Cheapest watercooling kits?
- Thread starter Energize
- Start date
I started out with an XSPC X2O single rad kit.
It can be had for about £70 and comes with a decent dual pass copper rad which is much better than a lot of other budget kits. I believe they now come with the Xtreme CPU block too which is miles ahead of the old one they used to supply.
They've also upgraded the pump/res to a much nicer design.
It was quiet, and used to cool my old E6300 oc'd to 2.8Ghz to around 33/55 idle/load. As you get more into it, you can upgrade the pump and add other blocks, but the rad will still be ok.
There are some reviews of the kit if you have a search on the web.
Not stunning temps compared to high end air, but a good fun intro to watercooling all the same!
It can be had for about £70 and comes with a decent dual pass copper rad which is much better than a lot of other budget kits. I believe they now come with the Xtreme CPU block too which is miles ahead of the old one they used to supply.
They've also upgraded the pump/res to a much nicer design.
It was quiet, and used to cool my old E6300 oc'd to 2.8Ghz to around 33/55 idle/load. As you get more into it, you can upgrade the pump and add other blocks, but the rad will still be ok.
There are some reviews of the kit if you have a search on the web.
Not stunning temps compared to high end air, but a good fun intro to watercooling all the same!
gary996 said:
I agree that there is a point at which something is too cheap, but as long as you buy basic components from decent companies, you can build a good system economically.
Try;
D-Tek FuZion CPU block (£40 with 0.5" Barbs)
Flow 120.1 Radiator (£20 with 0.5" Barbs)
XSPC 400l/hr Pump/Reservoir (£30 with 0.5" Barbs)
3m Masterkleer 7/16" Tubing (£4)
And that will cool a moderately overclocked Q6600 (60C load temperature in a warm room, running F@H 24/7) for about £100 delivered and it will even fit into most cases with a 120mm fan port.
my proper 120.1 rad (thermochill PA120.1) keeps my E6700 to about 60 full load with 1.45v in it.
I'd be tempted to say the previous poster was right, given the rubbish performance you'd get from £100 of watercooling you'd be better off going for a high end air cooling kit like a ninja or whatever they're called.
Or perhaps go properly for watercooling but I'd double the budget.
Thermochill PA120.2 £50 ish
Dtek Fuzion £40
DDC12V pump £50
bay res £20
tubing/fans etc £20
so yeah, just under £200.
Seriously I'd say much less than that setup you may as well save your money and go for decent air cooling.
Apart from anything if you go with a 120.1, especially an xspc etc then you'll need fans up so high you'd actually be quieter with a massive air heatsink.
I'd be tempted to say the previous poster was right, given the rubbish performance you'd get from £100 of watercooling you'd be better off going for a high end air cooling kit like a ninja or whatever they're called.
Or perhaps go properly for watercooling but I'd double the budget.
Thermochill PA120.2 £50 ish
Dtek Fuzion £40
DDC12V pump £50
bay res £20
tubing/fans etc £20
so yeah, just under £200.
Seriously I'd say much less than that setup you may as well save your money and go for decent air cooling.
Apart from anything if you go with a 120.1, especially an xspc etc then you'll need fans up so high you'd actually be quieter with a massive air heatsink.
Yea, a decent air setup would outperform them
just specced this up :-
Thermochill PA120.2
£52.94 with barbs
Swiftech MCP655-B™ 12 VDC Pump (No speed controller)
£49.99
Swiftech Apogee GTX Extreme Performance CPU Waterblock (LGA775)
£42.99
6 foot Masterkleer 7/16" ID (5/8" OD) PVC Tubing
£5.88
Swiftech MCRES-Micro
£11.49
Total : £163.29
Thats not a bad starter kit I think?
just specced this up :-
Thermochill PA120.2
£52.94 with barbs
Swiftech MCP655-B™ 12 VDC Pump (No speed controller)
£49.99
Swiftech Apogee GTX Extreme Performance CPU Waterblock (LGA775)
£42.99
6 foot Masterkleer 7/16" ID (5/8" OD) PVC Tubing
£5.88
Swiftech MCRES-Micro
£11.49
Total : £163.29
Thats not a bad starter kit I think?
Associate
- Joined
- 2 Jul 2007
- Posts
- 2
Corsair Nautilus 500 looks good setup for 100 quid
These threads always seem to go the same way! 
