need water cooling help

[UnderqualifiedITGuy]

Let me start this off by saying that I have never used water-cooling in any computer I ever had. I have been looking into it recently because I want to get a new computer with the E6600 Core 2 Duo from Intel. I need some suggestions on what case to buy or a water cooling kit for this processor, and a motherboard that is compatible with it. I am looking to spend around $200-$300 on it, but preferably less than that. I want my case to be silent, but I probably will get some noise with water cooling, something I am willing to deal with. But like I said, I have never dealt with water-cooling and so I wouldn't know where to start.

Anything the users in this community can do to help me would be well appreciated.

Thanks in advance,
Evan

 

[Josh_Norem]

Well, it depends on whether you want an internal or external radiator, what you want to cool, what kind of kit you'll be using, etc.

 

[Arcygenical]

Ok! My standard "best place to start answer"!

What you need is a:

DangerDen TDX 775 1/2" waterblock. Best price/performance CPU block, and the one I use. Same processor too.

DangerDen D5 waterpump (NOTE: There's a great deal on this pump when you buy the above water block as a "combo deal" from dangerdenstore.com, you save about 20%)

A Waterblock for your GPU. The Swiftech MCW60 is probably the best block you can really get right now, for basic watercooling (by basic, I mean non-peltier cooling) and works with anything other than the 8800 level series of cards (once again, you can BUY a plate to make it work with the 8800's, and a few (20) ramsinks, but having done this, it's not the best option).

A Radiator... Black Ice Pro, Swiftech MCR or Coolingworks Coolrad. The rule is... each heat producing part warrants an extra 120mm radiator. You're cooling ONE CPU, use a 120mm radiator. Cooling a CPU and a GPU, you need a 240mm radiator (also called a "double radiator" or a 120.2 radiator) 2 GPU's and a CPU? Well, you get the idea.

For tubing, get the Masterkleer 7/16" stuff. It's REALLY cheap (about 40c/ft) and because it's a tiny bit smaller than the 1/2" barbs (ie, you boil the ends of the tubing in order to get it over the block barbs, and make sure to attach the tubing when the block is NOT mounted on a chip, else you risk cracking the chip... so, do your tubing with a block unnattached, then cut and attach it whenever possible) it LOCKS onto the barb after it's cooled. You literally need to slice it with a knife to get it off... So get LOTS (15ft lets you re-do a loop about 4 times, which you'll probably end up doing eventually).

Either get a reservoir or a Tline for adding liquid to the loop. NEITHER IMPACT YOUR TEMPERATURES AT ALL, contrary to logical deduction. Res's are more expensive, but help getting air out of the system, which is a real PITA in the beginning. A good reservoir is the Swiftech Microres.

Sorry for the lengthy reply, but I think it gets most of the main points across.

All of this should run at:

Pump+CPU combo: 110$
GPU + Ramsinks: 60$
Tline OR Res: 2$ or 40$ (the microres is about 15$, but this is a MAXIMUM quote)
Tubing (20ft): 10$
Radiator: 40$

So, as an exagerated estimate... about 265$ + tax and shipping... But, as I said, expect a few bucks less if you're going with a Tline.

Once again, feel free to IM me on MSN or PM me from the forums if you need clarification on anything.