So...watercooling..

DingChavez

What would be the best watercooling kit(or whatever its called) to buy for a 4200+ x2 and x1900xtx? *is n00b*

Cuddlesworth

Whats your budget?

As far as kit goes, some are cheaper others are a waste of time. You will need a good pump and large radiator for a hot chip and card like that. Be wary of where you are going to put them.

knipex

Personally I like alphacool www.alphacool.de and aquacomuter www.aquacomputer.de

Both make nice, good looking, quality kit good compromise between performace, asthetics, silence and ease of instalation. You can buy a kit or individual parts.

For advice there are a few watercooling forums (most of them not the friendliest of places) but I like www.wizdforums.co.uk its a modding and watercooling site.

Cuddlesworth

?????

Why go with a German kit when the High End Aircooling can get the same temps for a fraction of the price?

Drapper

Swiftech! H20-220-APEX.asp

http://www.swiftnets.com/products/H20-220-APEX.asp

yup watch the case your using can handle it too!

hopeful

I'd also go with Alphacool gear.

Oddly enough I have a triple rad, pump plus CPU and chipset blocks for sale (see sig). Add a block for your ATI card and you ready to go The triple rad will need a largish case though.

knipex

krazy_8s wrote:

?????

Why go with a German kit when the High End Aircooling can get the same temps for a fraction of the price?

I seriously doubt it.

I spent years on aircoolign spending a fortune on fans and heatsinks. Finally I got fed up with the noise and I watercooled for silence and as a bonous got lower temps.

Any of the decent kits will beat air cooling and be much much quieter.

Cuddlesworth

knipex wrote:

I seriously doubt it.

I spent years on aircoolign spending a fortune on fans and heatsinks. Finally I got fed up with the noise and I watercooled for silence and as a bonous got lower temps.

Any of the decent kits will beat air cooling and be much much quieter.

Please en-lighten me to the heatsinks, fans and water-cooling gear you are using and have used? Because I have found that mid range wc kits like alphacool and astek cant compete with half inch American solutions, plus at best they maintain slithly lower temps than high end air kits. Plus High end kits have risen in price making a preformance/price buy a no brainer. If noise was a problem a better purchase would have been a quiet case like a newer model Lian Li.

BadCharlie

Drapper wrote:

Swiftech! H20-220-APEX.asp

http://www.swiftnets.com/products/H20-220-APEX.asp

yup watch the case your using can handle it too!

From reading reviews i would second this.

Anti

for a cheap and easy pre assembled way the coolermaster aquagate is great. i have it on my old amd3000+ helped to overclock to 2.58ghz

knipex

krazy_8s wrote:

Please en-lighten me to the heatsinks, fans and water-cooling gear you are using and have used? Because I have found that mid range wc kits like alphacool and astek cant compete with half inch American solutions, plus at best they maintain slithly lower temps than high end air kits. Plus High end kits have risen in price making a preformance/price buy a no brainer. If noise was a problem a better purchase would have been a quiet case like a newer model Lian Li.

Its been a while since I turned my back on aircooling but I have used Pabst and panaflo fans, seasonic PSU's, Segate baracuda HDD's, noise insulation, you name it I used it.

I currently have my CPU, GPU, Northbridge, PSU watercooled and have my hardrive in a watercooled noise proof enclosure all on a dual rad with 2 120mm Pabst fans running at 7V and have a small overclock. These are the only 2 fans in my case and it is silent/ SILENT.

Comparing Alphacool and Astec is just wrong. Calling alphacool mid range is just plain wrong and shows either a lack of research or a prejudice against so called "low flow" systems . Look at the reviews for the Alphacool NexXxos range of blocks. One of the best performing on the market.

1/2" pipes does not mean performance IMHO 1/2" is overkill and results in akward unweildly pipe runs. Even Cathar (of little river and creator of the best performing waterblobk on the market) says that 10mm is plenty big enough and guess what Alphacool uses ???

To me the german kit (and I include swiftec here) provide the best blend of performace, asthetics and silence.

I repeat any modern Alphacool kit will out perform, be quieter and look better than any air cooling solution on the market.

edit: Also I wouldt touch any of the newer Lian Li cases. Overpriced and ugly IMHO.

hopeful

Having used both Asetec and Alphacool gear I would have to agree with knipex. The Asetec gear is fine and does a great job but the Alphacool is a class above.

