Koolance 1000W vs. DIY

[shk]

First of all, I'm not looking to break any records - I just want the most bang for my buck pc...so as much overclocking as I can do while still staying at an acceptable temperature.

Koolance KIT-1050SL displaces 1000w of heat, costs ~$420 plus tubing and blocks and coolant. That would probably end up a bit over $500. Plus whatever case I choose.

I was just wondering if you guys have any personal experience or data about the cooling potential of such a kit. I haven't seen Koolance mentioned that often here, which makes me think they are either overpriced or underperforming systems.

1) Is there an equal or more powerful solution that I could build?
2) If so, any parts that you can name? (I've written out an extensive comparison list and I will probably refine it further, but just for additional recommendations...)
3) Do you recommend I cool my GPU, over putting a thermalright hr-03 on it?
4) Do you recommend I cool my Northbridge? If not, alternatives? (Is leaving the default heatsink of the evga 680i a bad idea?)

My case is also not definitive. I was considering the Antec P-182 SE (or any P-18#) and the Lian-Li V1200 Plus II, so any recommendations pertaining to these cases, or even others that may be similar, would be a great help.

As for watercooling, I've worked with a few custom kits in the past so I have some experience, but I'm definately no guru.

Sorry if all of this seems a 'bit silly to ask.
Any help would be great, thank you.

 

[SuperFly03]

Well that 1000w is of course with all three fans @ 100% which gets to be rather annoying. In all reality $550 could be spent elsewhere. I really don't think Koolance is worth the money, I wasted $400 on a Koolance adventure and it didn't really get me that far. $75 for top end air will get you 80% of the cooling from that system with respect to the CPU block. I can idle at ~20c and load at 40c with a heavy OC, my processor gave out before my cooling did. I barely touched 55c running 1.55v through my E4300... now that is some serious air cooling.

If you were absolutely in favor of WC then there are some alternatives.

Swiftech MPC655 Pump (Gold Standard)

Swiftech Apogee GTX Extreme CPU block

Thermochill 120.2 Rad

Can't offer a advice on the vid card w/o knowing which exact one you are talking about. You could WC the NB too if you really wanted to. The reservoir and such don't make much difference just choose one you want.

I use the Antec P 182 case and cut out the bottom of the 5 1/4" bay section to make room for my 6" diameter air duct straight to the CPU fan and added a side blow hole for compensating air flow, it works quite well.

What do you want to achieve OC wise? Or is this an overly complex setup to make your rig as silent as possible? The cooling recommendation of the NB and other such components hinge on this answer.

 

[shk]

I can idle at ~20c and load at 40c with a heavy OC, my processor gave out before my cooling did. I barely touched 55c running 1.55v through my E4300... now that is some serious air cooling.

Nice.

If you were absolutely in favor of WC then there are some alternatives.

Swiftech MPC655 Pump (Gold Standard)

Swiftech Apogee GTX Extreme CPU block

Thermochill 120.2 Rad

Is the Apogee GTX better than those expensive innovateks?
Similarly for the pump, how does it compare to the competition? On frozencpu this hydor pump claims to give 3600 L/h (950 gal/h) with the same 10ft of head pressure. Is it also preferred to the AquaXtreme 50Z?

Can't offer a advice on the vid card w/o knowing which exact one you are talking about. You could WC the NB too if you really wanted to. The reservoir and such don't make much difference just choose one you want.

8800 GTS. Koolance had a really nice block for it but I wasn't going to spend $100 on it, lol.

I use the Antec P 182 case and cut out the bottom of the 5 1/4" bay section to make room for my 6" diameter air duct straight to the CPU fan and added a side blow hole for compensating air flow, it works quite well.

That sounds good. Don't they have a fan up top also; did you find that to be not enough?

What do you want to achieve OC wise? Or is this an overly complex setup to make your rig as silent as possible? The cooling recommendation of the NB and other such components hinge on this answer.

I was hoping to get the E6600 to 3.8 ghz or so. Definately a significant overclock, but not so much that I would worry about shortening the cpu's lifespan or something. If it means my cpu will die in 2-3 years then I may as well stay at stock speeds.
But yes at those overclocks I believe I would need NB cooling, correct?

I'd also like to put waterblocks on my hard drives, but I haven't heard of anybody besides koolance having that. I'm constantly running an ftp server, web host, and ~1500 torrents, so my hard drives don't get a break. Or perhaps one of them heatsink hdd coolers would be enough?

 

[cb62fcni]

As superfly pointed out, good aircooling will get you about 80% of the performance of watercooling at a fraction of the cost. That being said, watercooling does give you that extra performance if you absolutely want the best. The Koolance systems are quite capable, and they have definately improved, but they still don't reach the cost/performance of DIY. If you're new to WC, don't mind the extra cost and the somewhat lesser performance, it's a great way to get your feet wet (sorry for the pun). However, if you have some marginal technical knowledge and are willing to do research, DIY remains the way to go.

