Water cooling - noob

spooks · 17 May 2008 at 15:37

Hi all,

I am looking to invest a good water cooling setup, I know nothing about water cooling and have always had air cooling. I am sick of the noise of all the fans in my computer so I want to silence things with some water cooling.

I have a Thermaltake armor case with 200mm fan on the side panel, my system specs are Q6600 G0 @ 3.42Ghz, 4GB OCZ 6400, Gigabyte DS3-R, Geforce 8800GTX.

Ideally I would be using the water cooling to cool my cpu, mb chipset and graphics card.

I don't know if this sort of info has been posted before but would love some ideas on different wc setups etc. Cheers in advance.

Cob · 17 May 2008 at 15:43

Search this forum for 'watercooling'.

There's a good few threads with some very good recommendations.

spooks · 17 May 2008 at 15:50

Yeh, just looking through them now. Can't seem to find something that matches my needs as of yet. Guess i'll have to keep looking.

spooks · 17 May 2008 at 16:04

What about a water cooling kit such as this one? Is it any good or is it better to go custom?

Swiftech H2O-220 Apex Ultra+ Watercooling Kit
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=WC-021-SW&groupid=701&catid=193&subcat=1038

Cob · 17 May 2008 at 16:15

You'd be better going custom. The Apogee block isn't the best for the quads (D-Tek Fuzion or EK Supreme would be). The rad and pump are grand, tho you may want to look at a Thermochill 120.2 rad if you're putting the GTX into the loop.

surge · 17 May 2008 at 16:41

I also vote for a custom set-up, and am also cooling a Q6600, 8800GTX, and Northbridge

Using

Thermochill PA 120.3 radiator + 3 Scythe S-Flex (1000RPM) Fans on Controller
Laing DDC Pump 3.1 with XSPC Res Top
DTek Fuzion CPU Block
Dangerden 8800GTX Block (although the EK block is probably better)
Custom NB Block (EK make a very nice block for your board)

CPU @3.4 GHz runs at 30c idle and 46C 100% load (air temperature 20C) with this setup and its pretty quiet

Problem is getting the PA 120.3 in your Thermaltake Armor is not totally straightfoward

http://forum.ncix.com/forums/index.php?mode=showthread&forum=116&threadid=1646846&product_id=0&forumid=116&pcbuilderid=0

You might get away with a PA 120.2 radiator but I think it would be pushing it. You will be dumping around 300 Watts in to your water loop with that set up. Here are a coupling of graphs comparing heat dissipation and fan performance for PA 120.2 vs PA 120.3

http://www.thermochill.com/PATesting/PA1202HeatdissVSFlowrateGPM.jpg

http://www.thermochill.com/PATesting/PA1203HeatdissVSFlowrateGPM.jpg

spooks · 17 May 2008 at 17:49

surge said:
I also vote for a custom set-up, and am also cooling a Q6600, 8800GTX, and Northbridge
Using

Thermochill PA 120.3 radiator + 3 Scythe S-Flex (1000RPM) Fans on Controller
Laing DDC Pump 3.1 with XSPC Res Top
DTek Fuzion CPU Block
Dangerden 8800GTX Block (although the EK block is probably better)
Custom NB Block (EK make a very nice block for your board)

CPU @3.4 GHz runs at 30c idle and 46C 100% load (air temperature 20C) with this setup and its pretty quiet

Problem is getting the PA 120.3 in your Thermaltake Armor is not totally straightfoward

http://forum.ncix.com/forums/index.php?mode=showthread&forum=116&threadid=1646846&product_id=0&forumid=116&pcbuilderid=0

You might get away with a PA 120.2 radiator but I think it would be pushing it. You will be dumping around 300 Watts in to your water loop with that set up. Here are a coupling of graphs comparing heat dissipation and fan performance for PA 120.2 vs PA 120.3

http://www.thermochill.com/PATesting/PA1202HeatdissVSFlowrateGPM.jpg

http://www.thermochill.com/PATesting/PA1203HeatdissVSFlowrateGPM.jpg

Thanks for your post, great advice.What case are you using?

