OC & Modding Full custom watercooling guide!

PH0ENiX

Skilled
To help all those noobs out here planning to put together custom water cooling system i made this guide.simple as that

INTRODUCTION-
This is what we are talking
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Custom loop ,open loop or whatever you may call it is a nice addition to your existing pc.
It provides many benifits


BENEFITS-
Killer looks
(u already knew.right?)

Excellent performance
(hardware runs silent,more cooler and with less pain.) also opens up a whole new level of over clocking)

Increases life of your hardware
(Well unless u don't break something.you hardware will run cooler and last longer.again unless you don't break or crack something)

Silent System-
(Yeah since there are less lousy fans)



COST-Generally people feel it will cost upwards of 20-30k and hard to find in india.
Its not true and you can even have a custom cpu+Gpu loop running under 5k!

In the end cost will depend upon how much you spend.i mean it!

companies like ek or swiftech are usually wayyy more expensive (more on companies later) as opposed to XSPC or barrow.

BRANDS-
The absolute best And I mean It Absolute best products are Almost all from EKWB (through the cost will break your bank) followed by SWIFTECH (which is one of those old experienced companies) and second best choice after EK

XSPC is the best one to go when on a budget.no questions asked.:)

I will speak more about companies and brands later on.

PARTS
There a some main parts in a water cooling system obviously something like this requires a lot of stuff (well alteast it looks better than alienware warez
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WATERBLOCKS-
the main basic thingy that is attached to your components.it can be made of 2 main metals aluminium or copper (copper is 2x better than aluminium but also expensive)

Waterblocks are mainly required for CPU and GPU.

HDD,SSD,RAM,Motherboard,PSU waterblocks also exist but they don't provide any major performance benefit.

Best performing Cpu waterblock is EK Supremacy EVO and its what I use and also the only thing i recommend (considering you can afford it $$$)

PUMP-this is what runs water through your rig there are two basic factors in a pump first is the amount of water is shoots out usually measured in L/h for eg(500l/h 450l/h)

NO maths? NO problem anything below 450l/h costing above 3k is bull**it .i guarantee that

More on pump heads later but simply higher=better

You can either use aquarium pumps or use dedicated water cooling pumps As far as i have seen SOHO 600L/h aquarium pumps cost Rs 200 YES not 2000;200 but don't provide any major benefit and require d-i-y knowledge

Ek,thermaltake,xspc,swiftech all have their pumps and they all work well with exception of some XSPC pumps which are crap.especially the ones that come with reservoirs.

Reservoirs-this is what keeps water in your system and pumps it to all components, EK and xspc make great long lasting reservoirs.

These are of 2 types
5.25 bay type- these fit into 1 or 2 of your dvd drive bays

Cylinderical-these are big cylinder and somewhat more safe to use with dyes(more on this later)

Cylinderical reservoirs are measured in dimeter and length. Usually diameter is 50mm or 60mm while as for length i recommend 240mm for usual systems while smaller ones are fine for mini itx builds.

I use a 400mm 60 d mammoth reservoir that's not recommend for a noob for obvious noobish reasons!

Reservoir traps air bubbles ,provides space for fill port to fill water.(again MORE ON THIS LATER!)

NOTE-
Integrated pump reservoir combos are not recommend through some are reliable. They may look cheap bit but they are absolutely not. Beware while buying Integrated reservoir from XSPC especially.

Radiator-a radiator sucks water,cools it and shoots it back! To cool water most radiator use fans while passive radiators exist.they are above your pay grade.

Rads use your standard fans to cool the system
There are 2 factors in rads

Length- 120mm,240mm,360mm,480 and so one 120 rad supports 2 fans,240 4 fans,480 8 fans and so on!

Thickness-measured in mm like 30mm,60mm etc
Thicker-better-stronger applies here.

FITTINGS-
These force many indians to sneeze into maggi
In simplest terms

A fittings has a 2 sides
There are 3 fitting sizes where tube goes
9.5x12.7
10x16
(U dont require the third size)


There are 2 barb or screw sizes(these go into your Waterblocks,radiator etc)

G1/4-used everywhere and recommended
G3/8-used by rich people and costs a ton.

COOLANT

this is water or the liquid that goes into your pc

Distilled water is all you need mostly.NO NOT TAP WATER.Industry distilled water(sold in bottles)

Ek/thermaltake/xspc do sell custom coolant but its recommended for mixing metals or AAA systems only.

DYES-these colour your water but can clog over time MAYHEM dyes are only one you can use .
Dyes can clog over time,and despite being the best mayhems cant be used with box/square reservoirs.

Note-
DONT USE WATER / HOLI COLOURS NO JUST DONT DO IT FOR SAKE OF GOD!!!!
WHERE TO BUY in INDIA

Me(i got a pile of water cooling products and can suggest/make a loop for you,you can also Contact me to buy water cooling gear,got a stock of everything,always)

Ekwb.com -ek sells the best or nothing ,its the buggati of watercooling .but buggati costs paisa

Aliexpress.com-there are a lot of watercooling products over AE and most are dirt cheap Seriously!!!go and have a look

Frozencpu.com-shipping an issue,but its great

Perfromance-pcs.com again high shipping, otherwise great

Ebay.com-got everything,shall i say more


So you are ready.go and upgrade your pc!

NOTE-i am yet to 100%complete this guide pardon any rubbish


Fell free to contact me for advice or building/sourcing water cooling stuff
 
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Good initiative @PHOENiX117 but since you're been around the block watercooling before, why not share some pictures of your rigs that you have WCooled as opposed to a Digital Storm custom build and Skunkworks?
 
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