If you're going for a big overclock, I would definately cool the NB with a waterblock. It's going to bear a lot of the strain of the high FSB. Bear in mind that this will factor into your MB selection, a ton of boards nowadays come with massive heatpipe solutions that cover VRMs, NB, and SB. A simple solution would work best, something like the P35-DS3 or the P5K. Also keep in mind that the VRM's absolutely must be cooled when you crank the Vcore up. Vdroop is a nasty thing, and instability in the VRMs could lead to instability and decreased CPU and MB lifespan. They are normally cooled by spill air from the CPU's HSF, without this being present you need to arrange for some other form of cooling for them.

I personally think WC'ing HDDs is a waste. The blocks use 1/4" tubing which will seriously restrict your flow in the rest of the loop. HDD's generate a lot of heat, but you should be fine with an enclosure solution. I've seen several that have recieved good reviews, shop around. Or, just point a 120mm fan directly at them. My Raptors don't get above 90F, ever.

Any 8800 WBlock will be ~ 100. I'd cool it. Those things dump a ton of heat into your case. Don't get a block JUST for the GPU. Those cards have a ton of heat producing elements besides the GPU, and leaving them to passive cooling could probably wreck the card in a rather short time period. The Koolance block or the DD block are two options, there's others too, just make sure they cool the memory, volt regs, etc. as well as the GPU.

 

[apt403]

If you do go for a regular wc'ing setup, get a D-Tek Fusion. It seems to meet or beat the GTX in most setups, and is cheaper.

 

[shk]

As superfly pointed out, good aircooling will get you about 80% of the performance of watercooling at a fraction of the cost. That being said, watercooling does give you that extra performance if you absolutely want the best. The Koolance systems are quite capable, and they have definately improved, but they still don't reach the cost/performance of DIY. If you're new to WC, don't mind the extra cost and the somewhat lesser performance, it's a great way to get your feet wet (sorry for the pun). However, if you have some marginal technical knowledge and are willing to do research, DIY remains the way to go.

I was concerned about air cooling because my ambient temperatures sometimes reach 90 degrees fahrenheit (32 celsius).

As I said, I have worked with a few custom kits in the past (as well as a number of koolance setups), so I should be able to do the basic stuff.

Furthermore, my case will be surrounded on 5 sides by wood - making air cooling harder. I could drill holes for the intake/outtake fans, though, and perhaps even buy a duct of some sort, if you think that would be a better choice than watercooling.

If you're going for a big overclock, I would definately cool the NB with a waterblock. It's going to bear a lot of the strain of the high FSB. Bear in mind that this will factor into your MB selection, a ton of boards nowadays come with massive heatpipe solutions that cover VRMs, NB, and SB. A simple solution would work best, something like the P35-DS3 or the P5K. Also keep in mind that the VRM's absolutely must be cooled when you crank the Vcore up. Vdroop is a nasty thing, and instability in the VRMs could lead to instability and decreased CPU and MB lifespan. They are normally cooled by spill air from the CPU's HSF, without this being present you need to arrange for some other form of cooling for them.

Could you recommend a really good NB block, as well as something for the vrm?

And is memory cooling as ineffective as I hear it is?

I personally think WC'ing HDDs is a waste. The blocks use 1/4" tubing which will seriously restrict your flow in the rest of the loop. HDD's generate a lot of heat, but you should be fine with an enclosure solution. I've seen several that have recieved good reviews, shop around. Or, just point a 120mm fan directly at them. My Raptors don't get above 90F, ever.

Would it also be bad to have the tubing split, cool two sets of hard drives at once (at 1/4" each) and then merge?
If that's still a bad idea, the 120mm fan doesn't sound too bad. I suppose a nice quiet noctua or something...

Any 8800 WBlock will be ~ 100. I'd cool it. Those things dump a ton of heat into your case. Don't get a block JUST for the GPU. Those cards have a ton of heat producing elements besides the GPU, and leaving them to passive cooling could probably wreck the card in a rather short time period. The Koolance block or the DD block are two options, there's others too, just make sure they cool the memory, volt regs, etc. as well as the GPU.

Meh. I won't be doing much gaming and I don't plan to overclock that sucker, so would a thermalright hr-03 with a good 92mm fan be out of the question?

 

[SuperFly03]

As superfly pointed out, good aircooling will get you about 80% of the performance of watercooling at a fraction of the cost. That being said, watercooling does give you that extra performance if you absolutely want the best. The Koolance systems are quite capable, and they have definately improved, but they still don't reach the cost/performance of DIY. If you're new to WC, don't mind the extra cost and the somewhat lesser performance, it's a great way to get your feet wet (sorry for the pun). However, if you have some marginal technical knowledge and are willing to do research, DIY remains the way to go.

I was concerned about air cooling because my ambient temperatures sometimes reach 90 degrees fahrenheit (32 celsius).

In this case watercooling would not be a bad idea, especially given your intentions for a high OC. On that note, not all E6 series can hit 3.8 though it is achievable. More likely than not you will be able ot hit it on water. To hit 3.8 you will be batting about 420 on the FSB. This in and of itself wouldn't require too much cooling, but given you ambient temp and the fact you already intend to WC the CPU I would definately add it on as you will have the cooling capacity, just place it after the CPU in the cooling loop.

