Cooling Options (Water vs Air)

OK, to start with, here is what i think the important information that is needed to answer my question..

This is my case: http://www.newegg.com/app/Showimage...12-05.JPG/11-156-012-06.JPG/11-156-012-07.JPG (Raidmax Model 208B 10-bay Case)

Abit IC7-G mobo and P4c 2.4GHz proc.

Honestly, I'd be happy with running at 2.4GHz, but I plan on playing and seeing if i can get over 3.0GHz easily.

On to my question (and more rambling). I as originally planning on going with watercooling for ****s and giggles but as I look at the case I don't think that it would fit internally. A 120mm fan should fit just behind the front grille, but I can't find a radiator that can fit in that hole (1.5"x7.5"x6.5" dxwxh) behind the grille nor one that would fit in the drive bays behind the slot (4"x6.5" wxh). I'm debating fiitting it elsewhere in the case, but I can't figure out a spot that won't look like a hack. So that leaves external radiator which feels like cheating to an extent and I don't particularily want to build a nice radiator box. Plus, The extra hosing would require me to find a pump better then an aqarium pump (suggestions?) or a multi pump system I would think. If I do go with water cooling the Slit Edge block amuses me the most currently (http://www.aquastealth.com/product.asp?0=204&1=220&3=11). Anyone have any thoughts?

Now, if I don't have the space internally for a radiator, that leaves me with air cooling I would think. Couple fans and maybe some ducting should be able to do quite well this tower I would think at the cost of noise.

So how would they compare? Would the extra effort for water cooling be worth it if i'm not going to bother with a chiller (currently. Dont' know about in the future). And if I do go with air cooling, what does that limit me in overclocking options? If hardcop's article is correct, then 3.0+ was easily done on the stock cooling set up. A well done air set up should be fine I'm guessing.

Sorry for the rambling. Thanks for reading it all if you do and any help you can give.

Oh, and I'm going to browse to forum today to look for old threads covering this. If i find any I'll post here. Sorry if I find all of my answers with searching, but if nothing else, I'm sure some have learned new things by now.


edit:----

What I do know:

With air cooling I am almost definitly going to be suffering from noise. This can be minimized to an extent, but in theory, water would be cooler. Although, if I need to run a more powerful pump due to external radiator, I may lose much of that silent advantage.

Water cooling uses the water to transfer the heat to a better cooling element (the radiator). Water should be able to get the chip closer down to ambient temp. But if I can keep it cooled to within 10 degrees of ambient (under 40 degrees), then all should be well.

Feel free to tell me if i'm wrong.

You should be able to fit water cooling in that case. It may be slight modification though. I would just remove the whole bottem hard drive rack. If you don't want to do that, you can still mount an external rad., you will need a stronger pump to push it up to the rad. Eheim 1048 should be able to do the job. Oh yeah, have you heard of a heatercore before? They are similar to radiators, but they cool the water better. Try doing a search on "watercooling rigs pics" and a search on "heatercores"

If you don't want to try water cooling because you don't have enough room look at the Koolance Exos (http://koolance.com/products/product.html?code=EXT-A01) if you have around $200 you can buy it at (http://www.xoxide.com/koolanceexos.html). You could also look at the Corsair Hydrocool 200 (http://www.corsairmicro.com/main/HydroDATASHEET.pdf) yet it is not as good of performer, only around $25 cheaper.

Thank you,
Daniel

I realised after I posted that a radiator would most likely fit inside the lower drive bay if angled. Might actually not be so horrible if it deflects the air and directs it up towards the outbound fan.


Also realised after poking around some that I may be being too generous to air cooling as far as cooling capabilities without serious case modification and large blowers hanging off... but we'll see.. still poking.



And yeah, I know of heater cores. Was planning on stopping by autozone and seeing if i could measure what was in stock. Problem is, most heater cores seem to be in the 2 inch deep range so it might be difficult to find one small enough to work.

does anyone know of any places in the UK to get cheap heater cores? Am I best off just going to a breakers yard?