The OP asks where watercooling kits start from, or to recommend a budget watercooling kit, some people wade in and say 'don't bother, stick to air' and then yet more come in with 'that [insert any kit here] is pants, you need to spend £200'...
Along the way, there will be plenty of rubbishing of any rad that's not a Thermochill, and any block that's not a D-Tek.
Frankly, some of the advice is good, but maybe we're missing the point with watercooling in that not everybody has it because a good wc setup can cool better. I don't mind being honest and saying that I first got interested in watercooling because it looks good, and it's something else to tinker with on the pc!!
There's lots of component snobbery on here, but none more so than in watercooling threads!
There are some truly awful 'all in one' watercooling solutions out there, and there are some good ones, and then there are the custom setups.
I think though that the experts here should make more mention of what these top end components will cool like compared to kit stuff - that would be useful wouldn't it?
For instance, I changed from an XSPC 120.2 rad to the mythical Thermochill pa120.2. I had high expectations, but they were dashed when I got on average only a 2c fall in temps, despite everything else being the same. A welcome fall, but not earth shattering. I accept you could maybe get a couple of degrees more with a D-Tek CPU block, but a kit that is only roughly 5 degrees worse than a custom setup is not a bad thing. I say that only from my experience with the XSPC kit I started with vs the custom stuff I have now. (Cue the posts where people tell me I must be doing something wrong then!) Sure, the custom kit, especially the pump and blocks, looks a lot nicer, but it isn't necessarily way way better.
Incidentally, the XSPC stuff isn't as bad as everybody seems to say, I feel its become a bit like the Skoda of the PC world! Check out some of the reviews and decide for yourself...
I suppose what I'm trying to say is please lets not keep putting people off what is an enjoyable extension to PC builiding/ownership by saying 'no point doing it if you don't spend £200 etc'. Maybe not for ultimate cooling, but everybody has their reasons for doing something, and actually bridging between a £70 kit and a £200 custom build is actually rather a lot for some people....
The OP asks where watercooling kits start from, or to recommend a budget watercooling kit, some people wade in and say 'don't bother, stick to air' and then yet more come in with 'that [insert any kit here] is pants, you need to spend £200'...
Along the way, there will be plenty of rubbishing of any rad that's not a Thermochill, and any block that's not a D-Tek.
Frankly, some of the advice is good, but maybe we're missing the point with watercooling in that not everybody has it because a good wc setup can cool better. I don't mind being honest and saying that I first got interested in watercooling because it looks good, and it's something else to tinker with on the pc!!
There's lots of component snobbery on here, but none more so than in watercooling threads!
There are some truly awful 'all in one' watercooling solutions out there, and there are some good ones, and then there are the custom setups.
I think though that the experts here should make more mention of what these top end components will cool like compared to kit stuff - that would be useful wouldn't it?
For instance, I changed from an XSPC 120.2 rad to the mythical Thermochill pa120.2. I had high expectations, but they were dashed when I got on average only a 2c fall in temps, despite everything else being the same. A welcome fall, but not earth shattering. I accept you could maybe get a couple of degrees more with a D-Tek CPU block, but a kit that is only roughly 5 degrees worse than a custom setup is not a bad thing. I say that only from my experience with the XSPC kit I started with vs the custom stuff I have now. (Cue the posts where people tell me I must be doing something wrong then!)
Sure, the custom kit, especially the pump and blocks, looks a lot nicer, but it isn't necessarily way way better.Incidentally, the XSPC stuff isn't as bad as everybody seems to say, I feel its become a bit like the Skoda of the PC world! Check out some of the reviews and decide for yourself...
I suppose what I'm trying to say is please lets not keep putting people off what is an enjoyable extension to PC builiding/ownership by saying 'no point doing it if you don't spend £200 etc'. Maybe not for ultimate cooling, but everybody has their reasons for doing something, and actually bridging between a £70 kit and a £200 custom build is actually rather a lot for some people....
Tooks said:, and actually bridging between a £70 kit and a £200 custom build is actually rather a lot for some people....
Espically when I don't have a job.
£200 is a new cpu, mobo, ram and decent air cooling.I can't imagine how even the worst watercooling setup could be "bad", I mean we are talking about a waterpump, which as far as I can see the only thing that would affect performance there is the flow rate, and then there's a slab of copper with a pipe running through it, as far as I can see, as long as the cpu block is as good as the heatsink I'm using now I would get better temperatures? And I don't know much about radiators, but how could the worst one be worse than a 92mm fan?
