Thermaltake's Bigwater 745?!?!?

[Apex]

OK,

So I am kind of interested in getting a water cooling unit eventually and I was wondering if you think Thermaltake's Bigwater 745 would be a good kit for overclocking and keeping low temps.

Is it worth going to water cooling?!?

Thoughts please,

Apex

 

[WOWchamp]

Its not worth it to go into liquid unless you jump right into the deep end of the pool. The Bigtyphoon and the 9500 perform on par with your cheaper liquid systems, are alot cheaper and require a ton less maintence.

So unless your willing to dump over 300$ and cool your VGA along with it then dont bother with liquid.

And im not sure about the 745 but I know the BigWater SE has condensers instead of radiatiors.. big mistake.

Go air, its not worth it unless you have tons of cash to blow and wish to oc that extra 200-300mhz

 

[dustin1300]

THATS THE WHOLE POINT OF OCing.....that extra 300 MHZ is what we want for the cash.....The thermaltake bigwater 745 is great and I only layed down about $160 for it....

 

[bluntside]

TT 745, great cooling system, My Bro's got one, and hes really using it to its full potential, The problem is, if you've got deep pockets, do it, if you dont, total waste of money, especially if you dont have a really high end rig. Sure it looks nice but its got a price to pay. One shouldnt venture lightly in the world of watercooling, so if you do get one, be ready for problems you might face if its your first time at liquid cooling :twisted:
-Good Luck- :twisted:

 

[dustin1300]

I agree with you but my BW745 kit was the first one I've used and it was very easy to follow.....so far no probs and one thing that I might advise is to get some coolant that is not conductive.....because the one that comes with the kit is conductive after it is ran through the system for about 3-4 weeks.....Xoxide.com has some good water coolants that are not conductive if your looking....

 

[Akrita]

I am using the First version of BigWater (BW) for a year and a half now.
All I have to say is ... awsome.. Let the numbers do the talking.
The last PC was a prescot 3.2 was running on air 53C on normal use and like 68 @ load.
With BW drop down to 35C and 42C (BF2 load)
Ambient temps was normal to high 28 - 35C
That was the past, now I am have an opteron 170 2GHz running @ 2.6 (with BW) here are the numbers.
CPU 30C
motherborad 33C
at load CPU goes 38C.
One more detail..... I have the radiator is mounted outside of the case

I am really happy with the BW, It cost not alot and do its job.
Make sure to check the fluid level every month cause its evaporate little bit (no leaking)
and yes my english are no good

 

[RichPLS]

I have the BigWater SE and they ROCK. Great price (<$100) and excellent quality.

I plan on getting the 745 soon for another build.

IMO, the BigWater series are the best buy in watercooling compared to any other coolers, considering price/performance/quality!

Great hardware, and excellent leakproof connectors, This kit is NOT just for beginners!!

 

[MasterLee]

2 or 3 hundred MHz , now that's funny.
You can get that by fanning your computer with a magazine.

 

[dustin1300]

If you would actually read the whole forum you moron you would realize I was making a comment back to the second reply saying its not worth the money for the 200-300 mHZ boost....more than that you can go ahead and use your hand fan masterLee....all while I use my water cooling.....not everyone can have deep pockets can they?

 

[rodney_ws]

I just finished installing my Big Water 745 yesterday so here's what I can tell you... please keep in mind I got an upgraded case at the same time... (Kandalf)

My OC'd X2-4400 (2.6 GHz) idled at 40-44C... and that was with a ThermalTake XP120 with a 120 mm Stealth fan... maxing out both cores using CPU Burn-in would push the processor above 65 C and the system would crash. I had to run the AC in my room just to make Oblivion work and even then it would occasionally overheat...

With the 745... I've idled as low as 25C (early morning when my room was cool) and my average idle temperature is around 32C... using the same test with CPU Burn-in (running 2 instances because I have a dual core CPU) I reach 46 C after about 10 minutes and at that point it stabilizes... a HUGE improvement over my previous setup. A large part of this is the BigWater 745... I was under the impression my new case would have room internally for the larger radiator... WRONG... 120 MM X 240 MM will not fit comfortably in any case. As-is I'm happy with the way it works.

 

[RichPLS]

So thumbs up on 745?

I was thinking the twin rad could fit maybe in the top drive bay...

