New to watercooling, would like opinions

As I said in the subject, I am new to watercooling. I am trying to figure out what to do. I am not overclocking my chip, I just want less noise. I have too many fans in my case, and they all add up to "too loud." I currently have a mid-tower case, with 80mm fan locations. I have considered getting a different case, such as an Antec SOHO PlusView 1000AMG, but whether I get a new case or keep my existing one, I don't want to mod the case. So that pretty much leaves me with 80mm solutions, instead of 120mm.

At any rate, I have been considering two options. I know that some people are violently opposed to kits, but bear with me. Like I said, it's more to keep noise down, rather than assist with overclocking. The kit I'm considering is the Swiftech H20-8600 kit with the optional second radiator.

The other option would be to build it myself. Here are the parts I'm considering:
- Pump: Swiftech MCP600 or the Hydor L35.
- Radiator: Black Ice Micro II
- Reservoir: A dual 3.5" bay res, or single 5.25" bay res
- Tubing: Either 1/2" or 3/8" ID
- CPU Waterblock: Undecided. Maybe DangerDen TDX, Swiftech MCW5000-P or MCW6002-P , Koolance CPU-300-V13, or maybe another I haven't found yet
- VGA Waterblock: Again undecided. Maybe a Maze4 or Swiftech MCW50

So there you have it. I don't really want to use the Chevette heater core for this computer. (When I get another system to "play" with, maybe I'll do the full customer route.)

Oh, I guess I should tell you about my system. I have a 3.2GHz P4, Intel 875 mobo (I know, but it was my first time building my own system. I'm thinking of switching to an ABIT IC7-Max3), ATI Radeon 9800XT, 2GB Kingston HyperX RAM, (2x) Seagate 120GB SATA drives in a RAID0 array, NEC DVD-ROM, TDK VeloCD CD-RW, and SoundBlaster Audigy 2 ZS. My current CPU heatsink is a Thermalright SP-94, which definitely works better that the stock HSF.

Thats about it. I'm looking for useful feedback, so please, save any flaming about my system or cooling choices for another thread.

TIA.

MCW6002-P + Maze4 + Hydor L35 + single 5.25 + 1/2
rad : not BIM2 , BIX or BIX2 or heatcore

For your setup, I'd use the Ehiem 1048 pump w/ relay kit, no resivoir (use a T-Line), 3/8"ID tubing, as many 80mm rads as you can fit in your case, a fan controller, those cooler master 80mm blowers (better static pressure than 80mm axial fans), DD Maze4 CPU WB, and a DD Maze4 GPU WB. That will get you silence and make it easy to route your tubing. Also, no case mods would be required for the above setup.

The Big One said:

MCW6002-P + Maze4 + Hydor L35 + single 5.25 + 1/2
rad : not BIM2 , BIX or BIX2 or heatcore

Click to expand...

Why have a resivoir L35, and 1/2"ID tubing? He's NOT looking for performance and only wants his PC to be quiet. 3/8"ID tubing is offers plently of flow for his application and will allow him to route the tubing easier. The resivoir only restricts flow and leaks and last but not least, the L35, while quiet, isn't nearly as quiet as the Ehiem 1048.The L35 pushes much more water than what he needs in his setup. This ISN'T a perfomance setup. Here, the 1048 will shine as it is dead slient and pushes enough water that it should work fine in a low resistance, low flow setup such as his.

I haven't messed with any blowers so I have no personal experience with them....but other than that, I agree with the propsal Cyrix_2k made.

The Eheim 1048 is a great pump and performs better than you would expect from the specs.
Mine has been running nearly non-stop for a few years.

3/8" tubing is not the standard for performance, but it does quite well, and it IS much easier to run- I use mostly 3/8" tube in my water cooled mATX LAN computer- and that 1048 too.
Temps are not stellar, but they are ok- 53 load right now- and the cpu is an XP1700 Tbred B@2165.

You can water cool a system silently and get decent performance with that setup.

soz i might be going off topic but its biting me to death to know!

