Worth buying this case?

[szala11]

Shall i buy this case with built-in watercooler?

http://www.thermaltake.com/product/Chassis/fulltower/armorPlus/vh600lbws.asp

How good is this system? Is it more expensive if i buy the water cooling kit seperately?

I dont need extreme watercooling, just for better cooling than air cooling.

Thanks

 

[szala11]

Help me plz! Shall i buy water block separately or is the embedded one good? Can I attach RAM and Chipset and VGA cooler on that wc system?

 

[beru]

Stay away from watercooling kits from thermaltake !!!!! as much as I like Thermaltake's cases as far as watercooling goes they make the worst kits on the market!(I tried and it was a total disaster cost me alot of $$$) if you must by a kit then get one by Innovatek ....still the best kits are custom build

 

[szala11]

Why is thermaltake bad? What happened with your kit?

 

[sailer]

For a different perspective, and I have a similar Thermaltake case but without the water cooling, I think the case is all right, just expensive for what you get. The stock Thermaltake water cooling will do a mediocre job at cooling. In fact, a few of the top end air type heatsinks, such as the TRUE, will be better and cheaper. If you want good, effective water cooling, you're going to have to buy a good kit and that costs a fair amount.

 

[gingerbee]

I have armor lcs overclocked e7200@3.8ghz room temp of 26 c never goes above 55 c so far it not a bad case and cooling there is better for sure if you no what your doin

 

[bobbknight]

To get water cooling that beats one of the good heat pipe HSF's you need to hit danger den and get the 4200 kit expect to drop $300 or more on it.
You will find that the Thermatake case and water cooler will only equal a good HSF. I have an Antec 900 and an Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro. The only time my Q6600 went above 50c was when the AC was off and the ambient temp got up to 30c.

 

[szala11]

So is it better if i order the same case just without the water system, and mount eg. an ASUS Silent Knight II? The stock case without wc is around 200$ with wc is around 300$.

 

[Silverion77]

Thermaltake WCing is a recipe for disaster, dont get the WCing

Get a nice Air cooler instead (Xigmatek S1283 Sunbeam Core Contact)

 

[szala11]

I understand, but why is it disaster? What happned? Flooded the whole computer?

Also what high/performance HSF do you recommend?

 

[grieve]

No Kits for water cooling, period!

Do your research; it will cost about $350 to make a good water cooling unit. I strongly suggest going that route.

Thermochill Pa 120.3 radiator
Swiftech MCP655 12V Industrial Water Cooling Pump
Masterkleer Pvc Tubing 7/16IN ID 5/9IN OD 10 Feet
Swiftech APOGEE GTZ or D-TEK Customs Fuzion water blocks.

 

[sailer]

I understand, but why is it disaster? What happned? Flooded the whole computer?

Also what high/performance HSF do you recommend?

Here's a nice list of heatsinks. I have a TRUE with one fan, though it can be fitted with two fans. The Noctua heatsink, which the article describes, is a very good unit as well. I have a Noctua fan on my TRUE and I enjoy the quiet very much. There are other good ones on the list, so take your pick as to what's available and in your price range.

http://www.anandtech.com/casecoolingpsus/showdoc.aspx?i=3268&p=7

 

[dobby]

i would recommend a CM 690 and you put your on water cooling parts together or get a good water cooling kit.

 

[Proximon]

You listen

It's not the opinion of a few posters, it's the entire watercooling community that will agree on this. There may be a few "kits" out there that are good, but they are just collections of parts you could buy separately. None of the others are worthwhile and can leak easily besides.

 

[szala11]

Allright, I listen to ya all, and stay with a better HSF like Thermalright or CoolerMaster. Thanks for the heads up!

 

[szala11]

BTW I dont like the many cables in a WCed system. It blocks airflow through the system...

 

[Silverion77]

??

WCing doesnt rly have that many cables (except for fans on the radiators) or do u mean the tubing?
And if it blocks airflow, its not rly that bad cause ur watercooling the system

 

[szala11]

Yeah i mean the tubing. Sometimes there is a real mess inside a case which prevents one from performing minor repairs inside a case...

