Water Cooling Kit/Case

Xionic

Xionic

Xionic

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Joined
1 Feb 2006
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Location
Rotherhan, UK
ok im in the process of upgrading and am planning on using water cooling...

ive been looking at a few kits and cases and am wanting advise on my best option:

heres what im looking at...

WaterChill Power CPU/VGA/Chipset Cooling Kit - Dual 120mm £202
WaterChill Xtreme CPU/VGA/Chipset Cooling Kit - Dual 120mm £265
Thermaltake VB5001SNA Tai-Chi SuperMidi Tower (Water-Cooled) £212
Thermaltake BIGWATER SE Water Cooling Kit £58

how do people rate WaterChill.... is the xtreme really worth the extra money or would the power be sufficiant to cool... AMD X2 4400+/Opteron 170 @ 2.6Ghz (unsure on which to get), X1900XT, how does the Thermaltake perform compaired to more expensive kits. or would it be cheaper/better to put my own toghether (which i REALLY dont want to do).

TIA

Xionic
 
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Thermaltake kits are cheap and cheerful they perform like a top end air cooler... asetek kits are good can get very clean stable temps but for the money youd be better of buying a custom kit in 1/2" of 3/8" pends on your cases size something like dangerden or aqaucomputer
 
shadydelboy said:
Although the current blocks don't perform half as well as the older storms :(

Full custom is never beaten TBH, and won't cost a lot more ;)
Click to expand...

All tests I've seen of the Apogee say it is only beaten by the Storm at higher flowrates. With a low-flow setup for a water-cooler who wants quiet, the Apogee may be a better block than the Storm.

I'm starting to question the real-world benefit of the high-cost super-system these days. With a Storm, an Iwaki and a 120.3 rad, how much actual difference would there be over an Apogee, an Eheim 1048 and a PA120.1? OK, so the former would be cooler but temperatures only matter if it delivers a higher overclock and I suspect that the extra overclock would be miniscule. If I didn't already have a 1250, would I consider using one today or would I be hapy with the Swiftech res/MCP350 combo? If I didn't have a Chevy heatercore, would I buy one when I can get a Swiftech MCR120 for the same price which is much easier to fit in a case?

Good custom may never be beaten by a kit, but good custom takes effort and research and money. A kit can get you very close and requires a simple click.
 
I went for the storm in my system but the apogee is meant to be comparable with it and works out about £15 cheaper.

Generally though people rate the Switech kits as the best on the market. The Apex is £163.27 on OCUK and you could just buy a VGA etc to add to it.

I recommend building your own kit though as it's great fun and you will probably end up with a higher spec for the cash.

I got a Storm CPU block, Silverprop GPU block, DD5 pump, Thermochill PA160 radiator, Akasa 120mm fan, nickel barbs, Danger Den fillport, a T-pice and 7 feet of 1/2" Tygon tubing for around £220 including delivery.
 
Totally depends on what you intend the usage of the PC to be, and also the number of blocks in the loop. With a pump like the D5 it would be madness not to make full use of it's power.

As for less top spec loops, yeah of course they are there, and they probably do a very similar job, and in the real world not much difference would be noticed, but lets be honest, 90% of the reason we do this is to test ourselves, our system, out patience and our wallet ;)

In a niche market as this, where upgrading is the drug of choice, people will always strive for the big hit :)
 
im thinking of going with the Swiftech Ultra & T/Take Saprano Case at a total of
£213.21, rest of my spec

AMD X2 4400+ or AMD Opteron 170 (still unsure)
DFI LanParty ULTRA-D
Mushkin 2GB DDR XP4000 Xtreme Performance
PowerColor ATI 1900XT
Western Digital Caviar SE 200GB
Hiper Type R 580W

making the total upgrade £1,340.87 (-£17 if i get 4400+)
 
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