The other day I found the new EVGA 680i SLi Black pearl and I found EVGA's new 8800 Ultra Black Pearl. these things are sick, google them. Now if one were to put together a water cooling system for this setup what parts would you guys recommend? Im a total noob at water cooling and dont have a clue on what parts I need and what components and brands make a good system. Now heres even a bigger challenge, i want to put my whole water cooling system in my Lian-Li PC-68 case. Ultimately i want the best and most efficant water cooling setup for this motherboard and videocards. Whatever suggestions you guys come up with will be greatly appreciated, thanks.

First off, I would dump the blocks. The performance and pressure drop of the blocks aren't great and there made with aluminum. I haven't checked personally but I think you can get an EVGA card and buy a block from Danger Den or EK for less and they would perform much better. Also BFG has a card with a Danger Den block installed.

A few questions that would help us better find a solution to you cooling needs:

How much are you looking spend?
Do you prefer high performance, silence, or a mix of both (in reference to fan noise)?

As well as what SB said - Before you go down the water route - you'll be best served by doing a little research on the benefits versus the pitfalls of water cooling:
Maintennance, issues with galvanic corrosion when you mix metals... all that stuff.

There's a bunch of useful threads all over PCA that will be invaluable

Im looking to spend about 200-300 dollars and I would like a mix of performance and low fan noise, but it doesnt have to be super silent. also does the motherboard i picked out look like it has good cooling solutions on it? or should i think about maybe going with An ASUS P5N32-E SLI and just getting better cooling blocks? To be perfectly honest the reason I want to go water cooling is for the fact that I can tell everyone that i have actual liquid coolant running thru my comp (and to unleash my inner geek) but since Im gonna do it i would like to do it right. Atleast make sure that i dont buy something that will corrode and leak and fail and fry my components.

Well if you're just after bling, you can use the black pearl blocks but make sure you have a good amount of additive and it should be fine. Although I would still recommend checking out blocks from Danger Den and EK. I didn't price check but I think you can get there blocks and buy the cards separate for less money (saving money is always nice ).

One problem I do see off hand is the amount of cooling you need. I don't see a way to get a nice size radiator in that case. I think your best bet is to mount it on top. You might be able to get a 2 fan radiator on the top and inside buy you would loose some drive bay space if you went with this route. Since you want silence I would recommend the Thermochill s PA series radiators. I would highly recommend the 120.3 but if you can only fit a 120.2 in there it would still work nicely. As for the pumps I would go with either Laing pump, the D5 or DDC. DDC being my first choice since it's smaller and it has more head so it will perform a little better then the D5 (most likely not more then a half a degree though) in your multiple block setup.

As a side note Alluminum is actually better for heat transfer... so....

Quote: Originally Posted by disturbed_pyro As a side note Alluminum is actually better for heat transfer... so....

I'm all ears...

HAHAHA UH-OH! Thou hast grasped the attention of the all-knowing Anon! Good luck Pyro!

(get'em Anon! lol)

I agree with SpecialBlend, though I would also add the new Black Ice GT series rads tot eh choice as well. They are very thin and work great. Any blocks from Danger Den, Swiftech, EK, Alphacool, or Aqua Computing will work just fine. Alphacool and Aqua are European so they use smaller tubing, but work just as well.

lol ya thats as good an argument as the best tubbing size for a water cooling system. I've seen a few of them get pretty heated.

Quote: Originally Posted by disturbed_pyro As a side note Alluminum is actually better for heat transfer... so....

List of thermal conductivities - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Copper 401 W/(m*K)
Aluminum 237 W/(m*K)

On top of that, copper distributes heat more evenly than aluminium does

Aluminium is lighter though so your blocks won't weigh your PC down

If you have aluminum in your wc system then everything has to be aluminum correct?

Quote: Originally Posted by MLiV If you have aluminum in your wc system then everything has to be aluminum correct?

Doesn't have to, but certainly reduces the chance of galvanic corrosion. If not you'll have to include some additives in the coolant to prevent it.

Quote: Originally Posted by Spatha lol ya thats as good an argument as the best tubbing size for a water cooling system. I've seen a few of them get pretty heated.