Judging by the temps people are getting wc barely seems like an improvement at all.
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I'm going to be very honest here.
Thermaltake bigwater....Not a bad starter kit, it would cool your system down, to about the same level of mid to high end Air. But once you start o/c the temps will become a lot higher than the top end Air.
The block, cracks very easy. Joints are pretty poor, and pumps don't seem to last long. (I've built systems with these fitted)
Custom water is your best bet.
XSPC 400l/hr Pump/Reservoir (£30 with 0.5" Barbs), these work rather well, I'm using one at the moment on my quad.
Swiftech Apogee GT, good block and comes with everything, if I was going to change, I would get the D-tek fusion.
Rad, I use a single 120 rad with 2 120 fans fitted. (no space in the case for the double)
Swiftech MCRES-Micro, nice little unit, can be hung anywhere.
7/16 Hose, again, best to get the stuff thats doesn't kink easy.
Keep checking MM for second hand rads and blocks, I'm sure you could build a custom watercooling kit for under £90. I would say, buy a new pump.
Thermaltake bigwater....Not a bad starter kit, it would cool your system down, to about the same level of mid to high end Air. But once you start o/c the temps will become a lot higher than the top end Air.
The block, cracks very easy. Joints are pretty poor, and pumps don't seem to last long. (I've built systems with these fitted)
Custom water is your best bet.
XSPC 400l/hr Pump/Reservoir (£30 with 0.5" Barbs), these work rather well, I'm using one at the moment on my quad.
Swiftech Apogee GT, good block and comes with everything, if I was going to change, I would get the D-tek fusion.
Rad, I use a single 120 rad with 2 120 fans fitted. (no space in the case for the double)
Swiftech MCRES-Micro, nice little unit, can be hung anywhere.
7/16 Hose, again, best to get the stuff thats doesn't kink easy.
Keep checking MM for second hand rads and blocks, I'm sure you could build a custom watercooling kit for under £90. I would say, buy a new pump.
Tooks said:
I guess, I got into watercooling because it looks good too tbh but I would feel a bit naughty recommending something that wasn't fit for the purpose.
Watercooling is something to tinker with but its also somethng that can invalidate warranties and wreck hardware, it can also be a major PITA to fit and often requires unreversible mods to your case. I think its only fair posters should know what to expect if they buy say a £100 kit. The difference in temps can be quite low but it can also be staggering, I've seen 5c by changing blocks!
Perhaps the rads won't make much difference when there isn't mountains of heat but moving into quad territory I think you would start to see a much more pronounced difference as the rad will have a lot more heat to get rid of.
I'm not sure whether I'd call it snobbery or experience tbh.
And then spanking £100 on a very below average kit when half that on a top of the range air cooler would be easier to fit, quieter and perform at least as well and quite possibly better than the water kit seems like a crazy thing to do.
Energize said:Espically when I don't have a job.
I can't imagine how even the worst watercooling setup could be "bad", I mean we are talking about a waterpump, which as far as I can see the only thing that would affect performance there is the flow rate, and then there's a slab of copper with a pipe running through it, as far as I can see, as long as the cpu block is as good as the heatsink I'm using now I would get better temperatures? And I don't know much about radiators, but how could the worst one be worse than a 92mm fan?
Judging by the temps people are getting wc barely seems like an improvement at all.
Believe me, the worst watercooling setup can be very bad.
The pump makes a difference due to noise, flow rate etc, the blocks aren't simply blocks of copper, I can't link you because I don't have the site but I saw a recent comparison of blocks where there was something like a 7c IDLE difference (will be much more pronounced at full load) going from a reasonably well respect "last gen" block like a swiftech 6002 or storm rev1 up to a dtek fuzion or swiftech apogee gtx.
Inside the block is the issue, what the cold water contact area is, how quickly its removed, the pressure in the block blah blah, its all very boring but its relevant.
In the rad you have the fin density, total suface area etc.
Its all relevant and if you have £200 to spend on everything you'd be well advised to either go with something like an arctic cooling freezer 7 and use the money saved to buy a higher cpu or better clocking motherboard.
Sorry but that IMO is just a fact.
It sounds like money is precious, the last thing I'd want in that situation is to turn around and think "why the hell did I bother"? when I had a noisy, bad performing system.
Lets have a look at some facts(that I have gained from experience) shall we :
Cheap kits are usually little better than air cooling.
