Be Honest, Have i wasted my money?

[kolibasa]

The system:

AThlon 64 (753?, not 939) 3200. Not OC'd
2 gig Ram
160gig 7200 rpm WD HD
120gig 7200 rpm WD HD
GeForce 6800 GS 256mb

The Case
Thermaltake Aguilar (Got it yesterday)

A few weeks ago I purchased a Thermaltake Bigwater SE from Frys for 110$. Figuring that was a good price for a water cooling system

Last week I purchased a Thermaltake Waterblock for my HDD. It is used on my 160gig (main HD)

Using the program system view here is waht my computer is running at.

CPU: 38c / 101f
SYS: 32c / 90f
HD0: 34c / 94f << 160
HD1: 31c / 88f << 120

The case is set up as follows.

Radiator replaced rear fan as the exhaust.
120 gig HD is mounted in the provided slots on the bottom in front of the 120mm intake fan.

My 5.25 drives are as follows. Top to Bottom

Resevior w/ pump
nothing
CDRW
HDD Waterblock

My first question is. Why is it that my 120 w/o the waterblock is running cooler than the 160 w/ the waterblock. Is the water block just that worthless? Or does the fact that its my main HD make that big of a difference?

2nd question is, is my system running to hot still? I was expecting alittle cooler.

3rd, I was thinking about adding a Blackice Extreme 2 to the bottom of my case, with 2 120mm fans blowing up. (there are holes at the bottom of the case, and the case has feet). Would this be a wise move?

4th, I was thinking about adding a 2nd pump, just to ease the load on my current pump. This wouldnt require a very power ful pump would it?

5th, Will my setup be able to handle a VGA block.

6th, Any suggestions, or comments on cooling my case, and making the best of what i got?

 

[CptCpu]

I will be honest and I will say that I think you did wate your money on the water cooling. Regular cooling via fans would have been fine. One question why on earth did you go with the 754 platform with AM2 prices so cheap? If your not planing on doing any major upgrades like the cpu, then the system will be fine for a while.

 

[ShadowdogKGB]

nope. unless you paid like a 1000 bucks or something.

 

[Dante_Jose_Cuervo]

Well before I make my judgement, what do you use your system for? Is it for gaming? Is it for office work? Is it just as a basic pc that's just there for personal entertainment like music and photos and stuff? It's really hard to say if I don't know what you're using it for.

 

[kolibasa]

I actualy just came back to add those comments.

I use this for everything. But nothing major

The most intense game I have been playing is WoW.

My sisters use it for internet, I use it for internet.


Another reason I got the SE was because its an internal system. Which is what I want.
I bought a the Aguilar because w/ my old case I had to mount the Radiator outside the case. Which looked tacky
(the computer is inthe desk (the little spotmade for it, the box place) in the corner of the room, so you cant exactly see the computer).

I have always wanted a water cooling system, and this gives it to me.

I do Overclock my Video card.
And I would like to overclock my CPU slightly.. but I dont think my Mobo will let me. and ECS cheap piece of.. you know waht.


My biggest thing after reading on the forums, is should I dump the HDD water block? I think it looks cools, but i dont want my pump dieing.

So now my 2 biggest things.

2nd pump? what would you reccomend?
Will 2nd RAdiator help?

 

[TSIllusion]

Heres the truth: YOUR COMPUTER ROCKS! *sry, that was just a lie*. you just wasted w/e money on ur computer, i dont know what u were trying to do.

1. Water cooling for what? a 3200 thats not OCED? come on, whats next?
2. Water cooling your HDD? what are u doing with ur hdd? come on, no one really needs a watercooled HDD.. tats just sad.
3. Too hot? you wanna get it cooler? fine, underclock it, and not run anything.
4. 2nd pump for watercooling? how bout this, save up money for a REAL system.
5. if ur gonna get a waterblock for ur hdd or w/e, dont waste ur money anymore, ur FIRST waterblock should of been a VGA block for ur gfx instead of a HDD.
6. are you trying to make an ultimate cooled computer? cause if u are, just stick it into the fridge plz kthx.

i mean, plz think b4 building a system... what do you wanna do with it and how much u actually willing to spend.

a 100$ cooling system for a 500$ computer is retarded.

