Search
Sign in with
Sign up | Sign in

Looking for advice for a cool looking good starter water cool system

Last response: in Overclocking
Share

I'm looking for a good starter water cooling system, something that looks cool and gets the cooling job done (not looking to skimp, just dont want to go full throttle for my first water cooled system)

I'm a long time pc enthusiast and gamer, but have always used air cooling, and am looking to venture into water cooling for the first time, I'm currently reading through several guides and walkthroughs, etc... but i'm looking for suggestions on what I would need for a good gaming pc...

I'm thinking cpu cooling obviously, and probably gpu cooling if that doesn't get too terribly complicated, but again, I'm just learning the basics and am looking for guidelines and suggestions on sizes and possibly even whole systems that look cool and are a good starting point

any pics of what your talking about would be awesome

thanks for the help ahead of time.

More about : advice cool good starter water cool system

Register or log in to remove

You'd be doing yourself a favor by avoiding those 'kit' systems like Thermaltake bigwater, Zalman reserator and a few others in the same category. There is a lot to learn, and if you take some time and read a lot of information, you can make much more informed decisions. I've been watercooling for over 7 years and I have loved it. Good watercooling components are somewhat of an investment initially, but if you do your homework, they can last through several hardware upgrades in the future.

This is an excellent 'kit' for starters; however it really isn't a kit, merely a collection of other good components that can be (and otherwise should be) bought separately.

http://www.petrastechshop.com/swh2ulcpulic.html

You could easily add a GPU block to this loop along with another radiator and be very well-off. Full cover GPU blocks don't transfer from one card to the next in almost every case, but there are some blocks that are more 'universal' that may only require a bracket (which is what I have done) and some RAM-sinks for each upgrade.

this being my first watercooling run I'm going to do it on my secondary,

thinking 350ish budget max (not sure if that's enough to include vid cooling but could go 400)

core 2 duo processor with radeon hd 5830 vid card, 4gb ram

the case I currently have I'm not particularly fond of and it is completely encased so I'm probably going to buy a new case with one side openly visible to show off the cooling, if anyone has suggestions and / or pics for a good starter case for watercooling I'd be interested in that also
Related ressources
Ask the community

I know there's some case comparisons on this site, but are there any more in depth case camparisons, with specs, on other sites?

like those 3 you linked, they all look pretty cool, but I've always been much more dependant on function over form when buying... I do want my new water cooled system to look nice, and be able to show it off, but I still want to weigh function pretty heavily in the decision making

and obviously I mean comparing case performance with water cooling use.

the spedo looks alot like my previous cases just with a clear side panel... basically good cable management and lots of fan options

but it seems to really be designed for air cooling, and I dont really see where you'd put the water cooling accessories... unless you really gut it of all the bays and stuff...

btw, the 3 stage system for keeping cpu, graphics and power separate to cool separately is interesting, how's it work in action or did you just remove that to be able to run tubing easier?
Register or log in to remove
 
Ask the community
Read discussions in other Overclocking categories
!