Calling PC experts - Water cooling

[Bikerz]

Anyone know anythingh about this? Its time for mine to become water cooled. Just want some advice on the best starter kit for an idiot/begin (you decide which one I am )

Been looking at this : http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct....rodid=WC-021-SW

Cheers

Sheldon

[M4T VW]

Can i ask why?

Are you gaming with it or just for the visual look?

You can get some pretty good temps with fans...

[one litre wonder ;)]

sheldon + water + computer + electricity = somebody needs to be filming that sh*t and putting it on youtube so we can all see him electrocute himself when he plugs it in

[N13CAH]

Why not just use it in the kitchen and use the cold tap?

[Bikerz]

Not the response I wanted, but then its the response I expected. My system is just getting too hot and Id like to upgrade all of it thourght I should satrt with cooling realy and a new PSU. Would like it silent too. I idel at 40 degrees at min and at load about 48 degrees. What temps should I worry at? Can a I run a quad core and a 8800 card without water cooling?

[N13CAH]

how about a bath?

[M1 Lupo]

I resorted to water cooling because of thr reduced temps and noise. Id say you probably don't need it, but your hardware might get warm during gaming. If you have £200-£300 spare go forth with the h2o.

[Bikerz]

Whats your setup M1? Links to where i can get it? Is that swiftech a good starter kit(in 1st post)?

[M1 Lupo]

From my pc water cooling experience since 2000 I have learned lots! including turning my pc into a fountain / sprinkler and losing 4.5l of coolant through the bedroom floor, making a blue stain on the living room ceiling at my parents house. I was in so much trouble!

The kit you listed sounds fine by me, the only part I wouldn't use is the reservoir. Its too small to de-gas the coolant and from past purchases I've found acrylic or perspex will crack where its been tapped for the barbed fittings. Plus if you use ptfe tape it won't seal fully, or if you use epoxy or silicone due to thermal expansion and the hoses putting force on the fittings the bond will break!

Give me a while to find you a better reservoir and I'd say your set really.

Edit to say, my setup was made from separate parts from different shops.

Edited September 9, 2007 by M1 Lupo

[dxg]

This was my solution for noise:

Get 2 x single switch / socket back boxes and cut the back off them. Get 2 x 2 gang light switches, remove the switches and cut out the plastic btwn the rockers to give a nicely-finishes square hole in a nice-looking face plate that's just wide enough to let a DVI-D plug through. Cut hole in partition, use these to finish it, pull the cables through and put the PC in the next room!

Total cost - about £6.

Can't help with the cooling though - maybe leave the window open in the next room?!

Deek.

[2001gti]

unless your overclockin i dont think water coolin is worth the money, and even then, wen u overclock things become unstable. its alright to have it but not really neccesary.

[M1 Lupo]

http://www.coolercases.co.uk/acatalog/Res.html

Either;

Cape Coolplex 25cm Black Reservoir

Price: £25.52 (£29.99 Including VAT at 17.5%)

Or

EK-Multioption RES 250mm rev.2

Price: £22.12 (£25.99 Including VAT at 17.5%)

[MattyB]

I've got a quad core and 8800 on standard cooling.

You only need to resort to water cooling for *serious* overclocking. If you just want to tweak a bit, buy some decent fans.

[Gavs_arosa16v]

I have wanting to ask about this for ages, but never really got round to it. I have an older pc that I built to a really high spec about 4yrs ago with dual amd processors. So I could render 3d models and do other tasks at the same time. The only Issue I have had is that it sound like a bloody hoover. The cpu fans sing in harmony, any one know of some good small fans that are ultra quite. I have recently crammed it all in a silverstone case, so its tight as. Was thinking liquid cooling, but dont want a disaster.

Sorry to hijack.

[Bikerz]

Cheers M1.

