Getting serious about water cooling.

Alright guys I think I'm ready to make the investment into watercooling. I want to do it ONCE and do it RIGHT. I really hate buying hardware twice because I didn't go in the right direction to start with.

On a budget of ~$500 what items would you choose. I need everything from the ground up. The basic hardware is in my sig. I'll do some creative modifications if needed to make it fit the case but it looks like a dual 80mm rad and a single 80mm rad is all I can fit. I do want a internal system for convience and limited space I have to work with.

Beyond that I need to know brand and models of pumps, heatsinks for CPU, VGA chipset, and other items I'll need to do this once with the budget I have set.

Those with the experience please spend a little time and point me in the right direction.

Jeff

Buy your supplies from here

id definitely try to do a dual 120mm setup if you could, perhaps sacrifice a 5.25 bay or two and use the top of the case, id say dtek ww and dd maze4 gpu, thats what ive got with t line and i get 34 degrees load even with the 2x120's on low with fan controller

first off, what case is it going in?

you will not be happy with watercooling if you're using dinky 80mm fans, use some of that $500 to invest in tools to modify your case

WW Cpu block, dual heatercore, Maze4GPU, Hydor L35, Bayres, If you want to go extreme you could add a pelt Either way, you shouldnt come close to 500$

-CaT

If you are just going into water cooling then I would wait on the tec. Good idea but might want to iron out the water first. I highly recommend an exterior cooling box with the dual rads, four 120s on a rheo. Cost with blocks and all should be well below $500. I find my exterior box to cool the vid as well as the cpu and 320w tec at no more than 27c exit temp on this setup. Vid temp (located after the 320w tec) rose one degree over the temp recorded prior to tec on water only. This may or may not be accurate but benching has shown no drop in vid speed. I find this setup to be much better than I anticipated. Cooling loop is 3000+ at 2.84 on 1.84v with 320w tec at 13.8v. Vid is after cpu cooling and in same loop at 1.4v on 6800gt (evga) 425/1900 max speed. Only cheap improvement that could be made to this is going back to the bong for higher speeds but wife does not like the noise.

Well it looks like I'll be changing cases. My current case a Cooler Masters just doesn't have the room to do 120mm fans. And I agree with the earlier post I think I'm wasting time with the 80mm fans. They are loud and just not as effective.

I'm considering the Mountain Mod UFO case but wow is that some chowder. How good is that Thermochill HE 120.3 radiator that bolts right in. Sure makes for a clean setup but wasn't sure how effective it really is. Is it a overpriced POS?

I've defiantly gained a little knowledge from the links so far. I don't think I'm ready to dive in to TEC yet. Looks like it requires some extra gear on top of a already expensive setup. Maybe once the bugs get worked out a little better.

I'm considering the Mountain Mod UFO case but wow is that some chowder. How good is that Thermochill HE 120.3 radiator that bolts right in. Sure makes for a clean setup but wasn't sure how effective it really is. Is it a overpriced POS?

Click to expand...

I'd ask Nikhsub1, particularly since you are describing a setup much like his.