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Help with 1st Overclocking

A

aragon127

n00b
Joined
Oct 10, 2005
Messages
22
Ok, I've decided to enter the water-cooling population. I've been reading and researching for several weeks and have an idea of what I need and of course a bunch of questions. Here's what I've got. This an HTPC and it's in an Antec Overture case-which sucks. The case runs VERY hot. So hot it fried my vidcard recently. I messed around with the fans and cooled it a bit, but I want to take it further. I also want to make my system run quieter.

Enter a water cooler. I need something that will keep my case cool and the components as well. A couple of problems come in because the case has NO ROOM at all, so an external cooling solution is needed. It must also be quiet and because it sets near my TV in the living it must look nice. I also like the "WTF is that reaction" from family and friends.

I also only have a 380w power supply and lots of components so a 120v pump is preferable as I think I'm running short on power. I don't plan on overclocking so I don't need anything top of the line, just efficient. Although I would like the option to upgrade it a bit so I could I could OC a bit at some point down the line.

I'd prefer something easy to install as well since this is my first attempt at WC'ing and I want something stable. I know the kits I've been looking at aren't the greatest, but they seem to suit my needs well. I just don't want to limit myself for future expansion or spend money on something that really isn't any better than air cooling. So I've been looking most at the Kingwin AS-3000. This seems to do everything I need. I especially like that it has the external radiator which would route the excess air out of the case. I'm also looking at the Evercool WC-201, which would be internal.

But I'm not sure if it would be any better for cooling my CPU/GPU. Anyone have any impressions of these 2? Is there something else I should be considering? I'm also curious on the coolant.

I found a bottle of PC ICE which is used in place of the distilled water and additives. It says it's better at cooling than the water mixture. Is this worth the $18?
Here's my system specs:

Antec Overture Case (REV 1)
380w Antec True Power PS
3x 250gb SATA HD's
1 DVICO fusion PCI HDTV Tuner
2x PVR 150's PCI cards
Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe MOBO
MSI Gefore 6600GT PCI-express vidcard
AMD64 3100 CPU
2x512mb Mushkin DDR 3200
 
Exos II or a Aqua Computer external Evo radiator. BTW, paragraphs are your friend...and ours too. :)
 
The Koolance Exos II isn't what I would call designed for a HTPC............. :eek: I guess you didn't catch that part of the question. And the radiator just sitting out ontop of or beside a HTPC case might look a little silly also.

Thermaltake has a few external systems going these days, but their pumps seem a little weak to me. Zalman is another option, but it also has a weakinh pump, but they can be upgraded fairly easy.

This cooler from TT will get you the "WTF" you're looking for.......... :D

enlarge.jpg
 
Is the Thermaltake Tribe a better alternative? It doesn't include a GPU cooler and it's 12v instead of 120v. Am I guessing I should stay way from the Kingwin?
 
I think you shouldn't immediately count out a DC pump, their added convenience is very nice and they generally perform better too. The Laing DDC is small so it would fit easily into your case, and it only draws 10W. If that 10W is enough to put your PSU over the edge then I would wager it is your PSU that fried your vid card and not your case ;) and you should look into a new PSU.

As for the rest of it, well it depends upon what your setup looks like. A few piccies of your case and where the computer resides might help us to better determine what solution would be the best for you.
 
Bio-Hazard said:
The Koolance Exos II isn't what I would call designed for a HTPC............. :eek: I guess you didn't catch that part of the question. And the radiator just sitting out ontop of or beside a HTPC case might look a little silly also.

Thermaltake has a few external systems going these days, but their pumps seem a little weak to me. Zalman is another option, but it also has a weakinh pump, but they can be upgraded fairly easy.

This cooler from TT will get you the "WTF" you're looking for.......... :D

enlarge.jpg
Click to expand...

I wouldn't buy TT rip-offs. Just get the original zalman reserator if you want a monster extrenal passive radiator (and replace the pump).

As Erasmus mentioned, the DDC is a nice, cheap alternative to the MCP655.

And I didn't read your whole first post b/c it is too much trouble to go through that huge block. :p The enter key helps. Trust me.
 
Russ said:
I wouldn't buy TT rip-offs. Just get the original zalman reserator if you want a monster extrenal passive radiator (and replace the pump).

As Erasmus mentioned, the DDC is a nice, cheap alternative to the MCP655.

And I didn't read your whole first post b/c it is too much trouble to go through that huge block. :p The enter key helps. Trust me.
Click to expand...

That is not a ripoff...it isn't a passive radiator. It is actually a 5x120mm radiator :eek: which allows the fans to run silently and cool very well.
 
Why is the Zalman reserator so popular? I was considering it, but according to the review here the Thermaltake Rocket greatly outperforms the Zalman. They're about equally priced, the zalman is $230 while the Rocket is $180 but doesn't include a VGA cooler. Is the Rocket something I should consider? It's a bit more than I wanted to spend but I'd rather spend a bit more now than spend $150 now and have a water cooling solution that's barely better than air cooling.

I'll try to take some pics of the case and upload them tonight so I can show my setup. I can probably swing the extra wattage on the PSU but I wanted to be careful with it. I do have a lot of things in the case, an SLI vidcard and only 380 watt power supply. It's hard to replace the PSU in this case because ANTEC uses a proprietary PSU on the case and it sits in the front of the case. Horrible design. It also points the fan from the PSU into the case itself (I reversed it).
 
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