Watercooling for my latest build

while i cant give you advice on your watercooling question, i was wondering how much a rig like that ran you?

Oh, it was somewhere in the $4500 range. Some of the components are becoming cheaper by the day though. The CPU is definitely coming down in price, still not cheap, but cheaper than what I paid for it. Only thing that seems to be getting more expensive is the memory.

Hope this helps. Thanks.

You spend over $4K on the rig, so I assume you have the cash. Do you plan to hardcore OC? Any target overclock? Give phasechange a thought?

I do plan to OC, not sure how hardcore it will be for now, certainly don't want to fry a $1k processor just yet. But as time goes by and it's value drops, I'll probably keep pushing it until I get a new processor either because I just want one or I've pushed it too far  

I haven't looked at phasechange, are they considered a high-end chiller type of product? I'll have to google them. I just don't want to buy junk.

Thanks.

Visit www.xtremesystems.org

There are several people running phasechange. Im sure you can find the information on how they work on google.

Water cooling has alot of benefits, the greatest of which is the ability it gives you to overclock above and beyond what any kind of air cooling you do - as long as you have the right components.

The first thing you need to decide is what it is you wish to water cool - CPU? GPU? NB Chipset? HDD?

There are so many ways to impliment water cooling. So, you need to decide. Once you've decided what your ultimate goal is, then you need to determine a budget. I'll say this from experience, though, if you have premium computer components and wish to properly water cool them - say the CPU and GPU - then, to truly have the best parts, it would be to your advantage to go the Do-It-Yourself (DIY) route as it will allow you to mix and match the best parts from the various companies. This, however, will also increase the cost somewhat. For a good CPU/GPU setup (with a strong pump, good rad, coolant and parts) it could end up costing you in the neighborhood of around $300. The benefit of taking this route, though, is that the kit can travel with you as you upgrade and will serve you for many years - chaning only when you wish to add or redesign the loop itself.

I wouldn't recommend phase change, though. I am not denying its results but, hase change is not very practical. It is highly selective and, to date, has only shown the capability of cooling the CPU and the GPU (at tremendous expense). It cannot cool any other components. Watercooling is the most felxible and least expensive and can even allow you to integrate TEC cooling (which is what I use for my CPU).

So, for now, decide on what you want to cool and what budget you have in mind.

And if you have a whole lot of money, you can phasechange and watercool! WOOT! 8O

Thanks for the feedback everyone. I guess I'm leaning towards the watercooling and that's why I was sort of leaning towards the Koolance system. I like the fact that I can cool the CPU, GPU, Memory, HDD, etc.... it's such an open system that if there is a need to cool it, some sort of cooler will be devised for it.

I'll probably be doing this soon as the two GPU's in SLI are already causing over-heating in the box after they've run for a fair amount of time. I was playing Oblivion and starting seeing defects in the video and had to shut down for a while. So ... this will probably go up in terms of priority for me.

Thanks again!

The bottleneck for OCing here would be your motherboard. Idk how far your mobo will let you OC but surely it wont be that far that the cooling will become a problem. Even that the unlocked multipliers of the X6800 might help.
A Scythe Ninja or Infinity paired a high RPM (<1600) count would serve you well.

Look, with the equipment you've got, I'd recommend something a little bit less restrictive than a Koolance kit. Sure it has alot of bling and multiple water blocks but it uses a small ID tubing (1/4 or 3/8) and the pump in the unit is relatively weakish. Do yourself a favor and look into Do-It-Yourself (DIY - as in building it yourself) and 1/2 ID equipment - especially if you are going SLI. You'll need as much high water flow as you can get.