So ive decided to get back into watercooling. Some may remember my first setup a few years ago, a very simple Alphacool 'beginners' setup, with a single 80mm rad (pathetic...) and okish block. It was nice and performed well enough, but I got bored of the pump noise and went back to air.

This time i've invested in a slightly more serious setup (I think?):



This was an eBay purchase, for the bargain price of £65 ($130). The seller listed it as mainly an Innovatek setup, with an Eheim pump and some other bits.

Can somebody in the know identify the parts so I can look them up? The seller didn't list any specific details, but for £65 I thought id ask questions later.

Thanks guys

No one has any thoughts?

you posted it at 4am....at least 4 am here in the EST...

Invest is a somewhat better block, although that block is small and has small tubing (looks like the setup is 8mm) it won't provide any good floow or heat transfer, at least not as well as a high flow DD, or EK.

It's a good rad, and the pump looks to have one of those attached resiviors, can't tell what that springy thing it is front of it, and on the other side seems to be another resivior.

That fluid bottle looks like koolance, which is what the block reminds me of, looking around at some pics, will come back and edit

heres your block
Innovatek X-Flow: HighSpeed PC - water cooling specialists

heres your res on the pump
AGB-O-Matic Reservoir: HighSpeed PC - water cooling specialists

strange feeling i found where the dude got ths stuff
Dual 120mm Radiator - Used: HighSpeed PC - water cooling specialists

Nice one, thanks Slug. Can you recommend a good block that'll fit?

I have a spare one of these lying about if its any good.


Alphacool CPU NexXxoS XP light Socket A at TheCoolingShop

Be careful which block you choose to use with that kit. Innovatek plates their blocks to prevent galvanic corrosion. The base metal on the blocks is copper, the radiator is aluminum. By plating the blocks (with nickel I think) they help to prevent corrosion. You'll still want to use fairly strong mix for coolant. 20% Innova Protect to 80% water will give you good protection.

I tested that block sometime back and it works rather well, no need to swap it out. It's design works well with the tubing size and pump used in the kit. There are better performing blocks, but that one is more than adequate.

The springs are to keep the tubing from kinking.

Avoid using the T's and elbows in the kit, you can pick up new tubing from anyone that sells Innovatek, alphacool or other 8 mm kits.

Other than using a heavy fluid mix to prevent the multi metal corrosion, its a shame, that nexXxos XP block is pretty pimp, but i would make sure you have high head on that pump if you were going to use it.

I wasn't trying to diss alphacool, i didn't know if you were going to stick with the 8mm tubing. (i don't like 8mm, 3/8 seems to work the best for size/performance.)

Well for £65 im not arsed about tubing size. Thanks for the input guys, im really looking forward to getting this gear.

Was discussing CPU lapping with Reflux the other night too, so look our for that in the next few days

Aye, other than the tubing, that's a nice little set-up. Bigger tubing!

If it doesn't perform up to expectations Ill probably swap out the barbs if possible for 1/4" and get a better pump.

Right, onto coolant, I remember reading somewhere that if you couldn't get hold of distilled water (impossbible to find around here) you can use something found in all auto shops, battery top up water.

Luckily I live right around the corner from a really grotty but well stocked auto parts shop, who sold me this for a quid.



The paint is for the ugly tarnished rad shroud. Will the de-ionised water be ok in this system?

De-ionized works just as well as distilled.

Nice one thanks Mike, and you reckon a 80/20 mix of water/corrosion protecter should do the trick?

EDIT: Just touched up the radiator, planning to have it on top of my case and the shroud as it was would have ruined the lovely matt black of the rest of my case.

Solution. Twenty minutes, some tape, 600 grit wet & dry and a can of matt black AutoChem.

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Everythings installed and running perfectly, load temps are around 35-36c which is fantastic and its soo quiet compared to my CPU fan. Mental. Anyway, the fun was in building a custom mount for the waterblock, as the kit didnt come with socket 775 mountings.

Luckily I have a huge box of crap and it was easy to put this together, using the old mountings from my Noctua heatsink and various bolts, washers and springs

Looks like you used Mechano!

Schexy. Post pics of the whole loop!

Heh, yeah, Mecano ftw. No idea what half those bits were from.. but they fit and hold it down tight so im happy

Beats paying £25 for Innovatek to send me one from Germany.

Whole loop:



Will tidy it up another day, just happy with the silence at the mo.

S'all good, just one of the tubes coming out of the CPU block is too long and could be shortened a bit. Get everything a bit more aesthetically pleasing but other wise WIN.

Nice job Ollie. If/when I get my bank balance sorted I'll be going down this road. May have to decide what I want more though - new ubah graphics card or WC loop.

Nice one. Ill be looking at cooling the 8800GTS soon. I doubt ill be upgrading to anything else soon so why not go all water?

Need to do some thinking about how much more heat that'll put into the system. Im guessing a lot.

Maybe it's just me, but I really like the look of a nice clean 8mm setup. And with the newer high head Eheim's and Laing's you don't lose much in the way of performance. Lookin' good Ollie.

I think smaller tubing looks good when there's a lot of it, but larger i.e. 1/2" is better on a simpler loop.

Thanks Mike. Yeah it does look a little bare, but with the addition of a graphics card block, it'll chunk out nicely

Will post back when ive tidied things up tomorrow.

EDIT: Awesome.