Water Cooling an Athlon 64 x2 5200 am2

Alright as the title says I just upgraded my system with everything even purchased a server tower and did some work to it as it was cheaper than buying the case I wanted. I've got roughly 600-750 I can spend for cooling. I'm also running an ati hd 2600xt 512 meg card. I have tons of room in this case as I'm only running one hard drive and my dvd burner is external. Right now my temps run 40 c idle and up close to 50 c at full load. I would like to see these drop by at least 5 degrees celsius if not more. I'm needing best bang for my 600-750 dollars or less and where to find the parts to put together a full system to cool cpu, vid card and nb/sb (not sure if these can be cooled by wc'ing as I don't have experience with it just throwing it out there). Any help is greatly appreciated.

You bought AMD and have $750 for cooling o.o....



MCR320-QP
Apogee GT
2600XT ???
NB/SB - HR-05

JamesXP said:

You bought AMD and have $750 for cooling o.o....

Click to expand...

I doubt that has anything to do with his proc choice, you can switch to other builds using the same setup if you use universal blocks.

Try going to http://www.dangerden.com And look at the options they give you.

What cooling do you have right now? Stock or do you have something else? When I went from stock to water I dropped from 40*C idle to 26*C, and about 40*C load, so I'd say if you go with a good system (looking at $200-300 bucks) you could cool everything with more than a 5*C drop.

I'd say look at the items I am using and compare they to the others on dangerden. Come back when you have a few picked out that you need help deciding on

Actually I bought the cpu and memory new from the egg and the board is a hand me down heh but yeah I have roughly 750 I can still drop into the system. I've contemplated upgrading the video card to the 2900 version of what I have and just wanted to fit the water cooling part in first. Thanks for the suggestions I will do that. Right now I'm running a scythe ninja mini on the cpu I have 2 120's in the side blowing in a 120 in the top and 2 80's in the back blowing out. I use this system for a myriad of things be it doing pp presentations to blowing stuff up on bioshock or gears of war...The 200-300 dollars would even let me upgrade video card I believe. Thanks for the fast replies.

Just got done looking at danger den would you recommend a system they have set in a bundle or picking components separately?

I went with the Custom kit, it's basically a guided kit that you specify what you need. I'd recommend the TDX CPU block with a universal top because those are always nice to re-use. 1/2 fittings with 1/2 Tygon tubing, D-5 Pump, your choice and size of radiator depending on if you pick to cool your video cards as well.

do a build on the custom kits and show us what you're thinking about.

This is what I came up with. Again thanks for the help.
Selected options:
CPU Style: AM2
CPU Water Block: Danger Den TDX
Top Style: Lucite - Clear
Video Block: MAZE5 GPU(4-hole mount)
Chipset Block: None
Fitting Size: 1/2 OD High Flow Fitting for 1/2 ID Tubing
Radiator: Black Ice Pro - Black
Fans: 2x Yate Loon Medium 120mm
Pumps: DD 12V D5 1/2 OD Fittings "Fixed Speed"
Tubing: 10 Feet of Tygon
Reservoir: Danger Den HDPE Reservoir
Reservoir LED: None
Thermal Paste: None
Water Additives: MCT-40 Non-Conductive Fluid
DD Fillport: None
Fillport Reservoir: None
Misc: 12 Hose Clamps
I figure I can do without the chipset cooling and I have ac 5 here if I really need the paste. I can make a fillport fairly easily so I don't need that. Please let me know what you think of the suggestions. With this I can still buy the video card I'm wanting to get which is an upgrade to mine. It's here
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121073

Looks good, I can say that the MCT-40 isn't the greatest coolant available, FluidXP is a good choice.

I'm not too sure if that radiator will be good enough for a CPU/GPU cooling, but maybe some of the other people here can verify that.

Alright I can switch it to FluidXP then. If it's not I will see about changing the radiator also hopefully get some more feedback. Thanks again for the help.

No problem, it's always fun to play with water cooling .

First setup for me should be interesting for sure. I can't honestly say how much room it will save me because I have all 5 fans wires tied together and hidden in the case. The case is large enough though so we shall see. I bought it for it's size it's tall enough I use it for a mouse and arm rest so...I've been told I'm being silly on the temps because they are low for the system but I'm not comfortable unless they are lower plus I want to try to oc the cpu and get a hotter running video card so..thanks again for the help. If I can find the pics of the case I will post them but it seems imageshack lost them and I can't find my camera...

Here is what I would recommend getting:

D-Tek Fuzion CPU WB
Swiftech MCW60-R VGA cooler with some Ramsinks
MCP655 Pump
ThermoChill PA120.3 Radiator (or Swiftech MCP320 if price is an issue)
Swiftech MCRES or a T-line
Tygon 1/2" ID 3/4" OD or 7/16" ID 5/8" OD
Worm driven hose clamps
Coolant: 5-10% antifreeze with distilled water and a few drops of iodine.