Watercooling kit - any suggestions?

I'm you're typical water cooling noob who is in search of the best precompiled watercooling kit available for the least amount of money. I live in Canada so it will be hard to shop for individual components, so even though there will be less performance, I will just look into getting a full kit. So, my goal is to have the following system:

AMD64 Opteron 146 2.0GHz 1MB L2cache (Retail)
DFI Lanparty NF4 Ultra-D MAINBOARD
OCZ Dual Channel Platinum Revision2 (TCCD) cl2-2-2-5 PC3200
OCZ Powerstream 520W
eVGA eGeForce 7800GT 256mb CO Copper Heatsink /w COD2
WD Raptor 74GB /w 200GB Seagate Barracuda Storage
SB Audigy2 ZS
WinXP Professional

Clock as high as possible, hopefully striving for 3.0GHz considering I don't get the CABGE stepping for the CPU.

I shop at www.ncix.com

Below you will find a few links to different Watercooling kits they offer there. Could someone point me in the right direction as to which one I should get from the website? I want to get lower temperatures than what my current XP-90 + Tornado case fan are getting. Here are the links, but feel free to consider other products there, refer to the bottom link.

PRODUCT: Kingwin AWC1 Arctic Liquid Cooling System
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?mode=productreviewread&product_id=14721#review33311
REVIEW:
http://www.cluboverclocker.com/reviews/super_cooling/kingwin/arcticliquidcooler/p4.htm

PRODUCT: Thermaltake Big Water SE
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=15937&vpn=CL-W0005-01&manufacture=THERMALTAKE
REVIEW:
http://www.tweaknews.net/reviews/waterse/index6.php

PRODUCT: Swiftech H20-120-64 Rev. 3
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=13480&vpn=H20-120-64(REV.3)&manufacture=Swiftech
REVIEW:
http://www.madshrimps.be/?action=getarticle&number=5&artpage=1149&articID=283

ALL OTHER PRODUCTS:
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?minorcatid=1165

Sorry for being a noob, but any help is appreciated. Thanks!

At BigFoot Computers I've come across a highly acclaimed kit called the Swiftech H20-APEX. Is this a good choice for a water cooling kit?

Most, if not all, will tell you the only kit worth your money is the swiftech one. I'd go with it.

I'd imagine you mean the H20-APEX right? Or the one in my first post?

yes, the Apex one. As far as kits go, it has very good components and I think is the only really viable choice in kits at present.

Thanks, fortunately I have found a reseller close to me (Toronto) that has these in stock. I'll go pick one up as soon as I can.

jEevion said:

At BigFoot Computers I've come across a highly acclaimed kit called the Swiftech H20-APEX. Is this a good choice for a water cooling kit?

Click to expand...

DEFINITELY.. a good choice

I like the h20-apex "extreeme duty" kit also.......but what about your VGA card? would there be enough tygon to support that? I have a refurb x800xtPE and this thing is loud......and I have one of those huge 1" die cpu's and it is HOT and impossible to overclock...so I hope this system can solve both of these issues, I could have sworn I saw this kit came with a VGA cooler.....any suggestions?

Well my VGA card has a copper heatsink, I'm just going to apply some AS5 on it and leave it at that.

I THINK you need to buy an aftermarket GPU block for 7800 series cards, to my knowledge. Anyways, thanks for the advice guys, I'll get it ASAP.

Personally I think a GPU benefits more from water cooling than a CPU. CPU temps on stock cooling reach what......50C max? on a socket 754/939/940 setup?

GPU temps can hit 70~90C..........which although manufacturers say that's normal........that's a bit too toasty for my preferences. You're going through the hassle of water cooling, you might as well go all the way.

What GPU block is there available for my eVGA eGeForce 7800GT CO? Also, in order to effectively cool the video card, do you not need water cooling on both the core and the memory on both sides of the card?

You can use the Swiftech MCW55
http://www.performance-pcs.com/cata...d=3510&zenid=2866e821f8cccfe61623f1962c2c33ae

or Maze4 from Danger Den
http://www.performance-pcs.com/cata...d=2589&zenid=2866e821f8cccfe61623f1962c2c33ae

You don't have to water cool the RAM, copper or aluminum ramsinks will work just fine a small fan blowing over them.

I'd take it the MCW55 is the better of the two? Is it guaranteed to fit my card easily?

If you live in Toronto, definitely go check out BigFootComputers. They're located on Dundas Street West, just south of Jane St. They are about to recieve a large shipment of BIXIII and BIPIII in about a week.

-GearShifter

I live in Brantford, which is only about an hour from Toronto. What are these BIXIII and BIPIII things you speak of?

I had the Swiftech MCW50 which uses the same mounting setup as the MCW55, but I just switched to a DDMaze4 acetal. I really like it much better. The mounting kit is MUCH better than the Swiftech and it doesn't bend the video card. The Swiftech mount easily bends the card. I also really like the barbs on the Maze4 much better than the push type deals on the Swiftech block. You have to use adapters to have barbs on the Swiftech block.

You just get ramsinks for the RAM chips on the card. I recommend the Sekisui #5760 thermal tape. You can get it on ebay, or I think Labrat has some for sale in the classifieds. It allows you to remove the ramsinks if you need to, but the stuff sticks like glue.

Will the Maze4 fit the eVGA eGeForce 7800GT CO? If so, I would then be looking to get the APEX kit as well as this VGA block? I'll be set after that?

jEevion said:

I live in Brantford, which is only about an hour from Toronto. What are these BIXIII and BIPIII things you speak of?

Click to expand...

They're radiators.
BIPIII
BIXIII

The Maze4 will fit the 7800GT with the proper adapter (I don't know if it's included or not). As far as the MCW55, I don't see how it bends the card at all. The mounting uses 4 anchor points and uses spring tension limiters. I'm completely confident in the mounting mechanism.

I tried to google for performance comparisons between the Maze4 and the MCW55, but they're all on [H]ardForums, which has been down all day. I think the MCW55 performs just a hair better, but the Maze has better barbs and is lower profile, which should only matter if you plan on doing SLI in the future.

well what I ment to ask was...would I be able to fit a gpu water cooler in the h20-apex "extreme duty" water cooling kit?