Cool river kit vs AC7 - a difference of 1c on an overclocked A64 3200 . Hardly worth the effort or the cash.
Cheap kits are difficult to upgrade.
Due to the nature of cheaper kits especially self sealed ones upgrading them is a nightmare and not cost effective. Usually if you upgrade on part of a cooling setup then the other parts also need upgrading for any benifit to be seen.
Cheap kits use cheap materials which are prone to failure.
Cheap acrylic blocks are prone to cracking, ask most folk who have used a bigwater kit regarding the thermtake acrylic block - bad news. Poor quality tubing will also kink badly.
Cheap kits use cheaply made components which can cause problems later.
Aluminium(rad) and copper(cpu block) in a mixed loop is a recipe for disaster as one metal acts to corrode the other which can then go on to block the nozzles on a cpu block, rad and ultimately the pump.
You get what you pay for.
Not true in most situations regarding a pc build but with watercooling you generally do get what you pay for. The Thermochill radiators, while expensive are widely regarded as the best on the market today for a reason - quite simply they are! No other rad can compare to the amount of surface area cooled, freeflow design and add to that its made from copper and brass NOT cheaper aluminium make it simply the best performer when it comes to radiators.
The D-tek Fusion and Appogee GTX are the best blocks on the market today for C2D and C2Q - period. They are also the most expensive. Why? Because of the development of new designed blocks, proven to be the best and as such demand for such blocks is high ergo you pay a premium.
You can buy cheap pumps but they are cheap for a reason - they are poorly designed. Noise is one reason a lot of people go watercooling so having a noisy pump sort of negates the point of it all imo. Add to that cheap pumps have low head pressure which means adding more blocks to the loop later will mean a pump upgrade which is false economy.
In short you can buy cheaper, say £10-20 less for each part but then you will no doubt only upgrade to the better blocks and rads in the future anyway which imo is false economy. I must have spent near £1000 getting the best setup money can buy over the years. A setup that could be had for a third of that price had I bought it straight away instead of going the cheap route and then upgrading and swapping parts out.
Buying a cheap kit is a good starter to get to know how it all works and is a no brainer to setup and aslong as you will not be suprised that it underperforms and watercooling isn't all its cracked up to be and treat it as an experiment then all is good but I would have you learn from my own mistakes and spend that little bit extra which makes all the more sense in the long term.
Cheap kits are usually little better than air cooling.
Cool river kit vs AC7 - a difference of 1c on an overclocked A64 3200 . Hardly worth the effort or the cash.
Cheap kits are difficult to upgrade.
Due to the nature of cheaper kits especially self sealed ones upgrading them is a nightmare and not cost effective. Usually if you upgrade on part of a cooling setup then the other parts also need upgrading for any benifit to be seen.
Cheap kits use cheap materials which are prone to failure.
Cheap acrylic blocks are prone to cracking, ask most folk who have used a bigwater kit regarding the thermtake acrylic block - bad news. Poor quality tubing will also kink badly.
Cheap kits use cheaply made components which can cause problems later.
Aluminium(rad) and copper(cpu block) in a mixed loop is a recipe for disaster as one metal acts to corrode the other which can then go on to block the nozzles on a cpu block, rad and ultimately the pump.
You get what you pay for.
Not true in most situations regarding a pc build but with watercooling you generally do get what you pay for. The Thermochill radiators, while expensive are widely regarded as the best on the market today for a reason - quite simply they are! No other rad can compare to the amount of surface area cooled, freeflow design and add to that its made from copper and brass NOT cheaper aluminium make it simply the best performer when it comes to radiators.
The D-tek Fusion and Appogee GTX are the best blocks on the market today for C2D and C2Q - period. They are also the most expensive. Why? Because of the development of new designed blocks, proven to be the best and as such demand for such blocks is high ergo you pay a premium.
You can buy cheap pumps but they are cheap for a reason - they are poorly designed. Noise is one reason a lot of people go watercooling so having a noisy pump sort of negates the point of it all imo. Add to that cheap pumps have low head pressure which means adding more blocks to the loop later will mean a pump upgrade which is false economy.
In short you can buy cheaper, say £10-20 less for each part but then you will no doubt only upgrade to the better blocks and rads in the future anyway which imo is false economy. I must have spent near £1000 getting the best setup money can buy over the years. A setup that could be had for a third of that price had I bought it straight away instead of going the cheap route and then upgrading and swapping parts out.
