to watercool or not?

I have a pretty good air set-up. But, my temps just aren't that great without sounding like a tornado (literally), so I've been thinking of going water, just because I could have it quieter and cool a bit better.

But, then I find it hard to justify spending 150-200 to water cool.

I figure, I'f I'm going to watercool, I might was well watercool the gpu and cpu if I'm going to do it right?

What do you think?

I guess it depends what your oc goals are. If you really want those few extra MHZ then get your sele a water cooler. You can make a cheap one, or look for a kit on e-bay.

150-200? What kind of settups are you looking at? You can build a very good one for about 100 bucks. I am going to eventual get into watercooling (money)... And my homemade 17 dollar watercooling system didnt do too good either. I say go for it. If you are going for high FSB, cool the NB, GPU, and CPU.

I think going water on the gpu is a waste unless you are going to Vmod... I also doubt water will be much quieter than you can get your air setup, just get a quiter fan.. i'm sure you can still get better than good enough temps for 2.4ghz with a quite fan. tornados are just way too damn loud to stand. basically it will be a fan on the radiator instead of the hsf.

if you want to spend more money and get rid of the noise i guess u can go with watercooling. Plus if you want a bit more overclock you can switch. I cant afford watercooling and afford to mess up

hmmm.....well, I still haven't decided, but now I'm thinking maybe just stay aircooled.

sandman, what are your case and cpu temps, case fans, room temp?. You have a slk-900 with a tornado, that should kick ***.

This set is 70 bucks:
http://www.bestbyte.net/Product.cfm?ProductID=1114&CategoryID=18&Keyword=

It's probably better than the " TT Aquarius II" system, I dont know if the quaility is good for this watercooling kit.

Josebmw said:

sandman, what are your case and cpu temps, case fans, room temp?. You have a slk-900 with a tornado, that should kick ***.

This set is 70 bucks:
http://www.bestbyte.net/Product.cfm?ProductID=1114&CategoryID=18&Keyword=

It's probably better than the " TT Aquarius II" system, I dont know if the quaility is good for this watercooling kit.

Click to expand...

Witha crappy kit, or even budget kit, I wouldn't see much difference.

Ambient temps were around 28C, and case temps were hovering around 29-30C. I was idling at about 46C, and load I was peaking at 54C. This was after playing BF 1942 for around 3 hours, in the middle of the day. With my tornado at about 3000rpm.

case fans:
2x80mm in front each at 32cfm
2x80mm in backeach at 32cfm
2x92mm in side each at 48cfm
1x120mm in top at 80cfm

So, I had a nice cooling set-up. But, I think maybve I should wait for lower ambients.

Reseat your heatsink man.. you should have less than 40° idle.
And one of those crappy kits would be much worse than a slk900+ tornado.

q149 said:

Reseat your heatsink man.. you should have less than 40° idle.
And one of those crappy kits would be much worse than a slk900+ tornado.

Click to expand...

Even with 30C ambients?

abit's read high don't they?

Damn, that is really hot.. I'm used to 21-24° ambient so i'm not really sure. Also i don't know if they read high.

That kit does not look too good to me- any time they do NOT list full specs (pump ratings, tubing size, etc.) I am VERY leery.

I don't have an Abit anymore, nor do I have an Nforce board at all, but those temps do seem suspiciously high...

Anyway: water CAN improve your temps, and it does NOT need to break the bank to do it!
Components needed:
Pump- good can be had for $50, decent for about $30
Waterblock- decent may be found for $30ish, but for a good one expect to pay around $50, unless you make your own.
Radiator- an automotive heater core gives the best "bang for the buck," period. They also perform better than just about any pc-specific radiator I have seen tested Less than $30
Tubing- vinyl can be used, but Tygon and ClearFlex are better. ClearFlex doesn't cost much more than vinyl. $10 or less.
Fans- 120mm work best and you probably have something around. They are fairly cheap anyway.
Tee for a T-Line- $1 or so.

This gets you a decent system that should improve temps for about $100 or one that WILL improve cpu temp for $140.
Either will make less noise!

Look aorund, start pricing stuff and so on- you'll make a good choice

rogerdugans said:

Look aorund, start pricing stuff and so on- you'll make a good choice

Click to expand...

What I was looking at was:

Hydor L30
10' of clearflex 60
TC-4 (is poly bad?)
D-tek heatercore
2x120mm fans
some fitting/clamps
mcw50

so that all comes out to about 200, I could drop the mcw50 if watercooling the gpu is overkill. that would drop ~45 bucks.

Any comments on this?

Also, thanks to everyone

I think gpu cooling is overkill unless you are going to vmod, i would drop it and get an Eheim pump.

hmm, but to get comparable performance I'd have to spend another $20, when I've heard that the L30's are just as reliable.

Can anoyone vouch for Hydor pumps?

Here's something important to think about which never gets mentioned. That nice little 80mm fan that was placed inside of your PSU generates more noise than you think especiall when your case is placed <1" from a wall. Also the HD produce much more of annoyance (noise) than people tend to give them credit for.

I have a DIY water cooled system that i made for about $80USD total and look at my temps.

As far as air cooled goes try this:

Disconnect the fan inside your PSU then install a 90mm <30db fan onto the bottom to suck hot air off of your cpu and then blow air across and out the back of your PSU. Disconnect all the other fans in your case (if you can) except for your CPU fan. Now fire her up with the side open. If your Bios will allow you to monitor your cpu and case temps go into the Bios. Now carefully place your finger onto the center of the CPU fan to biring it to a halt! ONLY DO THIS FOR 2 OR LESS SECONDS, JUST LONG ENOUGH TO HEAR THE DIFFERNCE. You'll probably notice that the HD are making that uncontrollable noise that you can't get rid off - that is unless you purchase a new one (seagate Barracudda maybe, yes?) If you can adjust the noise in your case by completing these steps then you might want to look into fan speed controllers. If not then your HD's have got to go or your problem gets to stay.

Water cooling in my opinion is better provided you take measures to stop that pupm from viabrating the case (easy stuff) but your temps will range according to your room temps (not high though). Good Luck!!!