Finally cracking and considering water cooling

[virus5877]

Ok, guys I've been reading forums and researching reports on Tom's and other such guru sites, and I've come to the realization that water cooling may not be as much hype as I've always considered it to be. So...that being said, I am willing to seriously consider water cooling my new system.

Here's the specs so far:

Athlon 64 X2 4200+
Asus K8N-E Ultra mobo
4x512mb Corsair Valueram PC 3200
Western Digital 250GB 3.0 Gb/sec HDD
Asus black DVD burner
Asus Radeon x1900xt vga card
NZXT Lexa case
OCZ modstream 520W psu
Viewsonic 19" LCD monitor (not sure which one, they all rock!)
Saitek Keyboard
some laser mouse (doesn't really matter)

anyway, I was gonna run the Zalman 9500 cpu cooler and the Zalman VF700 vga cooler and pray for idle temps ~30c or so

do you think going water cooled (probably vapochill stuff, I know they're damn good) would give me any increase in performance??

would it be worth the extra 100-150 bucks it would cost to vapochill water cool over the Zalman air coolers?


ps: I'm not much of an overclocker, although I'm getting the 4200+ because it has good OC potential..so keep that in mind as a future option for me...

 

[RichPLS]

I got the TT BigWaterSE about 2 months ago, and it is awesome. Spent $100 for complete kit delivered.

Excelent construction, great design, compact and looks good, but best of all it keeps my Athlon 175 CPU overclocked 15% at under 42C at load. Idles around 38C

 

[purelithium]

Vapochill is phase cooling, not water cooling. and they cost around 3-500 dollars, depending on where you look.

I've heard that the Thermaltake BigWater SE system is a great one. I'm considering it as my option.

 

[Bushwick]

I got the TT BigWaterSE about 2 months ago, and it is awesome. Spent $100 for complete kit delivered.

Excelent construction, great design, compact and looks good, but best of all it keeps my Athlon 175 CPU overclocked 15% at under 42C at load. Idles around 38C

These kind of cheapo kits really freak me out. I always imagine them blowing apart or melting or the pump failing. Nice to hear it's working for you.

 

[virus5877]

Ok first of all, vapochill makes water cooling components that go for much less than the phase change stuff around 200 bucks or so...

Second of all, if I were to go with the Bigwater SE would I be able to add a vga waterblock? or should I add a second fan/rad to take care of the extra heat?

 

[purelithium]

Yes they do. The correct name of the company is Asetek. The name of their phase cooling product is vapochill. The name of their Water cooling product is Watcerchill.

Yes, you should be able to do that, although you will be sacrificing some cooling power for you CPU in favour of your GPU. All you would need is a new piece of hose, some new clamps and the block itself.

 

[virus5877]

Ok, the bigwater SE + a vga block would be about $170, but doesn't asatek make some of the nicest water cooling stuff around? I've been reading some nasty reviews of thermaltake's vga block...and I don't want to settle for crap if I'm gonna shell out $2000 for a computer...

so...that being said, would this:

http://www.frozencpu.com/ex-wat-20.html

be a better cooling system than the Bigwater SE + vga block?

 

[purelithium]

You can choose whatever GPU waterblock you need. You don't have to use TT's.

Yes Asetek does make great stuff, but for a lot of people it's a little out of their price-range.

I'm sure it would be better, but i've never been comfortable shelling out as much money for a cooling device as I did just for the CPU itself.

The TT kit is just generally a good starting point for people new to water cooling. I'm working on saving enough money to buy one myself. I had an old home made kit about 5 years ago, but that leaked and fried my CPU(my fault) so I've be wary to get back into it.

Everyone I've talked to recommends the TT kit and they have great results from it.

 

[Dybowski]

go to http://www.frozencpu.com and check out some innvenotek water cooing kits,ive used for my client who want "easy" water cooling and i just installal a big resovoir on the back so they can fill it easily.

 

[Fireheart]

I'd heard that Swift Tech made the best kits http://www.swiftnets.com/ but I know they're expensive. Danger Den seems to have some great gear too http://www.dangerden.com particularly their VGA blocks. Finally, Coolermaster http://www.coolermaster.com/index.php has a slick package in their Aquagate Mini.

 

[eizyark]

in reply to TT BigWater SE, i also have been using it for like 6 months i think..it really is a good kit, only problem is my pump broke and now is rendered useless i don't even know what happened but form where i bought it,i can't bring it back anymore..i live all the way in the UAE(where Dubai is if anyone is wondering)and bought the kit in singapore when i was on vacation so..i think u guys get the picture..i don't really know the stability of this kit but over all it gave a really good OC capabilities..

had a Athlon XP 2500+ @ around 2.30 Ghz i think(using athlon64 now..) at 40'C at ۫overload,30C at idle..

