Watercooling

rctneil

rctneil

rctneil

Associate
Joined
31 Jan 2007
Posts
1,861
Hello,
I ahve been building PC's for a bit now and would love to try watercooling out but have not really got a clue what to go for. I have been looking around and found these on the followng site:

EK- Pro Wave Water Cooling Kit

and so on.



Can anyone tell me what the difference is between all the kits shown on there and how good each one would be?

My system specs are as follows:

Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 2.40Ghz
Asus P5W DH Deluxe
2 x VData 1Gb PC800
Asus ATI Radeon AX700 Pro 256Mb
Seagate 400Gb Sata2 HDD
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro
530W Hiper Modular PSU
Super Flower Blue Case
Asus DRW-1814BLT Lightscribe DVD-RW
NEC DVD RW Drive
Floppy Drive
Yusmart 198YP 19" Monitor
24 in 1 Card Reader
300Gb Maxtor One Touch 3
Logitech MX 1000 Mouse


Also, A quick question. If I bought some better RAM, Ie: Crucial or some other type but stilled got 2Gb, would they have any difference over the VData RAM I have now?

Thanks

Neil
 
Last edited:
aye take out the link, you will get suspended/banned for it, on a side note, that kit is pants for dual core setups.
 
Well, first things first, you've linked to a competitor site, which is against the forum rules I'm afraid.... Best edit before the mods come along and take action.

I don't know much about those EK kits, but the graphics card waterblocks get some good reviews.

The best way to go in my opinion, and this may seem daunting at first, is to get your own kit together. You can get together exactly what you need, and it may even be a bit cheaper than a kit.

For pumps, think Laing/DDC.

For CPU Blocks, anything by D-Tek or Apogee (GT/X) is a good bet.

Radiators, well Thermochill arguably make the best, but most are up to the job these days.

Tubing can be anything from cheapo to masterkleer through to tygon (expensive).

You don't need a res if you use a T-Line (do a search on Google for an explanation).

The main thing is, do some research, and enjoy finding out how it all works.

I was really confused at first, and just went for a cheap kit to get me started. Had I done a bit more research though, and looked through all the watercooling threads on here, I'd have put together my own kit, and saved some money longer term.

:)
 
ok, ok, ok, I took the link out after the first reply was made!

Go easy on me, Ididn;t know about the linking to competitors sites.
 
rctneil said:
ok, ok, ok, I took the link out after the first reply was made!

Go easy on me, Ididn;t know about the linking to competitors sites.
Click to expand...

were just saving you ass mate ^_6, no offence is intended, you want advice and wer are giving it willy nilly :P
 
Ok, Thanks for the warning guys.

Right, I ahve had a quick look around but get confused as I don;t know whether one bit will fit with another or anything. Could one of you maybe put a kit together of some components you reccommend that will fit together so i can see, one that will cool my system effectively.
 
It's a bit tricky to link to any kit on the OCUK site, because first the selection of stuff is a bit limited at the moment, and second a lot of that is out of stock!

But, my system as in the sig below is cooled by the following:-

Pump - Laing DDR1-T Pro with an OCLabs Plexi top - 1/2 barbs
CPU Block - Apogee GTX - 1/2 barbs
Northbridge Block - Swiftech MCW30 - 1/2barbs
2 x 120mm Sharkoon fans for the rads
T-Line instead of a Res
2 x XSPC Single Rads (single means takes one x 120mm fan) - 1/2 barbs
Tygon 1/2" tubing

Basically, a lot of the kit comes with different sized barbs for different applications. For example, my CPU block came with fittings for Intel and AMD CPU's and 3 sizes of barbs depending on what tubing you're using and the MCW30 chipset block came with different barbs too, as well as a kit to fit to motherboards with loop heatsink retainers and bolt through ones.

It really isn't as mysterious as it might seem at first.

Just choose your blocks, make sure they'll fit your motherboard, and then choose the barb sizes you want (generally speaking bigger tubes are more fashionable, but there is little difference in performance between 10mm tube and 1/2 tube), work out where you're going to place your pump and rads within your case (or externally of course) and then work out how you'll route the tubes etc.

