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Water Cooling and Case

D

dBTelos

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Apr 17, 2006
Messages
1,248
Sometime in the future (end of summer maybe) I would like to get into water cooling. Right off the bat, I will list my specs.

Ultra V-Series 500-Watt ATX Power Supply
Mach Speed K8M8MS Socket 754 MicroATX Motherboard
AMD Athlon 64 3700+ Clawhammer Processor Socket 754
120GB Samsung 7200RPM PATA HDD
320GB Western Digital 7200RPM PATA HDD
Ultra 1GB PC3200 DDR 400MHz Memory
Ultra 512MB PC3200 DDR 400MHz Memory
eVGA e-geforce 6600GT 128MB AGP 8X
Acer AL1914B 19" LCD
Mid-Tower Ultra Case w/ blue UV side window

Cooling---120mm Exhaust, 80mm side panel intake, 80mm front intake, PSU Exhaust, Stock HSF for CPU, Stock cooling for GPU, 5in drive bay enclosure with 2 fans and Heatsink to store my samsung HDD (fairly quiet).

My temps are great now but this computer is in my room and is loud like no other (similar to tornado). My case is crap and the PSU has terrible cabbling on top of me having terrible cable management which is leading up to what I am sure is bad air flow.

I have never even seen water cooling in real life and have no modding skills (don't want to get into it either). Is their some kind of guide that could help me with this, looking for a all in one kit or something that would be easy to setup, quiet, keep my parts cool, and not a lot of money.

So what I am looking for is
1) Good, fairly cheap case that would be good for water cooling
2) All-in-one water cooling kit to cool all of my parts, quietly for not a ton of money
3) A online guide of some sort to help me through all of this

No more then $300 for case and cooling.

Note: I don't plan on a major system overhaul any time soon, but the next time I buy something, it will either be a PSU or sound card. If this has anything to do with the above.

Edit: Would like the entire computer cooling completely silent, and I don't have much room to have something extra next to the case (may need for water cooing) but I have seen that these things can be on top of your case, which would be nice if the new case doesn't have things on top of it (like a spot for a fan or something). Computer will be on 24/7/Days in a year :rolleyes:
 
So what I am looking for is
1) Good, fairly cheap case that would be good for water cooling
2) All-in-one water cooling kit to cool all of my parts, quietly for not a ton of money
3) A online guide of some sort to help me through all of this
Click to expand...

1) I don't know about good and cheap, you could probably go with a Lanboy case, or maybe the aurora galaxy case. Typically the prefered is either Stacker or Armor. Some use lian li's, but I think because they already have them but thats just my assumption.
2) Swiftech Apex Ultra is probably the best all in one kit with enough flexability. Any of those $100 dollar kits you see at the computer store are not worth the effort. but if you just want noise reduction they will probably do.
3)http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=54331
 
1) Probably should of used "good and easy for water cooling" instead of just "good"
2) Yea, I'm looking more at a "series" of all in one water cooling solutions rather then a model number, as I wont be doing this right away
3) Thanks, I will look into it.
 
Ok, I have read the guide, and this is the kind of parts that I think would be good for me:

CPU Water Block: Copper, Non-Impingement (copper because the guide recommended it and non-impingement because I want low noise, and don't need something really power full with a low power pump)
Pump: DC pump, 3/8", Head pressure: about 8 feet (DC because I want something that doesn't put out a lot of heat and is small, 3/8in because I don't need a lot of power in this system as I don't overclock, low head pressure like wise)
Radiator: Purpose built Radiator, Low noise (low fins per inch), double 120mm (purpose built because I don't want to fool around with a car radiator that needs to be modded, low noise because that is pretty much why this system is being built, double 120mm because i feel it will keep the radiator cool enough)
Tubing: 3/8", Not sure if I should go for Tygon or Clearflex tubing (3/8" again because i want low noise and don't need alot of performance)
Coolant: Distilled water (recommended by the guide)
Coolant Additives: Not sure yet, but I can decide this at a later time as it isn't at all urgent
Reservoir / T-Line: Probably Reservoir not a T-Line, not sure of any other features
Fans: http://www.ebmpapst.us/ Recommended in the guide, not even sure what you need the fans for :confused:
Hose Clamps: Smooth band bolt (stainless steel) (recommended by the guide for staying in place, so no leaks which is good as I don't move the case much either)
GPU Waterblock: I have a 6600GT with stock air cooling on it, and I don't overclock. So Im guessing I don't need this
North Bridge Waterblock: My northbridge isn't being cooled right now by anything but the 80mm intakes. Do I need this part of the Water cooling loop?

