To Water Cool or Not To Water Cool?

[a65bugman]

I've been a long time PC builder and in the near future I'm going to build yet another PC and would like to know if I should go the route of water cooling or not. I've been looking at the Koolance systems since I'm not one to overclock my machines and I like the solution they present but I'm still apprehensive about the whole "water" thing. I was wondering if anyone out there could give me some info about how well these cases work and if they are any better in the aspects of Noise, Reliability, and cost. If there are any other companies out there that have the same kind of solutions please let me know and I'll check tham out too.

 

[elliottlock]

Well I've got the WaterChill Antarctica CPU/Chipset L30 Pump and it's served me GREAT!

But if you want an easier to install system I would look at Cooler Masters AquaGate, It's got really good reviews to.

Copy the link:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/copy_of_copy_of_Others.html

 

[folken]

The 2 main purposes for liquid cooling are 1) overclocking 2) a much quieter comp.
If you aren't overclocking I'm guessing you are just after a quieter computer. To make a substantial decrease in noise would require you to cool as many things that have heatsinks and fans as possible. Such as cpu, chipset, gpu. If you don't feel like putting together that large of system you will probably be better off with air cooling.

If you arn't overclocking some of those new air coolers are very quiet do a damned good job, and are WAY cheaper. Those new zalman and thermaltake heatsinks/fans do a pretty good job.

As for cases, if you have a large enough bugdet Lian-Li is the way to go. The PC-V1100, PC-V2100, PC-6070 cases are completely silenced with foam and rubber gasget. If those are a little out of price range those new thermaltake cases look pretty decent.

<A HREF="http://www.folken.net/myrig.htm" target="_new">My precious...</A>