Unsure about WC systems.

masterec

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Im fairly new to water cooling. Have read alot of articles tho but im determined to go for a ready water cooling system. Not secure enough to build one of my own. So it has come down to this:

TT Bigwater, any of them. They dont look too promising tho >.>

TT Rhythm CL-W0042. This one is a fairly good looking system with a somewhat good radiator with 2 12cm fans.

Zalman Reserator 1 plus or V2. Fairly good passive systems, not sure about them tho, cus of they are passive, will they be able to cool my system?



My system specs would be:
M3A78-t
Phenom II 940
2x 4850 crossfires (putting one of them on the WC as well. the second one is a VaporX so its quiet.
Corsair 850W.

Any idea on what I should get? Im doing some overclocking. Processor @ 3.7 atm but the CPNS 9500 cant handle it as well as I want it to.
 

rubix_1011

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None of the above.

Swiftech, DangerDen, EK, D-tek.

I know that Conumdrum will step in at any minute and drop in his copy and paste links (which you really need to read through, BTW)

Stay away from Thermaltake Bigwater, Zalman Reserator and most people will also say, avoid Koolance.
 

masterec

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Oh okay :) thanks. getting 43/57 idle/load is killing me.

Oh and just to complete my original post, Im planning on putting the CPU one GPU and NB on water cooling.
 

rubix_1011

Contributing Writer
Moderator
You can do that in one loop; it is how mine is set up. Just make sure you get good blocks, pump and enough radiator to cool those components. Typically, rule of thumb is to allocate 2x120mm radiator surface area per CPU and GPU. Your northbridge doesn't have to be in the loop, but if you really want it to be, you can. A decent northbridge heatsink/fan is fine in most cases.
 

masterec

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Bigwater I can understand cus its just shitty...
Reserator is a passive system and will never live up to a fan cooled one, even the optional fan kit to it is severely gimped.

what about the TT Rhythm CL-W0042 tho? got 2x12 cm fans onboard... any word on that?
 

rubix_1011

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Moderator
Its a lot easier than you might think, as long as you do a little research first. I would trust anything I put together than trust something a machine or a kid in Thailand glued together.

To be honest, you are far better off finding the components you want. Plus, its a lot easier to manage that way...you don't have those 'boxes' or enclosures to hide stuff. Get tubing, good clamps and check your fittings. Leak test for at least 12-24 hours.
 

masterec

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Well lets say I was compelled to get a ready system. whitch one would you suggest in that case? if we are keeping it withing somewhat ok prices. say 300# 200€ cap.
Even tho I do know you hate ready systems and would never get one :p
 

rubix_1011

Contributing Writer
Moderator
Truthfully, I think you are better off not getting one, than getting one and regretting the purchase later. Save some money and look into some good air coolers...you will probably be happier than with one of those boxed TT kits.
 

Conumdrum

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Here are links to really busy forums with strong watercooling members. Look at some of the rigs and read stickies etc.

For you to cool what you listed, using good stuff (not all super top of the line, but great stuff) your looking at $400 easy. I spend $600 to do my CPU/GPU/NB about 2 years ago. One CPU Block, one GPU block, one NB block, one pump, one rad, hose, fittings etc. I went top notch.

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/index.php? Not a noob site, but great stickies
http://www.ocforums.com/ My fav, good peeps, know their stuff, less hardcore
http://www.skinneelabs.com/MartinsLiquidLab/
http://www.over-clock.com/ivb/inde [...] opic=20277 A GREAT Europe site
http://www.overclock.net/water-cooling/
http://translate.google.com/transl [...] n&ie=UTF-8 Info on rad testing
http://skinneelabs.com/
http://forums.extremeoverclocking.com/showthread.php?t=282232

Stores
http://www.dangerden.com/index.php [...] e&Itemid=1
http://www.petrastechshop.com/
http://www.sidewindercomputers.com/
http://www.jab-tech.com/
http://www.performance-pcs.com
 


I admit I don't know a whole lot about water cooling. But isn't flow rate meaningless to a extent? The faster the pump the less heat the water picks up from the block, and the less time it spends in the radiator. Of course the little time spent in the rad isn't a bit deal because they're is so little heat to dissipate. So unless you have a multiblock loop (CPU, GPU and chipset) isn't such a high flow rate meaningless?
 

Conumdrum

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Not at all. Most if not all modern CPU blocks work on the inpingment cooling method. Water gets poursed into the block at a relaivly high rate and swirls in crazy random vorticies. This allows the most molecules possible to touch the hot heatsink surface (pins, channels, walls all designed for one thing). If you have a low flow rate the water will flow like a lazy river, not a wild rapid. We want the rapid. We also need good head presure to push the water hard enough to cause inpingment. Modern quality blocks are a TON more restrictive than a TT CPU block.

The inside of a TT kit has no inpingment channels or pins, just cheap passages, thus it's gonna suck at drawing heat out, thus why not toss a cheapo pump in there too?

There is a reason any TT water kit is hundreds less than a good kit. It's junk.

Flow rate in a rad means nothing. The water as it circulates will cool remove heat to a stable temp throught the loop. It's called the Delta T. BTW, TT rads are very very poor heat removers, poor quality of materials, channel design, etc etc etc.
 

rubix_1011

Contributing Writer
Moderator
The main issue that people fail to realize is that with good watercooling, you don't have large spikes in temps, especially from boot up to several hours later. Sure, the water is cold to start with, but once you reach operating temps, its all about radiator/fan performance, block design and your pump. The whole point is to create as much surface area (hence the impingements inside blocks) as well as wide channels to give coolant the ability to absorb heat. There is no 'super heated water' in a cooling loop...it would severely defeat the purpose. If you are generating more heat watts than you can remove, your cooling design serves no purpose.