**Water Cooling**NOOB !!

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Ok guys I am looking to upgrade to a conroe system, this is what I have on my list so far.

  • Intel Core 2 DUO E6400 "LGA775 Allendale" 2.13GHz (1066FSB) - Retail or Intel Core 2 DUO E6600 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail
  • Asus P5N-E SLi nForce 650 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
  • Crucial 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2 PC2-5300C3 667MHz Tenth Anniversary Dual Channel Kit (TY2KIT12864AA663)
  • Case ? (please advise)
  • PSU ? (please advise)

I want to water cool this rig, I have never watercooled before and I dont want to spend a fortune on a setup can you guys advise a watercooling rig for the above ?
 
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Generally self made kits are better but the swiftech kit is the exception to this rule and as its a kit you have little to worry about everythig matching up (barb sizes tubing etc) as its all in one and the components they use are pretty good. The kit can also be easily upgraded in the future should you so wish.

Mounting watercooling internally is always going to be a challenge especially if you are on a budget as you will need a fairly large case to hold a radiator internally. You may also have to mod the case (screw holes/fan holes etc) so diy skills are helpfull. A case like the TJ-07 would happily house a rad internall without you having to cut it up but for that privelidge you will pay a price, circa £200 to be precise.
 
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The easiest entry to water cooling I know of is the Zalman Reserator v1.0+. These are very simple, totally silent and can be had new for £130 or they come up on MM regularly for about half that. The downside is that you have a 3' black missile in the corner of your room and the actual cooling performance is only as good as the best air coolers.

After that, you get into the Alphacool CoolAnswer III type system where you buy a completely built single unit that hangs off a 120mm fan port. The Laing DDC version is every bit as good as a component system and, for £150, you would expect it to be. The downside with those is that the mounting requires plenty of space around the 120mm fan aperture and you really need to check this out to make sure the case will definitely fit. The Coolermaster Stacker definitely fits, because that's the case they use in the brochure photographs ;)

Moving on from that you get the pre-built systems like the Koolance PC3-725 or the Alphacool Ready2Go. These take high quality cases and pre-mod them for you so everything is all neatly built-in and ready to run. They even come pre-filled.

You can also buy the cases with just the radiators so you can choose the tubing, pumps, blocks etc.

Then you get the purist stuff. Anything by Swiftech or Danger-Den is good. Don't be fooled by the Swiftech kits. They have just taken their own excellent components and put them in a box together. As already mentioned, you'd have to be extremely picky not to be happy with a Swiftech kit.

I've got a Koolance PC3-725 system which I would not honestly recommend as, although it is excellent, it is quite noisy in the performance mode. I also have a custom made Lian-Li V600 passive system that uses Alphacool Cape Cora radiators, EK blocks and a Laing pump, but that was VERY expensive.

If you only want to spend your money once then I would recommend you to buy the Alphacool Pre-modded Lian Li G70 case with the triple radiator built into the roof. That is £230, but it is very nicely done and it will handle any water-cooling task you could ever imagine. I would then buy a Laing DDC Pump (with the micro-reservoir) and your choice or Swiftech, Danger Den or EK blocks.

That lot is going to cost you about another £170, so not far off £400 all in. If you accept that the Lian Li would have cost £160 to start with then it's still £240, but it's incredibly neat and as powerful a cooling system as you could ask for.

Doubtless my recommendations will have their critics, but it's a very small difference between what I am suggesting and other people's preferences. Once you have decided that you want proper water cooling, it's hard to really screw it up.
 
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wiggyuk said:
Cant you use radiaters from motor bikes or anything like that ?

Of course you can. Obviously it's a bit more work, but the common connector seems to be the G1/4 thread. Once you settle on parts with that thread you can pick a barb size and that dictates the size of the tubing. Then you just need a pump - electric aquarium pumps are very common - and some sort of reservoir and the only piece you can't really ghetto is the CPU block.
 
