watercooling or new mobo

[rapigan]

Im thinking about going into watercooling. My budget is about 150$, and i have an asus pk5 pro, q9450, antec 900 etc. I was wondering if i should either get watercooling, or, after noticing that quality watercooling sets are pretty expensive, im wondering if i should get one of 2 other things. The first is a new motherboard that has sli, and the second is more ram amd a sound card. counld i get any help on this? If so, thanks alot.

 

[Conumdrum]

Yea, watercooling done properly is definately in the +$200 range.

New Mobo? Thats a pretty good mobo already, does it OC well? Does your Mobo have digital audio out? No need for a soundcard then, just get a setup that uses dig audio out. I got the Z5500's awesome, great reviews, and down to $200 or so if ya can afford it.

Ram? Sure.

 

[rubix_1011]

Complete agreement with Conumdrum: $200 would be a minimum for almost any watercooling budget, unless you found some great sales at different sites. There are a few other forums that are more directed toward high end OC and cooling; Tom's is more of a generic forum for across-the-board Q/A. Just stay away from kits like the thermaltake bigwater...they really offer poor performance for the price and you would be better off spending an additional $40 to get quality components and DIY. ...Or just getting high quality replacement air coolers instead.

 

[Conumdrum]

Yea $200 or even $250 for decent parts is a starting point.

Koolance, Thermaltake watercooling....please stay away from them no matter what retail wizardry advertising crap you read.

 

[rapigan]

well i already have a zalmen 9700 so i think im set there. I would mainly want a new sound card because i mainly do sound editing and the like and the card thats in my pk5 pro crackles sometimes (i have the lodgitech z2300 speakers so its not those). but if i dont need a sound card, do you know of anything good that i might be able to get with the rest of the money? (someone else is paying so i wanna spend it all )

 

[rubix_1011]

Koolance, Thermaltake watercoolinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_cooling ....please stay away from them no matter what retail wizardry advertising crap you read.

I think you said this quite well...

 

[rapigan]

so does anyone know what i could get other than a sound card? (again, (someone else is paying so i wanna spend it all )

 

[rubix_1011]

A monitor? Hard drive(s)? RAM? A new case with better airflow?