Whats the different with 3/8 and 1/3 and which is better for overclocking? also if you want to get a Ati Radeon 9800XT just get a Powercolour Radeon 9800Pro and overclock it to xt, its really easy and you save $$

Do you mean diff. between 3/8"ID and 1/2"ID? 1/2"ID is larger tubing and better for oc'ing because it offers lower resistance than 3/8"ID tubing which equals more flow
If you did mean 1/3"ID, that tubing would be slightly larger than 3/8"ID and better for OC'ing vs 3/8"ID, but worse than 1/2"ID. BTW, I've never heard of 1/3"ID tubing being used in WC'ing...

Cyrix, thanks for the suggestions. They are helping tremendously. I went to CompUSA today to look at the Antec case that I previously mentioned. I found a CompUSA knock-off of the same case, except that it has a 120mm exhaust fan instead of the dual 80mm fans. So I'm curious which would get me better performance; a radiator with a 120mm fan, like the BIX, or a dual-fan 80mm radiator like the BIMII, or 2 individual 80mm radiators (like what comes in the Swiftech kit). Any thoughts?

TIA

meh if u got alot of time on ur hands u can read my tutorials i guess that always helps

keep in mind i made these tutorials a long time ago and stuff

me cooling overall guide
http://www.xoxideforums.com/showthread.php?t=21367

me wcing basics part 2 (cpu water blocks)
http://www.geeksonline.org/index.php?module=Articles&id=16

me wcing basics part 1 (for wcing nubbins)
http://www.geeksonline.org/index.php?module=Articles&id=15

tiggerr77 said:

Cyrix, thanks for the suggestions. They are helping tremendously. I went to CompUSA today to look at the Antec case that I previously mentioned. I found a CompUSA knock-off of the same case, except that it has a 120mm exhaust fan instead of the dual 80mm fans. So I'm curious which would get me better performance; a radiator with a 120mm fan, like the BIX, or a dual-fan 80mm radiator like the BIMII, or 2 individual 80mm radiators (like what comes in the Swiftech kit). Any thoughts?

TIA

Click to expand...

FYI, any Black Ice rad sucks... Plus they are rather pricy. I don't know why you don't want chevette heatercore, cause it looks like it would fit in the front of the case if you removed the second hard drive rack (assuming it has one) If you don't want it cause you have to mod the heatercore, get this with 1/2" barbs. It's pre-modded. Basically, either a single 120mm evercool pulling or push/pull 120's would be quieter and perform better than a BIX,BIMII, or two BIMs. If still don't want the large rad, I sugest you go with a BIMII in the back of the case and use these for fans. Hook those blowers up to any standard fan controller and you're set.

I agree with Cyrix. The chevette or any heatercore would be excellent for a low noise setup as it requires only one big low noise fan rather than those darn 80mms. Just get the Dangerden core or the Dtek Procore with your size barbs and you should be fine (with ample room for expansion on teh rad side of things !!)

Radiators:
This is where the cpu's heat is dissipated (along with pump heat etc.) and is similar to a heatsink in a way....

Bigger is better.

The top air-cooling heatsinks are large and have a lot of surface area.
The same holds true in general for water cooling radiators: more surface area is good, and a bigger rad can have more surface area.

I have one 6x12 inch heatercore (approximate size), two Chevette cores and one Swiftech rad.
All use 120mm fans.

Personally, I would not use a radiator with a smaller fan: I think I could achieve similar performance with air cooling compared to a radiator that was only big enough for 80mm fans....
That is a guess of course, as I have no experience with radiators that size.

Thanks again to everybody for the great advice. Cyrix, thanks for even more information. You are right, I didn't want to try to mod the Chevette core, but after you showed me the DTek site, it looks too easy. Even can buy a shroud with it. So I think I'm going with that rad. I've been looking at the DTek pumps, which I've heard are pretty quiet. Anyone confirm this? I'm still undecided on waterblocks right now, as most of my free time (away from school and work) has been spent researching cases, rads, and fans.

BTW, I am very glad I found this forum. Everyone here is so nice, and I have found sooo much useful information. Thanks to everyone!

Glad I could help As for you question about the Dtek pumps, I have no idea how loud they are or how they perform... If they are indeed quiet, it would be perfect for your setup. If it turns out it's louder than you like, order the ehiem 1048.

Also, when you order your parts, order everything with 1/2" barbs; they have a 3/8"ID that will match your tubing.

BTW, I will be able to report back about the MCP600 since I just ordered one for my rig