 

[kolibasa]

wow
*sigh

 

[Dante_Jose_Cuervo]

Well if you're just doing average work with this then no, I wouldn't say you've wasted your money. It looks like a pretty solid system with plenty of storage space and overall power. For a second pump... have you looked at anything from koolance? They have some pretty good equipment and give nice flow. As for a second radiator... it probably won't do much as far as heat dissipation goes. I mean from what it looks like it seems that the problem is more the Big Water pump that you got just isn't giving you the circulation you need, but I'm not completely sure. If you want you can get a second radiator but I'd lean more towards a pump with increased raw throughput.

 

[ryokinshin]

u dont need watercooling unless ur overclocking........ or ur case is a closed shell, like those crappy retail ones

yes u hav wasted ur money, unless u use all this stuf in a new rig, the money spent could hav gotten u a better comp

is ur card pcie or agp?

 

[TSIllusion]

sigh? wtf?

so u do know that u just wasted ur money. come on, theres been so much news and stuff around and other pple building budget computers... u should of checked those instead of buying random parts and putting them together.

also: if ur gonna make a "normal" use comp, u dont need 2 hdds, u dont need water cooling, u dont need 2 gb ram on a 3200...

ur money could of been used for a better computer.

 

[Dante_Jose_Cuervo]

Well think about it. Sure he probably has more HDD space than he needs and since he's not doing anything heavy he probably doesn't need water-cooling, but that really isn't the point. The point is that his system runs and from what it looks like it seems that this was just a little project, nothing over-the-top, just something for fun. I mean he did say he wanted a water-cooling kit and hey, he got one. Could he have gotten a better comp for the money? Dur, but does it really matter? NO! I mean how many gamers spend craploads of money on a computer that's purely geared towards gaming? A lot, they spend thousands of dollars on expensive equipment for their overclocked CPUs and GPUs that run about as hot as a Ferrari. So my point is, no he didn't waste his money. To reiterate what I've said like a million times already, he just went with average parts for an average computer. Also, water-cooling extends the life of your hardware. Less heat= less wear.

 

[kolibasa]

I do enough Photoshop work, and downloading to use up all my HD space
I got the 160g for 30$. so I figured i'd add it to the system.
I actualy just added it yesterday when I rebuilt the system.
I decided it was time for a clean start, before teh 120g was my main.

This system is over a year old, and I spent 600$ on it (upgraded the ram from 1g, for 70$ a few months ago) and the Video card from a piece of grap Geforece 4mx.

The card is AGP because I dont have PCIE.

I do plan on taking this cooling system and carying it over when I build a new system. But I dont see that being any time soon, since this system runs everything just tfine.

 

[tearblues]

I've always thought if you bought a good cooling system you can reuse it later in a better system and put bad cooling into your older system just a suggestion

 

[yourmothersanastronaut]

Looks ok. Although, I would suggest taking your HDs out of the loop. The reason your CPU temp is higher is because they're adding more heat than the radiator can handle. And since you have more parts in the loop, your pump has to work harder to push water through - which could decrease the life of the H20 system.

And HDs don't really need liquid cooling, anyway - even 15K RPM SCSI drives will be fine if they have air moving around them. Hard drives have built-in heatsink/heatspreaders.

You'll notice a big drop in temperature if you only watercool your CPU and GPU.

 

[halcyon]

If your rig brings you enjoyment and you've learned something from setting up an H20 cooling system then of course you didn't waste your money. People spend like $4-5K on machines to play video-games, and that's a serious market...yet nothing more than sheer entertainment. I'm glad you've built a tight rig that you like, listen to those here that are giving you good advice on tuning it and feel sorry for (or pray) for anyone that gives you grief. ...cause they're just scoundrels. Sheeesh!!!

Does an audiophile waste their $$ when they spend $10K on gear that bring them closer to their music? Some sick twisted ignorant people might, indeed, think so. ...but true audiophiles know better.

Enjoy your rig dude!

...but you prolly don' need HD H20 cooling, that might, indeed, be overkill.