Water Cooling Help?

Nis

Nis

Nis

Associate
Joined
29 Apr 2003
Posts
252
Location
UK
Hey peeps, how are you all?

I am just spec'in up a new Computer which I am gonna buy next month. At the moment I run a 2800+ with a 6800GT and it's sooo noisey, I also have 3 case fans to try and keep the damn thing cool! So I was thinking about water cooling my next PC to try and make it quieter.

I have used the search function many times and read many articles and I cannot decide on a system to use. the Reserator 2 looks very good although the Swiftech sounds like the best bet. I want to use my current case which is a Coolermaster ATC-210 (i think).

I have built many PC's but I have never done water cooling, I came here for advice about my current PC as you guys rock and its lasted extremely well, thank you!! ;)

The spec i am thinking of going for is something like a AMD 6000+ X2, Asus mobo, 4gb RAM (dunno what make), 8800GTX, Sound Card. I am guessing by this that the only 2 things i would have to cool are the GPU and CPU? as the mobo is already passively cooled?? or doesn't it work like that?

Thanks a lot,

James.
 
If you are looking at upgrading your whole PC you would have to be pretty insane to go with AMD at the moment as they are simply outclassed by intel's core2duo line of cpu's. The intel chips are also very cheap now with the price drops so you should see a decent performance hike for little outlay.

You can cool just about everything you want to but most settle for CPU and GPU.
As for watercooling then you need to ask yourself if you are going to overclock or not. If you are not interested in overclocking the the reserator is a good setup for cooling stock cpus and is silent aswell. The swiftech is a higher performer and is an excellent starter kit that can be easily upgraded when you feel the need (which you will when the bug bites!).
 
The swiftech KIt is what I have and its handled all my C2D clocks with ease,

The chips have maxed out before the kit failed to cool them.

I would go with that as it will allow you to grow with your system.

Don't get AMD though unless you are going to run at stock.

And as you want to go water cooling I would imagine clocking is top of your list so get a 6600/6420 C2D and leave AMD for dust with your 3.4+ ghz clocks.


I run a C2D 6400 @ 3.8ghz 24/7 using the swiftech kit and its rock solid.
 
Thanks for the quick replys,

I have always gone with AMD, are they really that bad these days? I didn't realise Intel had overtaken them on the performance crown???

I am interested in overclocking, but tbh i doubt i'll do it as i prefer it as stable as possible insted fo the speed as I only play a few games like CS, Half Life 2, C&C, Crysis (hopefully) etc and 5-10 fps difference doesnt really bother me that much.

Do you think a 8800GTX is about the best to get atm?

Reserator 2 looks good, but will it cool a C2D and a 8800GTX without them getting too hot and becoming unreliable??

Thanks a lot,

James.
 
get a 7300gt if you done mind playing games at medium resolution, £25 card, then july/aug the next ati cards will emerge (not fact yet) and later this year oct/nov 9 series will come out and will handle next gen titles with a lot better performance than the current 8800gtx series.
 
I see what you're saying but you can play the waiting game forever as the tech is moving so fast.

AMD are not bad at all - they are still solid performers but they are not the best atm when compared to there intel counterparts.

The 8800ultra is the undisputed king of GPU's atm which is basicly an overclocked GTX with a few tweaks here and there. ATI's 2900xt is 3rd in the gpu stakes fitting neatly between gtx and gts.

A reserator2 will cool both a c2d and a gtx but it won't perform very well and I would strongly advise agaist it - much better to get a custom kit if you are hoping to put both components in one loop.
 
The main game I play is CS and C&C Tiberium Sun, so a card that will run that at like 80fps ish would be nice. I have always felt a bit nervous about the 8 series, as its realtively untested on DX10 at the moment, and i obviously want a card which will handle it well. So it might be a case of waiting till the 9 series comes out. I'll prolly end up buying a 7600gt if i am going to wait, or a pair of 7600gt's.

Ok so it sounds like a Reserator is out of the picture, so is the next best thing the swiftech ultra? or would you buy the basic kit and change a couple of components in it? like 5 1/4" water res etc?

Thanks again for all your help guys :D :D :D :D

James.

P.S Is it worth getting vista ultimate too on a new rig or stick with XP?
 
XP!

There's no correct answer for that question. a lot of people say Vista sucks for gaming, a lot of people say it rocks. Personally, im sticking with XP until Vista has a service pack and has smoothed out considerably :P It's still too new for me.
 
You won't need 4Gb ram if you stick with XP, as it won't be able to address all of it... You would need to use 64 bit (which in my exprience has issues every time I've tried it)
 
Sorry for the slight-off-topic-ness, but DEFINITELY go with a C2D (an e6600 will outperform the athlon easily, and will overclock much better).

