Watercooling? Maybe . . .

Hey guys, i was sat pondering what my next upgrade would be last night and i decided it was time to take the plunge and go watercooled. My problem is, however, i have no experience in this field and need some help. So heres what im asking for:

A guide to watercooling - as in what to look for + how to set everything up,

Possible kits i could buy - im willing to spend around £100, and if possible, if im not pushing too far, one that has both CPU and VGA loops? i noticed that an 8800GT waterblock costs like 50 quid, if so ill settle for just CPU haha.

Thanks!

so far i have found the Zalman Reserator to be something quite fitting to my needs - i cant have a system thats radiator fits onto the back of my case as i dont have room, so it will have to be an external kit. Has anyone had any experience with this kit?

Ok so forget the zalman, i have decided on what im buying - this is it, the Thermaltake Big Water 735 kit. The kit itself is £50, which is fantastic, all of it is UV and looks bloody awesome, it has good cooling properties and can have a VGA loop added aswell.

heres the kit: http://www.eclipsecomputers.com/prod...-CLW0075&af=50

And heres a pretty thorough review on it: http://www.tweaknews.net/reviews/bigwater735/

What do you think?

[SirKeldon]

Forget BigWater and all Thermaltake watercooling products, they're meant to be weak and easily brokable (speaking from the experience) ... if you want to get a kit, go for the Swiftech one's, some are "standalone" and some are extendable ... but IMO the best way is to build your own kit with the components you want, it can be cheap too, not as 50 pounds of course ... but for that price i'll recommend you to get a good air cooler and good TIM, you'll get the same results than on bigwater with coolers such Xigmatek HDT-S1283 or ThermalRight Ultra Extreme 120 ... cause with that kit you can forget to cool efficiently your 5000+ plus a video card.

If your budget is really small, then go for the Swiftech H20-110 Compact, performs really well and it's 1000 times more reliable than BigWater and all Thermaltake water stuff ... but if you're decided to go water and specially if you want to cool CPU & GPU ... my recommendation is to save a lil bit more of money and start investigating more for the best thermal solution with your budget (for 100-120 pounds you can grab reliable mid-high components to cool in a right way your CPU and videocard), take a look for these two threads:

Watercooling FAQ by fitseries3 - http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=53075
Naturally Aspired PC WaterCooling Club - http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=52032

Originally Posted by SirKeldon

Forget BigWater and all Thermaltake watercooling products, they're meant to be weak and easily brokable (speaking from the experience) ... if you want to get a kit, go for the Swiftech one's, some are "standalone" and some are extendable ... but IMO the best way is to build your own kit with the components you want, it can be cheap too, not as 50 pounds of course ... but for that price i'll recommend you to get a good air cooler and good TIM, you'll get the same results than on bigwater with coolers such Xigmatek HDT-S1283 or ThermalRight Ultra Extreme 120 ... cause with that kit you can forget to cool efficiently your 5000+ plus a video card.

If your budget is really small, then go for the Swiftech H20-110 Compact, performs really well and it's 1000 times more reliable than BigWater and all Thermaltake water stuff ... but if you're decided to go water and specially if you want to cool CPU & GPU ... my recommendation is to save a lil bit more of money and start investigating more for the best thermal solution with your budget (for 100-120 pounds you can grab reliable mid-high components to cool in a right way your CPU and videocard), take a look for these two threads:

Watercooling FAQ by fitseries3 - http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=53075
Naturally Aspired PC WaterCooling Club - http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=52032

cheers for the advice - my friend who usually buys things that i end up getting has the thermaltake kit and he cant fault it - he has added another loop in for a GPU block and has ended with a full watercooling setup for about 120 quid. He gets good thermal results and, like me, could have bought X air cooler but wanted that "wow" factor about his case. Im going to price up a self build kit, but, seeing as this will be my first step into the world of watercooling, i would rather go for a cheap pre built kit and gain some experience about water cooling before building my own. If you get me haha.

Thanks for the links to the guides - just what i needed cheers.

[cdawall]

i just picked up a used swiftec H2O-120 myself going from a gemini II to that and getting a bigger rad to go with it i will post results for you soon

Originally Posted by cdawall

i just picked up a used swiftec H2O-120 myself going from a gemini II to that and getting a bigger rad to go with it i will post results for you soon

that would be great, thanks. Pictures too? I love how watercooling systems look in rigs, they just add a touch nothing else could haha.

[cdawall]

Originally Posted by kyle2020

that would be great, thanks. Pictures too? I love how watercooling systems look in rigs, they just add a touch nothing else could haha.

will do guess what the swiftec kit cost $30 hehehe

Originally Posted by cdawall

will do guess what the swiftec kit cost $30 hehehe

nice! drop us a link for a read-up?

[cdawall]

Originally Posted by kyle2020

nice! drop us a link for a read-up?

right after i pick it up its off craigslist

Originally Posted by cdawall

right after i pick it up its off craigslist

sweet

what do you think about the thermaltake bigwater 735 kit? i mean, from a beginners point of view? 60 quid to get into it isnt bad, surely?