Buying a cheap kit is a good starter to get to know how it all works and is a no brainer to setup and aslong as you will not be suprised that it underperforms and watercooling isn't all its cracked up to be and treat it as an experiment then all is good but I would have you learn from my own mistakes and spend that little bit extra which makes all the more sense in the long term.
Watercooling isn't all it's cracked up to be compared with really good air cooling. Considering the extra hassle and expense it's probably not worth doing for simple set-ups.
In my experience it's no quieter than air cooling (often much noiser) and the cooling efficiency is probably only 10-15% better than with good air.
I disagree. That flow radiator will give 70% of the performance of the Thermochill PA120.1 at less than half the price. The XSPC pump/reservoir is actually very good indeed - I would go so far as to say better than the 10W Laing DDC for most users because the thing about the Laing that makes it better is irrelevant in most PCs and the ease of installation with the combination device over a separate pump and reservoir is a significant benefit for most new users.
For me the important thing when starting out is to minimise the wasted cost when upgrading so start off with the cheapest sensible components and dispose only of the cheapo components when upgrading. That XSPC pump/res combo will handle a PA120.2 so you have to ditch a £20 radiator to upgrade the radiator. When you add a graphics card and go to a PA120.3 then you may want a better pump - ditch the £30 pump and reservoir.
I've said it before and I'll say it again - if I recommend something to a user and it doesn't do the job, I'll buy the stuff from them so they are not out of pocket on the deal.
I appreciate that a lot of people here are trying to drive kit recommendations over the Welsh border, but it doesn't need to come from Wales to be fit for purpose. D-Tek, Flow and XSPC are all decent brands and they are all sold as entry-level kit by reputable retailers.
In my experience it's no quieter than air cooling (often much noiser) and the cooling efficiency is probably only 10-15% better than with good air.
Welshboyo said:
I disagree. That flow radiator will give 70% of the performance of the Thermochill PA120.1 at less than half the price. The XSPC pump/reservoir is actually very good indeed - I would go so far as to say better than the 10W Laing DDC for most users because the thing about the Laing that makes it better is irrelevant in most PCs and the ease of installation with the combination device over a separate pump and reservoir is a significant benefit for most new users.
For me the important thing when starting out is to minimise the wasted cost when upgrading so start off with the cheapest sensible components and dispose only of the cheapo components when upgrading. That XSPC pump/res combo will handle a PA120.2 so you have to ditch a £20 radiator to upgrade the radiator. When you add a graphics card and go to a PA120.3 then you may want a better pump - ditch the £30 pump and reservoir.
I've said it before and I'll say it again - if I recommend something to a user and it doesn't do the job, I'll buy the stuff from them so they are not out of pocket on the deal.
I appreciate that a lot of people here are trying to drive kit recommendations over the Welsh border, but it doesn't need to come from Wales to be fit for purpose. D-Tek, Flow and XSPC are all decent brands and they are all sold as entry-level kit by reputable retailers.
WJA96 said:
I guess this is the variable that causes most confusion when speccing a WC setup. From a personal point of view I want to get the most from my PC and to do that I need it to run as cool as possible with as little noise as possible. This means buying the high end stuff I'm afraid. Sure you can get cheaper rads and pumps but by doing that you are making compromises - dense rads that need high cfm(noisy) fans to perform well, noisy pumps that don't have the head pressure required for multi block loops etc.
You don't buy a race car to go to the shops, you buy it for ultimate performance. If you are a happy shopper and not a speed freak then a cheaper kit would be 'fit for purpose' imo.
Soldato
- Joined
- 2 Dec 2006
- Posts
- 8,204
w3bbo said:
I agreeded with everything you said untill you said that. I would buy a sports car (hopfuly a Porsche ) to go to the shops and then go race! serposidly you can go on training corses at some Porsche place where they mod your car out for the track and teach you to drive it
I speced out a water cooling setup for my self out of intrest last night. £163 to cool the cpu with top grade components. No cheapos and 120.3 rad so that i could upgrade to graphics card cooling as well if i wanted and it was only 6 quid more then the 120.2 anyway. It wouldn't cost me much more to add in the graphics card cooler as well if i wanted.
Perhaps you should look around for better deals
If i knew id only wana cool the cpu you could make it cheaper Getting a 120.2, 10v pump instead of 12v etc. But i dont like to buy cheap stuff lol.The price includes tubing etc as well.
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