Decent water cooler.

lazyvulture

lazyvulture

lazyvulture

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I am a complete beginner when it comes to water cooling.

So as you'd expect I find the prospect of water cooling quite daunting.

I thought I'd be fine if I went for an all in one / external solution - and was quite tempted by the Zalman Reserator XT until I read a review where it was only keeping a Q6600 @ 2.4GHz at 50*C under load.

That put me off, and now I don't know what to do.

If I were to buy the pump etc separately, what kind of temps could I expect and at what price?

Can someone list everything that I'd need, and even recommend the stuff to me? (I'd be cooling a Q6600 G0, and a GX2 (EVGA have a water block))

And how hard would it be to build? Is it all self explanatory?
 
Reading the sticky is a good start.

And more reading of this forum.

If you get yourself up to speed you can get yourself a good custom setup.

If you are a noob and want a very decent, simple full kit with instructions then the Swiftech Ultra Apex kits are very good.

Not sure if the gfx block in the high end kit fits the GX2 but if it does, then that will do fine.
 
Custom PC did an excellent article on watercooling a few issues back, including "how to" and a parts review.
It's a good place to start and i'd be happy to email you scanned pages.

:)
 
Admiral Huddy said:
Custom PC did an excellent article on watercooling a few issues back, including "how to" and a parts review.
It's a good place to start and i'd be happy to email you scanned pages.

:)
Click to expand...

[email protected]

I'd appreciate it A LOT.

Also, @ Greebo;

I did start reading the sticky, but it became very apparent that it was out of date. I don't know how much this will affect what I will buy, but I didn't want to start divulging in irrelevant information. So can you confirm that it's still relevant?
 
As mentioned before read the stickies and understand what water cooling is, how it works, parts required etc.

Then decide how much you're willing to spend and the level of modding you're prepared to do (I.E -rad hole), then decide whether you want a ready kit or a custom kit.

If you're looking for a complete kit the swiftech apex is a great place to start, then from there you can upgrade the rad.
 
Hamoodii said:
If you're looking for a complete kit the swiftech apex is a great place to start, then from there you can upgrade the rad.
Click to expand...

How much a temperature difference will there be between one of these ready kits and a Titan Amanda.

I don't want to spend £100+ on a water cooler that isn't going to allow any more headroom for overclocking.
 
lazyvulture said:
How much a temperature difference will there be between one of these ready kits and a Titan Amanda.

I don't want to spend £100+ on a water cooler that isn't going to allow any more headroom for overclocking.
Click to expand...

Not sure about a Titan Amanda but I have a custom kit which is really everything you get in a Swiftech Ultra kit but a different cpu block.

Both cpu blocks are comparable performance wise.

My Q6600 @ 3.8Ghz and 1.6v runs at 69 degrees under load after 8 hours prime.

24/7 use at 3.5Ghz and 1.45v it keeps it under 60 degrees.

It could be better but it is cooling my 850/2200/2100 GTS G92 gfx card on the same loop whereas a lot of high end custom coolers on here would use a seperate loop. However, my GTS never goes above 43 degrees :)

The Swiftech d5 pump is one of the best and the cpu block is no slouch.

The swiftech rad is one of the next best to thermochill rads but miles cheaper.

Okay, you could go with a fuzion v2 cpu block, thermochill triple rad, and a laing pump with aftermarket top and maybe gain at best 5 degrees in your cpu temps.

So yeah, another £100+ on top of your swiftech kit will get you another 5 degrees but I don't think you need that kind of performance unless you want to get the last 50-100Mhz from your cpu?

However, make sure it is temps holding your cpu overclock back. You wouldn't want to spend £176 or even £300 to find that your cpu is cooler but still won't clock any higher. ;)
 
Hamoodii said:
If you're looking for a complete kit the swiftech apex is a great place to start, then from there you can upgrade the rad.
Click to expand...

Nothing wrong with the rad!.....for the money ;)

But a good point, it's a great kit offering great cooling. Later on you can then swap the rad for a thermochill for better cooling, get another pump and rad and have a cpu loop, plus seperate nb,sb, gpu loop on the old rad or maybe sell the block and buy a fuzion v2 of xspc edge for a degree gain etc.

