I'm going to get my feet wet...

[x88x]

I would rather hear the soft gurggling of water over the loud din of a fan.

In a well designed, well bled, water loop, there shouldn't be any gurgling.

The only reason you ever really need two pumps is if you have two loops. For loop arrangement, the best arrangement is pump->waterblock(s)->radiator(s)->reservoir(s)->pump.

For pump quality, the best you can get for DC pumps are the Laing models. The Swiftech MCP355 is just a rebranded Laing DDC-12, and the Swiftech MCP655 is just a rebranded Laing D5. So, sometimes you can get a rebrand cheaper than the original. However, if you do buy a rebranded Laing, make sure you know what version you are getting. The later versions of the Laing pumps push more volume and make less noise, but often the rebrands are working with older versions. So, there is sometimes a good reason why the original is more expensive.

Personally I like to water cool the NB/SB/etc, but it's not really necessary most of the time.

As someone else mentioned, with GPU's the best route is to use full-coverage waterblocks..unfortunately, that is also the most expensive route. Expect to spend a good $100-150 for a good full-coverage waterblock.

The biggest benefit of reservoirs is to provide a fluid buffer, which is most important while filling the loop and letting it bleed the air bubbles out of the system. They also make filling the loop much easier.

For the radiator(s), for your use, I would recommend the Black Ice SR-1 series. They're optimized for maximum thermal transfer with low-flow (read: quite) fans. It looks like you should be able to fit a 2x120, 2x140, or possibly 3x120 (with some case modification) in the top of the Dragon Rider. If you put your HDD(s) in the 5.35" bays, you could pull out the 3.5" racks and open up enough space for a single 120 or 140 rad. Like most cases, it looks like you probably would not be able to fit a rad in the case at the back fan location, but you could definitely put one on the outside, like I have on Zeus.

One other thing; especially since you're shooting for a silent system, don't be afraid to spend money on fans. It seems a bit ridiculous, but my setup when I had all three rads in it was the quietest system I had ever had, and yet had more fans than I had ever had in a single system before as well (8 120's and 6 140's). That is in no small part due to the fans that I put in it...fans that it freaks me out a bit to say, I spent about $170 on in total. For 120mm fans, I would go with the Xigmatec's that were reviewed on the frontpage a while back. They have the best CFM/dBA ratio I've ever seen for 120mm fans.

IMO and most, water cooling ram is the biggest waste of money

You forgot about HDD water cooling.

[diluzio91]

lol... for gfx, I would go for a high end card, like a 570, or 6970, as block makers concentrate on these cards first, i know some people may argue with this, but for nvidia cards, buy from evga if you intend to watercool, as they use refrence blocks, and still cover you under warranty, xfx is the same deal for ATI cards, although they have been messing with reference PCB's on some of their lower end cards. I can vouch for the xigmateck fans too, i have 4 of them in my system and they are quieter than my hard drives at ~80% (i use a fan speed controller) and the 1 non xigmateck fan could be heard above the 4 at the same speed. lol.

[Spawn-Inc]

Yeah, I have been looking at some of those. Only concern is quality of the pump.

Regarding Dual / Single: Do I need a dual? Or is running Single in serial better? Better to do Pump->CPU->Rad->GPU->Rad->Res or better to have 2 going Pump->CPU->Rad->Res and Pump->GPU->Rad->Res?




Like that one. Not out for 2 weeks, but than again my mobo probably wont be either. So maybe dual loops with differnt colors in each res / loop?

any of the swiftech pumps are very high quality and the best selling pumps/most widely used. and again any of the XSPC, current koolance res's, and bits power are all great products.

dual and single loops are up to you and how you want it to look really. but for what your running single is plenty fine. main thing is having enough rad space to cool it all.

loop order makes no difference, route the tubing so it's as short as possible without having sharp turns or kinks in the tubing. so res>pump>rad(s)>block(s) is my normal routing, otherwise change it how ever pending the location of parts in your case. just put the res before the pump.

i strongly recommend not using any dye's in your loop as they have a tendency to break down and clog various parts in your loop. they also can stain the tubing. the best coolant currently is Distilled water and a biocide like .999 silver (can be plated fittings or silver strips, or kill coils) or PT nuke PHN.

if your after colouring use coloured tubing or lighting.

[diluzio91]

Example Loop

CPU
http://www.performance-pcs.com/catal...ducts_id=26334

GPU: example for 570/580
http://www.performance-pcs.com/catal...ducts_id=29787

Rad
http://www.performance-pcs.com/catal...ducts_id=30285

Pump
http://www.performance-pcs.com/catal...ducts_id=20655

Res/Pumptop
http://www.performance-pcs.com/catal...ducts_id=23357

GPU backplate (if needed)
http://www.performance-pcs.com/catal...ducts_id=29893

Fittings, one for each hole in each part, figure 2 per part.
http://www.performance-pcs.com/catal...ducts_id=26973

Just add tubing and fans

[Spawn-Inc]

Example Loop

CPU
http://www.performance-pcs.com/catal...ducts_id=26334

great loop, though i would opt for a better cpu block, eg Swiftech XT, EK supreme HF (non-nickel finish due to all the issues going on with ek), koolance 360, XSPC Rasa. DD while a great company seems to have fallen behind on the cpu block. not to say that won't work, there are just better ones out for the same cost or more.

[OvRiDe]

This kit is working great for me, and wouldn't be a bad starting point. It would get the basics out of the way, and you would just need to pick a GPU block.

[blueonblack]

The same can be said for this kit for me.

[Linias]

thank you all for the great replies!!!