If you're going for a big overclock, I would definately cool the NB with a waterblock. It's going to bear a lot of the strain of the high FSB. Bear in mind that this will factor into your MB selection, a ton of boards nowadays come with massive heatpipe solutions that cover VRMs, NB, and SB. A simple solution would work best, something like the P35-DS3 or the P5K. Also keep in mind that the VRM's absolutely must be cooled when you crank the Vcore up. Vdroop is a nasty thing, and instability in the VRMs could lead to instability and decreased CPU and MB lifespan. They are normally cooled by spill air from the CPU's HSF, without this being present you need to arrange for some other form of cooling for them.

Could you recommend a really good NB block, as well as something for the vrm?

Swiftech NB Cooler

It may seem like I am a Swiftech fanboy but they really do make great stuff and so does DangerDen. I have nothing against DangerDen I just know Swiftech a little better.

And is memory cooling as ineffective as I hear it is?

Pretty damn useless.

I personally think WC'ing HDDs is a waste. The blocks use 1/4" tubing which will seriously restrict your flow in the rest of the loop. HDD's generate a lot of heat, but you should be fine with an enclosure solution. I've seen several that have recieved good reviews, shop around. Or, just point a 120mm fan directly at them. My Raptors don't get above 90F, ever.

Would it also be bad to have the tubing split, cool two sets of hard drives at once (at 1/4" each) and then merge?

You can split the lines but if you are using 1/2" main tubing you are going to run into restriction problems knocking it down to 1/4". As long as the temp is less than 45c on average, temperature won't really cause your drives to fail any faster. In this case I strongly recommend a simple fan.

If that's still a bad idea, the 120mm fan doesn't sound too bad. I suppose a nice quiet noctua or something...

Best idea for that application.

Any 8800 WBlock will be ~ 100. I'd cool it. Those things dump a ton of heat into your case. Don't get a block JUST for the GPU. Those cards have a ton of heat producing elements besides the GPU, and leaving them to passive cooling could probably wreck the card in a rather short time period. The Koolance block or the DD block are two options, there's others too, just make sure they cool the memory, volt regs, etc. as well as the GPU.

Meh. I won't be doing much gaming and I don't plan to overclock that sucker, so would a thermalright hr-03 with a good 92mm fan be out of the question?

You can do that, but with the HR-03 the heat will spill over into the case instead of being ported out as exhaust as with the stock cooler. It is something to consider. If you don't game much then I would probably stick with the stock cooler as the heat generated by the GPU can be significant and the stock coolers really aren't that bad.

If you do go for a regular wc'ing setup, get a D-Tek Fusion. It seems to meet or beat the GTX in most setups, and is cheaper.

This is very possible. I honestly don't know anything about the fusion and as I have said I have nothing against DangerDen. If it is cheaper then by all means go with the Fusion.

On frozencpu this hydor pump claims to give 3600 L/h (950 gal/h) with the same 10ft of head pressure. Is it also preferred to the AquaXtreme 50Z?

I have seen the Hydor pump before but for some reason that ridiculous flow rate concerns me. The pressure has to be pretty high and if you split the lines you will have to be even more careful about restrictions. The pump just strikes a bad nerve but I have 0 evidence to back this up. If anyone has any expereience with this pump please advise.

I know nothing about the AquaXtreme50Z.

I use the Antec P 182 case and cut out the bottom of the 5 1/4" bay section to make room for my 6" diameter air duct straight to the CPU fan and added a side blow hole for compensating air flow, it works quite well.

That sounds good. Don't they have a fan up top also; did you find that to be not enough?

Yes there is a fan on top. Well the problem in my case is that with the intake air being ducted straight to the Ultra 120 Extreme and my 125CFM fan there was no air flow into the rest of the case, especially the NB. I added the side intake to compensate for that lack of air flow. If the air were not ducted then I would not have needed to add that fan, but I was going for the coolest temps possible on the CPU and as you can see I did a pretty darn good job.

 

[cb62fcni]

A wood case? Sounds interesting, let us know how it turns out, I'm thinking about building one myself in the near future. Here's some NB blocks, the swiftech that superfly put up is a good one, but there's also:

New Koolance NB
A whole gaggle of options
Some VRM coolers for ASUS boards

Ok, so there's some extra options, all should perform well for you. However, I'm concerned about your ambient, and the number of components you intend to watercool. You're going to be dumping a ton of heat into your loop as it is, have you put any thought into possibly doing a dual rad/dual pump loop, or simply running multiple loops? It might be a good idea.

I agree with superfly on the RAM cooling thing, same problems with that as with HDD cooling. A good, quiet fan is more than enough.

I also agree that sticking with the stock cooler is probably best. The HR-03 is no doubt a good cooler, but not only is all that heat pumped INTO your case instead of out of it, key components on the board won't be getting sufficient cooling, so ixnay on that idea.

I've heard mixed things about hydor pumps, never used one myself though. Someone on here is bound to know more, or you can troll other forums and see what you can find out.

Hope this helps.