Water Cooling

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Well, questions like this always open a can of worms!!

Some people will say it's impossible to do good water cooling for £70 or £80.

Some other people, like me, will say it's perfectly possible if you buy something like a combined XSPC pump/res, a decent CPU block, and something like an XSPC 120.1 radiator, and tubing and a fan of course. I keep mentioning XSPC because it's one of the better budget watercooling brands in my opinion.

The setup I mention could be had picking and choosing componenets and using 1/2" tubing/fittings for about £85 to £90, although there is a kit available using the same parts with everything you need using 10mm fittings for £75...

This one in fact; http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showp...8&name=XSPC X2O Delta V3 CPU Watercooling Kit

It probably wouldn't cool your CPU any better than the two coolers you've linked to (and having never used those air coolers, it would be wrong of me to guess!), but it'll be quiet and also fun to setup and fine tune, which is partly the point in my humble opinion! :)
 
well for air - i think the TRUE is your best bet

i am moving to water in the next few weeks and have specced this for keeping my cpu cool

EK Supreme Cleartop Waterblock
TFC Xchanger - Single Radiator 120
Sharkoon Silent Eagle 2000
XSPC 200 Bay Reservoir & Pump
EK 1/2 FITTINGS X6
XSPC 7/16 Black Tubing - 2m
Feser Aqua - Ultra Pure Water
PTFE TAPE

comes out at £130
 
The other good thing about water cooling is that you can also slowly upgrade it over time and watch your temps get lower as well, and in the case of a motherboard change the worse thing is you maybe need a new CPU block to fit (in that case you would probably need a new CPU heatsink as well) and the best ones are around the same price as the quoted heatsinks
 
I'm with Bradley on this one but Tooks is right - £80 will get you a simple but effective single block loop.

But the two cooler you listed with noctua fans will most likely give lower temps at the same price point.

The two question you need to ask yourself is why are you upgrading the cooling?
and is £x.xx what I really what to spend doing it?

Sample answers:
1) To Oc the pants of my new chip, and just got my first pay check and want to treat myself.
2) The stock cooler is doing my head it, and HOW MUCH! well if that what it takes.
3) My Freezer Pro is holding me back, need more FPS what ever the cost.
4) I like shiny, I need shiny

I'd recomend something quite different to the four 'people' above, and I don't think any of them are you btw :D
Just making the point that in all four cases they might ask the same topical question you did.
 
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I upgraded to water yesterday as after trying to get my clock speeds up with a Ultima 90 that i bought last week was like banging my head against a wall!

I went to Overclockers and after speaking to one of the guys there bought this kit -

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showp...oling Kit (Socket 462/478/LGA775/754/939/940)

I was going to go for the lower priced Swiftech kit but he advised against it because of the size of the rad and the quality of the pump is better in the kit that i bought.

Fitted it last night and it works like a dream, really good kit with everything and more you will need to get you up and running.

All I can say is you get what you pay for, and can vouch for the swiftech kit that I bought being excellent value for money.

Got a cheap Ultima 90 if you want one !!!
 
Wasn't there an issue with the clear topped block cracking?

Hmm, I have a cracked waterblock, think it's an EK, it cracked at both ends very close to the thread, just managed to rescue my PC, will get back to the thread after checking my invoices.
 
the main reason i want one is my idle temps @ 3.6ghz = between 30-40 [heating in house is always on :P]

my loads temps during games and encoding films never goes above 60-65 ever! so thats good

but when i run prime small ffts i get between 70-75c load]

obviously this is a bit dangerous but i dont run prime a lot and temps never go above 60-65 during gaming etc

should i stick with my arctic and stop priming? i dont overclock now im at a very nice 3.6ghz with memory 4-4-4-12 1:1 400mhz and system is super stable

but i dont wana find 2months down the line my cpu dies :(

thanks for your post guys and steve thats a wicked kit :) very intrested

but is this worthwhile for me? would like your opinions please guys
 
Sounds like very good temps to me with just a AC frezer pro, not going to kill you cpu at thoses day-to-day temps :)

Also it it's 8h prime stable at 70-75c it's stable, stop using prime and enjoy your PC.

Get a TRUE if you want to keep running prime at sub 70c

No need for watercooling unless you want to spend money, or have quieter fans
 
If you get second hand stuff you could easily have a water cooling setup that will beat any air cooling.

There is normally some decent watercooling stuff on the MM
 
i think ill save my pennies and get a laptop then : D

if temps dont go above 65 doing day to day stuff like gaming etc im safe?

yay :D
 
if i do this? will i be safe though?
Your temps are pretty good for a freezer 7 at 3.6, when my quad was at 3.4 under a freezer the temps were topping out at 77'c on two cores. Replaced it with a TRUE 120 to reduce the temps a bit.
 
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