Which watercooling kit?

weird_dave · 1 Oct 2014 at 11:49

There are quite a number of kits available, but it's not obvious which ones are geared to noise reduction over performance, or even which ones perform better.
I'm looking at the "OcUK Tech Lab - W16 Watercooling Kit 480"
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BU-040-TL&groupid=962&catid=1532
There are a number of options available, thinking of the Advanced Rad option over standard purely going on the fact that it's a thicker rad. Other than price, it seems difficult to compare with other kits
At the moment I'll just be cooling an i5-2500K, that may change

Comments please

dfour · 1 Oct 2014 at 13:05

Unless your planning to watercool a sli/xfire rig then the 480 will be overkill for your needs in standard form. For the money its a great kit with plenty of option to expand. Run the fans on a PWM header/fan controller and it can be as quiet as you want and should outperform all the top end air coolers/AIO's while being quieter.

weird_dave · 2 Oct 2014 at 09:06

Overkill sounds just about right. I can't quite see the benefit of the more expensive kits over the 480.

Ploppy2k3 · 5 Oct 2014 at 15:10

if you want it quiet stay away from the XSPC V4 bayres! its way loud. the D5 version is fine though.

weird_dave · 6 Oct 2014 at 09:13

That's £60 extra

Noise isn't a huge issue for me, one of my fans is currently crying like a baby, I just adjust the sound level to compensate

dfour · 6 Oct 2014 at 11:49

IMHO The d5 is also a better pump as well as quieter.

kaku · 6 Oct 2014 at 13:02

If you can stretch to the Photon 170 I'd definitely recommend it. D5 pump is a must.

Bay reservoirs are awkward to fill/bleed and can make for some messy tubing runs, but it's not the end of the world. Like others have mentioned the 750 pump/res combo seems very hit and miss, and I've seen a lot of people ditch it because of pump noise and vibration.

For a processor-only loop you don't really need a 480mm radiator, although it would allow for adding a gpu to the loop later.

The way I see it is if you're shelling out for top-end cooling, you may as well do it right. Quality watercooling kit will last you several upgrades too.

dfour · 6 Oct 2014 at 13:45

+1

Buy it right the first time and save some of the upgraditus later on.

Ploppy2k3 · 6 Oct 2014 at 19:29

+1 all the way for D5.

paulstung · 6 Oct 2014 at 23:53

What case is it going in mate ?

weird_dave · 7 Oct 2014 at 08:23

It's not on OC anymore, so no direct link

Silverstone Raven 2 RV02B-EW Full Tower Case - Black
Last time I watercooled it was with an aquarium pump, 240 rad and a bucket! There may have also been a peltier involved