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Watercooler Virgin :P

M

Magic Wok

n00b
Joined
Feb 28, 2007
Messages
36
Hey guys,

I've been a good guy and saved, now I'm waiting for the Q6600 price drop coming up soon till I purchase ;)

I've been reading up on overclocking the Q6600, and it seems in all cases that air-cooling will only get you so far. I'm not after bleeding the thing to death, but a good stable OC. Also my main priority is to try and get my rig as quiet as possible.

So I'd like to know, since it's my first attempt at watercooling - do I get a kit or go for the parts seperately? If so, what do I need to order so have a complete setup for my cpu & gpu?

As mentioned, I'm going for a q6600, a 8800 GTX housed in the Antec P182 which has features already there for the watercooling set up. Priority for me is reliability and quietness, and I know they both come at a price, but like everyone here - always looking to save a bob or two if I can. Based in the UK if it makes any difference.

Cheers everyone!
 
I'm not after bleeding the thing to death, but a good stable OC. Also my main priority is to try and get my rig as quiet as possible.
Click to expand...

All you need is pump, radiator,water block(s), tubing, possibly some band clamps and several liters of distilled water. Anything else is an accessory, reservoirs are nice but do not improve cooling, convenience in filling, getting the air out is nice. Fill port will do the same thing just takes a bit longer.

To get right to it, with a 2 x 120 rad of any decent manuf, and a good quality pump you will be able to easily meet your goal stated above. IMO matching the pump to the water block type would be about the only thing of major concern and along with that keep an eye on the inlet/outlet dimensions of the radiator fittings.

You did not mention a budget, so ...

I use a kit that was a good value for the money and works very well. However with 2 rads it poses issues as to where to mount the rads. I wanted something I could get up and running fast so I could "play toys" asap. The kit I used is about the only one out there I would even start to recommend and the other Tt kits are junk.

Individual parts are the way to go if you can, more choice, better quality etc. However here is a page of "Kits" which are very good quality individual components that have been combined into a "package" (don't want to call them kits) by a knowledgeable person that visits this forum and I trust to know what he is doing. What I am saying is, I am not sure if he ships to the UK but his "packages" provide a very good idea of balanced parts, that work well together, in several price ranges and would be a good guide.

http://www.petrastechshop.com/wacoki.html

I am not about to get into individual parts, plenty of posts will follow mine that "x" is the best and "y" sucks. Frankly if you buy good quality stuff, install it properly, its very difficult to go wrong. This is not rocket science ;) I do not like mixing AL an Cu, but plenty of threads on that, done with proper percautions its ok I guess. I just avoid the hassle.

The most important thing I think I can pass along is that the efficiency of the whole system, regardless of what you buy (assuming its not total rubbish), is going to be airflow through the radiator and the temp of the input air flow through the rad and the size of the rad. In other words, its all about the rad, if the other parts are of reasonable quality. That is where your cooling potential is. You mention quiet as a main goal, me too, however I have discovered you can have your cake and eat it too. I recommend you do NOT use super quiet fans. Instead get good quality medium speed fans and run them on a Vantec Fan Mate fan controller (very cheap, simple, easy to mount, etc.) and you can dial in the compromise, because that is exactly what it is, between noise and cooling.

The second most important thing, If you have not already bought it, I do not care much for that case, the only good place to mount a 2 x 120 rad is in the top of the case which is not a bad thing, actually would work well with the rad fans inside sucking cool air in through the rad on the top and blowing down around the CPU area to provide airflow for the CPU voltage regulator FETS and other components. It would be warm air but thats OK, its the air movement that counts. However if you have space a full tower case is usually better for a first time installation just because of the room inside. However I have no idea of your DIY skill level. If making a cutout for a rad in the top of that case and working up mounting and perhaps some trim, they have nice grills now that would make the top of the rad attractive, is not a problem then that case is fine. Only you know the answer to that :) . While you are looking at other components any spare brain power should go into exactly where and how you are going to mount the rad. Once that is figured out, the rest is easy. Difficult to stress enough, the rad and where you mount it are the first thing to figure out.

Summary: its all about the radiator, sort out exactly where and how of that bit and the rest comes easy. (and never underestimate the cooling capacity of a good sized auto heater core if you are on a budget. I love these things - http://www.dangerden.com/store/product.php?productid=48&cat=14&page=1
More trouble to mount but for the money hard to beat. ) but may not be "nice" enough, its a taste thing, as an engineer I put function ahead of form, again any good quality 2x120 will do the job, 1 x 120 no, not with the vid card and quad core. 3x120 well, I don't think its required, others might disagree, and with rads more IS better. /shrug.

