[therudyq3]

I'm thinking of getting a water cool kit or a case with water cool. I do OC my CPU. I'm a complete newb at this.

1) any advice onany kit or case that's good value, reasonable or even cheap. I was thinking of the Koolance 601, that comes with the chieftec case. The Koolance comes with a good Chieftec case and water cool kit for the same price as that of many other water cool kit alone.
Am I a fool not to consider the Koolance? or is there something I need to know like performance and reliability.

2) how easy is it for a water cool system to leak, thus ruined your system.

3) can you purchase individual parts should any of them fail or do you have to purchase an entire kit?

4) what if the next cpu changes in its socket format etc... can you update your water cool system to accomodate new MB and cpu?

5) can you mix parts like pumps and radiator etc. between manufacturers? like using a swiftec pump on a Koolance rig.

6) heck! how much of a difference of 2 or 3 degree C does it really matter between 2 water cool system.

7) Thanks!!! hehe

[Yuriman]

I have no kit advice, although as long as none of your hoses pop or something like that, it wont leak. Sometimes when it does leak it will still be fine. You can purchase any part in a kit indivigualy(spellcheck) probably at the same website. Dangerden.com is a good place to start. Also, if you get a new cpu you may have to buy a new mounting bracket(cheap), and, at worst, buy a new block, which isnt that much. Also, as far as i know, you mix and match to your hearts content.

[I.M.O.G.]

Look at the watercooling kits here: www.overclockers.com/articles373

Read the reviews and you will begin to see what qualities make a kit good and what make a kit bad, then you can look around and do some shopping and analyze some kits yourself.

As a rule of thumb, any premade kit for less than $150 is not for performance or overclocking, but they are sometimes fine for quiet cooling. A good ready made kit for performance and overclocking should cost at the very least, $200. If you DIY, then you can build a very good WC setup for less than $200.

1) No direct advice on kits. My best advice is to choose your components individually. Search the WC forum to see what other people do... If I were making a WC loop I would PM and ask a senior or moderator who hangs around the WC section what he has and how it performs, then I would ask what he would change about his system if he wanted to improve it. Lots of people have built systems around here, so I would just ask someone who seems experienced - no reason to reinvent the wheel.

2) Your water loop will not leak if you fasten everything correctly. The connections on various kits are different, so you just want to make sure you use them correctly. Some people use hose clamps to hold their hoses onto their barbs but some people don't use them and the hoses just stay on by themselves.

IMO, a larger threat than leakages is this: forgetting to turn your pump on, or a family member turning your computer on without starting the pump.

3) You can purchase individual parts almost anywhere, almost every place that offers kits offers the components individually also.

Here is a list of places you can buy from: http://forum.oc-forums.com/vb/showth...s+watercooling

4) Many waterblocks could still be used if the socket changed but this isn't really something you need to worry about.

5) Yes you can mix and match parts. All you have to do is keep the inlets and outlets and tubing the same basically - if you are using 1/2" tubing then you need to have all parts that are compatible with 1/2" tubing.

6) I'm not sure what you mean here, but there is A LOT of possibility for temperature difference between kits. The quality varies hugely.

[therudyq3]

well...what I meant on the last question was...a lot of these water cool kit performance only differ around 2 or 3 degrees..but the price may be quite a bit i.e. the Koolance costs same as most other water cool kit at around $200 plus...it doesn't performa as well as say..the Swiftec BUT you get a nice case and tempature monitor with the Koolance.

I think I'm right on this?

[TheMightyBuck]

it's the same difference between an athlonxp 1600+ and an athlonxp 1700+.......

it makes all the difference in the world, and it doesn't make any difference.

just find the sweetspot for your budget/needs/wants.

i made a kick-ass diy system for 70 bucks. made my own block, got heatercore from junkyard, bought cheap but good maxi-jet pump, and now i can run under 40C @2.02 ghz @2.0V. that's pretty good, imo, anyway. water temp = 30.1C, ambient = 26.5C, cpu = 39C load.

[Aktunka]

If you are new and not really ready to just go for broke on your own building one yet, and you are considering a kit or something, I would highly recommend THIS case. This is a Chenbro SR 104 Server case that has been modded by Xoxide and comes with a complete watercooling system except for the CPU waterblock. I would recommend getting a real block from like D-Tek, Swiftech, Danger Den or whatever instead of those they sell though. Anyhow, the kit that is pre installed in this case is a working water cooling rig. I am sure that it is not a super high performance one and you can build one that performs much better, but it doesnt sound like you are at that stage yet. The best part of this is that this is a more "normal" style watercooling system unlike the Koolance which IIRC uses 1/4" ID tubing which is terrible for higher level performance. Anyhow, the best part of the case I linked to is that the case itself has lots of room for if you ever want to take out parts of the installed W/C system and install your own. And right now it is only $149.99. Yes, that is $150 bucks for a nice case with a watercooling system included. The case alone is worth $70 bucks so all in all it is a pretty tight deal that gives you the room to upgrade in the future without the need for a new case. Anyhow, thats my suggestion. Good luck.

Aktunka

[therudyq3]

According to the article provided by IMOG above...the Koolance EXOS seems to be pretty good base on the C/W rating. Plus it seems easy to install.

