Watercooling an Opteron

brightside_ · 17 Feb 2006 at 01:58

I'm thinking about setting up a watercooling rig for my 144 opteron, and have had a lot of mixed reccomendations.
One of my friends has had watercooling for ages, and reccomends a Danger Den RBX block, which other people have told me are over the top, so a bit confused. can anyone reccomend one? 1/2" fittings?

I know the radiator and pump i'm going for, some kind of Eheim pump, and a BIX III as they've had good reviews in quite a few places.
Also planning on getting a Lian-Li V2000+ and modding it to fit into there.

thanks for any help, and reccomendations!

Martynt74 · 17 Feb 2006 at 02:00

The RBX is the kind of about a year ago.

Now you want to be looking at the Swiftech Storm or if you can't find it the Swiftech Apogee

Also pump wise you want to get the Laing D5 and Rad wise ideally you want a Thermochill PA120.3

weescott · 17 Feb 2006 at 11:23

^^ditto

I can't understand why someone would say the RBX is "over the top" :confused:

The AquaXtreme block is meant to be on par with the Storm block, a lot more expensive than the Apogee though!

Marci · 17 Feb 2006 at 11:55

The AquaXtreme block is meant to be on par with the Storm block

AquaXtreme make a LOT of different blocks... and only ONE particular version is rumoured (unless you've got a source?) to be on par with Storm... be more specific d00d...

RBX IS over the top... more has been learnt since then in waterblock design, to the point that same performance can be gotten with a 2 barb'd setup...

weescott · 17 Feb 2006 at 12:08

point taken.

silentphoenix · 18 Feb 2006 at 07:20

Personally id go for the apogee block - mainly because its a fair bit cheaper that the storm and gives similar performance (quality control issues aside

). The DD TDX is also a good choice (and RBX with 2 barbs) as is the classic swiftech 6000 block (if you can find someone that still sells them)

For the pump you may want to have a look at the laind DCC (Dangerden DCC and the swiftech MCP350) - tiny pump that packs a punch if you mod the inlet. Not too loud either.

If your watercooling the CPU, you may aswell do at least the GPU also - DD and nexxos make good blocks for these.

As for the rad - a 120.2 is more than sufficient for pretty much any system, but a 120.3 will allow you to run with quiter fans without a problem. The BIXs are good, but i would go for thermochill rads, or the nexxxos rads if your on a tighter budget.

brightside_ · 18 Feb 2006 at 17:31

I've decided to go the watercooling route,just a matter of when now, and am planning on modding my case and -trying- to fit it in. My case is a Cheiftec Dragon, Planning on mounting the Rad on top, and creating a mesh enclosure to try and protect the rad a bit. Any tips on how mount the rad?

Do you think the Laing DDC or D5 will even fit in my Dragon? is there another option that would fit if they dont?

I'm not going to go the watercooling route with my GFX card, I don't find my 6800GS especially noisy when gaming, plus my temps on there rarely go above 50, if at all, and it's clocked to 500/1.2

silentphoenix · 18 Feb 2006 at 18:49

i wouldnt worry about getting the pump in the case (unless you have loads of hard disks) - both are pretty small and can fit in where the lowest 3.5'' drive cage is and the DCC can fit about anywhere (its really small).

I think cooling the GPU would be a decent idea (but not necessary) - it'll hardly affect the cooling of the CPU (add 2-3 degrees) and it gets rid of a fan (it'll probably be the noisiest fan when you install the WC)

brightside_ · 18 Feb 2006 at 20:13

I can always buy another block at a later date, and some more tubing. Depends how irritating it is when the CPU's basically silent!