Water Cooling for Mid-size Tower

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Priest +

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Okay as it is there isn't much room in this tower let me give you the setup.

ultra connect-x PSU
DVD-ROM
DVD-Burner
Sound Blaster Audigy ZS 2 Platinum (with the 5.25 bay interface)
Albatron 6800GT
Phone Modem PCi card
4 sticks of RAM (pc3200 512mb)
3.5 floppy drive of course
Three Hard drives (soon to have one more as soon as I can get my hands on another SATA)
and of course the processor with the stock heatsink and fan on it. Now I've also got two fans in front of the hard drives two behind the processor ont he back and one just oevr the processor on the side.

I hit the gaming a little hard last night and the temp in my PC got up to 135 F. Now most of you would say this is normal, but see it gets extremely hot in my room with this PC. I have to open a window and stick a fan on the window sill to pullin cool air so I don't pass out, anyhow. I want to look into water cooling and I was wondering if anyone could recomend a kit or brand that has the parts I need for the commonents I have and yet is still small enough to go in my case and will be able to cool it off. Plus I hear its a lot quieter to have water cooled systems than fans. So work that over let me know what you think.
 
First of all, having a watercooled system WILL NOT decrease the temperature in your room. Whether you are cooling with watercooling, or phase change, the processor still puts off the same amount of heat which will still find its way into the air. In fact, the more extreme the cooling the HOTTER your room would be. The main point with the extreme cooling is that it takes the heat away from the processor much quicker, other things besides the processor (like the pump in a watercooling loop or the condensor in a a phase change system) will get very hot, but they are designed for that.

Anyways, it seems like your case is very full, you might have room for an internal DIY system or kit, I am not sure how big the ZS Platinum Drive bay thing is. You should definitely be able to fit at least a single 120mm radiator on the top. You may be better suited either getting a Koolance EXOS, or building a DIY kit, but containing the pump and the radiator in a self constructed external box. Watercooling systems still require fans on the radiator, however these are usually large 120mm fans that you can often times run at very low speeds, and hence can be very quiet. There is the Reserator from Zalman which is a fanless radiator kit. It doesn't provide the best cooling but for non overclocked systems it works well enough.

Hopefully this will help you decide what to do.
 
Erasmus354 said:
First of all, having a watercooled system WILL NOT decrease the temperature in your room. Whether you are cooling with watercooling, or phase change, the processor still puts off the same amount of heat which will still find its way into the air. In fact, the more extreme the cooling the HOTTER your room would be. The main point with the extreme cooling is that it takes the heat away from the processor much quicker, other things besides the processor (like the pump in a watercooling loop or the condensor in a a phase change system) will get very hot, but they are designed for that.

Anyways, it seems like your case is very full, you might have room for an internal DIY system or kit, I am not sure how big the ZS Platinum Drive bay thing is. You should definitely be able to fit at least a single 120mm radiator on the top. You may be better suited either getting a Koolance EXOS, or building a DIY kit, but containing the pump and the radiator in a self constructed external box. Watercooling systems still require fans on the radiator, however these are usually large 120mm fans that you can often times run at very low speeds, and hence can be very quiet. There is the Reserator from Zalman which is a fanless radiator kit. It doesn't provide the best cooling but for non overclocked systems it works well enough.

Hopefully this will help you decide what to do.
Click to expand...

The ZS 2 platinum bay device is not that big its shorter than a CD-ROM module. A DIY kit huh? hmmm is it okay to mix and match components? So long as everything has the same size fitting I guess. I see a lot of people use danger den, but I've also heard that koolance is the best. I'll just have to figure it out on me own I guess!
 
With the amount of hardware in your PC, i think you should consider theKoolance Exos.
I own one, and i love it. It does a great job of cooling, for stock and over clocked systems and it is very easy to install. Best part is you can move it from case to case as you upgrade.

Koolance just released the Exos 2 which from what i've gathered can handle more heat and uses bigger tubing 3/8 i think. It also uses 120mm fans now.
 
Yeah. The Exos is good stuff and simple. It's good for getting your feet wet. (pun intended).


 
I wouldn't get the Exos-2 unless the price on it comes down a good bit (isnt the msrp like 350$?), that thing is EXPENSIVE. You can build your own, higher performance, DIY kit for much less. The regular Exos however can be had for a pretty decent price. Perhaps after the Exos-2 is out for awhile the price will come down to its performance category.

