Budget Watercooling

[MakuraRyu]

I am starting to think about water cooling my machine especially my video card but dont have an idea of where to start. The big thing is that I dont have a lot of money to spend (in the range of 100-150 max). What do you guys reccomend that I should do? Go with a kit or try and piece together a few items?

I breifly looked at the sticky but there were a lot of comments so I got lost...

CPU and Vid Card:
AMD Athelon 64 socket 754
ATI x800

Thanks for all the help in advance!
Mak

 

[DFI Daishi]

so, the video card is your priority. from a noise perspective, that makes a lot of sense.

good aftermarket air cooling does a pretty good job keeping a processor with a moderate overclock cool, with a reasonable noise level. most kits that you buy are for the CPU and leave out the GPU, and i don't really understand why there aren't more kits for the GPU.

if you were to pick up all new equipment for so-so prices: a block like the dangerden maze 4 GPU for about $45, a laing DDC revision 2 pump for about $75, and a black ice pro rad for about $25 bucks, you'd be within spitting distance of your target budget with easy to use, quality parts. tubing, clamps, distilled water and some antifreeze would finish things off for around $10-15. i don't konw if you already have 120mm fans kicking around, but if not a yate loon 120mm fan on either a motherboard fan header or fan a controller of some sort is a good match for that rad when targeting low noise opperation.

the pump has enough capacity to drive a CPU block and a second as well, if you want to add later.

sales, shopping around and buying used can cut down on cost a good bit, but requires you to do a bit of leg-work for yourself.

the easiest way to reduce the cost from what i have above is to use an AC powered pond/aquarium pump. they're not as easy to use (hardly rocket science, but it takes a little bit of basic wiring) and are also larger.

for an AC pump, something like the eheim 1250 or hydor seltz L30 are pretty commonly used for watercooling and available at many aquarium stores.

i use a danner mag pump, some others use pentair lifeguard pumps, and the classic for when you want things super cheap is the via aqua 1300. these pumps are not as well regarded by and large, for a variety of reasons.

there is a retail outlet of this chain near where i go to school: http://www.bigalsonline.com/catalog/parent_category.xml?category_id=2181 and there are plenty of other places that sell AC pumps.

 

[Imitation]

so, the video card is your priority. from a noise perspective, that makes a lot of sense.

good aftermarket air cooling does a pretty good job keeping a processor with a moderate overclock cool, with a reasonable noise level. most kits that you buy are for the CPU and leave out the GPU, and i don't really understand why there aren't more kits for the GPU.

if you were to pick up all new equipment for so-so prices: a block like the dangerden maze 4 GPU for about $45, a laing DDC revision 2 pump for about $75, and a black ice pro rad for about $25 bucks, you'd be within spitting distance of your target budget with easy to use, quality parts. tubing, clamps, distilled water and some antifreeze would finish things off for around $10-15. i don't konw if you already have 120mm fans kicking around, but if not a yate loon 120mm fan on either a motherboard fan header or fan a controller of some sort is a good match for that rad when targeting low noise opperation.

the pump has enough capacity to drive a CPU block and a second as well, if you want to add later.

sales, shopping around and buying used can cut down on cost a good bit, but requires you to do a bit of leg-work for yourself.

the easiest way to reduce the cost from what i have above is to use an AC powered pond/aquarium pump. they're not as easy to use (hardly rocket science, but it takes a little bit of basic wiring) and are also larger.

for an AC pump, something like the eheim 1250 or hydor seltz L30 are pretty commonly used for watercooling and available at many aquarium stores.

i use a danner mag pump, some others use pentair lifeguard pumps, and the classic for when you want things super cheap is the via aqua 1300. these pumps are not as well regarded by and large, for a variety of reasons.

there is a retail outlet of this chain near where i go to school: http://www.bigalsonline.com/catalog/parent_category.xml?category_id=2181 and there are plenty of other places that sell AC pumps.

Dashi is right on the money here. I'd stay away from any of the thermaltake video card only kits if you plan to cool the cpu at some point. Danger Den or swiftech both sell the stuff you need to cool both. I personally run all swiftech because I bought their kit and added a cpu block but there's no reason to only go one brand if you're looking to go on the cheap. DC pumps are pretty expensive, but the DCC/swiftech 350 pump is really small and is more than enough to move the water through both cpu and gpu. A single 120 rad should be ok for both. I run a double 120 and the temps don't really raise more than 2 degrees C while gaming. You should definitely be able to cool the gpu for less than 150, but both might be tough since you'll be spending 90ish on the 2 blocks alone.