Thanks.

Greebo · 17 May 2008 at 18:15

Value for money though the swiftech kit is very good and the cpu block, although not the best, is within a couple of degrees of been the best.

A very good kit for a first time watercooling and cheaper than a custom setup.

Surge's recommendation is the best of the best and if you can afford it plus want to overclock to the max then that's the one to go for.

I have a very similar setup to the swiftech kit but bought it all 2nd hand for less than £100 and I am happy with 55 degrees at 3.5Ghz on my quad and total silence plus 43 degrees on my g92 gts.

spooks · 17 May 2008 at 18:17

Greebo said:
Value for money though the swiftech kit is very good and the cpu block, although not the best, is within a couple of degrees of been the best.

A very good kit for a first time watercooling and cheaper than a custom setup.

Surge's recommendation is the best of the best and if you can afford it plus want to overclock to the max then that's the one to go for.

I have a very similar setup to the swiftech kit but bought it all 2nd hand for less than £100 and I am happy with 55 degrees at 3.5Ghz on my quad and total silence plus 43 degrees on my g92 gts.

Is that 55 Load temps i am assuming? Prime95+ stress test temps also 55C?

Thanks again for your advice. You guys are very helpful.

surge · 17 May 2008 at 18:18

Thanks- your'e welcome

Case is a Lian-Li PC-G70 which is huge! PA 120.3 fits in the roof with the PSU at the bottom. I will take a couple of pictures and post them for you but can't do that til later this pm or tomorrow am

Cheers
Geoff

Greebo · 17 May 2008 at 18:19

spooks said:
Is that 55 Load temps i am assuming? Prime95+ stress test temps also 55C?

Thanks again for your advice. You guys are very helpful.

Yeah load temps. No point quoting idle temps as they are irrelevant imo. Running prime95 samll tfts for 8 hours.

surge · 17 May 2008 at 21:07

spooks

here's a (not very good!) pic of my set-up

spooks · 18 May 2008 at 12:06

surge said:
spooks

here's a (not very good!) pic of my set-up

Nice. Perhaps I will need a new case as well if I spending a decent amount on water cooling, hmmm food for thought!

sulli · 18 May 2008 at 19:31

Have a look here
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17305236&highlight=water+cooling+picture

if your interested in seeing what other people have done.

spooks · 18 May 2008 at 20:16

OKay, last question.

What would be the absolute best case to put a high end water cooling setup in? I might as well do it properly and get a new case as well as I not that keen on the thermaltake I have. Ideas are welcome

.

crazyDAJT · 18 May 2008 at 20:19

spooks said:
OKay, last question.

What would be the absolute best case to put a high end water cooling setup in? I might as well do it properly and get a new case as well as I not that keen on the thermaltake I have. Ideas are welcome .

mountain mods or Lian Li PC-343B

both are large cube cases and require deep pockets.

spooks · 18 May 2008 at 20:37

Wow they are big!! What about just sticking to standard width cases?

surge · 18 May 2008 at 20:37

crazyDAJT said:
mountain mods or Lian Li PC-343B

both are large cube cases and require deep pockets.

Indeed- and the Mountain Mods ones come complete with cut-outs for a PA 120.3 (or two

)

surge · 18 May 2008 at 20:45

spooks said:
Wow they are big!! What about just sticking to standard width cases?

You can fit an awful lot in the Lian Li G70 (which is standard width) I have, but you will need to mod the top. OCuK used to sell them but not sure you can still buy them. Think they have been replaced by this

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-094-LL&groupid=701&catid=7&subcat=

crazyDAJT · 18 May 2008 at 21:04

spooks said:
Wow they are big!! What about just sticking to standard width cases?

I was on the verge of getting a Lian Li PC-343B, but the girlfriend played the VETO card, mentioning the fact we are saving for a mortgage, and that fact it probably need a house of its own.

so now I have the Armor apart trying to fit the PA120.3 in it, its very tight.