After About 6 Years of Drooling... Water!!

OK, so it's not the best kit around, but I finally went water after drooling for so long, and I LOVE it. It was so cool seeing this thing fill with fluid the first time I fired it up! I purchased a Corsair Cool kit (basically a little Swiftech kit) from zulfy26 (great seller, very communicative) over in the classy's, and I tell ya guys, I'm hooked. This is the start is a fierce addiction, I can tell already. For now I can't afford to go with bigger rads or a better pump, but I'm at 3.82Ghz stable, and that is just awesome considering that this kit isn't all decked out. I'm very happy I went water. I doubt I'll ever go back. I'm still in the progress of finding my max OC, but for now, 3.82 stable is looking really good!

cool, and congrats!

i plan on full blow water cooling (full blown as in good high end parts) by march! i was going to get a full block for my video card but i will end up upgrading to many times, dam addictions!! i guess it was my own fault not setting a budget for my first computer, but what ever, i'm loving it!

start volt modding that graphics card and get some good clocks, or is the cpu only under water as of yet?

Right now only the CPU is in the loop. This little rad probably wouldn't be enough to cool my GPU on top of it. The kit I got is decent, but very basic. I got it for a steal though, only $90. Not too shabby. The parts are all high end and of very good quality. In the future I'm looking to throw more rads, maybe a better pump, and a GPU block into the mix.

I was playing with the idea of getting a TEC for the GPU block whenever I actually got one, but if I did that I'd be seeking Viper John's services. That guy is just nuts, dude. He does some of the most high quality TEC/insulated water block installations I've ever seen. I'm way too much of a wuss to risk screwing up and ending up with condensation in my rig. I'm guessing that over the next year I'll have this water setup very respectable, but between building this rig, getting my monitor, a Wacom for the girlfriend, and this water setup, I've totally tapped my resources.

Although... I do have some stuff I can sell..... hmmmm. DOH! See? I'm already thinking completely irrational and I've only been on water for like a week!

Make sure and post up your water rig when you get it. Sounds like you're going all out, should be a real screamer, especially if you're gonna go Frankenstein on it's behind.

Welcome to the watercooling club =)

Just dont let the critters clog up the pump like I did to mine!

Wraith said:

Welcome to the watercooling club =)

Just dont let the critters clog up the pump like I did to mine!

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Thanks!

How often should I maintain? I really want to keep my system in tip top shape, as this setup will be serving me as is for the next few months. This rig is my one and only baby. I want to keep it clean. Do you recommend the Biocide from Petras? Or shnould I go with something else? Or should I just drain and refill every X weeks/months? Sorry I'm a nooby to the water, but I'm reading as much as I can.

Add something, thats all I can say. I didnt, and changed water every 3 months. That is until I got lazy and let it sit for 6 months. That was when the pump failed. My first indication was the smell when I entered my room. You know the one =(

Congrats and welcome to the exciting new world of H20! Just keep your eyes open and inspect your tubing evry couple of days. I've been fortunate I never had anything grow in my lines. I've been watercooling for years and I only use distilled water.

I remember adding a tad bit of antifreeze ( a shot glass) and that was a big mistake. In a matter of weeks my lines were all cloudy and smelled bad. I had to redo the whole thing, which took several hours washing and scrubbing.

I know that addicting feeling, you'll be wanting to build spare rigs just to watercool them now

Welcome to the club!

xilix said:

How often should I maintain? I really want to keep my system in tip top shape, as this setup will be serving me as is for the next few months. This rig is my one and only baby. I want to keep it clean. Do you recommend the Biocide from Petras? Or shnould I go with something else? Or should I just drain and refill every X weeks/months? Sorry I'm a nooby to the water, but I'm reading as much as I can.

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I've been running mine without changing the fluid for a year now and it's just as clear and clean as the day I filled it up. I use 5-10% antifreeze with distilled water and a few drops of iodine. I buy new tubing and change out the fluid every year, even though it looks fine, just to be on the safe side.

evilrad said:

I've been running mine without changing the fluid for a year now and it's just as clear and clean as the day I filled it up. I use 5-10% antifreeze with distilled water and a few drops of iodine. I buy new tubing and change out the fluid every year, even though it looks fine, just to be on the safe side.

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The guy who sold it to me added some iodine free of charge. I used the bottle of additive that came with it. It said add the whole thing in the loop, so I did. It's the normal everyday green color that you usually see. I added about 4 drops of iodine from the start. I'm hoping that'll be enough to keep my loop clean.

Nebulous said:

Congrats and welcome to the exciting new world of H20! Just keep your eyes open and inspect your tubing evry couple of days. I've been fortunate I never had anything grow in my lines. I've been watercooling for years and I only use distilled water.

I remember adding a tad bit of antifreeze ( a shot glass) and that was a big mistake. In a matter of weeks my lines were all cloudy and smelled bad. I had to redo the whole thing, which took several hours washing and scrubbing.

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Thanks man. At only $90, the water was warm, so I jumped in (ok.. lame joke). You put real car antifreeze in? I didn't know you could do that.

