Another 1 who wants to know about water cooling

Hello, I am hoping someone here can take the time to assist me, I have never used water cooling before so excuse my ignorance on the subject. I have the system below in my signature, I am getting temps that are not within my expectations or comfort level (43C idle to 53C load) so I have decided to look into water cooling kits. I have looked around the web abit but can not figure out which kits are Good (better than air) and which kits are just Ok (same as air).

My birthday is coming up and I think i can convince the wife I need this stuff, so I am anxious to get solid information to make a worthwhile purchase.

What I am looking for is a kit that:

1. is internal to my case

2. compatible with my Socket 939 CPU/MB

3. does not require any modification to case

4. includes blocks for cpu and NB

5. expandable so I can add a VGA block in the future

6. performs VERY WELL (i would like to get back down to 32C or so like with my old OC'd barton 2500)

Please, if you can help me out I would greatly appreciate the advice. i hate wasting money on bad purchases.

If you want good performance with low tempatures, you would be better off building your own setup by buying each product seperately.

Syx said:

If you want good performance with low tempatures, you would be better off building your own setup by buying each product seperately.

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Well, i do understand that by piecing together a complet system I would get better performance but since I am just begining with this Water Cooling adventure I feel much more comfortable going with a kit. I appreciate your reply.

You cant go wrong with Swiftech..check out this kit: http://www.swiftnets.com/products/h20-80-0.asp. Just add optional rad, vga, and nb.

rdrash said:

Well, i do understand that by piecing together a complet system I would get better performance but since I am just begining with this Water Cooling adventure I feel much more comfortable going with a kit. I appreciate your reply.

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Just because you're new to water cooling does not mean you have to stay a noob and go with basic system. Believe me, as soon as you install a basic system you'll be itching to upgrade it to something a lot better. As is said to everyone who post this sort of question, and it seems to happen daily, the overwhelming response is to read the stickies, many answers you your question are there. I would add to that response and encourage you to search every site that sells PC water cooling equipment. Get an idea of what is out there and learn the basic vernacular and take your time and do your system right. You'll get more satisfaction.

But if you insist on getting a kit, get a Swiftech kit. You'll get a great waterblock and a fantastic pump. Some of the best out there. There 80mm rads leave a little to be desired, unless of course space is a major concern.

I am new to watercooling as well, but I'm diving straight in with a kit im building myself, im building and testing it myself, and if you do your research properly and make sure you have everything then assembling it isnt too difficult at all

I understand you may still prefer a kit however...are you planning on doing any overclocking? If you arent then a kit will be fine although you may need to upgrade it with your next computer upgrade.

Look for big names like Swiftech, Innovatek, DangerDen, DTek etc. Stay away from ThermalTake, their kits are terrible.

You may even consider cusomising a kit, like this one. You just select the parts that you want from the drop down boxes and they will ship it to you with everything you need so you know you wont be missing anything .

Sorry i cant really name any good kits because i never looked into that aspect of watercooling, but good luck with it and let us know how it works out for you...and happy bday!

I agree about building it yourself. I did the research here and asked questions. I feel totally comfortable about my system cause I built it for less than half the price than if I bought a kit.

look threw the forum with the search eng that is on here it will help alot with your questions and ideas on what you want to do

Thanks for all the comments and words of encouragement....haven't made a decision yet, so I will continue to prowl the forums for info and suggestions.

read the stickies

Of course if we were to begin specific recomendations, we would need to know what case you are planning on putting this in, what kind of space is currently availiable inside (a pic would be helpful), a budget, and how the hell you got an OC'd+2500 @ 32C.

I also have to say go for a custom, but thats because i believe in the most bang for the buck. I've never dont anything WC based, and ijust built MY first system january...(i've built countless otehrs, but this is the first time i get to keep it all ot MYSELF)

Kits arent a good idea IMO, if anything look at a kit and find the individual parts to save cash.

my first WC setup (hopefully in the next month or so) is going to look something like this:

D tek TC-4 rev2
'77 bonneville heatercore
Clearflex tubing from McMaster 5231K237
home depot stuff (clamps, barbs, ect)
maxijet 1200 pump or mag 3, dependsing on what i find for a good price.
and of course, that cheapest low restriction GPU block i can find.

All and all this is looking to be under $150 total, and will perform very nicely....but it will require modification to for the heatercore. (its about a foot long and 6" wide)

Anyways good luck with your adventure, i'm looking forward to mine.
Well, whatever you choose i hope you're happy with it. Enjoy!

Go custom. You will like the kit for about a week, then you will want to more and better. Make sure to go with 1/2 in tubing and fittings off the get go. You do not want tubing size to be your upgrade cause it is a pain. Since you are new, I would suggest getting a Rad from one of the sellers such as www.dangerden.com or from swiftech. They have the barbs already on them and provide moutings for fans. Do use clamps on your hoses and get a good pump. The reason it is better to build a system yourself, is that you get to
pick your own parts, and you will pay less in the end. Kits tend to have jacked up prices because the companies know that the people buying them don't know any better. Good luck on your dive into WC. Keep us posted with your final decision

Make sure to go with 1/2 in tubing and fittings off the get go. You do not want tubing size to be your upgrade cause it is a pain

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Well, 3/8 ID will still be better than the 1/4 most All-in-one and Euro-kits come with.
3/8 ID is easier to route and deal with (thats what he wants remember, hence the consideration of a KIT). It will also fit over 1/2 OD barbs with some hot water...so you could get all 1/2 components with easier routing via 3/8 ID tubing.
Upgrading anything in your loop will require you to drain and refill, so I dont see upgrading tubing being much more of a pain than anything else.
1/2 ID tubing is a bit (unnoticably...~1C) more performance oriented, but that does not seem to be an issue consideing you considered a kit before.
I am using 1/2 tubing.
@rdrash...
I am a bit confused about what your definition of a KIT is.
There are european style 1/4 kits.
There are ALL IN ONE BOX kits like Koolance and Corsair.
And there are KITS that come from DangerDen, Swiftech and Dtek etc. that are just like buying all DoItYourself components in one purchase.
Please specify what KIT you are even talking about.

SenC.

SenC knows his stuff,

If you dont plan on overclocking, or don't really demans that extra 1c difference go 3/8 tubing, it looks neater and its easier to route where you want it to go with less risk of it applying pressure to the waterblock and slightly affecting the contact area between die and block. If you go with 1/2, take extra care setting it up to avoid the above.

rdrash said:

...I have the system below in my signature...

ASUS A8V Deluxe (45MG0J2893, bios 1005.021)
Athlon 64 FX-53 socket 939 CPU (ADAFX53DEP5AS, CAAEC 0422TPMW, 9816Z12F40095)
Thermaltake A1383 Heatsink/fan
1GB (2x512), Pc3500 Geil Golden Dragon
Prolink Pixelview nVidia FX 5600 ultra with 256mb ram
SoundBlaster live 5.1
Enermax EG475P-VE-SFMA power supply

Click to expand...

Rich are we?


Is there a site that explains how water cooling works? Like how the rads/pumps/water blocks/ etc... works, for anyone happening to be a noob to this sort of stuff, like this guy (and me at times )?

That would be much appreciative!

here and here
Easy to find in this very Forum and parent site.
enjoy

SenC.