[cdawall]

Originally Posted by kyle2020

sweet

what do you think about the thermaltake bigwater 735 kit? i mean, from a beginners point of view? 60 quid to get into it isnt bad, surely?

bigwater kits suck air cooling tends to be better than them

[SirKeldon]

The best price/performance kit with that budget of 100 pounds it would be this:

Swiftech H20-220 APEX ULTRA CPU: http://www.sidewindercomputers.com/swh2edukit.html - 199.95$ (according to google this is 100.6 british pounds)

It's a nice kit and it's extendable, this means in a while you can keep your radiator as well as the pump (since they perform very good, specially the pump) and tubing ... then in a while you can add a GPU block or a full coverage one for your 8800GT and you'll be done, it will be enough to cool CPU & GPU and keeping great temps, specially if you're going to OC.

Besides that, the extendable means you can replace just a part of the loop if gets broken or you want to upgrade it, with the H20-120 you can't since it's block+pump all together and to profit the rad+res the unmounting can be tricky. IMO, getting the H20-220 ULTRA CPU will take you to a nice experience on watercooling while keeping the components (pump+rad+block+res) for almost 2 years with a lil extra inversion.

Originally Posted by cdawall

bigwater kits suck air cooling tends to be better than them

hmm . . . looks like i might have to do some more surfing around then, most reviews i have read say they are absolutley the dogs danglys. meh, ill have another look

That swiftech kit looks good, but like i said earlier, i cant have a kit thats radiator attaches to the rear of my case as i have no room.

[cdawall]

Originally Posted by kyle2020

That swiftech kit looks good, but like i said earlier, i cant have a kit thats radiator attaches to the rear of my case as i have no room.

you can mount it wherever you want lol also the H2O-120 is expandable to and cn be found pretty cheap not to mention i was just told that with a petras head the pump will work like a MCP350

Originally Posted by cdawall

you can mount it wherever you want lol also the H2O-120 is expandable to and cn be found pretty cheap not to mention i was just told that with a petras head the pump will work like a MCP350

so, aslong as the tubing is long enough, i could have the radiator away from my case?

[SirKeldon]

Originally Posted by kyle2020

That swiftech kit looks good, but like i said earlier, i cant have a kit thats radiator attaches to the rear of my case as i have no room.

That's crap ... you can't even moving the tower?

I have the radbox and the MCR-220 radiator as well as the MicroRes from that kit ... and all i can say is just awesome.

Sorry for you

Originally Posted by SirKeldon

That's crap ... you can't even moving the tower?

I have the radbox and the MCR-220 radiator as well as the MicroRes from that kit ... and all i can say is just awesome.

Sorry for you

as it stands my antec overhangs the edge of my desk top by about 2 inches, and i really dont want to move it forward anymore - ill have a look at moving it somewhere now, but until then im stuck with either a totally internal kit or an exclusively external, like the reserator

[SirKeldon]

Originally Posted by cdawall

you can mount it wherever you want lol also the H2O-120 is expandable to and cn be found pretty cheap not to mention i was just told that with a petras head the pump will work like a MCP350

Those fittings aren't built-in? You can unplug them and add other block? I didn't know, sorry for that

What i wanted to say ... it's the H20-220 Ultra it's maybe more expandable since there are no mixed parts, in your case fucking the radiator means a unusable res maybe ... and the same with pump+block, it's cheap yes ... but in the moment of upgrading if he likes the performance of the WC or he fucks any component ... will result expensive, anyway, it's just my opinion and his decission.

If the budget is really small and you can't upgrade it, then no doubt, take the H20-120 but if not ... the H20-220 ULTRA it's maybe the best decission in price/performance with thoughts of adding a GPU block as he says, again it's just my opinion

Anyway cdawall, thanks for the extra-info, always useful

update: Gonna watch Spain vs Russia @ Euro2008 semi-finals!!! go Spain go!!!

[cdawall]

Originally Posted by SirKeldon

Those fittings aren't built-in? You can unplug them and add other block? I didn't know, sorry for that

What i wanted to say ... it's the H20-220 Ultra it's maybe more expandable since there are no mixed parts, in your case fucking the radiator means a unusable res maybe ... and the same with pump+block, it's cheap yes ... but in the moment of upgrading if he likes the performance of the WC or he fucks any component ... will result expensive, anyway, it's just my opinion and his decission.

If the budget is really small and you can't upgrade it, then no doubt, take the H20-120 but if not ... the H20-220 ULTRA it's maybe the best decission in price/performance with thoughts of adding a GPU block as he says, again it's just my opinion

Anyway cdawall, thanks for the extra-info, always useful

update: Gonna watch Spain vs Russia @ Euro2008 semi-finals!!! go Spain go!!!

thats true i'm turing mine more or less into a 220 ultra he should get that one and we can compare the performance we have the same cpus so it should come out pretty close



and this top http://www.petrastechshop.com/peddcudeddcp.html

Originally Posted by cdawall

thats true i'm turing mine more or less into a 220 ultra he should get that one and we can compare the performance we have the same cpus so it should come out pretty close



and this top http://www.petrastechshop.com/peddcudeddcp.html

what, me get the swiftech lower model one (cant remember its name) you get your super pimped one and compare?

[cdawall]

Originally Posted by kyle2020

what, me get the swiftech lower model one (cant remember its name) you get your super pimped one and compare?

i was saying you get the 220 ultra ad i get the 120 and mod it to 220 ultraish specs

Originally Posted by cdawall

i was saying you get the 220 ultra ad i get the 120 and mod it to 220 ultraish specs

ok, heres how far i can rotate my case. I have moved my monitor up as well. This is also taking into consideration my disc tray needs to have clearance:

sorry for the lack of light

[cdawall]

mount it off the side just cut out the bottom section of the window