watter cool my 3850?

[Sharft6]

soon i'm getting water cooling and i'm heading for the thermaltake big water 735 cause their nice n cheap and i already have a tt armor jr.

i have an amd 5600+ and i plan to oc that as much as i can and i was wondering if it is worth adding gpu block (one of those all in 1 ones) and some vram & mofset heatsinks for my radeon 3850.

there are three outcomes i can think of and i'm not sure which is most likely
1. i would be able to oc my cpu & gpu lots
2. the loop would be under too much load so the gpu would be colder with stock cooling
3. the 3850s stock cooling is enough for it to reach its max oc

i want both a quiet and cold machine but cooling>noise lvl. currently the cpu fan is the loudest thing in my case and every other fan is about the same volume i think (hard to tell).

dang it why did i have to make an error in the heading lol

 

[TonyL222]

With only a single 120mm rad, I don't see the Big Water being able to effectively cool much more than the cpu. If you want to cool the cpu and vga cards, I'd either stick with air (top tiered coolers are very good), or be prepared to spend at least $300 (for both cpu and vga cooling) for a great water cooling system that beats air.

You could get a very good and expandable WC system for around $200 for cpu cooling only, and add the vga later. If you want a kit, here's a couple of nice ones:

Swiftech Apex Ultra H20-220:
http://www.jab-tech.com/Swiftech-Apex-Ultra-H20-220-With-Apogee-GT-pr-3198.html

Petra'sTech CoolKit Basic - Rev.2
http://www.petrastechshop.com/pecoba.html

If you want it all to fit inside your case, then these would be good options, but can handle the cpu only. The above 2x120mms might fit inside the Armor Jr, but I'm not sure:

http://www.jab-tech.com/Swiftech-H20-120-Compact-CPU-Liquid-cooling-Kit-pr-3862.html
http://www.petrastechshop.com/pecoli.html
http://www.dangerden.com/store/product.php?productid=184&cat=65&page=1

 

[Sharft6]

roger that i'll probably just buy the 735 (cause i know it fits my case) then buy an extra radiator when i get round to it.

could i buy any old radiator and add it to the loop? if so what would be recommended?

 

[phreejak]

You should do your research on any kit that you might purchase so that you will be able to tell how much into the future it will provide you with service as you upgrade.

Now, looking at the 735, the first thing you should pay attention to is the pump. The pump that comes with the 735 is weak by pump standards as it only has a flowrate of 400 lph - that amounts to 105gph - not very strong. That being said, asking it to power coolant through two or three waterblocks is really asking alot - especially with the standard tubing size at 3/8ID.

Now, I am pointing this out to you because you said, earlier, that you plan on doing some heavy o'clocking. Well, I suppose it depends on how serious you are about watercooling here. With a pump like that I wouldn't have the loop with much more than two waterblocks - and if you add a second rad that is going to kill the flowrate evern more. For a serious o'clocker, I'd have this kit doing nothing more than being a single block dedicated cooling solution for either the CPU or GPU. It just isn't powerful enough to do some serious o'clocking on for more than a single block.

 

[TonyL222]

roger that i'll probably just buy the 735 (cause i know it fits my case) then buy an extra radiator when i get round to it.

Here's my honest honest opinion of the Big Water - if you just want to say you have a water cooled cpu, then it'll be okay. However, at least a couple of reviews conclude that the cooling results won't be much (if at all) better than air:

http://www.cdrinfo.com/Sections/Reviews/Specific.aspx?ArticleId=21827&PageId=5
http://hardwarelogic.com/news/137/ARTICLE/1405/4/2007-10-31.html

*EDIT*: sorry these links review the 760i - a couple of generations up from the 735

A second rad won't help much - plus you'd have to mount it somewhere. If you want something that fits easily into your case, plus has some expandability, I'd go with either the Swiftech H20-120 compact (1x120 rad), or one of the kits with the 2x120 rad.

The compact H20-120 will fit completely inside your case. The 1x120 rad would replace your rear exhaust 120mm fan. You don't have to worry about where to place a pump or reservoir in your case as they are self contained in the water block and reservior. Only 8 screws to mount - plus you'd save two 5.25 front bays. But to eventually include your vga in the loop, you'd need a bigger rad.

With one of the 2x120 rad kits, you'd probably have to mount the rad on the rear of your case. But it's easy to do with the rad box (included in the kits I linked). If you went with the H20-220, you again solve the problem of where to put the pump and reservoir. With a 2x120 rad you can add (a single) vga cooling to the loop. I wouldn't add any more than that, though. Beyond that you'd need a bigger rad, which would probably mean a bigger case (or non attached rad).

If you're set on the Big Water, then yes it will get you into water cooling. Again, this is just my opinion. Use or discard, and I ain't mad attcha