Hey all, I was just wondering if anyone has any good recommendations for a few things.....
I am looking at getting water cooling for my PC, but I'm not sure whether to do it myself or get a case with it pre-installed.... so....

1) Can anyone recommend a good water cooling kit (one you put together yourself)
2) Or a good pre-installed water cooled case

-If you don't know any exact kits or cases... It would be helpful if you could just post some good brands (trying to look for ones that are quiet, but are really good coolers)

Thanks

I'd never recommend one fo those cases that came with a cooling loop already installed. It is not that the equipment is not good but, as it laters turns out, you will find alot of it substandard to what you really want to accomplish and you'll end up replacing most (if not all) of the parts involved.

That being said, deciding on a water cooling setup is alot like building a PC, you base it on what you plan on running. If you are going to aggressively o'clock then you will need to decide what components (i.e. cpu, gpu, memory, etc). If you only plan to mildly o'clock than what components? If you don't plan to o'clock at all that will determine a few things as well. Do you run SLI or Crossfire? You getting the picture here?

You will find out that if you stick to watercooling, D.I.Y. (do-it-yourself) is the way that you will end up heading. This is because no one company makes the best of everything you would want in a loop.

You owe it to yourself to research the parts so that you will be better informed. You can get by cooling a CPU and GPU with "decent" parts approaching $300. But, to use the "top-of-the-line" components it will approach $400 (for a CPU and GPU setup with prime rad(s) and support material - non-conductive coolants, coolsleeves, etc.).

As you can see, getting into watercooling can end up becoming a substantial investment. You can buy some good kits (like some made by DD or swiftech) that would do good and are less expensive but, again, they are only going to use company parts.

So, my first advice is, decide what you plan on doing with your rig. Also, take into consideration your enviroment. Does it get very hot where your computer is? is the area where your computer sits condusive to good air circulation? Mainly, think about o'clocking and what you plan on doing concerning that. It will be alot easier to recommend things once we've found out what you plan on doing. It would help to list what your rig has in the way of components.

I'm probably going to "mildly" overclock, probably no SLI, also, I don't mind if the water cooling is external or internal.
I had a couple kits in mind from Zalman that I thought looked good and have heard good reviews about....Let me know what you think of them

http://www.zalman.com/ENG/product/ [...] sp?idx=183

http://www.zalman.com/ENG/product/ [...] sp?idx=184

Here's a link to the review of the Reserator 2.

http://www.virtual-hideout.net/rev [...] ndex.shtml

I'm not very aware of that other kit.

If you are just going to mildly o'clock and you are not going SLI or crossfire than you can decide if you want to go "top-of-the-line" or a little cheaper. Tehre's no need to cool the NB or any memory of even the HDDs.