Fav Liquid Cooling Brands & Other Assorted Questions

[Dane Bramage]

Okay... starting a new thread for this subject because there are prolly a lot of opinions on it, and didn't want to "threadjack" the other.

So... what is your favorite brand of liquid cooling components? Please discuss the cost/performance factors, as well as, looks/coolness factor.

Do you mix and match pieces? Danger Den on the GPU with Zalman on the CPU? Why?

How does one determine the size of the radiator/pump/hoses?

Cooling Liquid vs. Water? Is there a real reason to spend the money on the fancy stuff from the manufacturer or just use distilled water?

I am going to be liquid cooling my new rig, and so this is a bit of a research question for myself. I have a basic understanding on the loop and the principles of liquid cooling, but I can't find where people have discussed "pros/cons" of the different brands.

Thanks for your help.

[The boy 4rm oz]

Ok, that's a lot of questions lol.

1.
The most common and best brands around are Danger Den, Swiftech, EK, Alphacool, D-Tek. With Danger Den, Swiftech and D-Tek usually being the weapon of choice. EK make great blocks but sometimes they are hard to come by and can be quite expensive, they are always worth a look. Alphacool make good products at the 'budget' end of the spectrum, don't be fooled, cheaper isn't always worse.

2.
You can mix pieces from any manufacturer, you just have to make sure the fittings are the same diameter. For most people they mix and match to get the best performing blocks, for example. D-Tek make one of the best CPU blocks around but their GPU blocks are fairly poor compared to other manufacturers so you may get Swiftech GPU block.

3.
For a single CPU loop you should be able to get away with just a 120mm radiator. However if you are going for an SLI rig with a high end quad core and the Northbridge then a 360mm radiator is the way to go if not more.

The pump all depends on the overall size and complexity of the loop, the further the pump has to push the coolant the slower it will flow (elbow and 'T' sections also restrict flow rates). I would recommend a Danger Den D5 pump (or equivalent from Swiftech) or the Laing DDC 3.2 pump. Both of these pumps are very reliable and pump a lot of water.

Tubing, I presume you are referring to the diameter? Really it is user preference. There seems to be a stigma around tubing sizes. People seem to think that the bigger the size the more coolant the cooler temps, this is true to a degree. Large tubing sizes (1/2") do carry more coolant but look untidy to the eye if you have an extensive loop. You also have to make your bends much wider otherwise the tubing will kink. Small tubing sizes carry less coolant but look a lot tidier an make complex loops easy to work with.

4.
You would always use coolant for a water cooling loop. The only time you use water is if you need to mix up your own coolant (such as Swiftech HydraX), in this case you would used distilled water from a bottle, NEVER use tap water. It is worth the money to get coolant or an additive for distilled water over using plain water. Reason being that distilled water is still just water, it heats up fast and doesn't transfer the heat that well to the radiator. Coolant is designed to carry the heat and release it without heating up extremely quickly. Your components will thank you for using proper coolant.

Here is some additional information which may help you.
Component Overview (TBCS):
http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/m...p/Watercooling

Water Cooling 101 (Bit Tech):
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/200...rcooling_101/1

Water Cooling 201 - Waterblocks (Bit Tech):
http://www.bit-tech.net/modding/2008..._waterblocks/1

Coolant Review (Bit Tech):
http://www.bit-tech.net/modding/2008...uid_shootout/1

I hope this info has helped you out. If you have any more questions don't hesitate to ask.

[p0Pe]

not to forget koolance! i am gonna work with a few of their products and especially there fittings is worth every penny.

d-tek fuzion is clearly the best cpu block on the market and a laing ddc pump. then you almost cant go wrong! (man i really need to write my watercooling 101 article)

[The boy 4rm oz]

Haha Bit-Tech beat you to it pOPe lol.