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WJA96 said:
Oi! Behave yourself or I'll tell you how to build one out of paper and string for half the money :p
Only half?! :eek:

Doesn't seem worth it... :p

The swiftech is amazing. Just buy it, or go with air. Custom isn't worth it for a noob (not until you've got experience and spare parts does custom make sense imo).
 
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joeyjojo said:
The swiftech is amazing. Just buy it, or go with air. Custom isn't worth it for a noob (not until you've got experience and spare parts does custom make sense imo).
Well I'm a Water Cooling Noob, I bought the Swiftech H20-220 Apex Ultra+ kit, but after reading more extensively into water cooling, a few weeks later I decided to customise some of the parts, asked a few questions etc on various forums & to be honest if you do some research & take time to look into watercooling I woudnt worry about not being experienced with having customised parts - just double check sizes etc to make sure all your kit is compatable.

The only regret I have is not choosing to customise all my parts in the first place as I've actually made a small loss having to sell parts I didnt require in the Swiftech Kit! :rolleyes:

To conclude, I would say go for it. I always was very weary of using water cooling, I've just finished leak testing over 24 hours so overclocking will begin in earnest! :)
 
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joeyjojo said:
Only half?! :eek:

Doesn't seem worth it... :p

The swiftech is amazing. Just buy it, or go with air. Custom isn't worth it for a noob (not until you've got experience and spare parts does custom make sense imo).

How much improvement would you get out of a kit like this compared to a top end air cooling kit, is it really worth the extra cost ?
 
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E6300
471 fsb 3.3ghz
V core 1.45+1v
Mem 1.92v
NB 1.748v
CPU 34C in Bios/ 22C idle with coretemp/46C during Orthos
7800gtx 511/1.35 31C idle
Room temp 20C next to PC

Swiftech Kit cooling GFX/CPU but with a larger Res sitting externally on the back of the case. Te,mps above are with Rad fans at 35% in Speedfan and inaudible to me above the fridge the other side of the room.
Ive recently posted a couple of pics but cant remember in what part of the forum.
 
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Guys,

I found this thread and was hoping to pick your brains! I was looking at a reserator 2 but now i've been put off. I've currently got a lian li pc6070 case which is OK, but i notice if i want a higher performance water cooling system i'll need to mod the case to get anywhere. Would I be better off buying the alphacool ready2go triple PC70? How would it be for sound? And does it not come with the pump and reservior already installed?
 
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oli collett said:
Guys,

I found this thread and was hoping to pick your brains! I was looking at a reserator 2 but now i've been put off. I've currently got a lian li pc6070 case which is OK, but i notice if i want a higher performance water cooling system i'll need to mod the case to get anywhere. Would I be better off buying the alphacool ready2go triple PC70? How would it be for sound? And does it not come with the pump and reservior already installed?

You'll need to go some to beat a Reserator 2 - it's a VERY effective water cooler. It's as good as 2 Reserator 1's in series. Also have a google for "Alphacool Cape Cora 10" and "Preytek Serenity" as these are well-regarded alternative passive cooling systems. The Preytek is about to become available in the UK as a full kit for half the price of the Reserator 2 and it has proper water cooling components in the kit that you can upgrade with (it uses proper 3/8ths tubing for a start although it also uses G1/4 threads so you could make it 1/2" tubing if you wanted).

The AquaComputer PC-G70 triple radiator is available for about £235 if I recall correctly and the place that sells them will build it up properly with a Laing DDC pump and EK, Danger Den or Swiftech blocks for about another £100, so it's not cheap, but there will be very little that you couldn't cool with that set-up.
 
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I have the swiftech kit and the first bit i changed was the res i found it hard to mount the swiftech res in a good place in my case , got a dd 5 1/4 drive bay res instead , the swiftech cpu block and pump and rad i found were all sound , i since added a mcw30 nb block aswell.

also changed apogee to a storm but didnt benefit at all tbh
 
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No, PTFE tape is not required as the barbs are sealed with an O ring. Try and steer clear of PTFE tape as you will find it will break up and clog your system if you use too much. IIRC all the barbs use O rings on the Apex kit.

Matt
 
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