Going water cooling

sargatanas · 9 Apr 2006 at 12:35

Hey guys, first time water cooler here, im unsure of what kit to go for tho.

I have been advised to get the:

Swiftech H20-220 Apex "Ultra" Watercooling Kit (Socket462/478/LGA775/754/939/940) (WC-014-SW)

Anyone got any other advice or anyone got this setup to let me know its good?

thanks for the help.

Captain Kirk · 9 Apr 2006 at 13:57

For a first time water-cooler, the swiftech kit is very good. However, when I did it for the first time, i spent a while reading up on it, then bought bits seperately. it isn't (too) hard to do. Depends how brave you feel.

ichabod crane · 9 Apr 2006 at 14:10

watercooling isnt to hard to do and is pretty safe also even if your a beginner... the swiftech kit is a good intro its a very good performing kit can compete with custom kits easily just take ya time putting it together and make sure you leak test it first just put the kit together and run for 24hrs

another good thing about swiftech kit is its 1/2" tubing so parts can easily be swapped later in time for better performing parts i.e blocks and rad

sargatanas · 9 Apr 2006 at 18:09

Thanks guys, i am a bit concerned by it, but the more thats said like that the more confident i feel

. I want to make sure its a good piece of kit too, noise doesnt concern me in the least as long as its worth the performance.

Ladforce · 10 Apr 2006 at 01:56

i bought this kit at xmas, had it up and running in 3 hours including holes drilled in my case for the radbox. good performance to even with both graphics card and opteron running on with fans at 40%. you wont be disappointed with it.

Trox · 10 Apr 2006 at 11:13

I got this kit last year on release, was my first WC setup, nice kit with detailed instructions. The kit includes everything you will need to watercool the CPU only, if ya intend to buy the gfx block you will have to buy another few feet of tubing.

Also only thing that was tricky was mounting the rad on the back of my case, my case isnt that big.

As ya can see its very close to the PSU seating, i took out everything before i started drilling inc PSU btw

7 months on and the kit is still performing well, really happy with it

, 7 volt mod the fans and turning down the pump settings makes it really quiet and i get the results in my sig with really good temps.

sargatanas · 10 Apr 2006 at 12:31

Hmm, i dont have a big case either, and i dont trust myself with a jigsaw or a drill

. Hmm, i dunno what ill do :\.

ichabod crane · 10 Apr 2006 at 12:50

could top mount it...

bit of work involved tho

Trox · 10 Apr 2006 at 15:13

sargatanas said:
Hmm, i dont have a big case either, and i dont trust myself with a jigsaw or a drill . Hmm, i dunno what ill do :\.

All you do is mount the rad at the back, which is really easy... Then mark where the tubing will touch the case about, take the rad back and drill using a holesaw.

As ya can see i couldnt use a big holesaw so i couldnt put rubber gromets on to protect the tubing, i used around a 20 mm holesaw and then i wrapped a section of tubing that goes through the case with electrical tape since its rubbery, to add some protection.

If you plan on mounting the rad upside down so the tubing goes through the PCI slots, you will end up getting airlocks. I found out that you can get some rads with bleed valves on them to prevent this...

Captain Kirk · 10 Apr 2006 at 21:14

Its never as hard as you think it is, just give it a try. Go on, you know you want to

kinggost · 10 Apr 2006 at 22:05

Captain Kirk is right its really easy to do i thought everything would be hard but it wasnt. I didnt like the idea of cutting big holes in the top of my £140 lian li case so i cut a little one in the bottom and made a rad box and here the end result.

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=6785457&postcount=556

sargatanas · 11 Apr 2006 at 13:00

I dont have the tools for the job anyway, ill need to try and find someone who does. I'm thinking about just pushing the tubing through the PCI slots, cause i will only use 1 Max, so it shouldnt be a problem there.

sargatanas · 11 Apr 2006 at 13:07

ichabod crane said:
could top mount it...

bit of work involved tho

I have to say mate, that looks great but theres no way i could do that. I learned that in high school, im useless at craftwork.

Luke · 11 Apr 2006 at 18:04

That work is brilliant! The end result looks great.

Total newbie question - how much more effective is water cooling over air cooling? I've always been interested in it, but never really known too much about it.

ichabod crane · 11 Apr 2006 at 18:10

you have much better control over your temps and they are more consistene and it looks awesome

kinggost · 11 Apr 2006 at 18:29

emailiscrap said:
That work is brilliant! The end result looks great.

Total newbie question - how much more effective is water cooling over air cooling? I've always been interested in it, but never really known too much about it.

both my graphic cards went from 80oC to never over 45oC

Luke · 11 Apr 2006 at 20:53

Wow, that sounds beneficial!
My gfx is normally around 70oC and cpu is normally around 45oC.
Looks like watercooled is the way to go.

Cheers

kinggost · 11 Apr 2006 at 21:29

emailiscrap said:
Wow, that sounds beneficial!
My gfx is normally around 70oC and cpu is normally around 45oC.
Looks like watercooled is the way to go.

Cheers

Yeh it is i didnt think it would be worth it. I also didnt like the thought of takein the graphic card heatsinks off but it was so easy. The only fans i can hear are the panaflo fans i got on my rad with run at 7v but they aint that bad. I would say to any one get watercooling to say i got 35oC drop in temp on my graphic card.

Luke · 11 Apr 2006 at 22:50

Consider me sold!

kinggost · 11 Apr 2006 at 23:15

i was sold til the price tag of my wc setup it was lik £400 but wel worth it