Tubing size selection is simple: Get the smallest tubing you possibly can without detrimentally affecting the performance of your water cooling system ("detrimentally" to be determined by user). If necessary, factor in aesthetics, difficulty with filling & bleeding, etc... Personally, I like the 3/8" OD tubing.

While copper does have a higher transfer rate, it also holds more heat Doing CFD with Alpha on a water block I designed, the Aluminum block performs (At 3mm base thickness) about .1C better than the Copper as far as the heat transferred to the water. Also as a side note a lot of high performance racing radiators are made from AL not CU... just a side note to look at.

So I wouldn't be so quick to discount an AL block.

EDIT: On the mixed metals discussion it doesn't have to be as Anon said, just make sure your using a quality coolant. I mean how do you think a car operates between the cast iron block, Aluminum heads, copper/brass/or Aluminum radiator etc....

Quote: Originally Posted by disturbed_pyro While copper does have a higher transfer rate, it also holds more heat Doing CFD with Alpha on a water block I designed, the Aluminum block performs (At 3mm base thickness) about .1C better than the Copper as far as the heat transferred to the water. Also as a side note a lot of high performance racing radiators are made from AL not CU... just a side note to look at. So I wouldn't be so quick to discount an AL block. EDIT: On the mixed metals discussion it doesn't have to be as Anon said, just make sure your using a quality coolant. I mean how do you think a car operates between the cast iron block, Aluminum heads, copper/brass/or Aluminum radiator etc....

The racing radiator analogy is terribly flawed. Any comparison to a cars cooling system is going to be flawed. Aluminum racing radiators have had a distinct advantage because the ease of manufacturing with aluminum over copper allows for better designs. That however is changing with new construction techniques. Copper radiators are making a comeback. The other advantage of aluminum is obviously weight. Not an issue in most computers.

The statement that copper has a better transfer rate but also holds more heat is not a great argument for aluminum. 24.440 J·mol−1·K−1 for copper compared to 24.200 J·mol−1·K−1. Transfer rate trumps heat capacity by a butt load.

As for the corrosion issue, a 50 percent mix of glycol and water (such as in a car) would greatly impact the cooling capacity of a loop. 25% is generally considered the best compromise for mixed metal loops. Still, any mixed metal loop is going to require more frequent coolant changes. With single metal loops you can safely drop down to single digit percentages of glycol.

Blocks that are anodized or plated are less likely to cause problems.

i love the fact that we can dicuss things like such, with a very competitive attitude, and in the end we all learn from every matter.

don't car cooling systems have a certain tempature it needs to be at, instead of as cold as possible?

Quote: Originally Posted by disturbed_pyro While copper does have a higher transfer rate, it also holds more heat Doing CFD with Alpha on a water block I designed, the Aluminum block performs (At 3mm base thickness) about .1C better than the Copper as far as the heat transferred to the water. Also as a side note a lot of high performance racing radiators are made from AL not CU... just a side note to look at.

Heat capacity is irrelevant in steady-state operation. You also won't find it in any convection heat transfer equation.

I can't comment on your CFD results without looking at it, but the theory (on which the software is based) tells you otherwise. Possibly something to do with localized cooling and base plate thickness? One of my professors once said that "anyone can be taught to use software, but that doesn't diminish the demand for engineers, nor preclude the importance theory-based education. Establishing good engineering judgement is most important, especially when dealing with the pretty colors shown on your computer screen." .....Or something like that.

Regarding the Al racing radiators....off the top of my head:
-Weight
-Cost
-Construction (tube to fin)
Remember automobile operating conditions are much different than ours.

EDIT: AntiM beat me to it.

Heh very interesting points, thats the other thing i was hoping anon could shed some light as to why the AL was beating the CU.

To the cars, yes they are designed to run at around 180+ Fahrenheit which is why most coolants don't start providing protection until they reach higher temperatures.

To the racing radiators, it may very well be the simple fact of being able to do better designs with aluminum... i was always told it was because they were able to cool more efficiently.

thank you all for you input, you guys really know your cooling. Now i know enough to get started