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water cooling upgrade, symphony ?

M

mega72

n00b
Joined
Sep 19, 2006
Messages
25
currently using a bigwater se, I believe I have a couple problems, 1 the radiator/reservoir is too small (added more volume, same temp in 30 minutes), 2 the water flow is too low, 3 the CPU block design isnt very good, single channel, not much water/copper surface area, The pulldown from water temp to cpu temp isnt great on this water block, 40c water, 60c temp

The thermaltake symphony mini looks simply excellent, this should give room for growth, I'll be adding VGA waterblocks for my 7950 later

does it need anything? I'm not impresssed with the SE's waterblock, not sure if the symphony's is the same S channel design, I was thinking a swiftech waterblock, and possibly a swiftech MCP655 pump

my concern was, does the radiator run a closed loop with one pump, and the cpu get the coolant from the other? If so I can simply upgrade the cpu pump to the mcp655, drop in the swiftech apogee and I should be good to go.

I have the bigwater SE radiator in the case, that'll get yanked, put in my kids computer, and a large fan put in it's place for better drive/MB cooling

I have a feeling I'll want to bump up the fan's for more airflow on the radiators, I really think 90l/h water flow is too low for overclocking, the reviews also showed under load it was not great, but it looks like a pretty clean setup to work with.

the big symphony is only 50 $ more, worth the difference? 3x fans vs 5x fans
 
1) I was/am "old school" 1/2 id hose, high flow, big whoping heater core, big pump kinda guy.

2) I have been semi-converted. see my sig.

3) Both the units you are looking at have the anemic 90L/H pump and 1/4 inch hose and crappy block.

No matter HOW much water you put in, it will eventually rise to the system temp. i.e, more water does nothing for loop temps once the system stabilizes, (as you found out ).

If you change out the hose/block and pump you are basicly buying a very nice looking rad, not sure its worth it.

If looks are important, then they are important and go with it, but the (edit : should be Bigwater not tidewater) tidewater in my sig does a HELL of a job ( I was not expecting to be impressed) with 3/8 id hose, decent block and 400L/H pump/res.

The overclock in my sig is my 24x7 settings and all 3 fans on low. As I sit here with just browser open in a warm room (about 80F) coretemp is 43c and per gigabytes health monitor system is at 36C/96F and cpu is at 28C/82F. I am floored by the performance/price ratio of the Bigwater but its ugly compared to the symphony.

Symphony is designed for low noise and good looks and as you have already figured out will need major overhaul to work with high overclock. It sure looks nice tho.
 
Agreed... The bigwater is more like a big mistake, dont waste time/money on any thermaltake watercooling.

Ditch the thermaltake and redo the loop with some quality parts. In addition to the mcp655/laing d5 and apogee that you mentioned a 2x120 rad would be a good idea if your adding a vga block. Something like a BIP, GT, or BIX if you have higher cfm fans.
 
come on man... thermaltake is for the people who buy their motherboard, CPU and RAM at compusa.... i should know i work there :)
 
I have not seen any external radiators that my wife would possibly permit in the office, that's my main problem

sugestions? really I was going to gut the sympony and use a much better pump & waterblock
 
I followed the links posted, but I'm definitly not finding anything I could use, unless I hang the radiator off the back of the computer, and I really dont want to do that

I'm thinking the thermaltake radiator (its HUGE 5x fans) is fine, only limitation will be the 1/4" inlet/outlet, but a good pump should be ok, I'll run probably 1/2" tubing everywhere

unless I missed something? the only other external setups are passive, and none got very good reviews when overclocking


unless I spend 600 $ on the Koolance PC4-1025, I have not seen any bad reviews on that, but I have not seen any bad ones on the thermaltake symphony either, but I know full well the pumps on that thing suck, and the water block isnt very good
 
BillParrish said:
If looks are important, then they are important and go with it, but the tidewater in my sig does a HELL of a job ( I was not expecting to be impressed) with 3/8 id hose, decent block and 400L/H pump/res.

Symphony is designed for low noise and good looks and as you have already figured out will need major overhaul to work with high overclock. It sure looks nice tho.
Click to expand...

I did consider the Tidewater, but it's not going to pass the wife test for sure, so far the only one that does is the symphony, 5xfan or 3xfan

Kinda hoping someone had one, and had upgraded the pumps & hose size to get feedback
 
mega72 said:
I followed the links posted, but I'm definitly not finding anything I could use, unless I hang the radiator off the back of the computer, and I really dont want to do that

I'm thinking the thermaltake radiator (its HUGE 5x fans) is fine, only limitation will be the 1/4" inlet/outlet, but a good pump should be ok, I'll run probably 1/2" tubing everywhere

unless I missed something? the only other external setups are passive, and none got very good reviews when overclocking


unless I spend 600 $ on the Koolance PC4-1025, I have not seen any bad reviews on that, but I have not seen any bad ones on the thermaltake symphony either, but I know full well the pumps on that thing suck, and the water block isnt very good
Click to expand...

What case are you using? Just mount the rad internally, much cleaner that way.

Doesnt matter if you use a good pump and 1/2id elsewhere, if you have 1/4id in the same loop it will kill your flow.

Don't even bother with the Koolance... While it may be better than some of the thermaltake offerings it doesnt give you better performance than a custom setup.
 
Using a thermaltake swing case, the thermaltake SE radiator fits ok

a case upgrade is not out of the question, but I cant use a taller case or it wont fit all the way under my desk
 
I hear ya on the wife thing if you can stand the cost I think that will work well as the rad for a more custom system. from what can see in the pictures its buit the same as my bigwater rads with copper tubes running thru alum fins, flow is not all that restrictive, espically compared to the flat tube heatercore types most "high end" WC setups use.

I am fairly certain the rad in the smyphony is just a larger version of the 2x120 and 1x 120 in my bigwater and even with fans on low it cools the crap out of my OCed conroe with Tt 400L/h pump and mediocre cpu block. So think it will be fine with upgraded stuff.
 
I will NOT custom build, I cant do it, sorry, it always turns out ugly and the wife bitches


the symphony radiator is HUGE, 5x fans on the thing, I'm going to get one and upgrade the pumps, lines & waterblock
 
Not to mention saving 10 hours of work and running back and forth to a hardware store 19 billion times,
 
that's not why I'm getting one, although all it really is, is a huge radiator and some fans, the rest will be replaced


it passes the WIFE test
 
come one man if the tidewater fits any 120mm rad would fit... dont buy it you will regret it..

just get a sythe ninja or an XP-120 or SI-122

stay with air dont get the tidewater or any thermaltake anything..

honestly they do not meet performance of good air!!!!!!

get this rad

http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=200&products_id=4536

this pump
http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=201&products_id=4508

this block

http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=199&products_id=3825


and this tubing
http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=292&products_id=3705

10 feet

and 1/2 barbs no clamps needed..

and get this 120mm fan

http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=49&products_id=4168

it will KILL any thermaltake crap
 
yeah, it passes, it matches our big speakers for the projector in the room next to it
 
I don't get it. Just don't bother with watercooling then. You'll regret buying anything made by TT.
 
hmmm

I do not regret my current TT setup at all, but I know it wont handle my 7950 added to it
 
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