Rads aren't that hard to figure out once you know how many of what cards you are going to get. My guess Frank is going to tell you to buy Feser or Black Ice Xtreme rads, but that's just a guess. ;)

Yeah, I've heard a lot of good about those. I was looking at some Feser rads last night and they aren't as bad on price as I thought they would be.

If I remember correctly, the black ice rads can remove more watts of heat but at the cost of faster/louder fans. The Feser is almost equal in heat removal with wider spacing to allow for lower speed fans and ultimitaly a quiter PC. Both have excellent flow.

Noise really won't bother me while benching.... but if I eventually put it all in a case I might want it a bit more quiet. I'm in my own room with the puters so fan noise really isn't an issue at any time so I won't complain either way.

Knowing what all parts are to be cooled would make a difference in parts chosen to cool your build.

I guess on the GPU's I will probably just stick with the GTX295 but if you want to pick a part for the top ATi card also until I make the final decision then that will give me a look at both. I'm guessing that going with either of those that i'll only be able to use 2 cards so we'll stick on that.

Other than those things and the CPU I have no idea what else really needs to be cooled.... chipset, mosfets? Thats where i'll really need your help on if those things being cooled would make a big difference or not. If you think it would then i'm all for it... but your the pro on that so i'll trust you on if it's needed or not.

It will be used on a HSPC Tech Station so room isn't an issue. If I do put it all in a case later down the road it will most likely be a MountainMod U2-UFO Horizon or Ascension and not the Cosmos S like I was thinking before... So plenty of room. But it all doesn't have to fit inside if that helps at all.

So here is where i'm at on hardware....

ASUS Rampage II Extreme - (chipset, mosfets?)
Core i7 either 965 or (975 if they hurry up with it.)
2xGTX295's or 2xTop ATi Cards

Anything else i'm missing?

Sorry I've been really busy the last few days and kinda forgot about you =P , If you are going to use a cosmos S case then you will be a little bit limited on what fits inside. IIRC you can fit a 3x120 up top under the stock grill and a second 3x120 in the front inside (measure before buying). Those two would be massive overkill for your cooling needs so low speed fans will work nicely (good guess John), I would go with feser 360's if they will both fit.

For pumps I would use a pair of DDC3.2's with either xspc or Ek tops and 1/2" fittings or barbs and 7/16" hose (tighter fit and easier to work with).

2 feser 360's if they fit or can be made to fit and 6 Panaflo ultra high speed 120x38mm fans to go with them.

CPU block is a bit open since it will be the only thing on the loop, I like the Dtek V2 but an xspc block would be very nice in this setup as well and John called it....Swiftech can lick me where I pee.

As I haven't put together an i7 yet I can't speak to whether or not they need aftermarket cooling on their chipsets but I would suspect that they would. I would use the koolance chipset blocks most likely, for fit-n-finish they really can't be beat and they do work well.

For gpu's (the 4870X2's that you should be buying), I would use koolance blocks. They have good machining and consistent results.

The reservoirs are kind of up to you, I use a pair of Ek cylindrical res's and they work well and are made well.

For coolant you will want to use distilled water and a bit of anti-splooge or a 10% anti freeze mix with the exclusion of Dex-cool.

Kewl thanks for the help!! Not a problem at all...I know how busy goes LOL! That will give me a good head start on what to look for thats been proven to work well.

Those Koolance blocks for the chipset... does that cover everything mosfets and all? Or do I need to worry about the mosfets? If it has mosfets that is... I haven't looked that close LMAO!


If I go Nvidia should I still go with Koolance for those? And i'm not sure about the 4870 x2's but I have seen that BFG has released a GTX295 with a block already... Are the manufactured cards made well or should I stick with putting my own blocks on?

As far as space inside the case... If I do ever put it in a case I decided to go with the Mountain Mods case so room shouldn't be an issue. If so I can mount the rads outside....no biggie.:cool:

Thanks Again!!

Oh.... What happened with Swiftech??

I would air cool the mosfets and the swiftech story is too long, if we get a vent I'll tell you about it but for now all you need to know is that Gabe the "CEO" of Swiftech is a lying douche.

The koolance gpu blocks are typically very nice and I think they have gotten the use of aluminum out of their systems finally so I would go with them regardless of card vendor even though I know you are smart enough to buy a pair of 4870X2's.