Shiny Things

Now, the crux of a good water-cooling setup is having a case to put it in. I have my trusty GIGABYTE Aurora case which has plenty of bays as well as mounts on the rear for 2x120mm fans. But most importantly, it has a side window so I can show off the water-cooled beauty when it's complete.

Now it's time to start connecting it all up.

Step 1:

Mount the CPU in the motherboard and apply thermal gunk. I recommend a decent silver based compound as opposed to ceramic white gunk for better performance.

Then assemble the rear bracket according to instructions. Make sure you have the foam sandwich in between the metal bracket and the isolation layer; we wouldn't want any nasty shorts on the board!

Mount through the motherboard holes and seat your CPU water block on top. If you have the luxury of orientation that socket 775 allows for, then try to ensure that the block doesn't interfere with any surrounding components.

Slip on the plastic rings and then tighten each side down with equal force so that the CPU block is seated firmly, but not over tightened. Each screw should protrude the same amount from the top of each nut.