Recommend Water Cooling System

Marky · 23 Apr 2007 at 11:56

Hey all,

I'm considering getting water cooling for my system and was wondering what you would recommend?

I can spend around £200 for the entire system.

If you have a water cooling system please provide as many pics as possible ^^

Thanks,

Marky

Zirax · 23 Apr 2007 at 12:29

Firstly what are you looking to watercool? The cpu, gfx, nb? Or just cpu?

That will have a large effect on prices and what can be recommended

I'll assume you are cooling cpu and gfx, personally I would go for
PA 120.3 (with optional shroud)
Either a bay res or a micro res
Laing DDC Ultra/Plexi top

Now I am out of date with the cpu blocks, the swiftech storms were doing well last I checked. (DD RBX 939 user here)

With regards to the gfx, I would go for a smaller block just covering the core rather than a full face EK block. If you put ramsinks on your ram and have good airflow this shouldn't be any problem.

edit: Another thing to consider is how confident are you with venturing into water cooling? It takes a fair amount of care and patience to setup compared to air cooling. Personally I have a 12hour leak test before I even consider switching the machine on.

Cupra · 23 Apr 2007 at 13:47

to take away any a lot of doubts you can use a non conductive fluid like feser1 but ocuk dont stock it (or any watercooling atm hardly tbh)

MikeTimbers · 23 Apr 2007 at 14:05

Please look at the Watercooled Case Gallery for pictures.

As for specs, please do a search for the enormous number of recommendation threads then post a more specific question if those do not help.

Marky · 23 Apr 2007 at 16:16

Really I'm looking for a kit, quite like the Swiftech H20-200 since I'm pretty new to watercooling. Would you recommend that or maybe the Zalman Reservator??

MikeTimbers · 23 Apr 2007 at 22:27

Swiftech kits are excellent for a first-time build and can be easily added to later.

Marky · 23 Apr 2007 at 23:11

MikeTimbers said:
Swiftech kits are excellent for a first-time build and can be easily added to later.

Are the two fans in the rad very loud? And are they changeable?

andyh · 24 Apr 2007 at 06:34

Marky said:
Are the two fans in the rad very loud? And are they changeable?

They are loud on max setting but are easily changeable. They also come with the wiring to allow you to run them at 5v or 7v. The Swiftech kit is excellent and comes with every thing you need to get you started. I have recently installed one and its cooling a e6300 @3.2ghz to 46c underload (temp from coretemp), it was 63c with a scythe ninja.

MikeTimbers · 24 Apr 2007 at 08:06

Marky said:
Are the two fans in the rad very loud? And are they changeable?

"Loud" is a relative term though, isn't it? I would say not loud yet andyh says yes.

Marky · 24 Apr 2007 at 13:06

What about the Zalman Reservator 1 and 2 - any good?

MikeTimbers · 24 Apr 2007 at 13:19

Personally I would say not good. Passive silent cooling is fine for a specific need but someone who overclocks and uses their computer at high load for extended periods is highly likely to overpower the cooling capabilities of a Reserator.

andyh · 24 Apr 2007 at 17:47

MikeTimbers said:
"Loud" is a relative term though, isn't it? I would say not loud yet andyh says yes.

I agree, but the ability to run them at different voltages (12, 7 or 5) without any real difference in performance (that I have noticed) means you can adjust them to run at the noise level that you are happy with.