Wraith said:

Add something, thats all I can say. I didnt, and changed water every 3 months. That is until I got lazy and let it sit for 6 months. That was when the pump failed. My first indication was the smell when I entered my room. You know the one =(

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I certainly do. I had a 2600+ machine (I was using my girls machine until I built this one) with the allmighty 9800 Pro (256MB/256bit). I turned it on one day, no video feed at all, and that familiar smell filled the air. Turns out my PSU took my motherboard, RAM and video card with it when it died. I was devistated. 320GB of really important stuff that I hadn't backed up yet, and my girls machine had no IDE on the mobo. Some guy on here was gracious enough to send me a really old 300mhz AMD chip with an old mobo to retrieve my data, which saved my life. I was so greatful for that.

The 2600+ is still here, waiting for me to throw it into a mobo. I'm waiting to see if I can find a good one for it eventually. I MIGHT sell it to someone who will give it a good home, but I'm not sure yet. It did 2300mhz on stock volts on just mediocre air cooling, so it's a really good chip. I've always been interested to see how it would do on better cooling. I've no doubt that it could clock much better with ideal cooling and more voltage.

Update on my OC: I've gotten upto 3.83Ghz so far, and she's still goin. It's at 1.488 actual vcore now (1.52 BIOS), which is starting to get a little too high for my comfort level. I really want this chip to last. BUT I'm still going for it and I think I might be able to hit 4Ghz stable. Maybe. We'll see!

Biocide is unnecessary, drop of bleach, iodine, or just car antifreeze/windshield wiper fluid every time you change coolant is fine.

As for overclocking your E6600, don't try to push it too far - I certainly wouldn't be comfortable trusting a pre-built water cooling kit with more than 1.5v. Heck, on my bong (coolant temp at 1 degrees celsius when i open the windows in the winter) i wouldn't go over 1.6.

But maybe I'm just a sissy..

4od said:

Biocide is unnecessary, drop of bleach, iodine, or just car antifreeze/windshield wiper fluid every time you change coolant is fine.

As for overclocking your E6600, don't try to push it too far - I certainly wouldn't be comfortable trusting a pre-built water cooling kit with more than 1.5v. Heck, on my bong (coolant temp at 1 degrees celsius when i open the windows in the winter) i wouldn't go over 1.6.

But maybe I'm just a sissy..

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Believe it or not, this thing cools my quad quite well. I haven't seen it go over 62c once yet, and I'm at 3.83Ghz so far. Corsair worked with Swiftech for their kit components, so it's not like some of those horrible prebuilt kits you see out there. The only thing I need to really bump this kit up is a bigger rad, but right now it seems to be holding my quad temps down very nicely. I just wanna see how high it'll go stable, then I'm gonna back it down to 3.80Ghz and call it a day.

PICS!!! I'm currently in the process of doing some wiring management, so it's very messy. But it won't be for long. I usually keep my cases really tidy and clean, I'm just still finalizing my top OC and then I'll clean it up ad hook up my other drives.








She's sits idle at anywhere from 32 to 42, depending on how chilly it is in my room. Hasn't gone above 62c yet. I play games for hours on end and have done orthos and prime for about 45 minutes at a time. I still need to crack down and tidy my entire case up and install my DVDRW drive and clamp that res down.

Doesn't Speedfan use 85°C as the tjunction? If so, you would have to add 15°C to those temperatures which bring you up to 77°C! I honestly think 70s makes much more sense with that loop with that OC..

Nope. Those temps are accurate. I always adjust speedfan to factor in the 15c difference.

for that loop thats a very impressive OC.

I'm amazed a single 120mm rad is coping with that much heat.

According to this PSU Calculator, that Q6600 G0 at 3800Mhz draws 217w at 100% load... there is no way that 120mm rad is dissipating anywhere near that much heat without insane airflow.

What fan do you have on that rad?

Clockwork_Apple said:

I'm amazed a single 120mm rad is coping with that much heat.

According to this PSU Calculator, that Q6600 G0 at 3800Mhz draws 217w at 100% load... there is no way that 120mm rad is dissipating anywhere near that much heat without insane airflow.

What fan do you have on that rad?

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The Panaflow that came with it. You have to keep in mind that in most situations this CPU isn't getting 100% load. But even when it does (looped PCmark05 quad threaded benchmarks), so far the wall has been 62c.

Any data on the panaflo of what model it is? I'm just curious, it must be a 100+ cfm fan.

I know CPU utilisation, especially on a quad core, is rarely 100%, but even at 50% that's a lot of heat to dissipate.

Looks real good! I luv my MCW-6002 block! Cools down my FX60 clocked @ 3.0Ghz just fine

Clockwork_Apple said:

Any data on the panaflo of what model it is? I'm just curious, it must be a 100+ cfm fan.

I know CPU utilisation, especially on a quad core, is rarely 100%, but even at 50% that's a lot of heat to dissipate.

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I can't find any information on the fan specs as far as CFM goes. It's a 120mm Panaflow, that's all I know. It seems to move a good amount of air while still being quiet. It's actually pretty impressive for being so quiet, I can feel quite a bit of air movin' out the back. The water block has 240 pins as opposed to the normal 281 that is regularly seen on these MCW blocks when distributed with the Siftech name on the box instead of Corair (this is a Swiftech kit). I guess it's supposed to cause more turbluance, which helps dissapate heat better than the smoother flowing 281 pin block. I'm still a noob so I'm not sure if this is just marketing babble or if the 240 is actually better at dissipating heat than the 281. The system is rated to dissipate 300watts of heat, or so it says, anyway.