need advise on purchasing a watercooler kit

[arkadom2005]

so my stock cooler sounds like a semitruck in my case when it hits 55c. i need something that is quiet with good performace. i was thinking about the thermaltake big typhoon air cool, but want to consider watercooling. i need advise from someone that actually has watercooling on their cpu right now. how much quieter is it than lets say the big typhoon running its 120mm fan at 1,300 rpms. on paper it says the thermaltake bt is 16dba but who's to believe that. thanks for the help.

 

[NMDante]

I think noise levels all depend on the radiator size, tubing size, and how much airflow your fans are pushing through the radiator at a given speed. I can't really give you a comparasion vs. a big typhoon, since my other systems are running stock coolers, and are pretty quiet to begin with).

I am using the Swiftech H20-120 Premium kit, with 8800GTS water block in the loop. My radiator fan is running around 2k rpm, and you can hear it, but it's not as loud as one might assume. My front fan for my hard drives is probably the noisiest part of my system, but it's a louder type 120mm fan, and doesn't push as much air.

If you get a double size/dual radiator setup, you can probably run 2 low rpm, high CFMs, then it would be reasonably quiet, if not completely silent. If you stick with a single radiator and medium-ish type reservior, then a 120mm with a mid dB level with a good CFM rating will be quiet enough that you can probably hear the CD/DVD drives spin up. Tubing size is important, as well, since a large diameter tube will push more volume through the system, which in theory (my theory) will keep the liquid cool enough that the radiator won't need a high speed, high dB, high CFM fan to cool it. It would need a lower RPM, mid/high CFM fan, which in turn creates less noise. This, of course is negated by adding more cooling blocks in the loop. (ie. a GPU cooler along with CPU cooler)

It's all on how you want to setup the loop, too. Internal or external. An internal loop will be much quieter, since the fan will be enclosed, and the case will muffle out the sound of the fan, some. An external will be a louder, mostly because the fan(s) are outside, and unrestricted.

Water cooling is a nice way to go, but can be expensive, especially if you start cheap, thinking you can just upgrade this and that. You might be able to, but a mid-range kit (around $130-180) would be a much better solution, since they usually have all the parts needed for the initial water cooling loop (reservior>pump>CPU block>radiator). Just remember, that a water cooled system doesn't always mean it's a quieter system. It's quieter because the person made it so, by adjusting the type of fan(s) used to cool the liquid.

Hope this helped a bit. I've been water cooling for about 2 1/2 years, but I don't consider myself an expert. I'm still learning.

Good luck.