As for the WC part, i've also never done it before and am looking for intel on it, so hope you dont mind me checking up on your thread :)
 
hehe, no problem, hijack all you like :)

I have been reading a few reviews and it seems @ stock the E6600 is only slightly faster than the AMD 6000+ Althought I havn't looked at overclocked yet. Never the less I think i'll go with intel this time and see what they are like :)

So my shopping list atm is:-

E6600 C2D
Swiftech Ultra Water Cooling Kit

I am struggling on motherboard atm, I have always gone Asus as I believe they are one of the best and are dead reliable. I was thinking of a nvidia chipset something like the 680i SLI or the 590 SLI, has anyone had any dealings with these?? P5N32 or something.

Thanks a lot,

James.
 
Nis said:
The main game I play is CS and C&C Tiberium Sun, so a card that will run that at like 80fps ish would be nice.
Click to expand...
Even my 8800 GTX wont run CS source at a solid 80 FPS, i still get dips down to high 30-40 FPS even with my CPU overclocked, pretty poor considering how long its been out really.. the 8800 gtx should handle it no probs, and it does in most cases but then you get big maps and it still drops.
 
Perfect_Chaos said:
Even my 8800 GTX wont run CS source at a solid 80 FPS, i still get dips down to high 30-40 FPS even with my CPU overclocked, pretty poor considering how long its been out really.. the 8800 gtx should handle it no probs, and it does in most cases but then you get big maps and it still drops.
Click to expand...

I don't get a drop below 120 with my 7900....

so must be something up with your machine, or your CPU is a massive bottleneck?
 
Perfect_Chaos said:
Even my 8800 GTX wont run CS source at a solid 80 FPS, i still get dips down to high 30-40 FPS even with my CPU overclocked, pretty poor considering how long its been out really.. the 8800 gtx should handle it no probs, and it does in most cases but then you get big maps and it still drops.
Click to expand...
You got a big bottle neck with running your AMD cpu with the 8800gtx....

Am in the middle of upgrading my own AMD 4400 x2 cpu system to an overclocked C2D 6600 system because of this myself...
 
Last edited:
Nis said:
I am struggling on motherboard atm, I have always gone Asus as I believe they are one of the best and are dead reliable. I was thinking of a nvidia chipset something like the 680i SLI or the 590 SLI, has anyone had any dealings with these?? P5N32 or something.
Click to expand...

Asus are my favourite mobo manufacturer also, but beware a few things. The P5N-E seems toget a decent following, but ive not heard amazing things about it. I use a P5n32-E SLi Plus, and whilst its a solid piece of kit, i cant seem to overclock it successfully (probably just me being r-tarded). It has mixed chipset and is genuinly a bit of a lovechild. the non-plus is a better version with a single chipset but the rest of the forum is currently shouting about the Gigabyte DS3P, and for the price of it, it's well worth checking out.
 
DampCat said:
Asus are my favourite mobo manufacturer also, but beware a few things. The P5N-E seems toget a decent following, but ive not heard amazing things about it.
Click to expand...

What amazing things do you want to hear about a £70 motherboard that overclocks like a demon and has all the features any sensible person could ever want? It's the top-selling Core2Duo aftermarket board in the UK - it's sold more than the Gigabyte DS3 even though it's been out half the time. It's a truly phenomenal motherboard.

DampCat said:
I use a P5n32-E SLi Plus, and whilst its a solid piece of kit, i cant seem to overclock it successfully (probably just me being r-tarded). It has mixed chipset and is genuinly a bit of a lovechild. the non-plus is a better version with a single chipset but the rest of the forum is currently shouting about the Gigabyte DS3P, and for the price of it, it's well worth checking out.
Click to expand...

You've answered your own issue about the P5N32-E SLi Plus. It's a bastardised C55/570 chipset that can't be properly overclocked. If you can't overclock a Core2Duo, then the latest AMD chips are faster at stock in games. The P965-DS3P is effectively a dead-duck board, now that P35-DS3 is out.

If you need SLi, don't spend any more than the £70 for an ASUS P5N-E SLi, but definitely don't rule out the AMD 6000 CPU as it's very fast if you're not going to overclock.
 
Just looked on the overclockers webby and theres 3 Asus boards the P5N32-E Sli, P5N32-E Plus Sli and the P5N32-E sli 680.

Which one is the best for overclocking? As it sounds like if i buy a E6600 its gonna need to be overclocked really to get the best out of it.

Thanks again for your help guys :DDD

James.
 
Nis said:
Just looked on the overclockers webby and theres 3 Asus boards the P5N32-E Sli, P5N32-E Plus Sli and the P5N32-E sli 680.

Which one is the best for overclocking? As it sounds like if i buy a E6600 its gonna need to be overclocked really to get the best out of it.

Thanks again for your help guys :DDD

James.
Click to expand...

Are you going to run SLi? If yes, then my suggestion would be this, if not, then my suggestion would be this.

Both are excellent overclockers and will give you top-end performance.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom