Best water cooling setup from an OEM system builder?

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Mako360

Limp Gawd
Joined
Mar 1, 2006
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I'm looking to buy a water-cooled rig as my next gaming PC, and wondering which system integrator you guys feel offers the best cooling system as an option. Meaning out of Voodoo, Velocity Micro, OverdrivePC, and the others, which one do you feel uses the best parts for their rigs in terms of quality and performance in the water arena?

Thanks, appreciate it.
 
if you are looking for an turn key of computer with WC already installed, then you'll have few chioces. I think Alienware does, don't know about the others.
 
Voodoo does, Falcon does and Puget, however depending upon which components you want cooled, you will pay alot. I think Voodoo cools the CPU and the Gpu's.
Wish I could help you, I am still 3 months away from selling my line.
 
There are many choices topcat , as I listed (Voodoo, Velocity, Alienware, OverdrivePC, etc, etc, etc). Each offers a water solution.

The question is: Which one uses components that the water cooling vets here would "approve" of.
 
Just look at what components they use for their water cooling parts. If they won't tell you then I'd stay away.
 
theseeker said:
Voodoo does, Falcon does and Puget, however depending upon which components you want cooled, you will pay alot. I think Voodoo cools the CPU and the Gpu's.
Wish I could help you, I am still 3 months away from selling my line.
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You getting into the buisness seeker? Nice if so, congrats. Just in time for Conroe too... ;)
 
Voodoo uses Swiftech and I have no idea about the rest. However, at one time Puget offered custom rigs with your choice of components and brands. Once again, this is a very expensive route to take.
 
Mako360 said:
You getting into the buisness seeker? Nice if so, congrats. Just in time for Conroe too... ;)
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I have been planning it for about 6-8 months. It will be custom including the case. I will use some of the name brand H2O blocks, but I will be focusing on the high end and a small amount of units.
 
Very nice, sounds like a lot of us could benefit from that move. :D

On a related note, since you've obviously done the research, what sort of temperature reduction targets are you shooting for with your line? Meaning, lets say I took your average Opteron CPU and air cooled it using the best of the standard heatsink combos (like a Thermaltake Big Typhoon per se). Under load it's probably going to log a 50-55 degree C type of temp, in that range anyway. How will your best water setup compare to that seeker, assuming that the northbridge and GPU are in the loop and the system has been under load long enough to push the water temp to its peak value? What sort of temp range for the CPU would you expect to see under that scenario?
 
Mako360 said:
Very nice, sounds like a lot of us could benefit from that move. :D

On a related note, since you've obviously done the research, what sort of temperature reduction targets are you shooting for with your line? Meaning, lets say I took your average Opteron CPU and air cooled it using the best of the standard heatsink combos (like a Thermaltake Big Typhoon per se). Under load it's probably going to log a 60-degree C type of temp, in that range anyway. How will your best water setup compare to that seeker, assuming that the northbridge and GPU are in the loop and the system has been under load long enough to push the water temp to its peak value? What sort of temp range for the CPU would you expect to see under that scenario?
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Excellent question. I had the OPTY's cooled with Zalman 9500's, which is a very good cooler. My load temps after COD2 for a few hours were 60-62C, which I did not like at all.
I just posted this reply in my thread, which may help answer your question, or you can go HERE
OK, just finished 45 minutes of COD2, Nvidia reports GPU core temp at 36C and the temp sensor reports 34C, I am happy with either one. The CPU temps are 36 and 35C, not bad for OPTY's. Another important note. The Innovatek RAD appears to work very well, it may be passive, but my office is roughly 20C and it is quite cool to the touch. I may order the external fan kit for it just to see what happens. Overall I am quite satisfied and glad to be back in the H2O world, that is until I get flamed for low flow, small tubing and passive a passive RAD.
It still needs work, but I couldnt wait.
 
theseeker said:
Excellent question. I had the OPTY's cooled with Zalman 9500's, which is a very good cooler. My load temps after COD2 for a few hours were 60-62C, which I did not like at all.
I just posted this reply in my thread, which may help answer your question, or you can go HERE
OK, just finished 45 minutes of COD2, Nvidia reports GPU core temp at 36C and the temp sensor reports 34C, I am happy with either one. The CPU temps are 36 and 35C, not bad for OPTY's. Another important note. The Innovatek RAD appears to work very well, it may be passive, but my office is roughly 20C and it is quite cool to the touch. I may order the external fan kit for it just to see what happens. Overall I am quite satisfied and glad to be back in the H2O world, that is until I get flamed for low flow, small tubing and passive a passive RAD.
It still needs work, but I couldnt wait.
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Damn seek, from 60C to 35C, with "poor" low flow and "small" tubes. ;)

Not to mention there being two hot Opterons and two hot GPUs all in the same loop...extremely impressive man, great job. :eek:
 
Thanks for the kind words. My biggest question is this? Is there a market for totally custom, high end water cooled PC's? I hope there is, because I am about to drop alot of money to get this idea off the ground. Please chime in.
 
theseeker said:
Thanks for the kind words. My biggest question is this? Is there a market for totally custom, high end water cooled PC's? I hope there is, because I am about to drop alot of money to get this idea off the ground. Please chime in.
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Not to discourage you, but I think the market is pretty small and you will have a hard time competing with brands like Voodoo, VM, Alienware, and Falcon Northwest. People who have that much money to drop on a system are likely to do it on a company that is nice and large and can back up their computers with 24/7 support and warranties. They wont mind if you are 200$ cheaper since they are probably already spending an obscene amount of cash.
 
Erasmus354 said:
Not to discourage you, but I think the market is pretty small and you will have a hard time competing with brands like Voodoo, VM, Alienware, and Falcon Northwest. People who have that much money to drop on a system are likely to do it on a company that is nice and large and can back up their computers with 24/7 support and warranties. They wont mind if you are 200$ cheaper since they are probably already spending an obscene amount of cash.
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I am talking about something way beyond the likes of Voodoo and Falcon. My vision is for a PC that is truly custom in every sense of the word. I wont be competing with these companies as I will be going in a different direction. I am doing this to have fun. Yes, of course I plan to make a profit, but I have no intention of doing an assembly line or massproducing PC's. I will market to the enthusiast. The support will be there 24/7 and I understand the importance. The warranty will be there as well, 5 YEARS! I have devoted a great deal of time to this endeavor and I am quite passionate about it. Any suggestions you have would be appreciated. I should probably start a new thread about this. I had no intentions of highjacking the OP's thread.
 
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