Beggining on watercooling

S

simon27

Weaksauce
Joined
Apr 5, 2005
Messages
78
Well I'm starting on water cooling. I've read the WC FAQ on this forum... it explain the parts of a water cooling system... Now I understand it a litle bit more :D...

Well, I'm making my dream pc, but for first time, I am going to pick water cooling than fan cooling... my specs are:

Athlon64 3800 Venice (when it comes out)
DFI LanParty
OCZ Platinium Rev2.

Well, first of all, I would like inside system... and I don't know what case to pick because I don't wanny pick something thats not big enough inside to a water cooling.

I have a budget of 500$ maybe less, maybe more...

I hope you guys can help me =)

Thanks.
 
$500 for the H20 components or $500 for what? Need more info...

BTW, you can water cool a SFF so it depends on what you want to do with the PC and what space constraints you have. The best case out there for H20 is the Lian-Li V2000 IMHO, but at $250 it's a tad on the expensive side in your budget. Perhaps a Lian-Li PC-6077 as they have lots of room and aren't too expensive.

I think the thing you need to decide is whether you want a bigger is better system or a low flow highly engineered system. Then we can start talking :)
 
Ok, sorry for not giving all the info...

I got in my hands 500$ but maybe in a week i have around 600$ for case + wc.

This is a stupid question, but whats h20 ? sorry.

I really dont want a BIGGGER like those on the Extreme cooling solution forum, i want something that fits a desk.

ty.
 
OH LOL

Now I got it... I didnt understand...

hahaha I thought the "O" was a zero so I didnt understand....

hahaha lmao.... H2O now I understand :D

hahhaha soryr :D... now going back to the old question, what case + cooling system you recommend for my 600$ budget ?
 
a cooler master stacker or lian li v1000b or thermaltake armor/kandolf for lots of room.

you have to get a PSU too with the 500?
 
Well, if your not after a big bulky case, can I recommend an Antec Super Lanboy? I've got mine watercooled successfully.
 
I've got one of those caes that you linked to, and i've fit a dual raditor ('77 boni core) and a bayres in it with no problem at all. All ihave in the loop right now is my CPU (with a tdx) but that will change in 2-3 weeks.

My point is, the li-li 6077 is excellent for watercooling
 
Ok, thanks for that feed back :)... I really like that one!...

Now about the water cooling?... I've look around and everybody talk about maze4 and DangerDen... are they good?.

I am getting an eVGA or a BFG Geforce 6800, so, I would like to Water Cool it too.

So, what system are good for this system:

Antec 550W Power Supply, 24-Pin
Lian Li Black ATX Mid Tower Case
DFI "LANPARTY nF4 SLI-DR"
AMD Athlon64 3800 - Venice (when it comes out)
eVGA nVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT Video Card, 256MB GDDR3

Thank yall!
 
a complete kit that offers good perfromance using the bigger is better school of thought.
it should fit nicely in the PC-6077, which i have a similar rad inside.

http://www.asetek.com/main/page.asp?sideid=556

you should shop around to find the best price/shipping deal that you can get, which is why i posted from the manufacturer, instead of a specific retailer.

dangerden makes good stuff as well, you just have to configure the kit yourself. you don't want the maze 4 CPU block unless you're doing something other than straight watercooling.
 
Oh niceeee! that cooling system look sick!...

But I can't find it in only stores like newegg, compusa, bestbuy, zipzoomfly... It only can be sell from the company? that sucks :(

Where did you buy it?

Thanks!

Any other cooling system that you know works fine... are welcome!.
 
jab-tech.com carries asetek waterchill stuff. so does frozencpu.com

another good retailer is cooltechnia.com

i would recommend you buy the parts individually. often times you can find danger den stuff cheaper at other retailers than at danger den itself
 
What should I select for my system? :rolleyes:

As I said, I would like a cooling system, that I can cool my VGA and my CPU....

Thanks guys, your help is great!.
 
simon27 said:
Oh niceeee! that cooling system look sick!...

