under the name of d4. This pump costs 75 dollars. It sucks about about 15 watts of power

AC Pumps:
There are really only 2 choices of pumps that people are using, and thus I will not comment on any others. The Mag 3,5,or7 is one of these pumps. Please stay away from these pumps, as they are made to be submersed and are highly prone to leaking. If you insist on getting one please be sure to seal up the pump with some plumbers goop, or silicone sealer. Failure to do so could result in a very dead computer.

Hydor L35 [The replica is the Nirox P3800..not really recommended personally)
This is a good inexpensive 120volt AC pump. I have heard many people have great success with this pump. There is also a L30 and L20, but with the L35 coming onto the market I wont talk about them, as you would most likely choose the mower powerful L35 over the other two. Its not as popular as some of the other pumps, but its a good pump. The price is around 50 dollars and it does 5.3 gallons per minute. It has a maximum head pressure of 6.83 feet and consumes 21watts. I should report that I have heard some not so great things about the reliability of this pump, and know of an alarmingly high number of RMA's. With that said, if you can afford to get a better pump do so. But if you dont have the money for a better pump, the L35 should be fine.

Eheim 1048
Eheim makes very good pumps and this pump is no exception. Many people used this pump before the D4 came out and many still do. Although it is not very powerful compared to other pumps, it is small, quiet, and highly reliable. I do not pump recommend this pump for restrictive systems with the new water blocks. If you have a less restrictive system and do not plan to do extreme over clocking then this pump will be fine. It pumps 2.63 gallons per minute and 4ft 11inches of head. It costs 49 dollars over and danger den.

Eheim 1250
This is the more commonly used Eheim pump. Again, like its little brother, it is highly reliable, wont leak, and quiet. It is a little bit bigger than the 1048. If you want specs on its exact size check out http://www.eheim.com . It pumps 4.4gallons per minute at 6ft 7inches of head. It costs 59 dollars over at danger den. I would recommend this pump to pretty much anyone who doesn't want a 12v dc pump and wants a good reliable pump. This pump is still not the most powerful one out there, but it should work fine in most cases, except the more extreme systems that are more restrictive, or have allot of components. You can still use it with restrictive blocks and while using allot of components, but I would only recommend this if you do not plan to over clock to the max of the system, or if you plan to make a more silent system.

This post has been edited by almostthere: Jan 17 2006, 05:34 PM

Mind you sharing with us that problem over at the discussion thread This is for sharing tips and tricks only.

Thread cleaned

An interesting article by Bill Adams (Formerly of Swiftech) about radiators. It's a bit outdated but the basis is good reading

http://www.overclockers.com/articles481/index03.asp

This post has been edited by almostthere: Feb 20 2006, 04:23 AM

Wrong place to ask. Here's the place to share tip and tricks. Post in the dedicated discussion thread please

Answer is no. Waterpumps for WC do not have suction pressure sufficient to perform such capbillities. And the poor pump is in the danger of being damaged since WC pumps are never meant to run dry

Air bubbles can be eliminated easily. Firstly make sure all clamps are tight. How to know? Check at where the clamps are located. Is there a bubble build up? If yes, reposition the clamps so as to get a tighter clamping pressure. Next would be the radiator itself. Try rocking the radiator abit to get the air bubbles stuck there to release itself. After that it's a matter of letting the loop run continuously and see how it works out. Usually after a couple of hours the bubbles would end up in the reservoir.

If in KL, try ACE Hardware mid valley. That's where I bought mine

ever tried installing one without major surgery to casing?

Owh boy....in 3 months time he'll be picking dust balls from his undercarriage. And P2800 lepas meh?

Had enough experience with a MCR220 to swear off double/triple row rads unless heavy duty cooling. What's worse, air lock b**** harder to get rid

Good ol Nirox but bloody hard to keep the damn rotors aligned...manyak misalignment cases la. And this amok aaaaa....tonite red light isit? Go play2 with your 6A12 laaa

I LOLLED...CLICKY

This post has been edited by almostthere: Nov 11 2008, 01:35 AM

Forgot edi laa...aleck isit? That fella dumping his WC parts edi.....6A12TT laaa....eksyen tapi tak chat2 pasal keta dengan kita...scheisse.....me stick to S4PH je lah