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Need some help

C

ChristmasGT

Limp Gawd
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Joined
Oct 17, 2007
Messages
342
Hey there I really wanted a new case and a buddy of mine was selling his unused thermal take armor LCS to me for only 150 still in the box and all. I've read pretty mixed reviews on the Water cooling itself (love the case though and for the price not too bad)

I ordered a Thermalright Ultra Extreme 120 with a 120mm scythe S-Flex a few days ago since I didn't expect the watercooling thing to happen for awhile. The question is, what should I do? is there going to be enough of a difference between the watercooling setup and the thermalright 120 to warrant the difference? or should I sell the Thermalright and pick up a better waterblock?

I'm sorta new to WCing and didn't expect it to come along so early but the case was cheap being unused and having the WC kit to pass up ideas?
 
Nothing wrong with the cpu block, put the money towards something else. If you do change blocks be sure you get a free flowing non-restrictive block. I started to say use the money for GPU blocks but wih the SLI it would take 2 expensive full coverage blocks and you may not want to go there yet.

Again there is nothing wrong with the Tt block and you will be spending $50+ for at best a deg C or two better load temps, at idle and light use you would probably not see any difference at all.

I would be looking at where/how you could get another rad added to the loop.

.

Hint: Before you fire that beast up check that all connections are smartly snug but dont overtighten. First make sure the basic fitting is snug in whatever it is screwed into, then holding that basic fitting with a wrench use a second wrench to snug down the compression nut. Do not use big wrenchs and just snug + 1/2 turn is plenty tight. Check the entire system and run it with the motherboard and video power connectors unhooked, use the "paper clip trick" to start the power supply had have a disk drive or two hooked up for a load.
 
So you think its probably a better Idea to return the TT and upgrade the water system? I could probably have it replaced within 6 months or probably sooner if needed =D
 
pump res and block are fine, the real problem with that system is the internal 1 x 120 rad. The rad is were all the cooling happens and if you are a heavy OCer it is the weak link in the system. That is a great case, say it would cost $130 to replace, a pump is $50 at least, a block is $50 at least, a res is $30, so there is $260 at least of stuff you got for $150.

I am a bit biased. Many will say Tt is junk and the 1/4 inch tubing tiny pump stuff is, but your stuff is decent (at least I think it uses the 3/8 tubing from what I can see of the pictures).

With some extra tubing and a 2 x 120 rad added to the loop you could cool anything you wanted. Trouble is where to mount it. The bottom of the case looks interesting but would require some mod skill to get it in there nicely. Hanging it off the back with some standoffs would be the easiest.

As is, that is a great starter setup for the $150. Just my Tt kit was $150 never-mind the case. To move up will cost $200+ and add the cost of a big case and you still have to figure out how to mount the rads etc .

Its all about what level of performance you are looking for and how high a stack of cash you have to blow on the project. That case as it is would be fine for most CPUs and even if you just plumbed in a 2 x 120 rad and ran the tubing outside the case and set the rad on some kind of stand, you could cool anything and everything you could cram in there.

On the other hand if you are not in love with water cooling eh.

That setup should work as well as the TRUE for mildly OCed CPUs.

The real issue is that you are getting that case/WC for such a deal it is very difficult to say no to it. So maybe you should look at it from just the case standpoint. What would it cost to get a case just as nice + the cost of the TRUE vs the Tt (given my assumption the Tt will cool as well as the TRUE) ? But if money is not a primary issue other considerations could and should have more weight.

Difficult call - You never mentioned how hard you OC, what CPU is going in there, and if you are willing/wanting to go full bore WC which if you include your video cards can get very expensive very fast and even with the WCing pulled out/replaced completely later, it is a nice case.

I went the other way around, I ended up with a Tt case and when looking to WC found the Tt WC kit as the cheapest quickest way to go but I had to do a bit of work to get it installed and it looks like from the pics of that case, if I looked at the correct ones, it will be somewhat of a chore to upgrade that WCing but no worse than starting from scratch with a new case so here we are going in circles again. I am back to that is a very nice case.

I guess you need to think of where you will end up if you do go with water cooling. That stuff will do for medium performance and with another rad will cool anything you want but if you want the highest performance you will end up tossing it all out and spending $250+ for another 400MHz CPU speed.


Keep in mind I get a kick out of getting the most performance for the least amount of cash and that may not be your goal. Do what will make you happiest in the long run and it may be that just waiting and getting what you really want in one shot is better than "sneaking " up on what you really want and spending a lot of time and cash during the process.
 
I'm absolutely in love with WCing, I've never done it but always admired it, I've been OCing for YEARS (early 2000 I think) sorry for not posting my spects

The processor is a BE-2400 (2.3ghz) I've actually got it to post all the way up to 3.4 on a quick run with the stock cooler (decided to order the TRUE then)

I've got a ton of reading to do on WCing, one of my biggest thoughts are that it's a start, if It cools at least as well as the TRUE I can start working on making a better system :)

I like the way that the Radiator mounts to the front of the case but last night after removing the front panel I realized that there was a black "styrophome-like-mesh" behind the grill (probably to enhane the blackout effect) and since the fans were poised to pull the air in through the front of the case that would be a major major problem as far as airflow to the radiator, but I think i'll return the TRUE, pick up some better tubing (not a fan of green but it is 3/8 tubing) and take your advice on a better radiator.

it should be a good learning experience, i've always been so interrested in water and I figure this is at least a start, I'm just worried that it'll perform worse than the TRUE 120.

Btw thank you very much for the help so far =D
 
I figured WTH and hooked it up just to see how it'd perform, I've always been extremely interested in WCing and thought that i'd test it (even if it was just for a few min)

and unbelievably I got it working together! I need different tubing (one tubes is too short and kinks if the pump/resevior sits in the case) but if my temps are being recorded correctly than i'm really happy! (900MHz oc and really high HT, not bad for a $25.00 OEM chip)



I haven't tested load temps yet, but the Idle is ice cold, I also removed the black-mesh-styro-phome material from the front of the case drive bay plates, I have no idea why it was there but it had to be a massive effect on the airflow to the radiator.

I've been thinking of tossing my new 120mm S-Flex scythe on instead of one of the blue led fans that comes with the case.

I need to do some testing, but what do you guys think?
 
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