External Watercooling Kits

BigEejit

I was thinking I might get an external kit because I just dont have the room in my current case. I have never watercooled before but I'm sure I can handle it with all of the how-to's etc. available on the net.

What are my options?....
I was thinking of doing the whole lot - cpu (P4 2.4C), nb (i875 - Abit IC7-G) and graphics card (Sapphire 9800pro). I have seen all-in-one external boxes but they seem to be limited to cpu cooling only and are quite expensive. I would like an all-in-one just for handiness sake, but if its too saucy I'll give it a miss. I wouldnt mind having discrete components externally, I could bolt them in place to the outside if necessary.

How much is it?....
I'd love to say that cost doesnt matter, but we all know it flippin does and if you have a product or some components in mind could you post prices ... I'm not sure yet how much I could spend, its uncertain yet (depends on backdated pay increase), but its probably around €200.

How much noise does it make?....
The most important thing for me is that it must be quiet, I would prefer a slower quiet system than a noisy faster one..... but the option to speed the whole thing up to cope with overclocking now and again would be nice.

BigEejit

After looking at hitide.ie €200 is not going to get me far is it? ..... lets just start with cpu cooling, but with the possibility of cooling the northbidge and graphics card in the future

neokenzo

Well if you want a cheaper option for watercooling, probably you can go for the Asetek Waterchill. It comes with a CPU and VGA cooling bits. Take note that it is probably not as good as the one you can get from Hitide but of course innovasets are more expensive.

jow

Hi,

Originally posted by BigEejit
What are my options?....
[/b]

there are ready manufactured external kits available, but I am not a big friend of these... For example: The innovatek external kits have the same cooling efficiency than the internal ones, but are very expensive (around 400+ €

The cheap kits from no-name manufacturers are not really good (neigher silent nor cool), I wouldn't recommend them, think of it: there is a water circuit in your pc.

But the main questions is: what case do you have?
Is there _really_ no space available?
When you really have no space to mount the radiator inside the case, there is always the solution to cut a hole in the top and mount the rad on-top outside the case.
The rest of the components (mainly pump and watertank) should fit, even in a small case.

When you don't want to mount a aktive radiator, there are passive good looking radiators available. They are made to mount them on the side of the case.

How much is it?....

200€?
If you take (for example) the cheapest innovatek kit (which can easily cope with your config) , it is 139€, add the GPU cooler (front side is enough for the 9800pro) and a northbridge cooler and you end up around 250€.

But you can start with the kit and the GPU and add the northbridge later.

That is the big adavantage of the _better_ manufacturers (there are others than innovatek, have a look in the web... no adverts here )) : you can add other parts to the installation.
And for the future: If you get yourself a different PC setup, you can adjust the kit.

How much noise does it make?....

Not very much. You might be pleased with the result...
The next step of most water-cooling users are: replace that noisy PSU

If you have any questions, let me know.

Regards,
jow

Cyrus

look up the zalman reserator available from jes computers

BigEejit

Interesting looking bit of kit .... the blocks dont look like theyre up to much ....especially the VGA one .... I'll have to do some research on it .... well spotted Cyrus

Cyrus

cpu block is apparently a good un, looks like a nice bit of kit, much cheaper from JES than the uk aswell

Also the coolermaster aqua gate is coming out, do a google

BigEejit

Originally posted by Cyrus
cpu block is apparently a good un, looks like a nice bit of kit, much cheaper from JES than the uk aswell

Also the coolermaster aqua gate is coming out, do a google

It got a good review here ....still want to find out about the vga cooler ... i'll have a look at that coolermaster one as well

BigEejit

Originally posted by BigEejit
It got a good review here ....still want to find out about the vga cooler ... i'll have a look at that coolermaster one as well

The vga block seems to be ok as well .... despite it being anodised all over (contact area as well) ... the whole system has trouble coping with a prescott and a 9700pro ... but I only have a 2.4C and a 9800pro so I should be ok ....

Going to look at a few more reviews before I commit though

jow

Hi,

Originally posted by BigEejit
The vga block seems to be ok as well .... despite it being anodised all over (contact area as well) ... the whole system has trouble coping with a prescott and a 9700pro ... but I only have a 2.4C and a 9800pro so I should be ok ....

Going to look at a few more reviews before I commit though

please have a closer look at all the reviews.
The Zalman is capable of cooling around 80 watts power entry, not more.
It uses the smallest eheim waterpump, which has only limited capacity and is not very suitable for watercooling systems.
The GPU cooler cools only the GPU and not the ram of the graphics card.

It is definately not cheap, the kit with the GPU cooler comes for around 250.-€ , plus RAM coolers for the graphics card, a new fan who cools the RAM etc.
And at the end what you get is less value like with other watercooling kits...

It is very stylish, no doubts but when it comes to "good value" for the money... I am not so sure.
And you can't extend it for the future, when the limits are exceeded with the current setup (again: 80 watts is not very much...)

jow

BabyEater

There are a good few kits reviewed at http://www.overclockers.com/articles373/waterkit.asp

Prosta

The Zalman CPU block is the business
The flow thru is a lot higher then the last block I was using.
Im getting 33c on a p4 2.6 running at 3ghz full load

The Reserator is a passive cooler. Emphases is on noise not temps.

It looks like you get 2 blocks in the VGA pack.
Wonder if the 2nd could be used as a chipset cooler?

BigEejit

I have been looking into this a bit more and I have come to the conclusion that I'd get more bang for my buck (watts for my water? ) by using discrete components. The problem I have is 2 1/2 years old and little girl shaped, so the cooling must be encased if its outside my computer case or else I'll need a new case .... I've decided to get a new case and what I need to know is :
What is a good watercooling case?, it must be large enough to accomodate 3 X 5.25" components plus 2 X 3.5" drives plus 2 full length pci cards (~12" long boards)... I was thinking about a full size tower with lashings of room at the top of the case .... to put the watercooling above the Mobo / PSU / Drives etc .... what cases are people using? and what sort of equipment have you got in there?

CombatCow

Have a look here at the crazy germans watercooled pc's to get some ideas.And also boards casemod gallery there is 3 in there now i think.

http://www.innovatek.de/forum/viewforum.php?f=11&sid=8fb524da908683dcd8a89a24e9b84172

CombatCow

Prosta

Bigeejit - I was using a Chieftec Dragon case until reciently.

A rough idea of the watercooling setup:
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/attachment.php?s=&postid=1471904

For sale if your interested: €40
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?s=&threadid=146908

I see you bid on that other green Dragon