Can someone make me a custom water cooling kit?

5

54YW4T

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Dec 27, 2004
Messages
1,644
Im a noob at water cooling and want to buy one but dont know which product to buy.
I dont want to buy a kit made with everything in it. I want to buy the parts and put it together.
So im asking if anyone can list the best parts for me that will make a complete water cooling kit. My budget is $300.

Specs:
2500+ @ 3200+ Barton Socket A
ASUS A7V880 Mobo
OCZ Performance 512 MB DDR-400
Geforce FX-5900 Bios Modded to FX-5950U
KT880 Northbridge Chipset
Maxtor Hard drives

Thank you.
 
get a modified heatercore and not a blackice, that is the best single piece of advice I will give you,
 
Danger Den is good for the water blocks. Though you may want to consider either a Zalman or an Aqua-Tame for the rest of your cooling system.
 
I like the polarflo TT blocks, they are well priced and may be the performance champs, I haven't seen a review of any blocks doing better. For a pump I like the 12v pumps that plug into a molex connector,mainly because they start when you turn your PC on with no relay installation needed and you don't have to run another ac cord into your case. There are a few different venders, but the pumps are very similar. There is some markup in price but if looks are important, polarflo can sell you a pump that matches the blocks you buy, otherwise the swiftech MCP series or the DangerDen D4's are very good. It does seem to be true that the heatercores are better than the radiators companies make for PC watercooling, I myself don't do any welding so I wouldn't mod one myself but I think DangerDen makes some premodded heatercores that work real well with a 120mm fan. I used to be all about a 5 1/4" dual bay reservoir, but the more I looked at cases and tried to figure out how I would fit everything inside and the more horor stories I read about leaking reservoirs the more atractive a simple t-connection looked to me. (i.e. no reservoir) I like the idea of having the fill tube connected to the top of the case through these cool looking fittings that aquacomputer makes. There may be some tube diameter issues with that though, aquacomputer is european and those guys use different diameters and they are in metric. Anyway, you asked and these are my thoughts on a watercooling system.
 
Polar Flo are not the performance kings, they are mid-high range right around DD and Swiftech I think, but not outperforming Cathars blocks for sure.

As for the resevoir, if you are worried about leaks get one of the new polyethylene resevoirs that DD and Swiftech and a number of other places are selling. They wont leak like the older acrylic resevoirs had a tendency of doing. And for the job of getting all of the air out of a system having a resevoir makes it quite simple and straightforward.
 
for $300 bucks you could build a pretty shnazy cooling system:D

You looking for Performance Only? Silence? Looks? Size??

These are things we would need to know before giving you a list of items to get.
 
I did a google search on Cathar water blocks and though I got many hits in forums, I didn't find any review of them. So, I reinterate, I've never seen a review of any block beating a polarflo TT. I'd appreciate any links if you have information on them. Oh.... and poly reservoirs look like shit..... just my humble opinion....
 
PolarFlo refuses to send blocks to the sites that have technically competent, scientifically accurate reviews. That why you don't see reviews that show their weaknesses...

Check out procooling.com for reviews of Cathar's blocks.
 
Thanks for the link, the Cathar does seem to be a very good performing block, however the article says it isn't in production anymore, so its performance is kind of mute since it isn't available. It wasn't compared directly to the Polarflo but there were 3 blocks in that review that have been directly compared to the Polarflo, the TDX, the RBX, and the Maze4 all of which the Polarflo compared quite favorably with. I don't think you would go wrong with them.
 
I sell cooling rads. You can take a peak at freshcooling.com.
They are now 37.99..no fans any longer. But still cant beat the price/performance of them.

and if your going to water cool you may as well go with a small 80w tec. VERY easy, and will run off your psu. Just need a piece of neo for the back of the mobo.
 
astolpho said:
Thanks for the link, the Cathar does seem to be a very good performing block, however the article says it isn't in production anymore, so its performance is kind of mute since it isn't available. It wasn't compared directly to the Polarflo but there were 3 blocks in that review that have been directly compared to the Polarflo, the TDX, the RBX, and the Maze4 all of which the Polarflo compared quite favorably with. I don't think you would go wrong with them.
Click to expand...
you cannot compare a review to a review and come up with a conclusion like you did. Its flawed logic.
1st the testing methodoligies are probably different.
2nd the test setups were probably different. i.e different pumps, rads, tubing size, coolant etc etc.
3rd there are too many wb reviews out there that are just not done correctly, it is a very difficult thing to do. Most of the reviews are mearly speculation and opinion.

procooling has excelent info and *most* of what is said over there can be beleived. They have quite a few people who are very prominent in the industry post there quite often.

my opinion is you buy polarflow if you want bling and not performance, otherwise you buy a tdx, rbx, ww or swiftech 6000 series(between 40 and 60 dollars). http://www.cooltechnica.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=AMDSA-WB

an AquaXtreme 50z pump for a dc pump 79.00 http://www.cooltechnica.com/Merchan...ROD&Product_Code=AQX-50Z-DC12&Category_Code=P
a bonny core from the auto store 25.00 http://www.partsamerica.com/PartDet...GNO&MfrPartNumber=399078&PartType=524&PTSet=B
tygon tubing from http://www.vwrsp.com/catalog/product/index.cgi?catalog_number=63009-180
10' = 20.00
A couple of these for the heater core 10.00 http://www.goldmine-elec-products.com/prodinfo.asp?number=G14010&variation=&aitem=3&mitem=9

my 2 cents
 
astolpho said:
Thanks for the link, the Cathar does seem to be a very good performing block, however the article says it isn't in production anymore,
Click to expand...

Cascade is no longer made. It's been replaced by the Storm block. They are still being made and will be for some time. Temporary production hiatus at present.
 
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