Watercooling

[DasReich]

Hiya...

 

Well, as the title indicates, Im looking to maybe go watercooled, but Im a bit nervous about which system to go for...

 

I know a few of you already have watercooled systems so Im hoping you may be able to help here...which systems are worth looking at and which not to..

 

The one Im mainly looking at at the moment is the Zalman Reserator1 V2, which is fanless and will be noise free, where as the Thermaltake Symphony CL-W0040 has 5x 120 fans which I reckon will make a hell of a noise, am I correct?

 

Theres so many types to look at your advice will be appreciated...

 

Another issue is the bios checking for fans, I know this can be corrected, but I dont like messing with bios settings, all Ive ever done with the bios is flashed it which is easy, is this easy enough to sort out? Mobo is Asus A8n32sli deluxe.

 

Your help on this will be gratefully appreciated...

[lfcrule1972]

I think Corny has a watercooled system

[DasReich]

I thought his was cooled by cellery?

[lfcrule1972]

Nah it used to be but then he upgraded to wombat cooling before upgrading again to Water cooled

[Shamus_McFartfinger]

where as the Thermaltake Symphony CL-W0040 has 5x 120 fans which I reckon will make a hell of a noise, am I correct?

It depends. I don't have the room in my cases for water cooling. The space they use is better used for drives...... which brings me to my point. A decent case will allow you to use 5 1/4" fans instead of the 3 1/2" variety. Because the fans are larger, they can spin alot more slowly to draw the same volume of air as a high-speed 3 1/2" fan and slower means quieter. The Coolermaster case thingy I have has 4 x 5 1/2" fans in it and I can't hear them.

[Jill]

The Coolermaster case thingy I have has 4 x 5 1/2" fans in it and I can't hear them.

 

Again there's that technically jargon

 

Corny is a little indisposed at the moment fighting with a Raid0 4 disc array but will return very shortly and yes he does have a watercooled system so @ Dave if you wait until he's back online he can answer your questions

Edited January 27, 2007 by Jill

[DasReich]

At the moment Ive got 2 120mm fans and 1 110mm fan. The 110 fan is a Zalman 'thingy' with enormous heatsink and fins which is a direct cpu cooler.

 

This setup does keep things relatively cool, but I have noted some quite high temps when I o'clocked by 10% and running some video apps.

 

 

The external watercooling Im looking at are like my home cinema speakers, they stand about 800mm - 1m high. The Reserator is fanless and the Thermaltake depending on which model has 3 or 5 120mm fans. Noise isnt a major issue, just dont want it to sound like concorde is trying to take off in my hallway....

[polopony]

Coolermaster make some great cases I have a 11 external bay case ,full tower ,aluminum, plenty of fans

www.xoxide.com/stacker.html

[cornholio7]

hi dave , i use thermaltake's big water system , theres only 1x 12cm fan which you can regulate on the radiator and my cpu temp is around 22c, i also have my gpu watercooled .

[Shamus_McFartfinger]

Coolermaster make some great cases I have a 11 external bay case ,full tower ,aluminum, plenty of fans

www.xoxide.com/stacker.html

That's my case, too. Good choice, Polo!

[polopony]

I'd rather go with fans myself I'm too paranoid about water and mobos ,drives ,cpu's and everything else inside a case the 2 dont mix well

Having a fan on the top greatly reduces the heat buildup as the heat rises I also like full towers because of the room

 

Shamus its a sweet case I'm modding it a little mostly re routing power lines for an uncluttered look maybe one day I'll actually finish it

[dbminter]

Nah it used to be but then he upgraded to wombat cooling before upgrading again to Water cooled

 

 

Wait, wait, wait. I thought his was powered BY a wombat running in a wheel generating electricity. And that the system was cooled by water wings, with tiny celery stalks growing out of the heat sink to redirect warm air away from the CPU.

[DasReich]

"tiny celery stalks growing out of the heat sink to redirect warm air away from the CPU."

 

Now thats more like what I was looking for.... Eco friendly as well...

[DasReich]

hi dave , i use thermaltake's big water system , theres only 1x 12cm fan which you can regulate on the radiator and my cpu temp is around 22c, i also have my gpu watercooled .

 

As size in my case isnt an issue, I have a Shark tower, I did consider the Bigwater system and very nearly went ahead and bought one, but on looking at the external systems, they seemed to be a safer and easier route to go. Problem is you cant exactly see whats what unless you know someone whos got one...

 

http://www.thermaltake.com/product/Liguid/...40/cl-w0040.asp

 

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct....rodid=WC-007-ZA

 

These were what Im looking at apart from the bigwater system.

What about the bios fan checking Corny? easy enough to deal with?

 

Dave.

[cornholio7]

i have my radiator outside the case , the fan is connected to the hardcano and controlled by it so i dont control it with the bios, the 3 sensors in the case monitor the temp and there is an alarm in the hardcano too.

[DasReich]

Ok, m8, thanks for that..

[Kord]

techPowerUp! has a handy "review database", which you might useful. I only discovered it last week, and it's already my first port of call for hardware info.

 

The Corsair Nautilus 500 has been around for almost 12 months, and has had fairly favourable reviews. From the reviews, it's not going to be as quiet as the Zalman... especially if you do any overclocking. The upside is you get a reasonable quality kit for around ?100.

 

I've always been tempted to try something like this DIY job, though

[Jerseyguy]

my one and only water cooled rig is one of these.here .but i don't remember paying those prices about 4 years ago.

temps always between 19c and 20c idle and 23c to 26c playing games.