You probably will as well cause the watercooling bug will have bitten and there are always new products coming to the market eg xspc edge is new and competes well with the fuzion v2 and feser have some new rads which are meant to be even better than the thermochills but at £80 they ought to be!
 
Greebo said:
However, make sure it is temps holding your cpu overclock back. You wouldn't want to spend £176 or even £300 to find that your cpu is cooler but still won't clock any higher. ;)
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This worries me a lot.

I currently have a Q6600 B3 which refuses to boot up with a FSB over 280MHz, limiting me to 2.5GHz. Even when at 2.5GHz, it doesn't seem to be stable. Every few hours or so the whole system locks up.

I am selling it, and getting a Q6600 G0, and if it doesn't clock any higher then I may be screwed.

I don't particularly want to buy a new motherboard at this stage (what with Nehalem just around the corner).

So I guess I'll wait until the G0 Q6600 arrives until I decide whether to water cool or not.
 
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lazyvulture said:
This worries me a lot.

I currently have a Q6600 B3 which refuses to boot up with a FSB over 280MHz, limiting me to 2.5GHz. Even when at 2.5GHz, it doesn't seem to be stable. Every few hours or so the whole system locks up.

I am selling it, and getting a Q6600 G0, and if it doesn't clock any higher then I may be screwed.

I don't particularly want to buy a new motherboard at this stage (what with Nehalem just around the corner).

So I guess I'll wait until the G0 Q6600 arrives until I decide whether to water cool or not.
Click to expand...

I would wait then in that case. It might be your mobo holding you back. Not familiar with it but unless you have a particularly bad b3 q6600 I thought you would get more than 2.5Ghz out of it.

What temps do you hit?

Can you drop the multiplier and go above 280Mhz? Some boards have fsb holes. Try 8 x 290 or 8 x 300 or even 7 x 333. If any of that works then you know it's not a fsb limit of your mobo and may just be a hole. You might then be able to get 8 x 333 working or even 7 x 400.

Freezing every few hours does sound like it might be temp related.

Of course if it is your board, your new q6600 g0 chip is only going to run at 2.5Ghz as well :(

In which case I would find out first before selling yours and buying a g0 as you could then spend the money saved towards a p35 board and have your b3 q6600 running at 3.2Ghz.

And if you are thinking of going nehelem early next year, it will probably mean a new cpu block if you got a watercooling rig now, just to bear in mind.
 
Greebo said:
In which case I would find out first before selling yours and buying a g0 as you could then spend the money saved towards a p35 board and have your b3 q6600 running at 3.2Ghz.
Click to expand...

I'm selling it to my mum.

She's got her mind set on a quad core, but doesn't want to spend a lot on it. So I'm selling her is for £60 and picking up a G0 for effectively £70.

Thanks for all your help, I'll try later, but gotta run right now.

Edit:

I can't change my multiplier.
 
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Yewen said:
How much are you willing to spend on the watercooling system?
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No more than £250.

Also, I was enquired about my temps.

mid-high 30s idle
50 MAX load
@ 2.5GHz

Nothing extremely bad.

However, on stock cooling I was over 100*C under load. And I was under load most of the time (being a gamer). Could this have done some permanent damage?
 
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dont know about permanent damage...

but if you decide to make your own custom setup, i suggest focusing on the radiator and the pump because i think they are the most important parts. The CPU block is important but they can be easily compared i think.

You need a thermochill or one of the new feser ones because of the dual pass factor. and a powerful pump will hold you in good position for the hot summers that will come soon (hopefully). my pump isnt great and under load the temps jump between 55 and 62 degrees as the water is pumped round. A better pump may stabilise these temps.
 
Agree about pump and rad been the two most important.

All the cpu blocks are pretty good and maybe only 2-3 degrees difference between the best and the worst.

Fuzion v2 is still the best for quads but it is a very restrictive block so you need a good pump and if you wanted to add more stuff on your loop like nb/gpu then performance may drop a lot.

XSPC Edge is only 1.5 degrees behind the fuzion v2 but is a very high flowing non restrictive block so the water is pumped round the system quicker and better of multi cooling loops.

Thermochill was the best rad but feser now reported to be better although at one hell of a price premium.

The home made water kits which ocuk have now put together are pretty good setups as well.
 
Going to be a couple of full watercooling system bundles going up at the weekend.

Anything anyone would like to request in them, im open to any suggestions!
 
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