Kits: What and where?

[sailor420]

Sometime soon, I will make the switch to watercooling. I am undecided yet as to whether or not to build my system or buy a ready made case (like a Koolance). If I do build it, I will need a new case to fit it (no full towers, not enough room in my room). What kits would you suggest? Where would you suggest I look? What case? What do yall think of the koolance cases?

[SkiFletch]

bah, kits dont perform all that well. do it yourself

[Liss]

kits perform just as well as doing it yourself..

go check out dangerden..

custom build your own kit

[RnPgrosz]

I agree with skifletch and liss. Don't buy a kit, do it yourself. I remember I was in the same position when I was deciding what to buy. I thought a kit might be better/easier but now I am glad I didn't get one.:)

[cmcquistion]

I would suggest doing it yourself, but if you choose to buy a kit, don't buy a koolance. They are overpriced, underperforming, and loud.

[masitti]

I'll ditto everyone else, buy the parts seperately. Read on what you need, then we'll see another one of these threads.. "which parts should I get". :D

[[EG]~NaTz~]

ms i hear yah. we should have a sticky thread called "only use the following!" i see those every day. at least we got more doing the w/c. and hey i agree once again with ms peice it together research the threads and the post a thread and we will comment.

[Al666]

Sometime soon, I will make the switch to watercooling. I am undecided yet as to whether or not to build my system or buy a ready made case (like a Koolance). If I do build it, I will need a new case to fit it (no full towers, not enough room in my room). What kits would you suggest? Where would you suggest I look? What case? What do yall think of the koolance cases?

Stay away from Koolance at all costs.
You can buy the same case (Chieftec Dragon) from Newegg.com , get a AquaXtreme watercooling kit from cooltechnica.com and install it yourself.

or get the AquaXtreme-XG watercooled case from cooltechnica.

[rogerdugans]

The Koolance cases LOOK cooler than they run- unless appearance is more important than function, don't get one!

Not all kits are created equal, and unlike others, I think kits can be a good thing: my Swiftech is excellent and only a notch below the best of the home done jobs.

It did cost quite a bit more though.........for slightly less performance.
Two things you get with a really good kit: confidence that it will all fit together, and confidence that it won't leak. That is what I paid for, and I got it.

I will not buy another kit though: all that I have learned since then has convinced me to save some money and get better performance.

If you do go with a kit or case, I would look at the Swiftech stuff: pricey, but excellent performance and quality: http://www.swiftnets.com
Just don't buy direct from them- their stuff is usually cheaper from vendors!

[sailor420]

I think I will probably end up building my own. I like to tinker, and this would be a good excuse. Plus, I think I can probably build one pretty cheaply--$100 or so.

[Iron Hawk]

yeah, 100 is a good price to shoot for. but you can easily push it up into the $200 bracket if you get greedy.

Pump- $20-25
Tubing-$5-15
Radiator (heatercore)-$20
Waterblock-$35-40

Total #80-100

the only other things you might need are a fan for your radiator, maybe an additional waterblock for your vid card, a resavoir or t fitting.

I have heard that some people have done it for less than $20 by building their own ghetto blocks and using gardenhose and stuff.

[JFettig]

i did my origional setup for around 40, probably less but that want much of a setup...