Custom Water Cooling

Hey, 

I just finished my build about a week ago and I've yet to purchase an aftermarket CPU cooler.  I would really like to do a custom water cooling loop just for the CPU right now but with the option of upgrading and going to the GPU in the future. This would be my first attempt at watercooling and I just want to know what I need to start with as far as hardware goes. Of course I need the obvious things like a radiator, resivior, pump, block. But I was wondering what would go best with my system. 

I am running a FX-8350 on a Crosshair V mobo with an asus 7870 in the Corsair 600t. Also not sure how much power the pump would really draw but I have a 750 watt power supply so let me know if you think power consumption would be a problem.

Thanks in advance for the help and feel free to list cons of custom watercooling as well because at this point I could still be persuaded to go a different route as far as CPU cooling goes.

There is the price, the powerdraw, the risk of leaks, the price, the complexity, and the maintenence. If you want to play 250+ USD on a custom loop, go for it. Just know it's a long process, but when you finish it the since of pride is huge. I suggest if you want to make one, watch ALOT of guides online about it. Take notes, and do not rush any of it. If you don't want to risk everything, go with air. Oh, another con to watercooling is if one part fails you comp could die. Dead pump = dead computer. Clogged rad = dead computer depending on how clogged it becomes. Leaks = possibly dead computer. Kinked hose = dead computer. There are tons of risks with watercooling that is not there with air. Despite this, I say go for the watercooling. Swiftech.com has some starter kits with amazing rads, pumps, and everything else you need for 250 USD. 

Thanks for the reply. I'm assuming that what you are getting at as far as something failing in the loop is that with fans it is easy to just look inside the computer and see that a fan is not working and then to shut down and fix it.  But if the pump was to fail then it wouldnt be obvious right away so the computer could keep running and eventually get too hot. As far as the recommendation for Swiftech, I have looked at some of their stuff and it looks to be really good quality at a reasonable price.  

You mentioned powerdraw, do you know how much power a custom loop usually takes to run. As of now I'm not really putting my PSU under any stress but if I OC my 8350 and my hd 7870 it will definitely raise my current power threshold.

But anyways thanks again for the quick response and the detailed list of pros and cons.  Taking your recommendation into account I think I am going to stick with my plan to water cool.

Powerdraw will be a non-problem, especially if you have a 750Watt PSU, if your going to build a custom loop (what case do you have ?)

id suggest looking at the XSPC kits, its got a solid little pump builtin to a 2 bay res thats pretty quiet, and everything else included with it is good aswell, and they only run about $160 USD, and then if you want to later expand upon it you could get another rad/GPU waterblock.

So id say bite the bullet on a custom loop as it will last longer than your hardware and be quieter/more effective than anything you could get with air.

The swfitech 655 pump uses about 30 watts, but the powerdraw comes from using a lot more fans and from the OverClock itself

 

Thanks for the reply on the powerdraw. Thats really the only thing I was worried about.  And thanks for the XSPC kit recommendation, I'll check it out later today. My case is the Corsair 600t, it's a midtower but it is pretty roomy with the stuff that I have in there now and I still have the option of removing one of the hard drive bays.

Ive seen people throw a lot more than just a 240mm Rad in a 600t, you'll be absolutley fine. 

Good, it seems as though my two biggest concerns going into water cooling will not turn out to be problems at all. Thanks BeyondNight and doubleagent214 for the great responses.