Advice on my WC choices.

O

Obmas

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jul 2, 2001
Messages
353
I haven't built a water cooled system in years (I have a nice dangerden kit on an old 427 p4) but it seems like there is only one new big name which is Aqua Computers. I like what sharka has to offer as for as AC parts go and they seem real solid but I'll list the system I'm building first.

ASUS M2NPV-VM
AMD Athlon 64 3800+ Orleans
Patriot 2GB (2 x 1GB) Unbuffered DDR2 1000
Zippy psl-6701p

It's going to be doing lots of number crunching like video compression, on the fly encryption, and database stuff. So no fancy vid card needed already got a game box for that. I want too cool the ram and HDs as well as the cpu but I'm not sure on the parts needed for the north and south bridge yet. Overclocking is a given and stability is crucial.

As far as AC goes I really like the Aqua Computer XT Kit that sharka offers but I would have to buy everything separate since I need extra things like the ram, hd,bridge coolers, and a larger rad.

Then there is the plug and play ease of the Koolance Exos-2 which makes it quite appealing.

SwiftTech has the H20-220-T series of thermoelectric liquid cooling kits but they seem to have a bad rep on here and look pretty shoddy as well (always did for me).

Then there is the Cool It Freezone CPU Cooler which seems pretty decent from the reviews which is the most simple solution but I give up the ability to cool anything other then the cpu.

Ideally I'd like to go all AC but use the SwiftTech MCW5002-T for that little bit extra but I'm not sure if they are compatible and I'm unsure about how I would go about the relay for the extra psu the pelt would need but I can follow directions of an online tut for that.

I haven't picked a case yet but it will be in a back room and never see the light of day (nothing fancy needed practicality is key) and since I haven't fully decided on the setup I'm looking for advice and recommendations in all areas. I haven't bought anything yet except I already had the zippy psu lying around. I just need some help making up my mind and choosing the direction I'll be headed in since I've found myself at this crossroad. I trust the forum's experiences and any help is greatly appreciated and please excuse any noobish indiscretions I'm unaware of.
 
Obmas said:
I haven't built a water cooled system in years (I have a nice dangerden kit on an old 427 p4) but it seems like there is only one new big name which is Aqua Computers. I like what sharka has to offer as for as AC parts go and they seem real solid but I'll list the system I'm building first.

ASUS M2NPV-VM
AMD Athlon 64 3800+ Orleans
Patriot 2GB (2 x 1GB) Unbuffered DDR2 1000
Zippy psl-6701p

It's going to be doing lots of number crunching like video compression, on the fly encryption, and database stuff. So no fancy vid card needed already got a game box for that. I want too cool the ram and HDs as well as the cpu but I'm not sure on the parts needed for the north and south bridge yet. Overclocking is a given and stability is crucial.

As far as AC goes I really like the Aqua Computer XT Kit that sharka offers but I would have to buy everything separate since I need extra things like the ram, hd,bridge coolers, and a larger rad.

Then there is the plug and play ease of the Koolance Exos-2 which makes it quite appealing.

SwiftTech has the H20-220-T series of thermoelectric liquid cooling kits but they seem to have a bad rep on here and look pretty shoddy as well (always did for me).

Then there is the Cool It Freezone CPU Cooler which seems pretty decent from the reviews which is the most simple solution but I give up the ability to cool anything other then the cpu.

Ideally I'd like to go all AC but use the SwiftTech MCW5002-T for that little bit extra but I'm not sure if they are compatible and I'm unsure about how I would go about the relay for the extra psu the pelt would need but I can follow directions of an online tut for that.

I haven't picked a case yet but it will be in a back room and never see the light of day (nothing fancy needed practicality is key) and since I haven't fully decided on the setup I'm looking for advice and recommendations in all areas. I haven't bought anything yet except I already had the zippy psu lying around. I just need some help making up my mind and choosing the direction I'll be headed in since I've found myself at this crossroad. I trust the forum's experiences and any help is greatly appreciated and please excuse any noobish indiscretions I'm unaware of.
Click to expand...


You obviously haven't looked very hard. There's AC, Swiftech, Danger Den, Asetek, Etc, Etc.

AC may be making noise as of late but that doesn't make them the next coming.
 
Try the Alphacool set, which is on sale. Look in Hot Deals.

The AC kit radiator is crap.
 
Ok, I didn't get the repsonse I was hoping for. The swifttech waterblock with the pelt is sold out everywhere anyway. I was hoping for at least a radiator recoomendation oh well. I'll keep reading and just make a choice.
 
I would recommend the Swiftech Storm rev2 or the AquaXtreme MP-05 SP LE CPU Waterblock, the DD Maze4GPU Acetal top, D5 or DDC-R2 12v Pump, 1/2"id Tygon or 7/16" Masterkleer tubing and a PA120.2 (2 fan) or 120.3 (3 fan) rad.
 
For the money you're thinking of wasting on RAM, Chipset and Hard Drive blocks (especially of the AquaComputer type) you could seriously upgrade the machine.

Get a Swiffy or DangerDen kit. They include pretty much the best gear and you get a good price.
 
Obmas said:
Overclocking is a given and stability is crucial.
Click to expand...
If stability is crucial then you spend the money on server-grade components and don't overclock.
 
It's just a home server and I just don't want it crashing in the middle of a 12hr operation. And as far as wasting money, if I'm ocing wouldn't I need better memory to keep up with the overclock instead of ramsinks? That seems more expensive to me.

Everything I initially wanted was either too much or sold out so that limited my choices substantially. The PA120.3 is sold out everywhere I looked but Dangerden has everything I need (Black Ice XtremeIII vs the PA120.3) but I have one question about the direction I want to go.

The maze4-1 allows me to use a pelt so I want to go that direction instead of the tdx. I'd like to have a chipset cooler as well but I don't know if any of the dangerden ones fit. I know the koolance CHC-A05 will work though.

So, at this point; pelt or no pelt? And what can I use on the mobo's chipset? I'd rather not have to use adapters to make the koolance one work if there is one that will just plug right in. I could skip the chipset for now and add it later but I kind of wanted to buy and install all at once.

Thanks again, the last posts were very helpful to me.
 
If you're going to use a pelt then it needs its own loop or you need another radiator right after it. There goes yet more of that reliability you claim to want ...
 
If you go with a pelt you'll need the BIPIII for a rad and an outboard power supply dedicated to powering the pelt. Don't forget that the pelt can cause condensation so you'll need to insulate it and the socket area around it, that's very important and requires great attention to detail.

As for chipset, you could likely use the Maze 4 chipset block for Intel loop style chipsets. Sounds odd but ASUS went with loops on that board for some reason.

As to needing to run a separate loop, nope, as long as you've got the ability to shed more heat than you put into the loop you're fine. The BIPIII should handle the pelt, chipset and GPU block with relative ease. It might not be a bad idea to get or make a temp diode and monitor for the water temp so that you can fine tune your fan speeds to stop the coolant from getting too warm but you should be fine.
 
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