nOOb needs some help please!!

[SuperDave1685]

Ok ok ok. So I'm not really a "nOOb" so to speak, but I am ready to venture into the world of water cooloing. Right now I am air cooling with a crappy Volcano 6cu+ . I figure by the time i spend all the money on fans, heatsinks, etc.. that I'd be better off all around to go with watercooling. I currently have 2 120mm, 85cfm fans on the side of my case, 2 80mm fans in the back, right behind the cpu, and 2 80mm fans in the front of the case. However, my idle temp is about 37-38C and my load is about 41C ( u can check out my sig to see what I got it running at ) But I really want to push this chip till it screams!!! I have read the forum posts on water cooling and how to do this and that, but i still don't quite get it. COuld some "overclocking god" help me out please? here's my questions:

What all do I need to get started?
How big of a case do I need or can i possibly place a few parts outside the case?
Can someone reccomend me a good motherboard ( I'm thinking about that new MSI Kt4-400 FISR or whatever its called- it supporrts the new 333Mhz FSB )and/or a good "starter" kit to get me familiar with how everything works?
I would be VERY thankful for a cost estimation if you possibly can.
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANKYOU
did i say THANK YOU!!:D :) ;) :p

[RnPgrosz]

Welcome to the Forums!!!:beer: I hope you enjoy your stay.:) I don't think a Full-tower is absolutely neceesary but it would be best if you had something bigger than a Mid-tower. The Chieftec/Antec server towers are very popular with watercoolers. People often have their radiators outside of the case but I would rather have it in the case(easier to transport etc). You will need a pump, radiator and waterblock and you should be able to put together a nice watercooling setup for around $150. If you have more specific questions it would probably be best to ask in the watercooling section.:) About motherboards, the Epox 8k3a+ is IMO the best overclocking board around. Besides offering the standard features all the other KT333 boards have(such as a 1/5 divider) it also has vcore adjustments to 2.2v and vdimm to 3.2v. This will come in very handy when you are overclocking, especially if you are watercooling. You may also want to wait for the Nforce 2 which is supposed to be good(of course we wil have to wait and see).

[Kato]

If you post this in the water-cooling section, you will get better respond. But worry not, a Mod will move this for you. The H2O guys can answer that better than me(generlly speaking all you need is a waterblock, pump and a radiator or heatercore for inline, and you doesn't need that big of a case to fit everything in, most midtower can do just fine)

As for the mobo, the Abit KX7-333 is a good OCer's mobo, its listed for $88 (http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduct.asp?submit=manufactory&catalog=22&manufactory=1283&DEPA=1&sortby=14&order=1) at newegg. If you want the KT400 chipset, you can also consider the Abit KD7. But if you can wait NF2 is just around the corner:D

edit: Haha, RnPgrosz you beat me by 1 sec, and we were typing in the same thing:beer: