Virgin watercooler, eval system

[Menelmarar]

Along time ago I decided I wanted to watercool for my next system. My PC stays in my bedroom so a cool quiet running computer is highly desired. See computer in Sig, Enermax full tower with multiple RAID arrays and 13 fans if I can recall them all from memory. Saying this system sounds like a jet airline in my room would be an understatement.

I've been drooling over Conroe since the rumors started probably last fallish or earlier. I saw today in the Intel forums ASUS's first official Core 2 Duo mobo is out on newegg, so good time to weigh in on what I think I want to build.

I selected a P4 950 at $318 (last I heard the Core 2 Duo E6600 2.4GHz
was gonna run $314) so it's a good price place holder for my planning to see my costs for release next month. *NOTE I'm not buying anything until I can get everything at one time*

I like the X1900's feature set alot, in my experience ATI drivers are better, but from reviews I've seen and general impression I've got from the forums is that it's a very power hungry and hot GPU. I ahve no problem with nVidia particularly, I have a 6800GT now, Radeon 9700PRO previously, and when my 6800GT failed once BFG was excellent to do an RMA even when I didn't have the receipt or proof of purchase. So I'm looking at the 7900GT's, they are cheaper, but they have VREG reliability problems and prone to failure. Leaves me at the 7800GT, known for running cool and nvidia used a new process on it when coming up from the 6800's that consumed much less power and only needed a single slot heatsink/fan. So even though ti's only a moderate upgrade from my 6800GT it seems like a good enough choice to tide over a year or two until DX10 is really needed.

Koolance Water Cooling

Newegg PC components

Remember I'm a noob, not eager to buy a dremel set and become proficient with it to mod up a system, and I don't want an external system with resoivoirs sitting outside my case, I really dig the idea of a completely contained system, etc :-/

 

[danks]

I'm really only working on my second w/c project but I can chime in. I'll say that for just starting out the koolance system is very easy to setup. The problem with them however is cost... usually not cheap and the performance isn’t really better than a DIY system. The one you posted is rated at 380w and while this may be sufficient for a single cpu and vid card I doubt you will have much headroom for o/cing (if you even plan to).

If you can swing it I would at least look at the PC3-7 series. These are rated at 700w and also use the larger 10mm tubing. The other option is to just buy the koolance hx-360 single 120mm rad and integrate it into the exisitng loop for added cooling performance.

 

[Menelmarar]

I'm really only working on my second w/c project but I can chime in. I'll say that for just starting out the koolance system is very easy to setup. The problem with them however is cost... usually not cheap and the performance isn’t really better than a DIY system. The one you posted is rated at 380w and while this may be sufficient for a single cpu and vid card I doubt you will have much headroom for o/cing (if you even plan to).

If you can swing it I would at least look at the PC3-7 series. These are rated at 700w and also use the larger 10mm tubing. The other option is to just buy the koolance hx-360 single 120mm rad and integrate it into the exisitng loop for added cooling performance.

The one I put in the checkout is the $324 PLUS version. It has the additional radiator in the front. From Koolance's website description:
"The PC3-426+ features dual radiators, nearly doubling cooling performance to approximately 680W. "

Is that adequate now? Overclocking is in the plan, though not extreme measures. I'd like to see the 2.4 Conroe hit nice even 3GHz or so. I'd think that's doable. I have some overclocking experience, dad's 1.6A running at 2.4 for close to 4 years now, recently helped a friend build and setup a 2.8presler solidly running on air at 3.8.

The PC3-7 series is ok... It's a full tower like many friends, and my father use, and is the same size as my current Enermax tower. I'd kinda like to downsize my primary box and move the server tower into a closet somewhere I wont notice the noise and hopefully the heat as much either. Also when I downgrade my current box to server status it'll be dropping to an old ABIT SA6R pentium 3 setup. Which will be fine for serving files and doing the little bit of dabbling I plan on using it for.

 

[danks]

The one I put in the checkout is the $324 PLUS version. It has the additional radiator in the front. From Koolance's website description:
"The PC3-426+ features dual radiators, nearly doubling cooling performance to approximately 680W. "

Is that adequate now? Overclocking is in the plan, though not extreme measures. I'd like to see the 2.4 Conroe hit nice even 3GHz or so. I'd think that's doable. I have some overclocking experience, dad's 1.6A running at 2.4 for close to 4 years now, recently helped a friend build and setup a 2.8presler solidly running on air at 3.8.

The PC3-7 series is ok... It's a full tower like many friends, and my father use, and is the same size as my current Enermax tower. I'd kinda like to downsize my primary box and move the server tower into a closet somewhere I wont notice the noise and hopefully the heat as much either. Also when I downgrade my current box to server status it'll be dropping to an old ABIT SA6R pentium 3 setup. Which will be fine for serving files and doing the little bit of dabbling I plan on using it for.

ahh didnt notice it includes the extra rad... yeah if thats the case im sure you will be fine