New to water cooling

Hey, first take a look at this, Liquid Cooling 101.

Basically, you'll need waterblocks, which conducts the heat from your CPU, GPU, chipset etc to the liquid itself.

Next you need a pump to pump the liquid around in your system.

Then you need a radiator to get rid of the heat in the liquid.

You may want a reservoir too, just in case your system runs low on water.

And ofcourse you need tubing to connect it all together.
 
oh theres also thermal interface material (TIM or thermal paste) for between the waterblock and chip

There are cases that come with liquid cooling systems (LCS) or you can buy kits,

dangerden and swift tech are good kits to start on
 
I think the best way to go is buying a kit. It comes with everything you need and detailed instructions so you cant go wrong =]
 
what makes a kit "good"? What should i look for in the blocks, radiators, pump, ect....
i plan on cooling a q6600 and an evga 8800.
 
features common to all components: low resistance to the flow of water. less tubing length used means better flow too. Copper products perform better

waterblock - copper is best, thin base late is better (but weaker), extremely flat base, I hear shinyness of base doesn't really affect performance. watch out for weight of unit!!! (DTEK Fuuzion then swifttech apogee GTx cpu blocks are the best)

pump - high flowrate = faster flowing liquid, high pressure = less loss of flow for restrictive items, Dangerden D5 (i think thats what it's called) is best

Radiator - you need to consider size versus amount of cooling needed, too big, and it could be reducing water flow, too small, then it wont do the job!

tubing: Tubing is preferably flexible, however at all costs should not kink (like when it is bent too much) 3/8" Internal Diameter (ID) is a common thickness. Tygon tubing, clearflex, multiflex, are some good ones. BTW, the less tubing you use and with the least (sharp) bends, then the less the pump has to work to push it through all that length, and therefore the better the flow rate is going to be!!!

reservoir is optional, but IMO better to have.

other extras you'll need/want are: tubing connectors (eg: Y, L & T junctions)
flow rate and temperature sensors, etc
 
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