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Best liquid cooling solution under $150?

D

Dew itt right

2[H]4U
Joined
Oct 28, 2005
Messages
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I'm definitly a noob to liquid cooling and am looking for a nudge in the right direction. I'm hoping to get a liquid cooling system in the near future for my AMD 64 3400+ and ATI AIW 9800 Pro in my Thermaltake Tsunami case. I'm probably leaning towards an external system like the Kingwin Aquastar or the Cooler Master Aquagate because I'm not sure how securely the internal systems will install into the drive rails in the 5.25" bays. I'd also like one that will monitor the CPU and GPU temps. I don't OC very often and am mostly interestd in liquid cooling for the acoustic benefits (plus it just looks figgin' sweet!). I'm hoping to stay under or around $150 to retain the current domestic tranquility. Any suggestions or preferences?
 
stay with air cooling until you can afford something decent.

anything that works well in that price range is total do it yourself, and requires a good bit of work to put together.

the liquid cooling units that you are looking at perform worse than top quality air cooling, noise per noise.

if you are handy, then you can put together custom that does pretty well for around that price. once again: no kits.
 
I was able to get the Thermalake BigWater SE for $101...mainly because my wife happens to be an HR Manager for CompUSA, so it knocked off at least $60. I installed it yesterday and so far its working pretty good, keeping the cpu to between 43c and 45c. I will be attaching another fan to the radiator to see if it helps get the coolant a little cooler
 
Yeah thermaltake big water is better option. Let us know what the results are after installing another fan on the radiator.

But keep in mind that XP-90 or SI-120 or thermaltake big typhoon will give you same results also.
 
since I have a smaller case, I had to put the radiator on the outside with the fan attached, but according to the directions, it had me take the fan off and turn it around so that it would be blowing away from the case.

I dont know how well that works but it doesnt seem to be working as good as it could. But I will be posting results hopefully later tonight
 
swiftech mcw6000 : 35$
Aquarium pump (eheim, hydor, or danner mag): 40-50$
BIP 2 : 35$
Shipping, tubing, clamps, t-line, other misc : 40$

total 150$

That would be my recommendation if you want a GOOD watercooling setup on the cheap.
 
How quiet is the BigWater setup? The pumps are what I'm really concerned about. Do they all give out the humming you hear from aquariums or are they as quiet as the retailers suggest?
 
I thought I did give you a specific block and radiator?

As for the pump get whichever you can find a deal on. Eheim 1046/1048/1250, Hydor L20 L30 etc.. Danner Mag 3 (careful this pump has leak problems).
 
For the bigwater, I can hear the pump going when I have the side of my case off. Other then that, I hear the fan on the outside of the case, mainly cause I leave it on high, and other fans and the hard drives in my case

What I can tell you is that it is considerably quieter then the CPU fan that I had in there before
 
Erasmus354 said:
swiftech mcw6000 : 35$
Aquarium pump (eheim, hydor, or danner mag): 40-50$
BIP 2 : 35$
Shipping, tubing, clamps, t-line, other misc : 40$

total 150$
Click to expand...

Can you run a cooling system without a reservoir? Also, what is "BIP 2"? I've searched for it in several places and can't quite figure out what it is. I'm guessing from you previous post that it's a radiator.
 
Dew itt right said:
Can you run a cooling system without a reservoir? Also, what is "BIP 2"? I've searched for it in several places and can't quite figure out what it is. I'm guessing from you previous post that it's a radiator.
Click to expand...

Yes, you can run a system without a reservoir by using a T-Line.

BIP2 = Black Ice Pro II
 
IMO, a T-line, is better because you can just top it off whenever it gets low. I don't have WC, but my friend does, and he says it's much easier than a reservoir. A resvervoir might be easier for some people though.
 
I'm assuming a "T-line" is just a tee or wye fitting inline that has a third line that's capped? I'm reading elsewhere that this requires more frequent refilling and must (obviously) be inserted at the highest elevation of the cooling loop? Does this solution produce less cooling since the amount of coolant in the system is significantly lower and you're cycling the same water more frequently?
 