Planning is the key to a successful watercooling installation in my opinion, but once you've done that, it's pretty straightforward. :)
 
Last edited:
Just been looking at XSPC and I like the look of this:

XSPC X2O Pro WaterCooling Kit

Anyone have any thoughts on that?


Also, anyone have any advice on the RAM issue i posted about?

Thanks

Neil
 
That's the kit I started out with, although they've updated the pump now I see. Overall, it was a good bit of kit.

It's a nice introduction to watercooling and will teach you about putting together a loop, and the rad isn't bad either.

If you want to add anything to your loop later on though, you'll have to upgrade the pump to keep the flow rates up, and also maybe upgrade the rad depending on what else you're doing.

At minimum fan voltage it was quite a quiet kit as well. So, not the best kit in the world, but by far and away not the worst either!

I'm not sure about your RAM question, tell me more about what you've got now?
 
I don't really know the exact ram i have but they are vData ram - 2 1gb sticks. I just want to know if I would see a performance increase if i change them for crucial or better 2 1gb sticks?
 
That really depends on what speeds and latencies you've got your existing RAM running at currently.

If you look in the bios, you should be able to see your current RAM timings?

If the new RAM is running at the same speed as your current RAM, and the same latencies, then you won't see any performance increase.

RAM running at a given speed and latencies is RAM really! In theory, they should all be exactly the same.

The performance RAM you read about just either runs faster to begin with, has lower latencies, or overclocks better.

Personally, I'd skip new RAM and spend it on something else, especially as your CPU is at stock speeds.
 
Well, depending on that RAM you've got in there, first thing I'd do is overclock it!! :) The E6600 is still a great chip at stock though, if you don't fancy overclocking it.

What do you do with your computer?

If gaming is your thing, then the graphics card is what I'd upgrade next...

In fact, I'd upgrade that before I watercooled it to be honest.
 
Right,
I have a quick question. My CPU is running at stock speeds and at idle i get about 30-40 degree C temps. Other people are saying that they are getting about 25-28 degree C temps with it being overclocked to 3.0 or 3.2?

How? Whats wrong with my setup?

I have been looking at a new case and CPU cooler. Any thoughts on these:

Antec P182
Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme

I have also never overclocked a system before and wouldn;t know where to start. I would love to get it to 3.0 but don;t want my temps very high. f you could explain how I get it to 3.0 then i would be very appreciative.

Thanks

Neil
 
First things first, read the overclocking sticky thread at the top of this section, then ask some specific questions. Nothing I could explain here and now would be better than the sticky!

Secondly, your temps are not even relative to your own system, never mind anybody else's!! My idle temps with watercooling are in the region of 35c to 40c, depending on the ambient temp/weather.

Motherboard temps sensors are notoriously low rent, and are in no way calibrated. Coretemp is a good utility that reads your die temp sensor, and is considered relatively accurate.

The worst thing to do is start chasing other peoples reported temps. You don't know what the ambient temp of their room is for a start, and also bear in mind that not everybody is truthful about what they report on here. Clocks are overstated, and temps are under reported, and that's just for starters!!

Just use whatever your reported temps are as a guide, and then test for stability. It's all in the sticky thread... :)
 
coretemp, it says

tjunction: 85 degrees
core1 and core2: 46-50 degrees.

Are those ok or is there anything i can do to reduce them before trying to overclock.

Thanks

neil
 
rctneil said:
coretemp, it says

tjunction: 85 degrees
core1 and core2: 46-50 degrees.

Are those ok or is there anything i can do to reduce them before trying to overclock.

Thanks

neil
Click to expand...

dont use coretemp, use TAT if you have an intel chip.

also is that load or idle?

if it is on load then those are good temps, my C2D clocked to 3.2 on air did 67 on load :O, does 40c now at 3.4 on water.

if its idle thats pretty high. may need to give the HSF a quick blast with some compressed air and reapply some thermal paste (AS5 imo).
 
Who can possibly answer that? But, it won't hurt, that's for sure! Try it and see, what have you got to lose?

Make sure you clean off the old compound properly though, from the heatsink and cpu, and then reapply your new thermal compound in line with the manufacturers instructions.

Do a search, it's been asked a million times at least! ;)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom