Newbie needs some advice.

[gauge2k3]

I'm in Iraq right now and coming home soon. As a bonding experience me and my wife want to build computers together. We decided to make water cooled systems. Our question is our on cases and radiators. Also first time post, long time reader

Our systems will be:
Parts that are the same:
Core i7 920
Corsair Dominator 6gb in tri channel
radeon 4870 or 4870 x2 or GTX 285
Asus p6t mobo <-- I don't need the features of the deluxe
PC power and cooling silencer 910

different parts
mine:
velociraptor 300gb
WD barricuda 1.5 TB
hers:
raptor X 150 GB
some random 1TB drive she has at home now ( forgot the name )

So having that in mind we have different ideas on cases as well

The case she wants is
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811166032

the case I want is either
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811156078
or
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129043&Tpk=antec 1200

We plan on using 3.8 tubing and cooling the CPU and GPU at a minimum and thought about cooling the mobo chipset and Hard drives also. We have our reservoirs all picked out that will fit into some 5.25 bays, and a pump from swiftech(which I believe is held in high regard here and other places).

Will these cases be ok for water cooling?

If I used 2 120 on the front and back of my case ( the smilodon ) one would be pushing air from outside onto the radiator and one wo uld be pushing it from inside out ( the rear one), does the ambient temp still get pretty high in cases? Enough to where cooling from it is a bad idea?

Is using a 5.25 bay radiator a bad idea? Like the thermal take ones. They are auwful convenient. However they release heat to inside the case and the possibility exists that it could just use recycled air already been through the radiator, further increasing temps in the case.

On her case the plan is to push air into a double 120 radiator, the fans will be mounted outside, it's ok if it requires some rigging ( I'm pretty crafty), and use the other 120 to blow out air and possible cutting a hole in the top for a 4th 120 myself.

On mine the plan is either to use a 5.25 bay and 1 120 on the front of the case to use for radiators and the rear 120 to blow air out, or to use both 120 slots for radiators and 1 blow in and 1 blow out.

I am a total newb to water cooling but very proficient at building desktops and customizing them. Any advice whatsoever would be beneficial, tell me what you all think.

Thanks in advance.

Gauge

 

[OhMyGod]

As a bonding experience me and my wife want to build computers together.


Holy cow! Keep that woman forever!

I would suggest the Swiftech res. It works very well. And if you are in the service, thanks.

I would also suggest looking at an SSD (RAID 0 maybe) for the boot drive.

You picked some nice cases, have you looked at the Coolermaster HAF 922/932 or ATCS840 ?

 

[gauge2k3]

As a bonding experience me and my wife want to build computers together.


Holy cow! Keep that woman forever!

I would suggest the Swiftech res. It works very well. And if you are in the service, thanks.

I would also suggest looking at an SSD (RAID 0 maybe) for the boot drive.

You picked some nice cases, have you looked at the Coolermaster HAF 922/932 or ATCS840 ?

She is hooked on the clear case, but I am not defined in mine , I have definately looked over the ATCS840, not the other two ( Just did ). The ATSC is very nice, but we want water cooling more for appearances then actual performance ( although we do expect some performance). So with that case I would have to make a large project out of it. The HAF is a fairly nice case, however I think that while it would take minimal modding for looks, it would take some modifications to get some decent rads in there. Also the HAF is steel, which is sturdy but heavy, and very unmoddable within my means.