New to water cooling- adivce pls

I'm looking to go water on my next system, but I had a couple questions before I went out and bought anything.

How large of a pump do I need? I'm looking at cooling my p4 cpu, video card, and chipset. If I get a more powerful pump than I need, are they all adjustable to lower the speed, heat, and noise?

I've heard a lot recommend the Eheim 1046/1048 and the ViaAqua 1300s. How loud are these? I'm going for a silent case, so I don't want anything in it over 30dBas. Also, when looking on a viaAqua page, I noticed the line "must be submersed" is that saying it doens't work without sitting in water?

How powerful a fan do you need on the reservoir? most of the ones I saw were in the 35-40 dBa range and that's a bit louder than I was looking for.

And lastly, is $140 good for an innovatek kit that includes a water block, radiator, hoses, joints, and AC3? Pretty spendy, but I read a bunch of good reviews for their stuff. Shame its always backordered.

Thanks for the help

Personally i would stay with the enheim, as the people here have nothing bad to say about them. Most people go with at least one 120mm fan on their radiator. I would buy the parts seperately, as you will save money by getting the fittings at home depot. If you aren't going to get tygon tubing (which is much better than vinal), then you can get the tubing at home depot as well. A heater core from your local auto parts store will make a nice radiator. Probabally save some green and time from backorder kits.

I would go with the Eheim 1250, its almost silent has superb quality and it pushes a lot of water.
It will also be powerful enough for all your blocks.

Try 120MM fans but hook two together in a Blow/Suck combination, a Great Heatercore is available from www.dtekcustoms.safeshopper.com and you can buy shrouds to fit on it, I reccommend two of these as it allows for maximum airflow through the Heatercore, and its what your looking for quiet.

As for the innovatek kit only get it if it comes with a powerful enough pump and a good Waterblock, else its a Waste of $$$ IMHO.


Good Luck,
M_N

You gotta hit the sweet spot with water cooling. If you're doing it to lower sound more than super cool your cpu then use less fans. If you dont care about sound, pile them on. With water cooling you can be in the 40C range with very little fan power and a minimal of noise. This is perfectly fine. Getting close to ambient is like working your way up an exponential curve. The closer you want to get the harder you have to work to get the next little bit. I think the 40C range when ambient is around 23-24C is quite easy to maintain. Any more and you really start digging into the noise factor.

I'm not sure how loud the eheim is, I've never used one. It's quite a bit bigger than say, a maxi-jet powerhead... it all depends on your needs as to what kind of setup to use. Watercooling is much more unique than air cooling because of the number of parts involved.

Tests were conducted and the Fans don't really make much difference to temperatures in the 60CFM to 100CFM range.
A 2-5C difference Maximum, even less if you have Shrouds fitted and you are using a Heatercore. (This makes best use of the airflow and uses it more efficiently)

Don't skimp on quality parts, thats how you get a quiet WaterCooling system.
IMHO

M_N