TR Forums

im thinking about purchasing a watercooling kit and i am looking cool just my cpu for now but down the road id like to have the option of adding cooling for my gpu's. ive looked around at lots of different kits and dont really know aht i should be looking for and was hoping u guys could help steer me in the right direction. money isnt too much of an issue but id like to try and keep it as cheap as possible. thanks i have an asus p8z68-v pro motherboard with an intel i5 2500K cpu in a corsair 600t graphite series case.im also pretty handy and wouldnt mind building one myself but i dont know which supplier has good components or if i should get certain ones from different suppliers.

One of the Swiftech kits is probably your best bet if you insist on a kit. It's basically just a collection of their normal wc'ing parts + tubing, etc. You can upgrade parts as you go along, but I'd recommend planning out what you want to cool ahead of time, how many loops you want, how important sound is, etc so you don't end up wasting money on parts. One of the better resources I've found is the liquid cooling forums over on XS.

The Rasa kits are the way to go if you want to go with a kit. The swiftech kits are overpriced imho. I got the RX360 series. It costs about $200 on jab-tech. If you want to cool a GPU your going to want a minimum of a 360 Rad. You maybe able to get away with a RX240 but I would opt for the RX360. The biggest issue with Rasa kit is the pump may be slightly under powered but I never had a problem with it and the XSPC tubes are not the greatest.

Honestly for you I would recommend the RX360 because you can easily add a GPU to the loop and the RX360 radiator will easily be able to handle it. The problem would probably be getting that radiator in your case without modding. A RX240 will probably be able to cool a CPU+GPU if your not overclocking it that much.

In addition to XS, I would check out [H] http://hardforum.com/forumdisplay.php?f=91and realredraider.comhttp://www.realredraider.com/vbulletin/index.php

To be honest with you though if you can swing $250-$300 and go custom you will not regret it.

If you want I can write up a custom loop list for around that price. I would really check the other forums out as well.

Questions for the OP:
I know you said there is not a budget but there has to be an upper range. What is that?
Why do you want to WC? Performance/Noise?
Are you planning on heavily overclocking?
Are you okay with external radiators? (mounted outside the case)
What GPU do you have or plan on cooling in the future?
Would you go universal GPU block?
Do you like compression fittings or barbs? (Barbs are much cheaper, but many people love the compression for its nice clean look)

thanks for the info so far. i dont think theres any way for me to fit a 360 rad in my case even with modding but i think ihave the ability to fit 2 240 rads on the mesh side screen that came with my case, gotta check the depth clearence but it looks plenty big.
as for your other questions the upper range of my budget would be about $600 usd. im planning on overclocking my cpu quite abit and atm ive basically reached the limit with air cooling and ive always had an aversion to clamping a massive cpu heatsinks to my mobo.ive yet to decide what gpu's i will be using, atm i have 2 gtx 460's but they arent what i really want they were just super cheap cause my buddy was upgrading his computer and didnt need em anymore. if i upgrade soon it will either be nvidia's gtx 580 or ati's equivilant.if the vid cards can be bought with a waterblock ill go that route but if the performance is better with aftermarket waterblocks id rather purchase those then use the manufacturer blocks..im also not too worried about having to install external rads, i work in HVAC and i can bend myself a sheetmetal box to install them in if i really hate looking at em.i do like the compression fittings better then the barbs mainly for peace of mind. also it doesnt have to be a kit. i played around with a kit setup about 7 years ago so i have an understanding of how everything works so putting one together wouldnt be a problem

let me throw a little plug in here for my WC'ing set that is up on the for bargain basement. Help pay for my grad school and get a great discount at the same time! Win-Win for everybody!

If you've got a bit of cash to through around; and looking for a kit that will accommodate a CPU for now, a video card (or 2) further down the road, then you can't go wrong with any one of these kits-all have gotten rave reviews around the web.

1) http://www.frozencpu.com/products/13561 ... 0c321s1367 $240.99

2) http://www.frozencpu.com/products/12177 ... 0c321s1286 $199.99

3) http://www.frozencpu.com/products/11743 ... 0c321s1310 $129.99

The only thing I'd recommend for the XSPC kit; is to buy compression fittings (1/2" x 3/4"); either their own brand or someone else, doesn't matter, you'll be better off in the end. Plus, you'll need to buy coolant for the XSPC kit (as it is not supplied)...other than these 2 small things, the XSPC kit comes with just about everything else you need-including mounting hardware for attaching the radiator to the back of your case

Screw coolant, buy a silver kill-coil and run distilled.