Water Cooling or Phase change?

First things first.....

System Specs:
- Athlon 64 3200+ - Currently running @ 2.2Ghz w/ air cooling
-1024 of Mushkin DDR400
-Geforce 6800GT @ 400/1130 w/ stock VGA cooler
-Asus K8V SE Deluxe
-Maxtor 250g 7200 RPM / 8mb cache
-Xaser III Full-Tower case
-3dmark 2k3 score of 11869

Ok. I recently upgraded my processor and mobo, and more recently my video card. My 3dmark score has more then doubled, but I still want more out of my machine. I'm somewhat tired of being on a 6-month upgrade cycle so I want a way to extend my machine's life without letting it drop to a mid-end machine. So obviously, overclocking is a very viable solution. I already have an aftermarket HSF on my processor, and while it's doing a fairly good job, it's loud as hell and can only take me so far. So now I have a hard decision to make, watercooling or phase change.

I have no experience in either one of these, but I'm proficient with computers, so anything that's not too difficult should be fine for me. How much of an advantage does phase-changing have over watercooling? I'm finding it somewhat difficult in justifying paying four times more for less then double the preformance. Are there any outstanding kits in either field? How long would any of them allow my system to stay high-end? I've manly been looking at:

Koolance cases / Koolance Exos
Reserator
Vapochill

How does the Reserator stack up to the other units preformance wise? I'm pretty much open to anything at this point, and I have a fairly open budget, but I'm also a price contious consumer.

The longer I can stay high end the better, and of course, the more I'd be willing to dish out.

Thanks.

Your links don't work, but reserators have pretty bad performance from what I've read.

phase change would be the way to go...you can get a used prometeia mach 1 for less than $400 shipped.

Welcome to the forums!

Between the three, Vapochill clearly comes out ahead. Koolance can hardly be called an effective water-cooling solution, and the reserator will barely cool your system at stock speeds. We would typically suggest building your own system by mix and match, or using one of the 'build-a-system' programs from DangerDen, D-Tek or Swiftech(my reccomendation). For the cost of a Vapochill, you could have a very nice water-cooling installation, including a GPU cooler. Keep in mind that a phase-change system will only cool your CPU. A well designed water-cooling system could effectively most of the overclock'able components in your computer.

So would any of these do well?

http://www.dtekcustoms.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=102
with 317gph pump?

What about DangerDen's "The Screen Savers" UGM. A64 water block, copper base [Lucite or brass?] Maze 4 chipset w/ brass top, M4GPU black /w 8 ramsinks, 1/2 OD fittings, Black Ice Extreme Blue II any good?, [2x 120mm fans?], DD12V-D4 Pump?, 10' tygon tubing, which reservoir? Or should I just go all out M4?

http://www.pccasegear.com/prod681.htm ?

Which would be the best?

KidOtakon said:

So now I have a hard decision to make, watercooling or phase change.

I have no experience in either one of these, but I'm proficient with computers, so anything that's not too difficult should be fine for me. How much of an advantage does phase-changing have over watercooling? I'm finding it somewhat difficult in justifying paying four times more for less then double the preformance. Are there any outstanding kits in either field? How long would any of them allow my system to stay high-end? I've manly been looking at:

Koolance cases / Koolance Exos
Reserator
Vapochill
Thanks.

Click to expand...

i started out as a stock HSF, went water cooling, tried TEC cooling, then went extreme water and am now a prommy user (AMD XP).

IMO:


your best bang to buck is going to be a "high end" water loop.
extreme cooling will get you the best OC, (prommy better than TEC) but the cost (hardware AND elect. bill) and condensation prevention isnt (really) worth the extra +100-175MHz I got. (over my "good" water setup)

KidOtakon said:

How long would any of them allow my system to stay high-end?

Click to expand...

that basically comes down to how the WB is mounted to the mobo/grafix card. most of todays WB are designed to be vestal/open to future mounting hardware. now if you start off with quality water cooling parts (rad, pump, fans, pump, WB) if your WB dosnt fit and you need to buy a new one, the only thing you would have to replace is the block.

vonkaar said:

We would typically suggest building your own system by mix and match, or using one of the 'build-a-system' programs from DangerDen, D-Tek or Swiftech(my reccomendation)

Click to expand...

couldnt have said it better myself!


GOOD LUCK!

KidOtakon said:

So would any of these do well?

http://www.dtekcustoms.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=102
with 317gph pump?

What about DangerDen's "The Screen Savers" UGM. A64 water block, copper base [Lucite or brass?] Maze 4 chipset w/ brass top, M4GPU black /w 8 ramsinks, 1/2 OD fittings, Black Ice Extreme Blue II any good?, [2x 120mm fans?], DD12V-D4 Pump?, 10' tygon tubing, which reservoir? Or should I just go all out M4?

http://www.pccasegear.com/prod681.htm ?

Which would be the best?

Click to expand...

IMO: skip the 'build-a-system' programs and do the mix and match... here are some of the best parts on the market today...

pump

WB

double heater core
though you can get this from your local carparts store...

fans