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which assembled kit would you recommend?

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Mike521

Member
Joined
Oct 14, 2001
I'm debating between these two:


Iceberg CPU Liquid Cooling

$85 shipped

or

Thermaltake Aquarius II

(being auctioned on ebay right now.. currently at 76)

no matter what, I'm not spending more than 100 dollars, so if the aquarius goes over 100 then I'm getting the iceberg..

but what would you guys recommend, anyway?

I figure a preassembled kit will be a good starting point to show me the ropes. then if I'm not satisfied with it, I can upgrade it peice by peice for 20 bucks here and there, in the future sometime.
 
if only you had 100 post you can get a sweet kit on the classified ads. But both of those aren't that good. I would just stick with your thermaltake volcano 9 because it will be the same. They are low end watercooling setups.
 
Just buy a slk-800 and a good fan with a reostat. you can controll it when u need the extra cfm or not.
Cheapo water setups arent worth it. they arent made to handle much heat at all esp if you overclock.
the slk800+fan+reostat will only be like 45bucks shipped. so thats less then half of those water setups and probly would perform better.
 
yea but... its noisyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

I can't stand the noise

these things should do just as good as my volcano, right?

right now my volcano is chugging away at 4300 RPM, and I haven't even done anything major, like play a game.

I'm not looking for like a 35 C cpu, I'd be happy with 50 or 55.. just as long as it doesn't fry itself, all I want is for it to be quiet and cool..
 
In water cooling you Stillneed fans. Hence why i said its best to buy a slk800 and get a fan thats low cfm. So it wouldnt be louder then your case fans. Be cheaper and perform about the same.
 
Dissolved said:
In water cooling you Stillneed fans. Hence why i said its best to buy a slk800 and get a fan thats low cfm. So it wouldnt be louder then your case fans. Be cheaper and perform about the same.

Low CFM ae? Dunno what good a low cfm fan would do... 20cfm fan tring to cool some hot processor.. :eek:

Maybe low DBA, but never CFM here... why if you went with something that low, those economic water kits would out preform it...

About the same? What do you mean by that?

About the same = Atleast the processor doesen't burn up within 10 minutes??
 
Low cfm=lower DB.
case fans are usualy like 30cfm. So an slk800 with 35~45cfm would be fine IMO. a 45cfm 80mm fan isnt very loud at all.
plus it would be easier to maintain, no leaking and whatknot.


Edit.
 
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Dissolved said:
Low cfm+lower DB.
case fans are usualy like 30cfm. So an slk800 with 35~45cfm would be fine IMO. a 45cfm 80mm fan isnt very loud at all.
plus it would be easier to maintain, no leaking and whatknot.

Tell everyone else who watercools that
 
iNSiGMA said:


Tell everyone else who watercools that

Im not gonna even start with you. Shows what you know. So dont waste forum space with posts that have nothing to do with the topic. This isnt [H], so nothing other then positive posts should be posted.

Other then your crap. Id still say Good Proven affective Air cooling is better then a cheapo water setup that wont do much other then kill 15db of sound. Just my personal opinon. You will be like "why did i buy this?" a few weeks later wishing you had something else better to spend your money on. These "kits" are made for newbs that need to help the idea of water cooling. But if your intent on buying it, then go ahead, but perforamce and $ wise it wouldnt be worth it to me.
 
ok wait let me get this straight

you're saying that the aquarius II won't be able to keep my cpu cool at all?

all I want is something to keep it cool, I'm not looking for something spectacular. cool and quiet, thats my only request.. I understand that the aquarius won't be as good as some kind of custom made water cooling kit, however I don't know how to make one of those, and this will be a good start I figure. like I said, if I want a better waterblock, etc, sometime down the line, I can upgrade it peice by peice.


anyway, will an aquarius be able to cool my cpu at the state its at now? or will it overheat?

cause if it can cool my cpu, I'm happy. seriously. I'm not trying to push this thing to 3 ghz or anything.

also, 45 dba is really loud, in my opinion. I had a 48 dba fan and I couldn't stand it. this volcano was quiet when it was on my 1.4 ghz cpu, but now on the 2.2 ghz cpu, it has to go to a higher rpm, and its loud.

thanks insigma for those links :)

anyway, lets say I get the aquarius.. do you guys think it will keep my cpu cool enough? right now my cpu is at 58 C after playing tribes 2 for an hour.. if the aquarius will keep it at this temp I'll be happy..
 