Matty that has made me re-rthink then

What setup have you got matty? What temp ur cpu and system run at ? idel and load? Which fans would u recomend? I think my case is dam good (reason I brought it to try and keep temps down)

I have a Antec Ultimate 9 gaming case with a 200mm top mount fan, 2 front mounted 120mm fans and a rear 120mm fan. along with the normal graphics card inbuilt fan and power surply fan and cpu heatsink with 120mm fan.

[Putney]

My experience is you spend a crap load of cash and its out of date big time within a year! waste of money get a games console

[Bikerz]

My experience is you spend a crap load of cash and its out of date big time within a year! waste of money get a games console

Isnt that the same with game consoles?

I agree, but not totaly as you can always expand your pc and do a bit at a time when you can afford it(what I tend to do)

Matty- What cooing does your run on? Standard CPU cooler that came with CPU? What case fans? Is there a GPU cooler?

Edited September 10, 2007 by Bikerz

[Putney]

Isnt that the same with game consoles?

I agree, but not totaly as you can always expand your pc and do a bit at a time when you can afford it(what I tend to do)

Matty- What cooing does your run on? Standard CPU cooler that came with CPU? What case fans? Is there a GPU cooler?

No not really. Games consoles come out very infrequently compared to PC hardware.

Also cheaper to buy a games console than to keep up grading mother boards, graphic cards and cpu's.

[L119 UPO]

Dont waste money on crap like that, buy a better PC or upgrade your current one. So you dont have to overclock the sh!t out of it.

Having all this water cooling and neon lights is tacky, schoolboy stuff. Something for them to waste money on.

Edited September 10, 2007 by L119 UPO

[BridLupo]

As has already been said unless you're planning to do some serious overclocking don't bother. You won't have a need for the quad core (you hardly ever need all four cpus unless you run some serious programs) the dual core willl surfice which is a MUCH cooler chip and uses less power. This reduces the load on the PSU and of course the heat that it produces. A vast majority of HSF's are now really quiet infact more so than watercooling so you wouldn't get a noise advantage from water cooling. That is unless you got something like the Zalman Restorator 2 which doesn't have cooling fans and the pump is submerged.

[Bikerz]

Im just wondering why my current setup is soo hot tho with all the fans I have and a very good and big airy case.. Il have to look into some good heatsinks/fans then

[MattyB]

I've got a Coolermaster Aluminium case, 120mm fan front, top and rear. I'm running a Leadtek 8800GTS 640mb on standard cooling and the QuadCore 2.4 on the standard, out of the box cooler.

I did have a massive Akasa EVO120 fan (good cooling, very quiet) on my old P4 which I was told fits the new 775 processor, but its not compatible with my new mainboard...doh! So I stuck the standard cooler on - not sure what it runs on full load, but at idle its just shy of 30degrees.

Personally, you might aswell buy a Quad Core for what they cost - you can clock them from 2.4 to 3.0 on "air" (upto 3.5 so I hear on water) and many games are going to support more than 2 cores soon - Alan Wake being one. Supreme Commander already supports it.

Yes, consoles are cheaper - but I can't play games while reading email, downloading pr0n, viewing CL and writing a Word document all at the same time on my 360 or PS3 And if you buy a PS3, you need a 1080P TV to make the most of it (£600?) plus the games are £40-50, they're only £20-25 on PC. So the cost isn't really much different these days. AND even if you buy a £150 XBox360 and a £150 screen to play it on, most people will still buy a £500-600 PC to do their 'daily' stuff so whatever route you take it'll set you back over £1k.

Sheldon - as for your system being hot - make sure you invest in some good thermal paste - I use Artic Silver and it makes a huge difference, even on standard coolers. Those 'pads' they use on OEM stuff is usually rubbish. Make sure your case fans are all set up correctly for intake/exhaust.

But yeah, invest in some good quality case/CPU fans - alot easier, far cheaper and usually very quiet. Should be cool enough to do some decent OC'ing (can't be bothered with it myself!)

[Bikerz]

Cheers Matty

I dont really want to do any serious overclocking as a quad core as standard will be fast enough for anyone at the min. Il look into stuff 2night after work.

Thanks