The only thing to worry about when mixing/matching components is getting aluminum and copper in the same loop. Those two metals will cause corrosion, this however can be prevented by the proper use of anti-corrosion agents in the loop (which you should be adding regardless simply as a precaution).
 
for ease of use the Exos get's top marks and while it'll perform as well or better than any HSF it's not on the same level as a good DIY system.
 
Thats nice, but what if I just wanted to mount everything ON the case? on top, maybe put the resivour on the side? Ya kow kind of dress up the case it self? Then work around that when modding my case later?
 
you could do that yes, go for the whole industrial look or something, you're going to have to clean your rad off a hell of a lot more if it's sitting out in the open though, believe me.

but if you can get that look to work, more power to you. you can probably find a bunch of people around here who have thought along the sames lines as you, and probably posted pics of their systems too.
 
im in your same situation..i have a nice lian li 65 that took me forever to find and don't want to chop it up for a wc system..but i need the wc.... i have see lots of nice rigs with the systems on top. I thought about the exos but want a diy...
I have seen radiators on top with the fans and a sweet res to make it look hawt!! the pump can be inside and such and they looked nice as hell :)
 
Okay SHOPPING LIST!!!!

Basic water cooling setup....

Pump
Radiator
CPU block
GPU Block
tubes...

what else?
 
Priest + said:
Okay SHOPPING LIST!!!!

Basic water cooling setup....

Pump
Radiator
CPU block
GPU Block
tubes...

what else?
Click to expand...

got fan/fans for the radiator? I am not sure what else would be needed though :O
 
tehspankeh said:
got fan/fans for the radiator? I am not sure what else would be needed though :O
Click to expand...

I have 5 80MM fans on my cause surely one of them can be for the radiator. I am also going to need a resivour.
 
Priest + said:
I have 5 80MM fans on my cause surely one of them can be for the radiator. I am also going to need a resivour.
Click to expand...

yea that should be good :D
the res is a tuffy for me cause i want a real nice looking res to mount externally and also want the aquatube one for the front of my case hehee.....i see a large bill comin for these parts!! heheh...it will be worth it though :)
 
nice stuff...that should make for a real good setup and give you all the pleasures you want out of it... i look on that site all the time and drool like a mad man haha... when i saw the links..automatic drool set in hahah...

here is what i have been looking at so far....

http://snt-systems.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=28&products_id=36

kinda pricey and i still need to get the res i want for external mounting and then the vid card setup and cpu..........

http://snt-systems.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=23&products_id=28

http://snt-systems.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=31&products_id=152[/url
 
I just thought of something else. I'm thinking of buying a new computer desk, but the one I have in mind has a closed little cabinent for my tower... is this bad? Will the water cooling help keep temperatures low when inside that cabinet?
 
Priest + said:
I just thought of something else. I'm thinking of buying a new computer desk, but the one I have in mind has a closed little cabinent for my tower... is this bad? Will the water cooling help keep temperatures low when inside that cabinet?
Click to expand...

well if it is an enclosed area, the heat won't leave that area..a buddy of mine has a desk like that and ended up cutting a blow whole in the back and mounted a 120mm fan in there to pull out the heat... it was still very quiet and helped out alot....
 
tehspankeh said:
well if it is an enclosed area, the heat won't leave that area..a buddy of mine has a desk like that and ended up cutting a blow whole in the back and mounted a 120mm fan in there to pull out the heat... it was still very quiet and helped out alot....
Click to expand...

well the desk I have in mind, there isn't a door on the front but there is that thin card boad backing... I figure I'll just cut the whole thing out behind the tower to all for air, yeah that'll work.
 
Priest + said:
well the desk I have in mind, there isn't a door on the front but there is that thin card boad backing... I figure I'll just cut the whole thing out behind the tower to all for air, yeah that'll work.
Click to expand...


that would work for the back but if you have no door on the front, u shouldnt have to worry about it then :)
 
tehspankeh said:
if you have no door on the front, u shouldnt have to worry about it then :)
Click to expand...

Good form!! I'm too lazy to do all that cutting anyway I'd litterally take a kitchen knife and just butcher the back of the desk until I had a hole big enough to run cords through :cool:
 
Priest + said:
Good form!! I'm too lazy to do all that cutting anyway I'd litterally take a kitchen knife and just butcher the back of the desk until I had a hole big enough to run cords through :cool:
Click to expand...


hahahah...sounds like meh sometimes hahahah :D
 
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