Dissolved said:


Im not gonna even start with you. Shows what you know. So dont waste forum space with posts that have nothing to do with the topic. This isnt [H], so nothing other then positive posts should be posted.

Other then your crap. Id still say Good Proven affective Air cooling is better then a cheapo water setup that wont do much other then kill 15db of sound. Just my personal opinon. You will be like "why did i buy this?" a few weeks later wishing you had something else better to spend your money on. These "kits" are made for newbs that need to help the idea of water cooling. But if your intent on buying it, then go ahead, but perforamce and $ wise it wouldnt be worth it to me.

LOL! That was an entertaining post. Where did that [H] stuff come from anyway?

But listen Mike, Dissolved may have been pointing in the right direction as far as the best thing to do. Remember that most online store will not accept returns of Watercooling equipment due to the fact these are not actually approved ways of cooling your CPU and that there is a substantially higher risk when using one of these kits, then standard Air Cooling using an approved heatsink. Most of these watercooling guys will come in here and shoot 1 million wholes in this kit, talking about how bad it is, but...

Do some extensive research on the aquarius (OUTSIDE of Overclockers.Com) before you decide to buy it so that you understand how good the kit looks. One review I like was done by 3dgameman. Its a video review you can download and watch on your computer:

http://www.3dgameman.com/vr/thermaltake/thermaltake_aquarius2/video.html

He says its a very good kit. You can also use GOOGLE to search for more reviews. Also, if you goto his main site (www.3dgameman.com) and look though all his video reviews you'll find a few other reviews of some other watercooling kits.
 
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Mike521 said:
...I can upgrade it peice by peice for 20 bucks here and there, in the future sometime.

The aquarius has almost no options in upgrading. You might find something that fits that small tubing size but it will be no better that what comes with the aquarius. But if all you want to do if keep your cpu at 58C and take some noise away, that'll do fine, but you won't be able to put $20 in to make it any better.
 
Re: Re: which assembled kit would you recommend?

Mike K said:


The aquarius has almost no options in upgrading. You might find something that fits that small tubing size but it will be no better that what comes with the aquarius. But if all you want to do if keep your cpu at 58C and take some noise away, that'll do fine, but you won't be able to put $20 in to make it any better.
Thats true;

One thing you could do, Mike, is a custom kit like this one:

Becooling: Unablock & Hold Down + Maxi-Jet Power Head (120V) + Shipping = $30

AutoParts Store: Chevett Heatercore = $20

Hardware Store: 1/2" ID Tubing + Clamps + Barb(for pump) = $10

Thats like $60 buxx so far. After that, you can get a 120mm Fan and Tupperware Shroud of which you may already have laying around the crib. The good thing about the above suggested setup is that it will give you those high *** temps you don't seem to care too much about :D , while being dead silent, and still being upgradable! :D



I hear bong cooling is cheap though... :cool:
 
lol

thanks guys for all the great tips! I'm gonna look at those video reviews too, insigma, thanks!

yea I read some other reviews besides the overclockers ones, and basically nothing I saw said that the aquarius was a BAD setup, just not as good as a homemade one, and I can deal with that.

and it'll give me a hands on idea of what water cooling is about, without making me have to figure it all out on my own. I mean I could read the manuals on how to build one myself, but as a friend and I once realized when we were setting up rappelling protection atop a 150 foot cliff, the voice of experience is A LOT more calming than the voice of reason lol :) so at least this will give me that experience, since no one else I know can help me.

man.. I just want a quiet computer! lol

thanks again guys, I'll be sure to post back my results when the time comes
 
I'm with the others... I had a AX-7 with a mechatronics 53 CFM fan it really wasn't very loud. Plus, if you get a big Heatsink, then a big fan, then a fan controller you'll have complete control.

Make sure you know what you're getting into with water... Use a corrosion inhibitor in that Thermaltake kit if you still insist on getting it. Those steel springs inside worry me.
 
It occurs to me that people who are just buying a kit and don't really know anything about watercooling shouldn't get into it. If you know nothing about something don't just jump in with both feet, find out more about the topic, and make your own decisions based on what you know. You're more likely to mess up your rig if you try watercooling without knowing anything about it.
 
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