#1. The 150 configuration above didn't take into account of fan costs.
#2. T line doesn't have to be top of loop. In fact, I prefer keeping it at bottom of loop with my pump. It should be right in front of inlet of pump though to make it feasable for filling.
#3. T line actually gives you better temp by marginal amount vs reservoir. This is due to less amount of standing water pump has to pull. Filling and bleeding out air from system actually takes longer though.
#4. Pump recommended would be eheim 1048 for noise or MCP350 or new MCP655 or what not. They are quietest of bunch and have good quality components. MCP series are 12vdc pumps that are more suitable for our use and cost more but can be found in FS section quite often.
 
There is zero differance in performance between a "T" and res. I've never seen any numbers to back-up this claim what so ever and I've used both types over the years on several different types of systems. They both work fine, a "T" line is just cheaper............... :eek:
 
Do they sell kits for the T-line, clamps, tubing and what not, or do you buy them seperately? Any good sites to buy WC components from?
 
You'll need to buy the parts seperately, not a big deal though............. :eek: If you wanted a res and want it cheap, you could always make one yourself. If you look around construction sites, you can get the PVC parts for nothing............. :D

DSC00778.JPG


DSC00780.JPG
 
for the T-line and hose clamps the local hardware store is a good bet.

for the pump, check what you can get at aquarium stores in your area. having used a larger danner mag pump, i can easily see how someone could crack the impeller housing over-tigening the barb into the pump inlet, and cause a leak that way, however i have thus-far avoided doing so myself. also you should probably not take the pump apart, because the o-ring that seals around the edge of the impeller housing is kind of hard to get into place. those pumps are quiet, so long as you make sure to mount them with someting soft underneath.

i use a store from this chain's canadian opperation: http://www.bigalsonline.com/catalog/parent_category.xml?category_id=2181;pcid1=

you can have a quiet system with good performance buying individual parts of this sort, better than air cooling and better than the kits that you were looking at, for at least close to what you are budgeting for.
 
Check the forums and Ebay. My system, when it's done, will have cost me about $200

-DD D4 Pump: $50
-SilverProp GPU Block: $50
-PolarFlo TT CPU Block: Trade, about $40
-Heatercore: $35
-Tubing etc: $20
-Polarflo TT Delrin GPU/NB block: $30

...and it'll perform quite well, thank you very much. You can do even better since you can

a) get a cheaper VGA block instead of a nice one and a cheap one, like I did :D
b) Not pay for everything shipped to Canada :mad:
 
If you don't have the confidence to built it yourself, and since you are not overclocking ( :confused: ), I do not think water is for you. Stick with air, and get a cpu cooler with a big, low rpm fan. Will be rathe quiet.
 
Wow, I missed the "not going to overclock" bit. If you're going to do that, then any of the cheap-o $100 kits will do you just fine. Kingwin, Evercool, whatever. The internal ones are fine, they're all designed to fit in 5.25" bays, no matter which case you have.
 
Since you don't have terrifically hot components/don't want to OC that much and want to water cool mainly for quiet, you might be better off with some good gpu and cpu heatsinks with quiet fans. If you replace or lower the voltage on your Tsunami's current fans and get a good cpu heatsink (Scythe Katana) and gpu (Zalman vf-700/Thermalright V-1) with quiet fans, you can probably stay pretty quiet with plenty decent temps.

If you do want to get water cooling, you're going to need to save up a couple more bucks or shop used if you want to cool your cpu and gpu for $150. If you're only looking to cool your cpu, Erasmus' suggestions are pretty good, try for a Swiftech 6002 (1/2" barbs like the rest of your components as well, unless you want a 3/8" loop) and if you're spending $40-$50 on an aquarium pump, you might as well get a CSP-Mag for $50 to get a 12vdc pump that'll run off of a molex instead of a 120vAC aquairum pump you'll either need to remember to plug in/unplug everytime you turn your computer on and off, or wire a relay for it.
Erasmus included $40 in his list to include " Shipping, tubing, clamps, t-line, other misc" which can easily include 2 $10 fans.
 