What I don't get is, the tubing seems small...

Is this a good system for OC ??? any other system/kit that are a better performance?

Thanks.

[therudyq3]

ok so teh innovatek looks good too, especially if one of its component stop to work, I can buy individual unit to replace it.

I wonder if the same can be said about the Kollance Exos. Does anyone know?? or can I purchase some other manufacturers parts to replce the internal parts of the Exos?

Man I really sound like a newb here

[Aktunka]

If you search around, you will find that most people on these forums say to stay away from the Koolance stuff. Why is this? In most cases it is because the people on this forum are overclockers like you said you are in your first post. From all I have seen and read here, the Koolance is a perfectly fine performing system if you are just running stock gear, but if you are overclocking, it is not nearly as good. Also, another drawback to the Koolance is that since it is using small tubing, it will be much tougher to use parts from it at a later point when you want to start upgrading parts here and there. Really, if you are an overclocker, the Koolance does not seem to be your best choice.

The Innovatek kit is a bit better, but again, alot of the complete kits are designed for use in stock CPU systems, not overclocking. Some folks that have posted about their Innovatek systems seem to point to this as well.

If you want to see some complete kits that are easy to upgrade or add stuff to later on, check out these links

http://www.xoxide.com/xaqh20ex.html

http://www.dangerden.com/mall/cases/water_cases.asp

I am sure there are others out there as well, but both of these are full systems, and the Danger Den stuff is already high end stuff. Anyhow, best of luck.

Aktunka

[toastman23]

I would say get the danger den watercooled case or innovatek kit. The innovatek is easy to set up and people are getting good temperature out of it. The danger den's watercooled case looking pretty, and has good components inside too. But if you already have a good case and willing to do some mod, you can save around 100$ for the innovatek kit. If you are lazy or the case you have now is kind of small, I would suggest you to get the danger den case. The case along costs 8x$.

[therudyq3]

Originally posted by toastman23
I would say get the danger den watercooled case or innovatek kit. The innovatek is easy to set up and people are getting good temperature out of it. The danger den's watercooled case looking pretty, and has good components inside too. But if you already have a good case and willing to do some mod, you can save around 100$ for the innovatek kit. If you are lazy or the case you have now is kind of small, I would suggest you to get the danger den case. The case along costs 8x$.

Being one who overclocks, I currently have a Chieftec case and it's really nice. So, the danger den case looks sweet. I need another case anyway. Yea this one looks pretty tempting and I kinda leaning towards it.

What are these parts in the Danger den Chieftec case? like the Lydor pump. I thought an Einhem pump is best, no? how will it perform?

What I don't get is that, the Koolance Exos has such a good C/W rating from overclockers.com with such small tubing. Do most people who don't like Exos are basing their opinion on the old Koolance case, not the Exos?
http://www.overclockers.com/articles373/

[Aktunka]

Most people that don't like the Koolance stuff are basing it on its less than stellar performance when you do some serious overclocking.

It boils down to two choices regarding koolance really. If you don't overclock then it will probably be just fine. If you do overclock, and do some serious overclocking, then it probably isn't the right choice for you.

Try doing a search in this forum for Koolance in the subject and you should find a good amount of threads with people discussing Koolance and how it performs.

[therudyq3]

I would think that the chieftec case from danger den ...

http://www.dangerden.com/mall/cases/water_cases.asp

should run pretty quiet eh? only one 120 mm fan and the pump to contend

how does the relay connect work here with the PSU so that the system would start up same time as the pump? thx

any other suggestion?

[likwidkool]

i say DIY, but jpiperformance.com has some kits that will rival any kit you can put togther, cause all the parts he uses are the popular choice amongst the "put it together yourself" crowd

[therudyq3]

what if my water pumpo failed? how can I protect my cpu from being burnt?

Can a relay switch automatically turn off the system if my pump stop working?

thanks, I'm such a noob

[kfunk]

You can just reach back of your computer case and shut down the power.

[Iron Hawk]

Originally posted by therudyq3
what if my water pumpo failed? how can I protect my cpu from being burnt?

Can a relay switch automatically turn off the system if my pump stop working?

thanks, I'm such a noob

The best thing to do against pump failure is to check your motherboards BIOS for some sort of Anit Burn Regulator, Or temperature Shutoff, where you can set your motherboard to automaticaly turn off if a set cpu temperature is exceeded.

[therudyq3]

Originally posted by kfunk
You can just reach back of your computer case and shut down the power.

What if the pump fails while I'm not there?

I think the best answer is through the BIOS or I need to get some parts like Digital doc?? Not sure if it can shut off your system when the tenp is high.

I really like the Danger den Verge case here:
http://www.dangerden.com/mall/cases/verge.asp

But it leaves me with few expansion slots left and I have lots of stuff. It's good where it is right now but if I need to add stuff, I won't be able to.

That's why the Koolance Exos looks appealing but its performance is not as good.

Anyone has any ideas on how/where I can get a box to contain my pump, reservoir, radior externally? like that of the Koolance Exos? Then I just need to get all the parts and put them in there.
Thx!!

I may post another thread for this question

[WejRepus]

check out jpiperformance.com
they sell a housing called the quadra monlolith that might be what you are looking for