I am a noob when it comes to this, ive never done it, but want to try it. I am currently in possession of a thermaltake Bigwater SE, its not opened. Ive heard some good, but alot of bad about it. I was looking at this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835128015, the galaxy II by gigabyte. is it any good? will it kewl better and more efficient that the Thermaltake SE? itll be kewling a cor 2 duo E660 and possible a VGA card in the future. What do you guy sthink?
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Question for experienced Watercoolers
- Thread starter astec
- Start date
Justin_Diduch
Gawd
- Joined
- Apr 28, 2005
- Messages
- 585
Run Away! Run Away!
Corsair Nautilus 500
Start with that and add a VGA cooler if needed. If you end up with an 8800 or something you can always add a second radiator later. The pump in there can take it with ease.
Corsair Nautilus 500
Start with that and add a VGA cooler if needed. If you end up with an 8800 or something you can always add a second radiator later. The pump in there can take it with ease.
How's your technical prowess?
If you don't mind making the big leap, a Swiftech kit or Petra's kit would give you great performance and well written instructions to follow. However, the setup itself might be daunting for a first timer.
Corsair probably makes the best kit out of all the "noob" kits. It's easy to install and you won't have to remove your motherboard to install a backplate.
However, if you think you've got good technical skills, I'd suggest making the leap towards a performance kit.
That Corsair kit's radiator looks suspiciously like aluminum. Sure you don't want to rephrase your glowing recommendation?
Bio-Hazard
2[H]4U
- Joined
- Jun 8, 2004
- Messages
- 2,312
Same radiator that Corsair used in thier first water cooling project, the HydroCool 200 from years gone by.............. I've still got one of thse sitting around the house somewhere..................
That radiator is super easy to swap out for a BI Pro or Swiftech MCR120QP. Really improves the system performance as well. Nate, the site owner for Legit Reviews did a how to on it sometime ago.
I've still got one of thse sitting around the house somewhere.................. That radiator is super easy to swap out for a BI Pro or Swiftech MCR120QP. Really improves the system performance as well. Nate, the site owner for Legit Reviews did a how to on it sometime ago.
That Corsair kit's radiator looks suspiciously like aluminum. Sure you don't want to rephrase your glowing recommendation?
Like I said, he's better off making the jump towards a performance kit. However, if he must stick with "newbie" level kit, this one's the simplest one to install. Would I personally use it? No. Have I used it before? yes. Would I recommend it if he doesn't have the technical skills to install a performance level kit? yes.
Does it cost an arm and a leg like a Koolance kit? No. It'll be an easy kit to ditch without worrying about having sunk $500 once you get a hang of the hobby.
After all the cursing, wailing, and self-flagellation you did lately about aluminum in a water cooling circuit you should be ashamed of yourself...
However, it looks like a decent enough kit and I ran an aluminum radiator in my Koolance EXOS for years without a single problem that the above mentioned person claims to be everyday problems.
However, it looks like a decent enough kit and I ran an aluminum radiator in my Koolance EXOS for years without a single problem that the above mentioned person claims to be everyday problems.
I thought I was on your twit list?
I still hate the use of Alu and see it as a manufacturer taking shortcuts and screwing the user in the long run.
However, he's a beginner and we're trying to gauge what his level of expertise is and what he's looking for. If all he wants to do is say "I watercooled my cpu" then a "newbie" level kit like this won't hurt him as he won't be adding any blocks to it nor will he be expecting any sort of awesome performance from it.
Anyhow, let's not derail this thread like you've been doing across the board. OP, we need some more input from you.
I suggest avoiding the Gigabyte kit, and purchasing something that you won't have to throw away when the time comes to upgrade. Depending on what you want, Petra's kits should do fine, as will an Aqua Computer setup (which will also cost more money, and not cool as well as said petra's kit). Have a read through some of the threads here, and you'll find all hte info you're looking for.
Suggest you look around for a Koolance EXOS as they run well and are easy to assemble. You can often find them in the For Sale forum really cheap with all the blocks you might want. [H]ardOCP has a bunch of them that they use in their offices.
Run Away! Run Away!
Corsair Nautilus 500
Start with that and add a VGA cooler if needed. If you end up with an 8800 or something you can always add a second radiator later. The pump in there can take it with ease.
Agreed. The Corsair Nautilus is about the easiest thing in the world to work with and all of us that have used them at the [H] love them. Kyle has bought several, he uses one now, and I use one too. Mines been expanded to cover my memory cooling as well as the CPU. Still getting great temps for an overclocked quad core.