Performance is great IMHO but for the stability of the kit i couldn't really tell..good price too!

 

[virus5877]

Price really isn't an issue here, I don't mind paying more for the Asatek stuff if I know the system is stable and reliable.

One more quick question:

Do i have to use the 120's that come with the cooling kit?
~cause the case that I'm gonna get (NZXT Lexa) has 3 120's in it already and they light up blue and run pretty silent and I'd really like to use them if i can get away with it...

 

[Dybowski]

yeah you can use them, i would reccomen mounting fans on both sides of the radiator so one pulls the air out too.

on the lexa you can set the rad on the back or front of the case but you probaly would hit a vid ard if you put it on the side.

 

[virus5877]

Ok, so I think i'm gonna use the asatek waterchill system that comes with the following:

asatek antarctica cpu waterblock
asatek vga waterblock
asatek chipset waterblock
single 120mm radiator
pump/reservoir 12v thing
single 120mm fan
tubing/fittings/etc

I think i'm gonna use the lexa's stock 120mm rear fan cause i like the blue glow but do you think a single 120mm rad/fan will be enough to cool the entire system? should I add an 80mm rad and attach it to the lexa's 80mm top mounted fan?? would that be worth the trouble? should i try to mod the top-mounted 80mm to a 120mm??? ideas/comments?

 

[Dybowski]

just mount the rad in the back but use thw fan that comes with it on the outside of the case to pull air out. you can always add a 80mm rad later, but i suggest a large resovoir so you can fill it alot easier, and a place for air to escape.

 

[Bushwick]

just mount the rad in the back but use thw fan that comes with it on the outside of the case to pull air out. you can always add a 80mm rad later, but i suggest a large resovoir so you can fill it alot easier, and a place for air to escape.

Plus more volume of water buffers the temp better and requires less fans/rads. I would suggest asking Asetek whether your lexa fan is suitable or not. Don't forget a fan shroud to increase the efficiency of the fan(s) by removing the dead spot. I'm glad you decided against overtaxing a cheapo kit and are going with quality. Let us know how it goes.

 

[john_thor]

Ok, so I think i'm gonna use the asatek waterchill system that comes with the following:

asatek antarctica cpu waterblock
asatek vga waterblock
asatek chipset waterblock
single 120mm radiator
pump/reservoir 12v thing
single 120mm fan
tubing/fittings/etc

I think i'm gonna use the lexa's stock 120mm rear fan cause i like the blue glow but do you think a single 120mm rad/fan will be enough to cool the entire system? should I add an 80mm rad and attach it to the lexa's 80mm top mounted fan?? would that be worth the trouble? should i try to mod the top-mounted 80mm to a 120mm??? ideas/comments?

That's pretty much the setup I bought two years ago. The only gripes I had with the waterchill stuff was that the pipes were really stiff, and the push connect fitting eventually start to leak. Compression fittings are better IMO.

I would suggest getting a double rad or two singles. Remember that there is some components on the mobo and drives that will get very hot if there is only a low speed 120mm fan providing the case airflow. You can probably use the 120mm fan you already have so an additional single rad would be a good purchase I think.

Anyway, it's quite easy to plumb an additional one in later so go with one and see how you get on. Just leak test a lot ok?

 

[gre]

Swift Tech for arround 300$ u get a complete kit,withblocks :lol: both for cpu and gpu

 

[FlyGuy]

I was looking at that Asetek complete kit for my next build as well. Some of the reviews I read had trouble with the GPU block because the screws stuck out too far below the heatsink and kept it from making complete contact on the GPU. Other than that I think the reviews were very favorable. Oh, that and the ugly reservoir lights!

So google Asetek reviews and see what I mean. Just a heads up for you!

 

[virus5877]

Ok, the asatek stuff is just gonna push my budget too far, so I've decided to go with TT bigwater SE + a vga waterblock, cause i can get all that setup for around ~$140

can someone draw me a rough diagram of how to set the system up?

pump->rad->cpu->vga->res->pump?

or should i split the connections:

pump->rad->cpu->res->pump
->vga->res-^ ?

help!

 

[purelithium]

They will give you setup instructions but I would assume it would look like this:

Pump - Cpu - Radiator - Reservoir - Pump

For your proposed setup I would put it like:

Pump - Cpu - Vga - Radiator - Reservoir - Pump

I'm not sure if that's a common setup, but that's just what makes sense to me. I would think you want the water moving the fastest through the CPU(next to the pump) and slowly through the rad to give the water more time to cool.

Does that make sense?