Hey everyone, so I want to get a liquid cooling set up going soon. Just a few questions.

I would be looking into a cheaper LC kit such as
Thermaltake Big Water SE Liquid Cooling System CL-W0005-01 in Canada at TigerDirect.ca at TigerDirect.ca[/url]
this cooler seems to have gotten alot of good reviews.


I currently have a Zalman 9500c CPU cooler, would I see enough of a cooling increase to make this worth my money ? or would i be better off to just save my self the trouble ? i have heard both.

What kind of system do you have? What Processor, video cards etc and so forth.
I know that some of the new Core2 Duos run cool enough on air....
We need some more info.

You really do need to provide more info, but I'll post a note: 9500s aren't that great of coolers, the Big Typhoon is far better, though not nearly the best, at air cooling.

how often do the WC coolant last? I'm curious because i'm also interested in that same WC system.

I always thought that the WC system needs an external A/C adapter to power up, but i guess that's why i'm a noob lols =]

CPU- LGA775 p4 3.0 @ 3.75Ghz
Video - BFG 7800GT OC
ram- Corsair XMS2
mobo- Asus P5ND2



Mikey, the maintnece is really low on LC systems acualy, i have done some research my self. usualy you check every 6-12 months on the level of fluid, it may or maynot needed to be toped off....thats pretty much it.


plz correct me if i am wrong.

Now a days air cooling can perform as well as most liquid kits. If you want
to go liquid then your best off spending a few dollar's and getting a Danger
Den or Swiftech setup. They'll out perform air and your money won't be
wasted on a maybe product. If your gonna do it, do it right the 1st time :-)

If you're going the WC route purely because you want to tell people "my PC is watercooled " then fair enough, that ThermalTake kit will allow you to say that.

However, if you are looking for overclocking performance and great cooling then you're better off with a high end heatsink and some good case airflow. Slap a Noctua NH-U12 with a high CFM fan on your proc and it'll out perform that WC loop in terms of cooling ability when loaded and/or overclocked.

I have a Noctua NH-U9 with a low CFM fan and it cools my 2.8Ghz Opty to a few degrees less than my old Alphacool WC setup... its less hassle, it looks damn good and makes maintenance on my rig a lot easier.

I did briefly have one of those ThermalTake kits, but the waterblock was leaking so I parted it out on eBay and actually made some money back lol... but I digress... please provide some more info on what exactly you want out of this upgrade...

EDIT: Slaymate beat me to the 'high end HSF Vs. WC' argument... but he's right...

As the others have said, the problem with cheapo water cooling kits is that they tend to be only as good as, or worse than, a decent HSF (e.g. Arctic Cooling Freezer or TT Big Typhoon). The recent advantages in HSF technology now mean that you have to spend quite a lot in order to get a decent kit.

Additionally, the cheap kits aren't usually expandable. And when you factor into this the fact that you'll have water running about live electronics, the benefits have to be worth it. Check out this review of the Big Water kit...

Quote: Originally Posted by Andrew 'Spode' Miller, Custom PC magazine At only £59.96, the Thermaltake BigWater is the cheapest water-cooling kit on test . Unfortunately for Thermaltake, you can tell. The CPU waterblock is fitted using a generic mounting mechanism that makes it compatible with almost all CPUs. It consists of a metal plate with an array of holes drilled in it. Bolts are passed through these holes and the motherboard to another similar plate on the back of the motherboard. So, for example, to mount it on an LGA775 processor, you have to hand-thread four nuts into position. Using a spanner isn't really an option on most motherboards, so perhaps Thermaltake should think about supplying wing nuts instead, in order to make the mounting process easier. The radiator is cooled by a 120mm fan and quickly fits onto the case using four threaded screws. A variable resistor for easy modification of speed attaches to the fan. At full voltage, it's quite noisy, although it's extremely quiet at its lowest setting. The biggest disappointment is the pump and reservoir, which resemble the sort of cheap and tacky plastic toys found in Christmas crackers. The plastic is very thin and breaks very easily. The pump is also very small, and for some reason its input and output connections have an additional section of extremely flimsy clear tubing that has a tendency to kink and stop the flow of coolant. This means that you have to be extremely careful when installing the pump, and avoid knocking your PC. However, despite the poor build quality of the individual components, the Thermaltake is actually pretty effective. It cooled the Pentium 4e to between 5ûC and 13ûC below the reference Intel HSF, depending on the fan speed. On the Athlon 64, it cooled to between 12ûC and 16ûC below the reference AMD HSF. These temperatures compare favourably with the similarly priced Cool River and Cooler Master kits, but the Cool River has three waterblocks and a much better mounting mechanism. We also have major reservations about the Thermaltake's build quality, in particular the kinky tubes, and the awkward waterblock mounting mechanism.

It doesn't sound too great an option to me.

Basicly im trying to get rid of noise, i have my processor overclocked from 3.0 to 3.75Ghz with my Zalman 9500 and its stable as anything.