I'd say forget w/c all together and get yourself an XP or SI 120 and call it a day.

You can stick a nice 120mm fan on it and have excellent temps and an extremely quite system.
 
Holy crap! I go out for the evening and come back to the forum to find out I'm an idiot! :confused: For real now, I dabble loosly in OC'ing for curiosity's sake. All I really meant was that I'm not a speed freak squeezing every fps out of my GPU/CPU/RAM. With my current setup, I've played Doom 3 on the next to highest quality setting at a decent resolution with no OC'ing and no skipping or performance constipation. So I've really had no purpose to OC yet other than testing it out on 3dMark. However, I want to be able to get a decent overclock when I need to and I want a quiet PC while I'm doing it. To be honest, I'd MUCH rather build my own WC system. It's alot more fun that way and you learn much more, I just thought that buying the components separately would end up costing more! I really appriciate everyone's help, especially Erasmus354. I've already started price-checking the components you suggested. As puney as my PC may be next to some of your monster systems, I just simply haven't needed to fully dive into OC'ing just yet.
 
just got a complete system, minus vga block tonight from a hardforum member for 137.00 including hose and all fittings etc

cpu block - Copper TDX Block for Athlon64 754/939/940

http://www.dangerdenstore.com/product.php?productid=17&cat=21&page=1

Pump - Eheim 1250 with relay to turn on when pc turns on

http://www.dangerdenstore.com/product.php?productid=38&cat=26&page=1

Radiator - Double Heater Core with Fittings (with 2 120mm quiet fans)

http://www.dangerdenstore.com/product.php?productid=48&cat=14&page=1

Reservoir - Danger Den Single 5 1/4" Bay Reservoir

http://www.dangerdenstore.com/product.php?productid=52&cat=27&page=1


If you shop around you can get decent stuff for good prices..
 
Danger Den maze4 a64 block is only $36 (sweet clear lucite top too)
Black ice pro radiators are gettin freaking cheap:
-Black ice pro (1x120mm)Dual pass or new single pass: ~$30
-Black ice pro 2 (2x120mm): $35
Hydor pumps are pretty cheap too but DD are out of stock. If you google you can find L30s for $38.
DD makes a real slick T line fill port too for like $12 that can be mounted (modded) to the top of the case, but many just go cheap/free and use a capping barb or odd things like a marble or fat bolt stuffed in the tube to cap off the T.

The nice thing about this is that all these parts can come ready for 1/2" tubing with no extra cost.

Going cheapest thats about $104 but excluding shipping, gpu block, and other important bits like tubing (cheap at hardware store anyway), fans, clamps and T fitting or reservoir. .

As far as the "problem" of frequent T line filling, one should frequently inspect his WC loop to make sure nothing is failing anyway. Might aswell top it off while your at it.
 
Pherret said:
Danger Den maze4 a64 block is only $36 (sweet clear lucite top too)
Click to expand...
i'm largely in agreement with what you have said, however you can get the swiftech MCW6002 for about the same price, and it performs one hell of a lot better.
 
hmm i got my danger den setup for $115.... it's in sig...only does CPU..but meh...thats all i was aiming for at the moment..
 
What do you think about the Thermaltake CL-W0005-01 BigWater SE system? Comes with everything I'd need except for a VGA block and I can get the matching TT VGA block at newegg for $35 shipped. The best part is that the rest of the system is available at http://www.bestbyteinc.com/prodinfo.asp?number=LCK-TTA-W051 for a mere $108! The whole shebang would only cost me $153 shipped! Nice and quiet too. My only concern is that the pump is rated at 90L/hr, is this for real?! That's only around 24 GPH! Would it be profitable to buy the system, sell the pump while it's still new, and buy a better pump?
 
seriously, listen to these guys about the cheap w/c kits, they arent worth it. you'd have a hard time selling the pump to anyone, and all fo th DIY setups are about teh same cost so far and would work hella better.
 
The Tt Bigwater kit is a waste of money... doesn't perform any better than a quality heatsink.
 