Yeah Kyle has two of them he uses for motherboard testing. He did have one on his own personal machine, but last time I checked he was using the Nautilus.
96redformula
2[H]4U
- Joined
- Oct 29, 2005
- Messages
- 2,614
Jab-tech.com has the swiftech kit for a great price.
I just installed my first watercooling setup and it was a piece of cake.
Swiftech Apex Ultra $220 + Free Shipping
http://jab-tech.com/Swiftech-Apex-Ultra-H20-220-With-Apogee-GT-pr-3198.html
I just installed my first watercooling setup and it was a piece of cake.
Swiftech Apex Ultra $220 + Free Shipping
http://jab-tech.com/Swiftech-Apex-Ultra-H20-220-With-Apogee-GT-pr-3198.html
This kit or a Petra's kit are the best kits to make the jump into the enthusiast side of watercooling. You'll get quality components that can be reused even with future upgrades. This kit will beat most corsair, koolance, zalman, TT kits in performance.
That's why you use a Apogee GTX waterblock, right?
Arcygenical
Fully [H]
- Joined
- Jun 10, 2005
- Messages
- 25,066
Yes, but Swiftech uses millitary grade cobalt/zinc coating on the aluminum parts... I doubt most manufacturers even anodize the insides of their radiators (prohibitively difficult to accomplish).
- Joined
- Jun 22, 2006
- Messages
- 1,830
.... There's nothing wrong with using Aluminium water cooling parts if you don't really care about having (by far) the best cooling performance possible.
However, doing so does restrict your future upgrade path to other Aluminimum water cooling parts should you want to add additional items into your loop.
Yeah I know if you use Pentosin/Hydrx/Anodised Aluminium/etc it won't matter blah blah blah but if you want a care-free, low maintenance loop and don't want to run the risk of crud building up then it makes sense to stick with only one type of metal in a loop where possible.
However, doing so does restrict your future upgrade path to other Aluminimum water cooling parts should you want to add additional items into your loop.
Yeah I know if you use Pentosin/Hydrx/Anodised Aluminium/etc it won't matter blah blah blah but if you want a care-free, low maintenance loop and don't want to run the risk of crud building up then it makes sense to stick with only one type of metal in a loop where possible.
Don't buy any of those high performance Swiftech blocks with the aluminum bodies mated to a copper core.
Actually there is no reason not to use aluminum so long as it is treated properly and you use anti-corrosion additives in your loop. BTW, my current loop has two silver blocks, one aluminum block, and a copper block. Runs fine and no corrosion problems. My reservoir is also made of aluminum.
Some parts of a computer don't need copper blocks to effect good cooling....
Edit: I wonder what all these people who have been bashing AC for the last couple of years for using aluminum in their loops are gonna say now that their God is using aluminum in their blocks?
Seems to me that putting aluminum right next to copper isn't too hot of an idea as we saw in the copper cores for the AC full cover 6800 blocks.Yep, you're right - which is why I don't have a high performance Swiftech block with an aluminum body - the older Apogee GT instead
However at least they're not just hard anodising it (ie. increase thickness of the protective oxide layer) - I'm sure the cobalt/zinc milspec coating is much more resistant to wear and tear.
Yeah I know that with the right anti-corrosion additives nothing should happen in a mixed-metal loop - I used to run one of my 8800's on the Koolance block - but having only one metal type in the loop means I don't need to think about changing out coolant fluid regularly because the anti-corrosion ingredient gets exhausted.
If there was a part of the computer that didn't need good cooling I wouldn't bother watercooling it at all in those cases - a decent copper or aluminium heatsink like those nice-looking enzotech ones in a adequately ventilated case would be enough....
Edit: Fixed spelling mistake
However at least they're not just hard anodising it (ie. increase thickness of the protective oxide layer) - I'm sure the cobalt/zinc milspec coating is much more resistant to wear and tear.
Yeah I know that with the right anti-corrosion additives nothing should happen in a mixed-metal loop - I used to run one of my 8800's on the Koolance block - but having only one metal type in the loop means I don't need to think about changing out coolant fluid regularly because the anti-corrosion ingredient gets exhausted.
If there was a part of the computer that didn't need good cooling I wouldn't bother watercooling it at all in those cases - a decent copper or aluminium heatsink like those nice-looking enzotech ones in a adequately ventilated case would be enough....
Edit: Fixed spelling mistake
ok I've used both kits and I can tell you that the Corsair kit is a far better newbie kit than the gigabyte one. It is much easier to install and you have less components to worry about. But anyhow, I've just install my first performance setup last week and I'd say that it's a btter idea to skip the newbie kit and jump right into the performance setup.