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New to watercooling, looking for 'bang for my buck' advice.

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Qin

Registered
Joined
Mar 3, 2004
Heyas all!

I just recently built my dream system and after only playing with it for a few days I now find myself bored with it! So I'm looking to get into watercooling, and I'm asking you all for some advice. At first I was thinking about just going with one of the self contained system (Exos, etc.), but what fun is that? Besides, after reading a bunch of reviews on the self contained kits, I got the impression that if you knew what you were doing, you could build yourself a system which would perform better and cost less

So I've done some research on the basics and am now looking to order some parts. Unfortunatley, it seems like where ever I price out a system it ends up costing upwards of $300, while I know some of you may scoff at such a price, for me it's a little too much. I'm looking to spend a maximum of about $200, I know I won't have the fanciest, shiniest, 'ooh and ahh'ish system out there, and I'm okay with that.

So I'm here to ask you guys for advice on what would make the best budget water cooling system. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to provide me with a basic list of parts and cost. Here's the information you'll need on my system:

Abit IC7 Motherboard (Intel 875 chipset)
P4 2.4C @ 3.4Ghz (Socket 478)
Ati Radeon 9800 Pro

Now I'd really like to cool both my CPU and my GPU, but I understand that with a budget of only $200 I probably will have to sacrifice the GPU cooling and I'm okay with that, if that's how it has to be. While I say I'm looking to spend no more than $200 that's more of a guideline, I'd be happy spending $210-230 if it meant I'd be able to add that second waterblock to the system.

This messege will self-destruct in four seconds.
 
Mag 3 ($40) Whitewater ($50.) Heater core ($20.) Silverprop Fusion GPU block ($41 or $47.) Miscellaneous tubing ($7), fittings (~$5) fans (~$10), shroud (99c).

BTW this is pretty much the best bang, and for a fairly low price.
 
Alas, no reliable testing has been done, so I'm basing my advice on CPU blocks following a similar design. MCW5002 has a thermal resistance of 0.15C/W on JoeC's bench, the Maze 4 CPU has a thermal resistance of 0.18C/W, and the Silverprop EvolutionS has a thermal resistance of 0.14C/W. The Fusion is only 41 dollars, is copper/brass construction (both the Maze 4 and MCW50 use anodized aluminum), has 1/2" barbs (MCW 50 has 1/2" OD), and seems to be a good design.

Edit: It seems the MCW 50 is worse than the Silverprop chipset block, by 0.02 C/W
 
maze4 cpu and gpu i went with emy 1250 as pump and ill tell u about that also my new 120 MM case fans saved me money by helping wtih shroud
 
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