Water Cooling Advice?

[Wanker]

I recently purchased a Thermaltake Volcano 9 CPU heatsink and fan, and while it works great, the noise is unbearable. I leave it set to rotate at the fastest speed, because I figure it's better to have a cool CPU than a quiet fan.

But now I've reached the point where I want to investigate a water-cooling solution. I would appreciate any advice or links, preferably something less than $500 if possible.

My system:

Soyo K7V Dragon Plus
AMD XP 2100+
Thermaltake Volcano 9
1 GB Crucial PC 2100 RAM (512x2)
Abit Siluro GF 4 Ti-4400
2x 40GB IBM Deskstar XP60 hard drives
Antec SX830 case w/ 2 80mm intake fans and 2 80mm exhaust fans
Enermax EG465AX-VE 431 watt power supply
SB Audigy
WinXP Pro sp1
Cougar Hotas

[Sixpence]

I have a Koolance case. It works fine but if you go that route, don't use their water block, there are better ones out there. The one they sent me was not all copper(the bottom that touches CPU was not copper) like it was supposed to be.

It's not a bad system, but sooner or later pumps and gaskets are going to have to be replaced. With my case, you have to tip it upside down to fill it, so if you replace a pump and didn't put it back together right...............

I'm looking to put together another system using the Asus A7N8X Deluxe mobo. I'm leaning towards either a swiftech 462 or thermalright SLK 800 heat sync, those will do just fine.

If someone can explain how to post pictures here, i'll post a pic of my water cooled system.

Here is the Koolance site

http://www.koolance.com/  

There are some places on this list that might have them

http://www.vantecusa.com/where.html

Or here

http://www.inflowdirect.com/

http://www.ocia.net/reviews/mcx462/mcx462.shtml

http://www.ocaddiction.com/

Here is a forum where you can ask questions on such issues

http://www.ocaddiction.com/forums/index.php?s=

There are different water cooled systems

http://www.extremeoverclocking.com/reviews/cases/QPower_1.html

[Defiance]

Hiya's,
After moving on from watercooling i found this

Best setup i got was Eheim Pump/Dangerden Block/All copper rad (in usa easy to get from a breakers or cheap new one) and tubing/T's etc

Saves some amount of money buying bits and doing setup yourself

If you don't wanna make a specific setup get a kit but check for reviews etc from decent cooling sites before ya get a kit

[Manedew]

i've heard people mutter about the dangers of water cooling ... why not use distilled water? or do you?

[Defiance]

Hiya's,
Yep don't use "tap/normal H2o"  lol

Distilled is available easily (for steam irons car-rads etc etc)

It's had the impurities taken out and that means iron etc etc so very less conductive if at all  

[Sixpence]

Originally posted by Manedew
i've heard people mutter about the dangers of water cooling ... why not use distilled water? or do you?

In the directions it tells you to use distilled water, are you assuming it is non-conductive?

It is much lower, but i'm not sure i would trust it

http://www.epa.gov/owow/monitoring/volunteer/stream/vms59.html

[Sixpence]

[Wanker]

I'm really busy these days and don't have the time/patience to buy a bunch of parts and do it myself. I like the look of the Swiftech QPower "ready to go" system. Kinda pricey at $400, but at least it comes with a case to boot.

Sixpence, was the Koolance system a "ready to go" unit, or did you have to fill it and seal it?

How quiet is your system with it? Are you happy you did it? etc...

[Sixpence]

Ready go.................almost. I had to buy the water block separate and connect it. I think swiftech may be like that too, make sure you double check.

Getting the block attached to the mobo was a bit tricky because I didn't want to try to attach the hoses after I had the block connected, so I secured the block to the mobo after I attached the hoses. Look over the room you have to work with before making a decision on this.

After the installation you just fill it up and go:)

If you are not going to overclock, I would consider an air cooled solution. But the water cooled cases can be fun, I just bought a black light and some blue dye for the water. I already have a window kit, i'll post some pics soon.

It has three different power settings for the fans, the more power, the more noise, but it is very quiet compared to the beast of a fan I had on my swiftech 462.

I'm semi-happy with it. Although the design isn't bad, I thought the case could have been engineered a little better. I think the whole case and block was about $250.00. That was over a year ago I believe.

[Tuomio]

If you want to experiment a little, you could sink your power and motherboard (with fans removed) alltogether in mineral oil used in high power converters.  Aim the pump hose (cooled down content) towards the CPU heatsink. Put the cooling unit (regular car radiator with one or two 8" fans) with the pump in other room and then you will have completely noise free computer.  The plus with this system is, that the sealing requirements are much much easier than in water cooled systems, sealing is the most difficult part on building liquid cooling system. Mineral oil transfers heat _a lot_ better than air, so basically every component on your computer will get good cooling even without heatsink on them.

I will someday test this with my old computer, when i get some inspiration.

[Sixpence]

Here is another link

http://directron.com/watercooling.html


This is not a water cooled case, but I thought I would show you this. It has a slide out mobo tray that I think is genious.

http://directron.com/201tblue.html

http://directron.com/lib/directron/SF201-MB-tray

This one seems like a good deal, but do your research. Do a google(or other) search on items you are interested in. You will usually find some reviews on them.

http://directron.com/pc2601w.html

Here is a review on the Koolance case

http://www.amdsource.com/reviews/show_review.php?review_id=49&page=1

This is the window kit I installed(ty dremel) with a plain blue cold cathode tube light. Expecting a black light with some blue dye soon.

[SunKing]

banana I have the same fan. It's louder than the tv out in the living room!!!  I just purchased a new fan.  Maybe you'll want to try it.

http://www.svc.com/narcoslsipro.html

[bfreek]

I just put a cold 12 pack on top of my case, keeps the puter cool and me. When the puter starts gettin cranky on me I know its time to make a beer run.

[Staga]

Well my system is watercooled, self made and quiet.

What you need is a waterpump used in aquariums and those can be found from almost every hobby shop or bigger markets (Eheim is good brand, some cheaper pumps will broke fast when used to pump warm water. I'm having slightly cheaper Hydor, works fine).

Eheim 1048 ~65$
Hydor Seltz L 30 II ~45$

Next you need a cpu-block, these are 25-70$ depending of type. Use only blocks made of copper.

I'm having a specially made "Black ice" radiator (60-120$ depending type) in the sidepanel of the PC with a 120mm fan (15-20$) with Zalman fanmate rheostat (5-10$). Watercooling is very effective and there's no reason to let fan turn in full speed.

You can also use just a can of water on the floor and leave out radiators and other things thought I prefer the way I chose.

Now all I need is a new silent power supply...

[Wanker]

Originally posted by SunKing
banana I have the same fan. It's louder than the tv out in the living room!!!  I just purchased a new fan.  Maybe you'll want to try it.

http://www.svc.com/narcoslsipro.html

Thanks Sunking, I think I may get one of these until I decide on the water cooling.