Paycheck coming, H2O system coming!

[sfa ok]

I'm getting a decently (for the school year) big paycheck this week, so I'll be ordering a water cooling system that will shut up my delta and hopefully cool well in the summer heat. I'll be buying a Dangerden waterblock. Are there any opinions on the original Maze vs. Maze 2? Also, what pump would you advise me on buying? As for the radiator, should I get something like the cube or pick something up locally? Thanks in advance.

 

[Bender]

Check this place out aquastealth.com They have a dual radiator for $20 and aluminum water blocks for $16.

 

[bdf24]

Well I guess it all depends on what you want to run. a copper block and radiator like the DD cube are gonna run you more money. Also with a DDcube you will need a bigger gph pump. It will really restrict your flow rate.

To give you an idea of what I'm running. I've got a Rio 200gph inline pump. a 12 x 5 x 3\4 Radiator (aluminum). And an aluminum waterblock. Although I did just order a new PIII waterblock from Tom Leufkens (aluminum again) as well as a new copper cold plate.

All in all I think it cost me about $75.00 to $80.00. My temps are around 9c @ idle and 20c @ extreme load. Going from an Alpha P3125 with a peltier to watercooling with a peltier dropped my temps in half. So now I should be able to run @ 1gig thru the summer with no probs at all! Last summer I had to back it down from 1gig to 960mhz to get it stable cause of the weather getting warmer. Now I can leave it on with the computer desk door shut and it never lockups! Not to mention it's a hell of a lot quiter then it used to be!

I'm still working out the bugs but it's getting there.

 

[sfa ok]

That reminds me, I was also considering the peltier thing. Do they make that much of a difference on an Athlon? What wattage would I need? And one very important issue...what are your personal experiences with condensation prevention and peltiers?

 

[bdf24]

Well, as far as using a Peltier with an Athlon. It depends on what size your cpu is. The higher end Athlons will need around a 156w peltier to make difference in cooling. If I were you I would stick to straight watercooling. The PIII's run ALOT cooler! So it is possible to use smaller peltiers and make a big difference.

As far as my experiences go with pelteirs. I have been using them for a while. But just recently with watercooling. My first attempt with watercooling a tec resulted in condensation! Started getting errors, BSOD's, random reboots, and system shutdowns! I lost my video card and ended up having to reinstall windows! Well I didnt have the cpu sealed off as good as I thought I did. Took the tec off the cpu and found quit a bit of water sitting on the core!

I resealed it all and now it seems to be fine. My temps are'nt what they should be yet but there getting there. Right now I'm running around 9c @ idle, & 20c @ extreme load. But actually if I leave my screen saver on for a while and then come and start using the pc. I'll find the temps were down to around 4 or 5c.

 

[Spewn]

As far as a radiator is concerned, I would recommend going to a local auto wreckers and picking up a heater core. I picked mine up at an auto wreckers for $15(CDN, sot that's like, $9USD or so). For that price, you could get multiple ones and chain them together, get far better cooling than pretty much anything you'll find online, for MUCH cheaper. I've found that radiators seem to have the biggest markup, especially at online sites. This is mainly because they're the most difficult to manufacture, and they don't sell very many, so buying something like a heater core locally is your best bet.

 

[zoopa_man]

I got my radiator off of ebay for dirt cheep. It's bigger than the cooling cube and does just as good if not a better job. The only thing I hate about it is that on real hot days I have to run an extra fan on it to keep my temps down. As we all know, more fans = more noise. But this only happens on hot days and here in NY a hot day is spent at the beach with the chicks, not at home with my computer. LOL being 20 and single is great. Hope this helps, ebay has some deals to be had, you just got to know who your buying form, earn trust before you bid and you won't get burned. That's my rule of thumb.

 

[AMDGuy]

Get a MAXIJET pump. They come highly recommended by a local aquarium shop and they said not to use RIO as they tend to wear out quickly. I got a MAXIJET 1200 (295GPH) for $33.00. For a radiator I bought a BECOOLING small radiator as I wanted the entire setup in my case. I looked at local auto parts stores for heater cores and they were either too big, had the wrong size fittings, or cost too much. Get a copper water block probably DD. I got a BECOOLING and the quality wasn't that great. Don't go aluminum. It's cheaper, but if you're gonna water cool might as well do it right.