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Making the leap

M

Mr. K6

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Mar 23, 2005
Messages
5,077
This forum must get these kinds of threads all the time, but here's another :p. I just got my Q6600 and holy crap is this thing hot. My Enzotech Ultra-X is being pushed to its max @3.0GHz and stock volts, loading at 60/56/56/57C right now. I have a little more headroom but probably not much. So I'm thinking about finally getting into watercooling as the next step would be to get a thermalright IFX-14 and at $90, that's a good portion of an entry-level set-up.

I'm thinking all I need is a loop for my CPU as my GTS stays pretty cool. Just doing some light forum reading and browsing stores, I was thinking of getting these parts:

Swiftech Apogee GT -$42 - seems like a great bang-for-your-buck solution
Heater Core (single from dangerden) - http://www.dangerden.com/store/product.php?productid=47&cat=14&page=1 - $20 - I was thinking of mounting this under the 200mm fan in my Antec 900. Anyway, is this enough to cool the CPU?
Pump - ??? Dunno, heard the Laing D5's are good, but I dont know what else is out there. Is it better to go with an AC pump instead? Will a D/C pump kill my PSU (they don't pull much power though, I'd hope)
Tubing - I've heard a lot that 3/8" is better to go with because of convenience/ease of use and the restricted flow doesn't hurt temps much over 1/2", but is 7/16" masterkleer with 1/2" barbs a happy medium?
Reservoir - Probably a bay as I have the space right below my DVD-RW.

Anyway, thoughts, comments, suggestions. I need as much info as possible as I want to get some better cooling for this CPU. Thanks for anything help you guys can throw my way.
 
CPU Block get the Apogee GTX over the GT (swiftech) (better suited for quad)
TDX or Maze5CPU (danger den) (i have the maze5cpu personally and i think it rox)

Heat Cores are old school lol.
I'd say go for either a Thermochill or Black Ice (thermochills you pay a premium price but is well worth it!)
Pump, you can't go wrong with the D5, they're great.
Tubing is reallly up to you. 3/8" are nice I like 1/2" tho (for a one cpu setup you shouldn't need a 1/2 tho)
Res: OK if you don't mind sloshiness

Anyway this is rather rough and I was basically commenting on what you had. It's easier if you have a given budget and case so we know what you're working with in terms of space. A good custom built set for a CPU I say will run you around $250+ initially that's for a GOOD setup, average setups or kit's you can get for much cheaper, but be prepared for some maintenance (whichever you choose). in the long run watercooling is cheaper because you don't have to upgrade the blocks. most of the time you only upgrade the adapters that will fit your current chip/chipset/gpu.
 
Basically, I want to get the best bang for my buck system. As I said, I'm only going to be cooling the CPU, so I don't need anything elaborate yet (just a starter set-up with enough capacity to handle a Q6600). I'm looking to spend $150-200 at the absolute most, and the cheaper the better. I see that the GTX is a better performing block, so if I'm going to get a block, I might as well get the best. I was looking at my case (Antec 900) and was thinking instead of using the 200mm fan at the top I could just buy a 120.2 radiator and use the 2x120mm fans already in place in the front of the case. I measured it out and it seems like it would work really well (tubing would go through the bay above, I'll worry about looks later). My question is why is there such a premium for the thermochill radiators? Are they really that great? Are there cheaper but still well performing alternatives? I was looking at the Black Ice Xtreme II 120x2 radiator and it seemed like a good solution (dual pass, etc.). As far as tubing goes, I might just get the 7/16" masterkleer and call it a day. Finally, this computer is going to be moved periodically (college and back), so a closed loop (sans reservoir) would probably be better I'm guessing. What do I do, add a T with a fill port? What's the best way to go about that? Thanks for the info so far :cool:.

Here's a rough idea at what I'm going for:

EDIT: Forgot to throw in flow arrows. Will go PUMP->RAD->CPU->. Now that I think of it, I imagine the fill port will have to be before the pump, so change that mentally :D
 
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