 

[dustin1300]

Definately thumbs up on the BW 745 but like Rodney I was thinking I'd get it inside my case....WRONG TOO.....Two 120mm fans are larger than you think once you go to put it in the case...I might think this would work with a real large case from thermaltake because you could probably mount the dual radiators inside but not on a normal case that is not server size....I HIGHLY RECOMMEND!!!!

 

[MasterLee]

You dull witted slug, it was a joke
Don't miss this week's appointment, you got some issues.

 

[dustin1300]

I wont be, I look forward to these appointments every week....its the only time I can ever really get in touch with reality....

 

[rodney_ws]

Thumbs up on the 745... definitely.

At the lowest fan setting, the smaller radiator is relatively silent... the dual fan radiator only has one fan setting it is almost completely silent.

During this upgrade I also added a X-Fi and now I'm actually able to hear sounds that I wouldn't have heard over my conventionally cooled case.

I spotted one location that would have housed the dual fan radiator internally, but I didn't have easy/fast access to a metal fabrication shop and didn't figure it was worth it. Outside of the case is fine.

My particular kit did have a defective o-ring that caused a leak on the exterior radiator... a quick trip to Wal-Mart for some sealant solved that. This was my first attempt at water cooling and I'm definitely impressed... the directions could have been better, but a little common sense gets you through the tricky parts.

Is it worth the money? Maybe... I bought an X2-4400 that's running at FX-60 speeds... there's still a good $500+ difference between those two processor... sure the FX-60 would OC higher, but then again my 745 didn't cost $500 either. It's a fun/satisfying project and it's really hard to put a price on that.

 

[rodney_ws]

I have the BigWater SE and they ROCK. Great price (<$100) and excellent quality.

I plan on getting the 745 soon for another build.

IMO, the BigWater series are the best buy in watercooling compared to any other coolers, considering price/performance/quality!

Great hardware, and excellent leakproof connectors, This kit is NOT just for beginners!!

No kit is leak-proof... mine wasn't. Nothing major... it is worth noting that the 745 kit's liquid DOES conduct electricity and extreme care should be used... my leak was external (thank god!) and was promptly resolved by me... no reason to send back an awesome water cooling kit over a $.01 o-ring.

 

[dustin1300]

I had the same problem with the o-ring on the outside radiator but not a big deal...but one thing I would recommend doing is just putting the water cooling kit in and just run it for a day or so without MB, Video card, and etc in.....just in case.....and just short the ps (13th and 14th pin on atx) with a paperclip and let it rip....also need a flow meter to make sure flow is going good (which I havent yet bought....)!!!!!!

 

[rodney_ws]

Without bubbles in the line (there shouldn't be ANY) it is impossible to tell if the water is flowing... touching the pump reveals a slight vibration... that's the only clue it's actually working. I'm not sure I'll be getting a flow meter.

 

[dustin1300]

I'm on the fence about the water flow meter because my temperature monitors will be a good enough indicator as to if it is not flowing....and rodney is right, you cannot even tell it is working except right when you start up the system for the first time, air bubbles eventually all go away and you can't tell at all if the system is functioning, that is except for the extremely cool cpu....

 

[gudodayn]

Any average water cooling system will mostly be able to compete with high end heatsink + 7200rpm fan. On idle, they will probably show no difference in temperature but under load is where the performance difference comes in.

You have all these review sites that gives you heatsink performances that are just as good as water cooling rigs........unless you have PC parts sitting on desks in a lab like theirs and airconned to a constant temperature like they do, I doubt you'd get the same result.
The same goes for water cooling systems but the difference wont be that big as water cooling systems are not affect as much as air cooled heatsinks.

I had the first generation of Bigwater cooling and before that I was using Thermalright XP90C + 7200rpm fan........I switched to the water cooling kit at first to lower the noise. At idle, there isnt much difference but under load, its a different story. Watercooled, temps would only rise 3~5 degrees or so under load, the heatsink would rise as much as 12 degrees underload. And with watercooling, there's a lot less noise compared to the fan+heatsink combo.

All this is not to say that heatsinks are no good, but you get what you pay for........watercooling systems are more expensive but they do a better job at cooling your CPU.

Overclock 2~300MHz more just by fanning with a magazine.........wonder if you to go a special school to learn that........kinda hard when you want to play games and fan at the time...........even if you get a household fan blowing directly into your case, I'd like to see you overclock another 2~300MHz on your CPU using heatsink + fan