Okay, how about this setup:
Black Ice Pro II for $37 (sidewindercomputers.com)
or Black Ice Pro III for $45 (dangerdenstore.com)
Swiftech MCW5000-64 CPU block for $28 (bestbyteinc.com)
Swiftech MCW50-03 GPU block for $28 (bestbyteinc.com)
Eheim 1048 for $57 (petsmart.com)
Prices don't include shipping, coolant, tubing, fittings, etc. but at least it's not one of those "cheap W/C kits", right?


Also, the rest of the components recommend 1/2" OD tubing but the BIP2 radiator just emphasizes it's 1/2" ID barbs? Will I need additional fittings for this connection?
 
the CPU block and GPU block you inlcuded have the nasty problem of including alumnum in them. spend a bout 25 bux more on the CPU block and get the swiffy mcw6002 (http://www.svc.com/mcw6002-64-28.html) and the mcw55 (http://www.svc.com/mcw55.html) for the gpu, then you wont have that problem.

as far as the BIP3, you dont need that much radiator, let alone having room to put it anywhere. the BIP2 will do just fine for you. And the size on the barbs refers to the size of tubing they fit (IE 1/2" barbs fit 1/2" ID tubing).

seriously, if you spend a bit more now, you will be 50x happier after having the system for a week.
 
regarding Al and Cu in the same loop.......it's a lousy proposition, however distilled water, swiftech's anti-corrosive additive, and the thick anodized coating on the Al sould keep things safe.

keep in mind that all of the pretty AC gear uses Al and Cu in the same loop, and avoids corrosion decently well with the anodized coating and additive that they provide.

i would say that moving up to a 6002 CPU block should be somewhat higher priority than upgrading the GPU block. just take care with how you set things up.

the black ice pro II is plenty of cooling, although that strikes me as a mighty good deal on the pro III.......you don't need a triple rad unless you are planning on running super-quiet fans like yate loons on a controller.
 
That setup looks like it will do much better than the boxed kits. Nice work :cool:

CoolTechnica has the same price on the BIPIII rad, not sure if their shipping/customer service might be better, but just to let you know...

OT:

That is an excellent price on the BIPIII. This gets me thinking...has there ever been a real comparison between one of them and your good 'ole Bonneville heatercore? Would it only make a difference in systems that generate 500W of heat, or would it improve temps in any system? Is it actually worth the ~50% premium?

/OT
 
Even though it is a bit more than $150, here is a decent kit: http://www.dtekcustoms.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=102&HS=1.

The only thing I don't like is the single 120mm heater core. I firmly believe that if you are going to w/c, you should at least get a dual 120mm heater core (or equivalent).

Now, there are exceptions (SFF, for example) but yeah, don't skimp out if you decide to watercool.

Your best bet is to shop around and get good deals on the individual components, or buy a setup from someone else in the FS/FT thread.
 
Okay, here's what I've got so far...

Danger Den Maze4 for CPU
Swiftech MCW55 for GPU
Black Ice Pro II

No cheap kit and no aluminum! ;) Now, can I get your opinions on the two or three most quiet pumps for this setup? (From what I've read, I've been leaning towards an Ehein 1048. The price is a bit higher than I'd hope for, but the quality seems to make up for it.) I can't seem to find much info on pump noise levels. My fans for the system will be around 20 dBa; are pumps typically quieter that this? The cheap pump in the BigWater kit is listed at 17 dBa, is this typical of pumps? I'd prefer my pump not to be the loudest part in my case.

Also, anybody know for sure if any of the Maze4 GPU blocks will fit on the ATI AIW 9800 Pro?
 
How quiet is quiet? Do you want something quieter than a fan? Than a whisper? Than the ambiant noise level in your room?

By all accounts, in terms of quiet, the list goes something like this

Eheim 1048>Danner Mag>Swiftech/DD 350>Swiftech/DD 600>Swiftech/DD 655 (Laing D5)>Swiftech/DD 650 (Laing D4), with the more powerful eheims (1048, 1250 etc) somewhere near the noisiest.

I have a Laing D4 (generally considered one of the noisiest pumps), and it's quieter by far than I expected, so your mileage may vary.
 
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