One thing I noticed is that the guide didn't cover water cooling HDDs. I would like to do so to my HDDs as they are always on, being used, and my old samsung runs very hot and causes the WD to get a little hot also. What is the conclusion here?

Please, tell me other wise if any of the above isn't what I need or will work. Thanks to all.
 
Sounds like you're on the right track.

CPU Block: Swiftech Apogee. No impingement, straight pin turbulation. Very affordable and the quality should now be quite excellent.

Radiator: Black Ice Pro 2. Should work very well given practically any fan. Others recommend Yate Loon fans (available at Jab-Tech), so it seems they're a good bet. Papst and Panaflo fans are also quite good. The guide didn't properly detail the fan's role in watercooling, I imagine; they pull air through the radiator, so, yes, you still need fans.

Pump: Laing DDC, a.k.a. Swiftech MCP350. Right on the money.

Tubing: I actually prefer ClearFlex. Tygon, while capable of doing some pretty intense bends without kinking, feels rather stiff. Could be slightly more difficult to persuade into place.

Reservoir if you want one, t-line if you don't. For a t-line, I'd go with a DangerDen Fillport, but this requires a 1" holesaw to install.

As for hard drive cooling, I'd try and find a case that has 120mm fans in front to assist in cooling them. Hard drive blocks are somewhat rare and, from what I've read, not highly effective. Drive heatsinks are fairly large, so you can use moderate airflow to cool them effectively.

My suggestion for the best, easiest case is always the MountainMods UFO. These bad boys start at $270 (and roll on up to $380 or so, not including some vital accessories), so they certainly don't fit your budget. I'm not a case man, so you should probably do some of your own research on this. Ideally, you want something fairly large with as many 120mm fans/fan mounts as possible. The CoolerMaster Stacker fits the bill, but it carries with it a fair price tag: about 160 bones. Others have used the Antec P180, which seems like a fairly good case.

EDIT: Oh, and don't forget about the Koolance EXOS. This is sort of an all-in-one unit that sits on top of your case and requires no modding to install. These are about $200, and a good route to avoid hassle.
 
Wow, I just realized something.... The main reason for me wanting to water cool is low noise while keeping parts very cool. I just realized with the Ante P180 you can have very cool componants and a quiet computer with air cooling. I would just set the fans that it comes with to the low setting, and take out the top exhaust fan for less noise. I think I will get a fan less Heat sink with the extra money to keep the HDD cool and the Video card should stay cool on its stock fan. In the bottom I will be looking for a PSU with high efficency and has the removable cables. I will probably purchase some IDE round cables for better air flow throughout the case. If I have heat problems I could move the out of use 120mm that it comes with the a front intake.
 
You might look into a koolance system they are pretty good im at the moment using one an old pc2-601 cooling a amd x2 3800 and it is doing a good job. only cost me 160.00bucks new four years ago and has never faild yet running 24/7
 
If you think you can get temperatures that are adequate for you (not OCing helps) with a nice, large heatsink (Scythe Ninja propabaly ;)), then go for it. Water cooling will be able to get you lower temperatures and the potential for even less noise, butit's good that you're doing your research. The money you would have from not getting a loop would be able to fund your new heatsinks, fans, and possibly even a new video card.
 
If you wanna go with a no-fan aircooled setup, check out the new Noctua NH-U12 on voyeurmods.com frontpage... looks stunning and MEAN. Mmm. You could almost mount a seat on it and ride it to work.
 
The Ninja looks like it is what I'm looking for. Thanks to all..... also, to anyone that owns a p180 by antec, how do you control the fan speed? It says that you can control them with three speeds. I just don't know how (don't have the case yet just wondering)?
 
The antec tri-cool fans have a little switch connected to them that lets you set L M H. You cant control it without opening the case because it is a switch connected to the fan, not a PWM controller.

Also I would advise against rounded IDE cables. People think they provide better airflow, but really the flat cables can be folded so that they lie flat against the wall of the case. The flat cables are easier to get out of the way, and therefore provide less resistance to airflow.
 
Ok. So the P180 comes with 3 fans. 2 in the top chamber, one of which is connected to the "ceiling of the case" and one is in a standard exhaust style location. Both of these can be controled with this so called switch to low, medium, and high. The third fan is a smaller fan in the bottom chamber between the HDD area and the PSU area. My questions are the following:

Can the fan in the bottom chamber be set to different speeds? Low medium and high?
Can I get a speed controller to control the speeds possibly? How would that work?
Last, since both the HDD chamber and the PSU chamber are producing heat, where would the cool air come from in the bottom chamber? Is it exhausting air from the HDD area and blowing it on the PSU or the other way around?
 
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