WC Kits

Slinkie

Slinkie

Slinkie

Associate
Joined
21 Oct 2002
Posts
1,680
Location
UK
Hi Folks,

I am considering buying a watercooling kit as my pc is sooo loud at the moment. I have an akaska 922 evo CPU cooler cooling my overclocked E8400 and the fan on it is driving me insane. Rather than buy a quieter fan (that I presume compromises the cooling? It's already a little too hot with this air cooler) I thought I might get a water cooling set up for the cpu and fit an after market cooler to my 4870.

Are there any kits I should avoid? What are deemed the best ones? Also, my case isn't massive (see rubbish picture below), it's an Akaska Zen case. Can I still get a WC kit in there? I only have a DVD-rw in it so have 3 bays at the top spare.



Thanks

Matt
 
well there are several ways you could do it fella. And with using the best gear you need to have a budget, do you know how much you wanna spend?
 
I have no idea of what I want to spend. I really know nothing about watercooling. I think about £80 tops (which some of the kits go for) would be good. I am only looking at doing the cpu at the moment and getting a quiet air kit for the 4870.

Thanks
 
for £80 there mate i think the general conscensus would be to go for some air cooled/passive heatsink like the true 120. WCing isn't cheap and if you skimp then you'll regret it mate .. you'll probably need to spend a comfortable £200 for a decent wc setup i think it's fair to say.
 
I don't think he's after the best CPU loop. To lower noise there are some cheaper (<£150) kits out there which can also bring temps down a bit too.
 
Ok I'll have a look into the members market.

Can you please recommend a kit/ individual components for a build I am after so I can gauge the price I would be spending. If it was nearer £100 I would consider it but as it is just for my CPU to quieten down my PC I don't think I'd want to spend much more than that.
 
Slinkie said:
Ok I'll have a look into the members market.

Can you please recommend a kit/ individual components for a build I am after so I can gauge the price I would be spending. If it was nearer £100 I would consider it but as it is just for my CPU to quieten down my PC I don't think I'd want to spend much more than that.
Click to expand...

Just do a search - there are so many spec me watercooling threads these days.
 
Buy cheap then you will buy twice. I bought the top swiftech h20 kit which is probably the best kits available and the only thing i still use from that is the pump :o

I would personally look in the MM and buy all the bits seperate, Theres some really good guides on the XS forums which are worth reading, they helped me a lot when i got into w/c :)

Oh and for the price, if you get a 120.2 or 120.3 rad i would seriously look at getting a block for the gfx & some ramsinks while you're at it (something along the lines of a DD maze or Swiftech mc60 can be had very cheap now & replace with a full cover block at a later date) :)
 
Would a water cooling set up reduce my temperatures or is it just a case that it is a lot quieter than air cooling? Also,would I be able to pwer it from my current power supply?

Also, I presume once a water cooling kit is bought it can be used on upgrades to my rig (as long as the water blocks still fit the gfx cards/ cpus etc), I should be albe to use it for future rigs?

I was looking at getting a Bay resevoir, cpu block and pump and radiator etc but might stretch it to fit my gfx card as well but I am so out of my depth with this I am not sure what will work. If I can reduce the temps of my cpu and gfx card and potentially clock them further I might look into building a custom water cooling kit.

The only thing that concerns me is my case isn't the biggest but there isn't much in there so there is a bit of space.

Thanks

Matt
 
If you aim is quiet (not silent) a watercooling loop will need at least a 120.2 rad with two low rmp fans (a 120.3 would be better)
Fitting this inside a zen is possible but for your first watercooling loop not advisable unless your into DIY and making stuff. Viper build log here show what you can achieve in much smaller case (but even with his experience he had problems)

I’ll stick with air cooling – swap the evo for a Noctua NH-U12P (or Xigmatek HDT-S1283) and get a AC Accelero S1 (or HR-03GT plus some ram heatsinks) for the 4870. also worth swapping the case fans for any of the 5star ones at Ocuk – S-flex / silent Eagle / NF-P12 etc (the eagles should match the zen case very well too)

And all within budget new - And hold their value resonable well
 
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Another thing to consider is hard drives - while i run my setup on very low RPM fans, i can still hear the bloody raptor !!
 
beh* said:
Another thing to consider is hard drives - while i run my setup on very low RPM fans, i can still hear the bloody raptor !!
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Lian-li's rubber washer like mounts stop me even hearing my raptor full stop. I have to really aim to listen for it to hear it.
 
rodo said:
Lian-li's rubber washer like mounts stop me even hearing my raptor full stop. I have to really aim to listen for it to hear it.
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Thats strange because i keep my raptor within a harddrive silencer and i can still hear it ...
 
well i wouldnt buy any pre made kits from a single company as non of them do really good everything. as for £80 i would stick with air till you get a little more as if u buy cheap stuff you will only want to upgrade or it will leak or something and buy twice as already said. rad wise you wanna thermochill PA120.2 if you can get one second hand. and you may get a fusion v1 cpu block cheap as the newer ones are out second hand. really all you need to buy new is the tubing. rest is fine second hand.
 
so a swiftech h2o 120 isn't worth the money. I'm going to get an accelero for my 4870 but my CPU fan is driving me insane. Its pretty much constantly at 3000 rpm and it sounds like a hoover! My e8400 is at 4ghz and runs at 45 idle and 65 load. Would the swiftech acheive these same temps but quieter? If not I'll look into a different cooler, one which takes a 120 mm fan rather than the 92mm on my Akaska.

Thanks
 
watercooling your 4870 is quite costly. either get a TRUE and something like a s-flex 1200 or im sure for maybe 100 you could pick up a good second hand loop.
 
a PA120.2 just went for 35 delivered on the mm you may get one a little cheaper. say £4 for new tubing. 30 for a pump and 25 for a V1 fusion and res are cheap you have yourself a way better loop than those swiftech ones.
 
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