another what-should-i-get thread

[displacedmic]

Hey guys - my wife has kicked me out of my office in order to make another bedroom. My new office? A closet.

I have made some upgrades to my 'cloffice' so that it is actually a really great working environment and have decided to reward myself with a new computer. Since I have been facinated with watercooling for years, i thought this would be the perfect time to give it a go!

The problem is, I am having a hard time keeping up with all the various technologies in the computer and cooling world...a younger me would have cringed at that statement so you young guys beware and you older guys know what i mean! Either way, I think i'll need some help selecting my parts and maybe modifying my build components. I really appreciate any help you guys can give me!

So--about my situation, i'm not an extreme anything...gamer, cooler, overclocker etc. I'll be honest - my goal on watercooling is about equal parts cooling efficiency, silence and wow-factor. Because this computer is going to be in a closet with me, i'd really like for my set-up to be as silent as possible. So while obviously efficiency is my number 1 priority, silence is a close second.

Here is where i am now:

CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz 2 x 4MB L2 Cache LGA 775 Quad-Core Processor. I might opt for the duel-core e8400

Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3P LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel

RAM: G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (2 of these for 8 gigs)

HD: Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive

PSU: ABS Tagan BZ Series BZ700 700W ATX12V

GPU: BFG Tech BFGEGTX2801024H2OCWE GeForce GTX 280 1GB 512-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card

now - the video card is a bit expensive...but it comes with a danger den waterblock attached so i thought maybe it would be worth it.

i haven't quite decided on the case yet - but i'm looking at the nicer mid-tower cases over at Newegg - any advice would be most appreciated on this topic as well. I am pretty handy with tools - but i'm not really interested in doing any (or much) case modding...


now - for cooling (for those of you that are still reading)

I was thinking about going with the swifttech triple 120mmm rad.
how do you guys like the one w/ integrated resevoir?

the Swiftech MCP655 12 VDC Pump.

If that GPU works then i'm set for the videocard block, but i am a bit lost as to what else is out there...for the cpu i was thinking swiftech apogee GTZ

i know this is a cooling forum - but feel free to admonish me if i've picked any stupid parts...for example - is 700w going to cut it power wise?

As for my budget...I don't really have one per se. From the parts I've chosen I think you get the idea of where i am money wise - my philosophy on computer purchasing is that the newest-and-best stuff is always absurdly overpriced, so why not just figure out what that is, and then take everything back a notch or two while picking one or two really nice components. Basically, i've tried to make a relatively upgradeable machine (i know i know--i didnt go with ddr3) so I wouldn't really mind getting the best watercooling parts available for the same future-proofing reasons!

can anyone throw me a rope here? thanks guys!

 

[Spawn-Inc]

i wouldn't go with the water block installed, if as you say u want to future proof it then go with a Swiftech MCW60 and a GTX unisink, and GTX 200 adaptor plate.

the pump is a good one and so is the Swiftech MCP355. you can buy an after market XSPC res top for it and get even better performance from it.

^^ with the way the pricing works out its about equal for the 655 and a microres VS. a 355 and res top. if you have lots of space get the 655 and res, if you limited then the 355 and top takes up less space.

as for the rad, that will handle the quad and GTX 280 but won't leave a lot of room for overclocking. i would get 2x MCR220's.
the Feser triple 120mm Xchanger or Thermochill PA120.3 will give a little more head room but i personally would grab 2 MCR220's for the cost of one of the better rads.

another thing to note about the rads is the swiftech's do best with medium speed fans and the thermochill and feser are best with low speed fans. so if noise is a issue then the feser or tC rads are better.