But I can't find it in only stores like newegg, compusa, bestbuy, zipzoomfly... It only can be sell from the company? that sucks :(

Where did you buy it?.
Click to expand...
i did not buy it. i am doing peltier cooling with my system, and using dangerden blocks, a pump from an aquarium store, a black ice rad (similar to the one that the kit includes), tygon tubing and various other goodies.

as for finding a place that sells it: someone else posted some stores that carry astek kits, and i suggested looking around for it. you now have the company name, and the part number. google is your friend, and newegg is not the alpha and omega of online stores.

i am not american, so i do not track american prices at american stores.

i posted a kit because you are new to watercooling, and i did not think that you would want to mess around with individual parts.

the dangerden NV-68 is probably the best graphics cooling block for your card, however it is so expensive that i think that it would kill you budget for everything else.

you need a CPU waterblock, and a GPU waterblock. you cannot use a chipset waterblock with your board.

companies that make good waterblocks:
http://www.polarflo.com/
http://www.dangerden.com/
http://www.asetek.com/ (same company that makes that kit)

you need a good rad. probably a rad that uses two 120mm fans on one side, or 4 in push-pull configuration.

companies that make good rads:
http://www.thermochill.com/ (i wish that i could have gotten one)
http://www.hwlabs.com/
http://www.pontiac.com/ (the old bonneville '77 heatercore trick)

you need a res or a T-line. i like T-lines, and your local hardware store can take care of that little component. at the very least, you will probably need some good metal gear clamps fromt the hardware store, assuming that you have some part that uses barb fittings. if you get a res, look at the same companies that make waterblocks.

for pumps, the sites that have the waterblocks also have 12V DC pumps that you can run off of your computer PSU. i like aquarium pmps, myself, and the best place to pick one out is at an aquarium store. you can get input on how well different units last, from the staff, and look at what the store uses. picka pump that gets better than 150 GPH at say 4 ft of head, on the performance vs head chart that the pump comes with. i like danner supreme, myself.

why am i not giving you retailers? shopping around is, to my mind, your job. i don't mind giving you a shopping list, but i'm not doing your gorceries for you.
 
BEWARE using Dihydrogen Monoxide as a coolent for wc'd computers can have adverse side effects if used improperly.
 
cell_491 said:
BEWARE using Dihydrogen Monoxide as a coolent for wc'd computers can have adverse side effects if used improperly.
Click to expand...
don't forget all that deuterium oxide in the mix. man that stuff will just cause not end of trouble.

don't want something used for candu reactor moderator in your computer, right? :)
 
Okay here I go one more time. Religion is such a boorish topic, but WTF ;)

There are essentially two schools of thought when it comes to H20 cooling. Some people believe in large tubes with high flow and most of the others believe in smaller tubes and lower flow. A very small minority, like me, believe in a nice happy medium. Everybody seems to be able to point out statistics, mathematical equations, reviews, and other errata that proves their point of view. However, when it gets down to the nitty gritty both schools of thought seem to work just as well as the OC's of the actual machines don't seem to vary much. Now what that means I don't want to get into as that is really religious in nature. ;)

So lets take the big is better (BIB) school of thought first. Here we want something like 1/2" ID tubing, the water blocks, and other stuff that will excel in that environment. For that kind of stuff you can be plain Jane or you can have a Cadillac. Depends on your $$ supply and how much you value looks along with performance. The following are some links for you to peruse:

Asetek, Danger Den, HardWare Labs, D-Tek, Little River, PolarFlo, Swiftech.

There are probably more manufacturers out there so if you think you have been slighted in some way please call your therapist. I just call them the way I see them and these are pretty much the big players in the BIB school. Please note that if you go this way you will want to stay in this group of products and can pretty much mix and match to your modding pleasure.

Now lets discuss the low flow school of thought. As I mentioned earlier this is the highly engineered stuff that uses smaller tubes, blocks, and other stuff to get to the same results as the BIB school. They really do this by carefully designing their products to use all the little tricks possible to make sure that everything works with each other in a nice cohesive manner. Some links to peruse would be:

Alphacool, Aqua Computer, Asetek, HardWare Labs, Innovatek, Koolance

As I pointed out earlier there are other manufacturers, but this is a representative sample of the major players in this school. As you have probably noticed the BIB school is primarily associated with domestic companies and the low flow school is associated with imported companies. This is something to consider in any plans you have as the exchange rates do vary and can make your desired products fluctuate in price over a given amount of time. If you go this route you can also pretty much mix and match in this group of products, but you do have to be more careful as sometimes products are developed to perform the best with their own stuff. One minor point is that the low flow stuff tends to look better from a visual standpoint.

You probably have noticed that two companies are on both lists. This is because they both make products that are usable within either group, but not all their products so you have to be discerning in your plans.

My personal preference is for a happy medium between the two schools of thought. I tend to design rigs that utilize the best of both worlds and to do this it does get more advanced in that often you will need the services of machine shops and other specialized industries outside of the computer modding crowd. However, my suggestion is that you carefully look around and decide what you really want as both lines of products will get you to the same place. :cool: :D
 
thanks for your post and comments guys...

