[chillz]

so i've recently built my first true gaming rig. i mean i've built others before, but everything was pretty much just aftermarket upgrades with stock settings and no BIOS tweaking. with this one, i want to take my first steps into overclocking. but before i go asking about oc'ing anything, i want to first take care of cooling my system.

i was originally planning to go with a custom CooLIT system for my rig, but since their 4800 series solutions won't be available til October 1st, i'm clueless as to what the price range will be. so i thought i'd make a Plan B: water-cooling. i've read up on the basics of wc'ing and i'm ready to get my hands dirty (or wet). unfortunately, good wc products are hard to find in Canada so i need some help in finding a one-stop-wc-shop that ships up here. all i want is a compact system that will cool my CF'd 4850s and my Q6600. my budget's US$500 including taxes and shipping.

any and all help would be greatly appreciated. thanks.


p.s. if it'll help, my overall goal is to have my cpu running @ 3.0GHz+ with temps for both cpu and vidcards each @ 40C idle and 60C full load. i know i can probably achieve these with air and some tweaking, but i'm looking for cooling efficiency and near-silence here.

[Brando]

http://www.sidewindercomputers.com/liquidcooling.html

[chillz]

after looking thru and reading up on full-cover 4850-compatible waterblocks, i noticed that some say they're made for "reference" graphic cards and "retail" graphic cards. now is there an actual difference between reference and retail cards? if so, are my Sapphire cards one or the other?


p.s. thanks for the link Brando