H20 in a box question! :)

Hi guys! I'm a noob to the liquid cooled world. I read A LOT , but never have the time nor expertise to DIY right now. I've read a lot about Corsair's Hydracool 200.(here's the link )( yea yea yea - H20 in a box, but I don't have the time here to DIY guys. plus this Thermaltake Spark7+ isn't so great, my cpu idles around 45C even with fan at 6000rpm and about 60C under load! and the noise is very annoying. I've read about the Reserator and all of its deficiencies. And I've also read about the EXOS. But this Hyracool really catches my eye. The product reviews on newegg look very promising and so do various reviews on it. I was wondering if you guys have have any experience with this model and can you buy your own CPU block rather than use the one provided with this kit? (I'm not looking for the "well you can do much better and perform better with xxx setup (DIY)- I DO NOT have the time!!!) Thanks guys!!!

If you need help with buying the stuff, just contact one of us and im sure we can guide you to buying the stuff that you need. The hardest part, imo, in watercooling will be installing it. With buying that kit, you will still have to install the stuff, so why not just have a private conversation for 1-2 hours and ask a veteran.

Just my opinion. I was tempted to buy a kit as well, but i bought my rig a week ago, and putting it together right now. These guys were really helpful and answered my questions within minutes of posting it. Most kits performs as well as a Thermalright heatsink, so if you want h20 in a kit, i would just stick to a heatsink and fan.

So since you dont have time, just get a Thermalright heatsink, or spare 2 hours to talk to someone as they can help you out.

*I just researched on this kit. On a 2.26 P4, it performed at 39c on idle, 41c "stressed". On stock cooling, it performed at 41c idle, 51 stock. Imo, this is really ****ty results for 200 bucks.

I DO NOT have the time!!!) Thanks guys!!!

Click to expand...

That attitude aint gonna get you nowhere in Water Cooling.

Also why do you want to go Water? Overclocking? cause with those kits you can kiss overclocking goodbye.

If your doing it for silence, dont get the kits either. A DIY setup which will tak maybe 24 hours (spread over however long..) to set up will be much quieter than those ripp-off, garbage kits.

I don't have a HydroCool, so I cannot speak from personal experience unfortunately, and I always prefer speaking of my own experience with hardawrae, NOT just reviews....
Oh well.

The HydroCool is one of the very few "H2O in a box" sets that look to be decent from what I have read, the others being the Exos and the WaterChill from Asetek. The Exos and HydroCool having much simpler installations, and being pretty similar.

And I do have an Exos now.
It does perform pretty decently: not as well as ANY of my other water cooling setups, but decently all the same.

If you have your heart set on water cooling and really don't want to build your own, then the Corsair unit looks ok and may be a good purchase for you- but there are a few questions I think you should ask yourself first:

1) Do I plan on overclocking heavily?
2) Am I bothered by the idea of spending twice the money for half the cooling performance?

Even the three units I mentioned above will just NOT cool as well as a decent DIY kit- for the same money spent you could build a system with better performance and lower noise.
Or spend much less money for similar performance.

If you
a) don't plan on heavy overclocking
b) don't want to heavily mod your system
c) don't want to spend the time and effort researching all the bits and pieces you need for a DIY kit

then go for one of those units: my Exos does a very credible job setup as Koolance intended (although I don't plan on leaving it that way for long, lol).
As I recall, the Corsair unit was reviewed by most as having slightly better performance.

I would strongly suggest you consider your plans before buying anything-
spending money on either type of system - $100 being a pretty bottom line cost for DIY- is not cheap.
$100 for DIY stuff that doesn't work well is a waste, and spending $200 on a ready to go system that doesn't do what you want is also a waste.

Make a wise purchase- think first.

I agree with rodgerdugans here.
Trust me, you'll feel much better building your system yourself.

And how much time DO you have? I have only a few days left of summer vacation before school starts again, and I will have ABSOLUTELY no time, but come on, you have to have at least a day or 2 free where you can do this. I have to finish my setup within the next week or It's not going to get done until winter, which would suck.

If you really don't have the time, then just stick with aircooling and save up your money. Your rig is awesome as of now, so I can see what you're going for. The only worry I have i smaybe that your corsair won't have the headroom to overclock your 2.8 Prescott.

There's another thing. Prescott runs hot, and I'm not sure if the Exos can handle that much heat. It's up to you.

I'd agree with rodgerdugans' suggestions though.

-Fyberwire

PS: Windows XP SP2 is out today!

First of all, I want to thank you all for rather quick responses. I've thought about what you all have said..... damnit.... you're right!!! lol. I guess I shouldn't have said that I don't have the time because I think now that I could honestly do it over a few nights here in the barracks. Soooooo here come the noob questions (are ya ready?! ) I think I have a basic idea of what I need.. I read this in another post here (its for an AMD though- I'd need the P4 Wb I guess)

now this system would be awesome:

$54 - DD TDX
$40 - DD Maze4 GPU
$105 - Thermochill 102.2
$75 - DD 12v pump
$28 -10' Tygon

about $300

extra stuff:
distilled water
addative (antifreeze, water wetter, zerex)
T-Line
120mm fans

Click to expand...

My only concern is that my case isn't that big, so I don't know if I would be able to fit all of this inside my case. I'm 99% sure that I'm going to but a new case anyways to accomodate these new parts. Any case suggestions? ( I'd like it to have a window already in it- I honestly am clumsy with cutting tools and have no knowledge on how to cut plexiglass and haven't the tools to do it lol) BTW- I have a ZM80D-HP on my video card already, and it does its job VERY well, so I don't need a GPU block and my NB chipset doesn't get warm at all, even with the stock passive HS on it. I plan on trying to bump my system from 2.8 to about 3.0-3.2 with my new stuff. (maybe higher depending on how everything goes) Oh yea- I am going to but a new mobo really soon (within 2 weeks) I've been looking at the Chaintech's 875P chipsets- they looks promising, plus a lot of goodies included! heres the product link.
All of thse parts look very promising. You can subtract the GPU WB from that above list, so it'll actually be cheaper Wow took a long time to make this post ( about 2 hours lol) *tip* - don't write emails, shop for w/c stuff and try to make a post at the same time Any Suggestions, comments, whatever are greatly appreciated guys! THANK YOU!!!

ps .... *bump* lol

Lian Li has a lot of space. Use a dremel to cut aluminum, its very easy. Just ask your hardware store "i need to cut an aluminium computer case" and they will help you, im sure. THose components are very good, remember you will need a shroud and fan. You will also need to pay some hidden expenses. Make sure you decide what tube size you want, 1/2 will end up being cheaper since it is more common. If you go with 3/8, you will need to get fitting barbs.

For foreign companies, i buy off of snt-systems.com

Watercooling:

cooltechnica, frozencpu, and dangerden.

Goodluck!

quick question- which is the most common or best Lian Li case? Are there any others out there that are just as good?

I use an EXOS on my 2.8E, can go to 3.6 & stay below 50c.

its fun to build your own case with water components you put together. if you have the time definetly do it. you will be happier looking at what you created than a corsair shoebox