All Cooling system use Dihydrogen Monoxide? ... that really scare me :\....

Thanks for all of your repplies.
 
simon27 said:
thanks for your post and comments guys...

All Cooling system use Dihydrogen Monoxide? ... that really scare me :\....

Thanks for all of your repplies.
Click to expand...
well, some people use various water replacements...........

my opinion is that it might be good eventually, but right now it does not work as well as water does, and is really expensive for something that reduces your performance.
 
Hey....pst....look at dhmo.org to learn how bad dihydrogen monoxide is.
Once you realize why Im laughing so much right now (not just at you, Ive tricked a lot of other people before), remember not to use dihydorgen monoxide, use distilled water instead, as distilled water isnt conductive like water (dont worry about leaks, as long as you correctly mounts your blocks & use hose clamps), as well as antifreeze in a 90% distilled/10% antifreeze mixture, and maybe add a couple drops of iodine or another algicide to make sure nothing starts growing in your loop.
 
Jeez...where the heck does this iodine stuff come from? It is not an algacide. You get algacide's at the aquarium or pond store. Use algacides in water based systems not iodine. If you want to use something around the house chlorine will do a better job.
 
ok let me break it down for you... Dihydrogen Monoxide = Hydroxil Acid = H2O = WATER!!!
 
Top Nurse said:
Jeez...where the heck does this iodine stuff come from? It is not an algacide. You get algacide's at the aquarium or pond store. Use algacides in water based systems not iodine. If you want to use something around the house chlorine will do a better job.
Click to expand...
well, yeah it will do a better job, but unless you have a pool or the like chlorine's not something that everyone has around the house.

now bleach on the other hand.............

do you have acess the thymol crystals at work, top nurse? we use it in samples in micro bio lab to protect incubating protein distillates, and i've been periodically treating my loop with that. it seems to work for me, and i was just wondering if you have tried it?

and just to break it down in case it is not yet totally clear to simon.

di = 2
hydrogen
mono = 1
oxide
two hydrogens and an oxygen.
H2O, water.
deuterium oxide is water with a specific, naturally occuring, isotope of hydrogen replacing at least one of the normal hydrogens in the water molecule.
 
ikellensbro said:
Bleach is really corrosive though, most people dont really suggest using it in loops.
Click to expand...
well, i have not gone and tried it, however bleach is basic as hell, meaning that it should make a prettey effective corrosion inhibitor.

chlorine, on the other hand, is acidic, meaning that it will corrode the crap out of most metals.
 
that's not to say that either chemical is something that anyone should be putting into their loops, though.

just use a antifreeze, or one of the other common coolant additives.
 
After looking here and there learning a litle bit more, I selected some parts... here what I selected:

Pump: Swiftech MCP650™ 12 VDC Pump
Danger Den DD12V-D4 Pump

Radiator: ThermoChill HE120.1
Black Ice Xtreme Radiator

Radiator Fan: Sunon 120mm Fan

CPU Water Block: Danger Den Copper TDX Block for Athlon64 754/939/940
Danger Den MAZE4 for Athlon64 & Opteron 754/939/940

GPU Water Block: Acetal Version MAZE4GPU

Resevoir: Noise Isolator external reservoir

Tubing: ClearFLEX 60 Tubing 1/2" ID / 5/8" OD

Non-Conductive Solution: MCT-5 Non-Conductive Solution

Fillports: Danger Den Fillport

I dont know, what to pick for a Pump, Radiator, and CPU Water Block, I don't know what of them work better... HELP WANTED, NEEDED AND WELCOMED!....

Thanks for everything you guys did! ... ;)
 
for the rad, i believe that you said that you have a 6800 video card, meaning that to cool card and CPU it would be good to have a 2-fan rad, so you can cool adequately with low noise.

i really like the thermochill 120.2, however it is a bit longer than the black ice units, meaning that it would be a very tight fit. the black ice pro would probably get you as good or better performance than the xtreme, with it's better airflow(in spite of hwlabs rating it lower). the two fan black ice pro II would also be a good low-noise option.

the sunon fans that i have tried have not lasted very long. they were quiet while they still worked, but they just died more quickly than any of my others.

it would be nice if someone would try these on a rad, though: http://www.sidewindercomputers.com/de12trbllows1.html

they just look really promising, and not too loud. delta fans also tend to last well nigh on forever.

TDX performs better than maze-4 CPU for straight watercooling.

distilled water and zerex makes a better performing, non-conductive solution.
 
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