The Alphacool blocks are nice and shiney too

:::: pimp mode ::::I do have some Alphacool stuff for sale-see sig::: pimp mode off :::

Cuddlesworth

Having used both and a Half inch custom setup I dont agree. Cathar said 10mil was fine if the pump was powerfull, none of the 10 mil pumps in those kits are good enough. The rads are ok, but nothing special. The blocks themselves though restrictive are well designed, but because they are restrictive they need a High Gpm pump. With a well ventillated Case and Zalmon 9500, I can get the same temps as any alphacool kit. And I am somebody who keeps remounting my heatsinks/blocks over and over againn. Current Idle temp is 22degrees, load at 27-28. What temps do you get with your kit?

awhir

i read lots of reviews and lots of forums and the swifteak comes on top for the eu.got 1 and i love it but.. the apoge i done think it will fit a conroe not shure tho.

knipex

krazy_8s wrote:

Current Idle temp is 22degrees, load at 27-28. What temps do you get with your kit?

Quoting temps without an ambient temperature is pointless.

Quoting temps taken using the motherboard probes is pointless. I upgraded my bios and my temps went from 22 degrees just before the upgrade to 85 degress just after. Next upgrade they were 19 (but the ambient had changed)

I dont think our "discussion" is contributing anything to this thread so i will just leave now.

Cuddlesworth

knipex wrote:

Quoting temps without an ambient temperature is pointless.

Quoting temps taken using the motherboard probes is pointless. I upgraded my bios and my temps went from 22 degrees just before the upgrade to 85 degress just after. Next upgrade they were 19 (but the ambient had changed)

I dont think our "discussion" is contributing anything to this thread so i will just leave now.

Abient temp is hard to quantify, but its around 18 degrees. The temps can be reached to within 3 degrees either side on 4 different motherboards. When H2o is done right its great.

Explosive_Cornflake

For some reason this thread has made me want to WC. I don't know why. ATM I'm making a conroe rig.
To have a fully new system I'llneed to add a bigger case, PSU, WC gear, and periperals.
rough estimate of a the cost of a rad, 775 block, 7900gt block, good pump, tubing, and res?

Cuddlesworth

Ehh, if you not into spending that much dough, around 400, it might be better buying that swiftech kit with the storm.

Custom would be, Storm, the new modded D5, PA120.3 from thermochill, about 5 feet of 7/16th tubing, maze4 and res/T-line. Dont forget the Hose clips.

youcancallmeal

Could anybody reccomend a kit for a 7900gt and AMD 4000+ in a Gigabyte Aurora case(Has holes for w/c tube precut into the back of the chassis). Say if I got a triple fan rad would I have to start drilling holes in my case to make it fit?

Takeshi_Kovacs

What would be a good sized (and cheap!) case that would easily accomodate a water cooling setup. The best ones i have seen so far was the Lian Li case with the seperate compartments, and the Dell 4100 case that Hopeful changed into to an uber pc...

Also has any one gone down the DIY route of water cooling, i.e. heading off to the scrapyard for a small radiator, few feet of tubing, water pump e.t.c. You'd have to buy the water block alright i guess, unless you wanted to mill one out of a solid block of copper yourself, and braze a lid onto it. It wouldn't look as shiny as a proper kit from alpha cool, could be a bit cheaper though...

Explosive_Cornflake

krazy_8s wrote:

Ehh, if you not into spending that much dough, around 400, it might be better buying that swiftech kit with the storm.

Custom would be, Storm, the new modded D5, PA120.3 from thermochill, about 5 feet of 7/16th tubing, maze4 and res/T-line. Dont forget the Hose clips.

Cheers. I'll see how I fair with an XP-120 in current case anyway. Might give it a bash later though.

hopeful

youcancallme>al wrote:

Could anybody reccomend a kit for a 7900gt and AMD 4000+ in a Gigabyte Aurora case(Has holes for w/c tube precut into the back of the chassis). Say if I got a triple fan rad would I have to start drilling holes in my case to make it fit?

I happen to have a spare triple 120mm rad inc fans if you are interested

hopeful

Takeshi_Kovacs wrote:

What would be a good sized (and cheap!) case that would easily accomodate a water cooling setup. The best ones i have seen so far was the Lian Li case with the seperate compartments, and the Dell 4100 case that Hopeful changed into to an uber pc...

I've just been given another server case...an HP Netserver LC3...not as big as the last one though Heaven only knows what I'm going to do with it

Cuddlesworth

Takeshi_Kovacs wrote:

Also has any one gone down the DIY route of water cooling, i.e. heading off to the scrapyard for a small radiator, few feet of tubing, water pump e.t.c. You'd have to buy the water block alright i guess, unless you wanted to mill one out of a solid block of copper yourself, and braze a lid onto it. It wouldn't look as shiny as a proper kit from alpha cool, could be a bit cheaper though...

Tried too, but learnt a few harsh lessons.

Milling copper is a slow and painstaking process.

Our radiators would not be suited in the way the old American cars were to watercooling and even though I can braze quite well, its not something I would even bother trying.

Watercooling pumps are tricky and very important, its all a tight ratio of heat output over power.

And my time is better spent elsewhere.