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Lucio

Limp Gawd
Joined
Mar 20, 2007
Messages
190
Hi there, I'm a long time PC user and over the years I've done small upgrades like GFx cards and optical drives and I think it's time I bit the bullet and built my new rig from scratch instead of paying over the odds for someone else to do it for me.

Anyhow, I'm looking for some help and advice, I can't fit a full height ATX case under my desk at home as my g.f's unit takes up all the space, at best I can fit a tower no more than 400mm in height, though it can be up to 550mm deep comfortably.

Based on posts here, I'm seriously tempted by the Lian Li PC-A05 as my case because it looks like it has the cooling capability for my intended system, E6600, 2GB RAM and a pair of 8800GTS in SLI mode.

Question is though, do I air cool this system or do I take a huge leap of faith and try a watercooled system? Looking at some of the pictures here and given that I only want one optical drive and a single hard drive (chosen the 750GB Seagate 7200.10), could I get away with watercooling? I was thinking about installing the resevoir in the other 5 1/4" bay (http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/acatalog/info_7809.html) fitting the pump to the bottom of the case near the rear intake fan and putting the radiator on top of the case to prevent it blocking the motherboard ports / 2nd GFx card.

Does this sound too ambitious for a newbie to try? If so, what about adding a Lian Li BS-01 blower and a couple of 120mm intake fans on the top to boost the aircooling? Would fitting a fan controller panel help this or is it another gadget for the clueless?
 
If you have the money to throw around and want to overclock every little thing in your system then by all means go for the water cooling.

Otherwise, air will be cheaper, take less maintenance, and be easier to setup.

IMO: Go with high end air. You'll have room to OC, without the headache/worries of setting up a water loop.


btw, that case is utter aluminum sex
 
My advice is stick with air cooling. You add a LOT of expense with a watercooling setup, and while you get *props* from the other watercooling guys, it's mostly about sound, and quiet 120mm fans are easy to get ahold of now.

At least, start with air cooling, and if it doesn't satisfy you, then add in watercooling. You'll get a better idea of how much space the case has once you have it. Sometimes it's harder to imagine how your layout will look once you've got the case full of hardware... and 2x 8800 cards take up a LOT of space.
 
unless watercooling is a must, stick with air cooling. watercooling does add the wow factor, but unless you're intentions consists of getting the best overclocks possible it may just be overkill in most apps. that case, with some yate loons, and a quiet psu should be more than enough for your setup.
 
Take a big a chunk as you think you can chew.

If you think that includes watercooling, go for it.

But, on air cooling you can make amazing overclocks and maintain great temperatures.
 
i'd suggest getting a 30-50 dollar air heatsink. get that so you can run your computer and have tons of fun, then slowly(or quickly) figure out the WC system you want. you'll want to built the WCS from scratch so take your time and figure out best price and all that fun stuff.

Air= cheap and good enough (look at my C2D, thats air)
Water= best (sub-$1000) and can be beautiful

air doesnt leak on your mobo
 
I lol'd really hard, Logan.

Just get a huge heat sink with a 120 MM fan, that is adjustable, and get a few exhaust fans. Then like others have said, if it's not enough then think about going to a WC'd system.
 
I went WCed, and somewhat regret it! I would personally recomend you get the system all set up on air, use it for a few months, then switch over. I just setup my system two nights ago, and now its all drained and torn apart because of a faulty GPU!

Get the air stuff, switch over to WCing later, if you want, once you've had time to thoroughly see how hot each part gets in your setup, etc.
 
FYI op:

Water cooling doesn't really provide much OC benefit over air these days. It's a sad state really, but air cooling has really come leaps and bounds (because of heatpipes in arrayed configurations really) over the last few years.

The only really good reason to go water these days is for silence, or for max overclocking.

Going water is literally the only way to get your case under 30dba at full load. That's just not possible for most systems on air. If you're obsessed about noise like I am, then stay on air cooling.
 
Okies, looks like going the route of adding a couple of extra fans to the case is the way forward.

:) Guess I'll have to spend the extra money on more hardware
 
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