I also have my videocard overclocked nicely too 475/1100 and it is stable,

I guess if i could see some more Mhz that would be nice, altho my main goal is the noise factor.

I am kind of tight on cash atm, DangerDen kits are alot of $$, i will look around tho.

if you are going to get a water cooling kit. the thermaltake bigwater kit one step above the one you linked is inexpensive, and its external 240mm radiator is and can be annoying to mount, but having 360mm combined radiator surface area and 3 120mm fans is hard to beat for 150 bucks.

edit whoa the Canadian price is through the roof. an extra 75 bucks.... might be cheaper to buy it elsewhere and ship to canada.

heres the kit on the site you used
Thermaltake Big Water 745 Liquid Cooling System CL-W0076 in Canada at TigerDirect.ca

on new egg its.
Thermaltake Bigwater 745 120mm x3 Liquid System - Retail at Newegg.com

another thermaltake beginner w/c kit thats not bad price wise and has decent preformance.
Thermaltake CL-W0020 12cm UV fan Blue LED Light Tribe Radiator External CPU Liquid Cooling - Retail at Newegg.com


any kit you buy that comes with a water block for the video card sub 200 bucks is either a great deal used, or a unit not designed for serious cooling/overclocking.

edit FRED G is selling a danger den setup thats serious cooling , but may need to be custom modified to fit your 775 setup. do a bit of research and hes got a vga block as well.

http://forums.pcapex.com/trading_pos..._for_sale.html


I highly recommend getting a noctua or other large air cooler if your going for sheer preformance unless your willing to spend over 150 bucks on w/c gear.

Sweet, thanks for the info guys,

Yeah i can swing Thermaltake Big Water 745 Liquid Cooling System CL-W0076 in Canada at TigerDirect.ca

but im sure it use's the same pump and tank from the modle below that, and i have heard negitive things about them. ie. kinking of the hose cutting off liquid flow.

And aslong as i get a VGA cooler that has 3/8 fittings it will work correct ? if i were to use the Thermaltake Bigwater 745.

If it says thermaltake and involves water cooling I would avoid it like the plague.

How much are you looking to spend? It's not too tough to piece together a great setup, for a little more then a thermaltake.

Go with qualty DangerDen. IF you dont go with them go with Swiftech. If you do go with them dont water cool.

Danger Den :: Water Cooling Kits :: Configured Kits and Specials :: NVIDIA Recommended Kit

As specialblend and cpt planet said, dont go thrermaltake, they just shouldnt be in the WC business.

First things first WC is not expensive, it can be if you go all out, but aftermarket used DD blocks are just as good as new ones. Lots of people sell there DD blocks, you just have to find them.

As for 3/8 tubing, its alright, and if you going to continue to go with WC, i have enough tubing (blue UV) and white plastic clamps for a system if you want them, just pm me for details. For pumps looking at the internal pumps is nice but for a price, say you go with a aquarium pump, that does run off A/C, modding a wire through the PCI slots isn't hard, and that way you pumps always runs. Another note, you don't need a res, although its not easy to work without one, and relive lots of stress when you get one, there unnecessary. A radiator can be cheap too, i've sen them as low as 29.99 for a single 120mm rad, which cools my X2 3800+ just fine, bigger is better in this case, but 120mm rad is just perfect for a cheap good WC loop.

I would be looking to spend around 200-300 dollars CDN funds.

now that i look the DangerDen kits aer only 50-100 dollars more then what i was looking at. when i get home from school im asking my mom for her visa i hope to get the DD Nvidia kit

thanks for the help everyone!

and just a question, i see some other DD kits that are really cheap such as the MAZE4 kit and the MAZE4 pro kit. Are these kits as good as the Nivida tested kit all i can see is that they use different radiators.

I put my WCing to bed a couple months ago to start the HSF testing and haven't looked back since. At this point in the game, the extra expense and hassle simply isn't justified...even for silent cooling (IMHO).

If you'll post some links to the kits it would keep us from guessing.

Quote: Originally Posted by lAnonymousl I put my WCing to bed a couple months ago to start the HSF testing and haven't looked back since. At this point in the game, the extra expense and hassle simply isn't justified...even for silent cooling (IMHO).

HSFs are getting better and better nowadays. Water has an edge with high heat dual core CPUs for sure.

Im going to say stay with Dangerden.. Like slaymate and cpt said.. GO big or GO HOME!!!




Dont waste your money on cheap watercooling that a stock heatsink will beat!! LOL...




GO BIG OR GO HOME!!



Matt

Noctua for air cooling is my suggestion, If your gonna go water for noise reduction and cooling go big or go home. As anonymous said the extra hassle and worry isn't worth it with water for performance. Personally i went big for a school project and i'm happy Swiftech and DD equipment all around and soon to add a PA 120.3 radiator with quieter fans.