Water Cooling
Good Kits to consider
Swiftech H20-220 APEX ULTRA
http://www.swiftech.com/products/H20-220-APEX.asp From personal experience, and word from many others, this is the best custom kit on the market. High durability, performance is on par with custom built setups, great name, and high resale value.
Swiftech H20-220 Compact
http://www.swiftech.com/products/H20-220-COMPACT.asp This is a great budget builders kit, or for the beginner who wants to test their hand at water cooling. This kit is is easily upgradeable to add a gpu, NB loop, etc. Performance is in the midrange.
Swiftech H20-120 Compact
http://www.swiftech.com/products/h20-120-compact.asp This midrange kit can really only handle cooling one component, most likely the cpu, and is not recommended to add additional loops to other components. Performance is in the midrange to low end. It's not a bad kit by any means.
STAY AWAY FROM ALL THERMALTAKE, COOLERMASTER, GIGABYTE, AND EVERCOOL WATER KITS. This doesn't require much of an explanation. Go ahead and buy these if you want, but when it breaks, springs a leek, and brings down your system, expect many "I told you so's" and "that's what you get for not researching first" replies.
Top 5 CPU blocks in order
-D-TEK Fuzion v2 with the accelerator nozzle kit.
http://www.dtekcustoms.com/index.asp?Pa ... ProdID=210-EK-Supreme
http://jab-tech.com/EK-Waterblock-EK-Su ... -4041.html-Swiftech Apogee GTX - This product has been discontinued, but you can still get your hands on it. This was, and still is the top performing cpu block offered by Swiftech.
http://www.swiftnets.com/products/ApogeeGTX.asp - XSPC Edge Acrylic CPU Waterblocks
http://www.xspc.biz/edgeacryliccpu.php-Swiftech Apogee GT
http://www.swiftnets.com/products/apogeegt.aspTop 5 GPU blocks in order
- EK Full Cover blocks - Good looks, high quality parts, probably the most recommend gpu block on the market today. A bit pricey. Depending on waterblock and model of gpu, I/O cooling plates can be interchanged for different model cards.
http://ekwaterblocks.com/shop/index.php ... b52f69a8ea- XSPC Razor - Very similar to the EK, great performer, good looks, and usually cheaper.
http://www.xspc.biz/waterblocks.php- Swiftech Obsidian VGA *For G92- This model uses the MCW-60 base to cool the GPU. It also has a MCW-Ramcool integrated into the acetal body to actively cool the GPU unlike the Stealth that used a passive method. It also offers SIX different barb positions and supports 8800 and 9800 series mounting!! It is low profile and can be setup in the tightest TRI-SLI setup with a unique custom quick connect barbs. It still requires mosfet heatsink.
http://www.swiftnets.com/products/obsidian.asp- Swiftech Stealth Rev 2 * For G80- The barbs are arranged like MCW-60 block so might be harder to loop in tight SLI configurations because of barb location. Keeps core cooler than most full coverage blocks.
http://www.swiftnets.com/products/stealth.asp -Swiftech MCW60 - The universal gpu block that the Stealth and Obsidian are built off of.
http://www.swiftnets.com/products/mcw60-R.asp- Danger Den - Overpriced and not as good of a performer as the aforementioned.
http://www.dangerden.com/store/home.php?cat=18Top 3 Pumps in order
- Laing D5 (MCP655) by Swiftech - Probably the best performing pump on the market. Very reliable, small in size, very quiet and only uses 18 watts.
http://www.swiftnets.com/products/mcp655.asp- Laing DDC 3.2 (MCP 355) by Swiftech - Excellent pump performance, small in size, and nearly silent.
http://www.swiftnets.com/products/mcp355.asp - Swiftech MCP350 - Very good pump, the little brother to the MCP355. Great durability, but usually only used to cool just the cpu. operates at 12 watts.
http://www.swiftnets.com/products/mcp350.aspTop 3 Radiators in order
- Feser TFC X-Changer Triple 120mm Xtreme Performance Radiator - 120.1 to 120.4 This is without a doubt the best Radiator on the market today. Uses copper tubes rather than brass for ultimate performance. Very pricey, extremely low restriction, and is the #1 choice of top water cooling builders.
http://www.frozencpu.com/products/7224/ ... 95s161b143- ThermoChill PA - Has one of the lowest restrictions of any radiator on the market, second only to the Feser X-Changer. High quality build and optimized to perform with all fans from all ranges. Comes in single, double and triple sizes. Recommend double or triple for cooling more than just the CPU.
http://www.thermochill.com/pa1203.php- HW Labs Black Ice GTX Extreme - This is a high performance radiator meant to be paired with 80CFM fans and up. Do not pair this with weak fans. Performance is slightly behind the Feser TFC and the ThermoChill PA. Comes in single, double, triple, and the new quad sizes.
http://www.hwlabs.com/gen2/gtx/index.htmlReservoirs, clamps, fittings, and tubing are pretty generic. Only thing really to say here is stay away from quick connect fittings, use compression clamps, and also don't use tubing you find at Home Depot/Lowes etc.
There are blocks for the chipset, RAM, Hard Drive, and Mosfets. I would always recommend against over complcating your loop. Air cooling these components is more than adequate. After market coolers for the Chipset and Mosfets from Thermalright are excellent choices. For the Hard Drive, really any brand or air cooling solution will do, and all high end RAM now a days come with heat spreaders, but if you must add active cooling, Corsair makes a nice fan assembly to add-on.
Chipset Heatsink NON SLI -
http://www.frozencpu.com/products/6346/ ... ?tl=g40c16Chipset Heatsink for SLI -
http://www.frozencpu.com/products/6347/ ... ?tl=g40c16Mosfet Heatsink -
http://www.frozencpu.com/products/5731/ ... ?tl=g40c16
