mark_h

Has anyone had any experience with water cooling on PCs? I'm going to build a new PC soon and have thought about this - is it easy to do, and is it a lot quieter than normal fans?

J1nxy

Its easy(ish) to do and yes it can make the machine quieter. Espically if you do the VGA and northbridge as well. The new zalman radiator thingy is vey good but pretty expensive. I;ve used the asetek Waterchill kits and have found them very good.

Steve

mark_h

Thanks, I'll check those out. The kit my usual PC component supplier has is from Thermaltake.

Gymbal

I've used Innovatek for about 18 months. Did get from over-clockers.co.uk, but they don't stock them any more

Great fun but RTFM! very quiet.Aagree about VGA silencing but could move upto once have confidence.

Get the better tubing so that there are no kinks.

Zalman looks great and for the kit not too expensive. If you want to go water cooled.....

Will do next time I (re)build

mark_h

The PC stays on 24/7 but with 7 fans in it things get a bit noisy I'm looking at water cooling for noise reduction rather than overclocking, although extra performance would always be welcome.

J1nxy

Then the zalman thing is what you want but it is very expensive for a water cooling kit...

http://www.quietpc.com/uk/watercooling.php

You would also still need to put a couple of fans in the PC but could voltage control these down to about 7v which for most decent fans is almost silent.

Steve

mark_h

£165 Bit more expensive than a couple of fans then. Thanks

Simon C

I have been looking at water cooling this pc so will keep watching this thread with keen intrest. As this pc is only a 1800 XP athlon the performance side aint an issue but noise is.

Looking at changing all the 80 mm case fans to 120mm and running a fan monitoring system as a comprimize as this PC isn't very overclockable and save water for the next 1.

Gymbal

Why not try it with this one and see how quiet you can get it (I use a 1900XP for now).If you change processor or gfx you buy a new block or not in the case of the gfx.

All else stays?

I use a Lian Li 70 but only use one 12 cm on the front and the psu drawing out the top. The new v2100 with 12 cm fans would be perfect for bolting the radiator direct onto. I see innovatek now have a rad that looks like the Zalman (though not as good?)

TBH my loudest components are now the old hard drives! Which I cant be bothered to get rid yet.

JayPSC

Don't buy a watercooling kit whatever you do, buy the parts seperate, you'll get a better system at lower cost. I recommend the RBX or TDX blocks http://www.dangerden.com/

Mail this guy about a system, really knows his stuff & very friendly - http://www.watercoolingshop.com/catalog/

Jay

J1nxy

I dont agree. The new Asetek kits with the new CPU block are as good as the pieces you buy seperatly, for instance it has a black ice pro radiator. The kits take away all the hassle of making sure you get all the right diameter tubes etc and all the right fittings. The asetek kit can be installed very easily, espically if you have a 120mm case fan available.

Steve

mark_h

The problem with buying the parts separately is I haven't got a fecking clue what I'm doing

farmer1

Mind sound a bit stupid as I haven't got a clue about water cooling. But couldn't the radiator (attractive one) be housed outside of the case so there is no need for a case fan?

mark_h

You still need some airflow through the case to keep everything else cool. The CPU kicks out the most heat, then the graphics and northbridge chips. Even if you water cool all three of those, the RAM will still get quite warm. And the hard disks too, although I've seen water-cooling kits for them too.