Black Ice Extreme 2 or 3?

found some good prices here http://www.dangerdenstore.com/home.php?cat=13 . And I was wondering would it be worth it to get the 3 for $20 more? Would my temps go down alot? How many degrees do you think?

WELCOME TO THE FORUMS

first off talking in terms of temperatures is misleading since we do not know your ambient temperature, what fans you are using, and the rest of your setup. Also even if we did know it varies a lot from one setup to another. So is it worth it well that depends on if you can spare the money for it or not. The BIX2 will give some good temps and the BIX3 will give better temps but with more restrictions so if you have a strong pump then go for it if not stick with the BIX2.

Thanks! Well I'm building my first water cooling system and I want it to be good. Right now all I have is:

CPU Waterblock: Swiftech MCW6002
GPU Waterblock: Acetal Version MAZE4GPU
Aditive: Swiftech Green UV Reactive HydrX Coolant

I was thinking about the The Hydor L30, what type of pump would you recomend to power the black ice 3? I want my system to be good but I dont want to spend a WHOLE lot of money on it. So Any suggestions on all the other componets would be apreciated

I would recommend the MCP655 from swiftech or the D5 from dangerden (same pump). The other components are fine except I prefer anti-freeze over the other additives. With the MCP655 you can get the BIX3 and still have good flow.

FWIW, my BIX2 handles my 25% o/ced Prescott and my almost 20% o/ced 6800U with no effort at all. In fact, I'm running the rad fans at 7v for quietness, and the Pressie still doesn't get higher than mid-40Cs during gaming (22C ambient). If you've got the money and the space, go for the BIX3, but I believe the BIX2 will be more than adequate for your needs.

just to add about addatives. Zerex and Antifreeze work great. Water Wetter STINKS! (seriously it really does).

Stay with distilled water and a 90/10 ratio (water/addative) for antifreeze and if you go with zerex, you can even go 95/5.

If you want some UV reaction, Frozen CPU sells some really kick butt UV dye. Multipel colors too. (The blue is very sexy). As for UV dye, you only need to add a little. Put in a few drops, if its not bright enough for your liking add a few more, but don't over do it.

btw if you only have copper 95/5 will work for anti-freeze

If you get the BIX3 you can run quieter fans, and still cool as good as a BIX2 with high speed fans.

If you have space for a BIX3 then why not. But if you havn't thought about where to put it then you should probably think about it.

Fighter2a said:

If you have space for a BIX3 then why not. But if you havn't thought about where to put it then you should probably think about it.

Click to expand...

Using a larger rad and if you think in terms of fin area we are talking about 50% more fin area so that is a lot more restriction you need to consider. So if you take that into account and you have a pump that is already overwhelmed from his loop then a bigger rad could be counter productive to temps or at least not justify the extra money. Take it this way I came across a 3/8th I.D. radiator so I hooked it up and figured hey an extra fan must mean better temps... however as rogerdugans predicted the temps did not change. Why, well because the restriction it added the water slowed down and hence cooling was compromised. Granted the reducer added some restriction but I do not think it would have been much better had I used a 1/2 I.D. radiator. So what did I learn its not just how big or how many radiators you have the pump also plays an important part.

^^ Darn Straight.

One thing I see fairly often is people skimping on their pump. They will blow a ton of money on a huge rad, and then buy a $30 pump. VERY counter productive. You need to build a system around all the components, and possibly the biggest component to consider is what pump you are ruuning. That directly affects what you can really do with the rest of the setup.

Like Sewer said, Simply saying "Get a bigger rad" may not be the right answer. It could just be a big waste of money. The poster said he is considering a Hydor L30. Not a bad pump, but not a top performer either. With a CPU and GPU block in the mix, and throwing in a BIX3, he's going to murder his flow rate, heck it is possible he could see HIGHER temps with the larger rad simply because of loss of flow rate.

If the poster goes with a D5, then yes, that shoudl be powerful enough to see a potential performance increase with the BIX3. If he does not however, and opts for the Hydor, a better bet would be the BIX2.

And in all honesty, a single pass HC woudl be an even better bet.

Also to the original poster if you can afford it get a Swiftech Storm which is the best mass produced block on the market today. Just a personal note I have a Hydor L30 and I did the tests with that and a MCP655 would be the best fit to your block. Also just because a pump is cheap does not make it bad the Danner Mag 3s are excellent pumps and you can find those online for $30 its not the price tag its the specs and quality that separate the good from the bad.