 

[grieve]

Yeah i mean the tubing. Sometimes there is a real mess inside a case which prevents one from performing minor repairs inside a case...

If you build the system like a noob....

Took me forever to get my water in, a whole weekend in fact because I took the time to drill holes and run tubing/wires proper.

I have seen kits on NCIX (the NCIX special that are decent, but sometimes they suck and there never awesome). If your going to go the water route build from scratch.

 

[faster3200]

I agree with grieve, it is better to do the research and get all the parts that are the best. If you buy a kit you just end up with whatever the best part that company makes is and no company makes the best of every part. Swiftech has some decent kits and Petra's tech does as well, if you must get a kit.

I also agree that it isn't really a "mess" assuming you do it right and plan everything properly.

As for parts I agree with gireve on those as well with a few amendments,

The Swiftech MCR320 is much cheaper than the Thermochill and only cools about 2C worse than it. I recommend the Swiftech if you are on a budget, but go for the Thermochill if you can. Neither will disappoint.

The MCP655 is a good pump but, an MCP355 with the XSPC top will give better performance with less heat dump and smaller footprint. I think it will cost a tiny bit more though.

The 7/16" tubing is good but also consider 1/2" only because there are more tubing options. 7/16" is good since it provides a tighter fit with no flow restriction compared to 1/2". 1/2" however, will give you a wider choice of tubing when it comes to color and quality. 10ft, is usually the recommended amount of tubing, but I have exactly 6ft in mine and I have a CPU block, pump, res, 2 rads, and a gpu block all mounted inside a large Lian-Li case so you may not need 10ft.

The CPU blocks he recommend are very good but also consider the EK Supreme if you are going to run a CPU only loop. It seems to perform slightly better than the other blocks, but none of them will disappoint.

 

[yaoiboimi]

My first water cooling kit I got was from Thermaltake, and after 2 years the pump died, and then modified the kit with an Ehiem pump. The kit was originally the Aquarius II, and then I replaced the water block mainly because I wanted to pump more water through the water block than using 3/8" inner diameter to 5/8 inner diameter hosing, then took a travel cooler from Igloo to cool the water. Since then I haven't found a much more efficiant way to cool water. The Thermaltake radiator/reservoir was small and didn't make much impact with the cooling of the CPU, and now with my modification. I have been very pleased with my home built kit.

Pump used Eheim 1250 Hobby Pump (can be completely submersed in water, and also backed by a 5 year warranty and operates on 24 Watts of power.
Price: $50

Igloo Travel Cooler (plenty of water and very cold, can adjust temp to what you want it to be)
Price: $30 Walmart

Innovatek G-Flow CPU Cooler Water Block - Pentium 4 Socket 775
Price: $120

(2) Koolance VID-487X2 (Radeon HD 4870 X2) VGA Liquid Cooling Block
Price: $139 FrozenCPU

Don't buy this Thermaltake kit Aquarius II

 

[Silverion77]

EEEEEEK

Id stay clear of Koolance parts for the time being. Ive seen many threads where they are using Stainless Steel parts which corrode and start rusting inside ur line. Doesnt sound that safe.....

U can get other blocks though, just make sure u dont mix copper and Aluminum (copper wins though (DTek Fusion v2, Swiftech GTZ))

 

[faster3200]

Id stay clear of Koolance parts for the time being. Ive seen many threads where they are using Stainless Steel parts which corrode and start rusting inside ur line. Doesnt sound that safe.....

Well they are known for using aluminum, stainless steel doesn't corrode so it isn't an issue. That block is made out of nickel plated copper so he should be ok. However, it seems recently that the plugs (stoppers) Koolance have been sending claim to be brass however, they are alu which means corrosion. If you go for that block you may want to replace those stopper with brass ones. As for performance, I am not sure, most people tend to avoid Koolance so I haven't seen any testing.

I would also avoid the Innovatek CPU block as well. It is ridiculously priced and performs worse than an apogee gt. I does look pretty though.

 

[Silverion77]

Right Right...sry it was early lol

Its the stoppers being Alu instead of brass which is bad thx for the correction

 

[grieve]

you really need to make sure you arent mixing metals as well (they dont play well together)... go with copper for every part you buy.