WC versus Zalman 9500CNPS

My current cooling is a zalman 9500 with a boat load of fans 2 80mm exhaust fans rated at 73CFM and 2 120mm fans on the side to keep the air moving along.

I want to get into water cooling (cause I think I can push the performance envelope) and having much lower load temps than what I'm hitting (55 degrees C).

What kind of a water cooling rig do I need to beat my current setup and how much can I expect to spend?

I just built my new rig using these parts.

Swiftech Storm CPU BlocK 89.00
Swiftech Pump MCP655 80.00
thermochill PA120.2 119.00 (dual 120mm rad)
Tygon Tubing 1/2"id 5/8"od 1.35 per foot
Smart coils for the tygon tubing couple of bucs
Re-useable 1/2" clamps .99 each
Swiftech micro res 20.00

Video Card block will very on which one you plan to cool
Get 2 yate loon fans for the rad

Thats about the best setup you can run

Substitute the storm block for the Apogee for half the price
Substitue the thermochil Pa120.0 for a Swiftech MCR220 for 43.00
Insted of the swiftech micro-res you can get a 1/2" T-fitting and a Fillport and use the tubing between the fillport and the T-fitting as a mini res.

If you want to go cheap, you can beat your current temperatures by quite alot for about $150 and some elbow grease. A heatercore from a pre-1990 caprice w/o AC will run you $23, an apogee waterblock from swiftech is about $50, a danner mag3 pump from exoticfish.com is another $50. Factor in the hosebarbs, tubing and clamps from home depot and viola! A top-notch (or close) watercooling system, just attach your current 120mm fans and fill'r'up.

thanks for the tip

got myself a 77 bonnieville heater coreand 3/8 in brass barbs

I wouldn't go with a pond pump, although I do run an Eheim 1250 myself. Go with a good 12v pump instead, as they are smaller and are going to vibrate less.

what bout hydor l30?

I don't know why you would want to stay away from a pond pump. It's not as if the mechanism is any different, they simply run on AC instead of DC. The only downside is the size, and in my experience the D5 vibrates more than a Mag 3.

Unless you want to squeeze couple hundread mhz out of your CPU and you think it wroth it. go for watercooling, otherwise dont.