OH heres a good tip, mount your board in the case with just 2 screws, with a pencil mark the mounting holes for the CPU heatsink mounting you will use for the block through the motherboard and onto the case's mounting panel. Remove the board and drill/cut a 1 inch hole (or remove a large square of material) in the mounting plate. This is so that you can get to the block mounting from the underside of the board by taking the right side panel off. This allows you to "adjust/remove/mount/change" the block without having to remove the board. Believe me, its worth the price of a 1" metal cutting hole saw.

Leak test before you energize the motherboard.
 
Wow, thanks for the post! I'm probably looking to spend at most £250 to get something decent and quiet. I can of course always be persuaded to spend more (or less) if it is really neccesary - as this is my first foray, I'm not so clued up as to what is a decent budget for a w/c outfit :)

A friend just emailed me this product:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=WC-008-ZA

He mentioned buying this, and swapping out the blocks for the 'DangerDen' CPU and GTX blocks. Would this unit be sufficiently capable for an O/C of the q6600 and the 8800?
 
ultimate all-in-one cooling solution.
Click to expand...

LOL, how do they get away with that !

hmmm. Ok that tells me you are placing a little more emphasis on quiet than the OC (with a quad thats probally a good choice, you are going to have the horse power just by having the 4 cores).

I will try to keep this post shorter, I do tend to ramble on.

I (personally) dont care for it, at all. It will be very quiet certainly, too quiet, air flowing over the fins is what removes heat. Without fans and relying on natural convection (unless you are in a cool environment, like a basement all the time, preferably a drafty one :D ) you will probally limit your OC with that (even taking into account you are not shooting for the moon). Perhaps fans could be fitted but then what would be the point. I am sure that would be fine for stock, but with the high powered vid card and a quad cpu, passive cooling is a big risk if you game and will be running the machine at close to 100% utilization (even if just on 2 of the 4 cores). It might be fine, but as I mentioned above airflow through the rad is what gets rid of your heat.

However how do you feel about it as a solution as far as not having to fit a rad to the case ? It this more of what you were thinking of ? If so that is information that is critical for good advice and helps put the rest of us heading in your direction of thought.
 
Another thought on that, swapping out components is normally a mistake with those, the supplied blocks have been designed as part of the system for flow etc. You can spend 50 euro on what would normally be a better block in a conventional system and end up with worse temps when that same part is swapped into an "all in one" solution.

Also if the pump fails the whole thing is instantly in the bin, check the warranty lenght.
 
I don't mind have the pump/reservoir outside of the case. However if having everything inside the case is more efficient and has better potential - then I'm all up for that and any DIY or work that it may entail :)

I'm not pigeon-holeing any situation, I'm open to suggestions and definately looking to learn from you all as I have 0 experience compared to you all. If buying seperates is definately the way to go, you wwon't get any arguments from me. I was just trying to see what kind of response from the Zalman kit, as it did look interesting at least on paper!

I would like to hit the 3Ghz mark on the q6600, just because I know the chip is capable of that (and more). But as you said - main emphasis on trying to create a quiet rig ;)
 
You won't need WCing if you're only looking for 3ghz on a Q6600 to be quiet. I can get 3ghz on my Q6600 with less than stock volts (1.21v). If you're looking for an OC of 3.6ghz or so, then WCing is what you'll need to keep it quiet, as you'll probably need to run 1.47-1.55v to get to 3.6ghz.
 
Since your in the UK you would pay a premium for USA based water cooling companies products. Why don't you check out Aqua PC's webshop? You might also look at the new Aqua Computer Aquaduct 240 series. The thing to avoid are the Laing DDC series pumps as they have a reliability issue. Thermochill radiators would also be good if you are looking for a component solution since you are from the UK.

Another thing to keep in mind is that tubing size has very little to do with temp difference unless you are looking to eek out the last few tenths C of cooling capability.
 
Magic Wok said:
Hey guys,

I've been a good guy and saved, now I'm waiting for the Q6600 price drop coming up soon till I purchase ;)

I've been reading up on overclocking the Q6600, and it seems in all cases that air-cooling will only get you so far. I'm not after bleeding the thing to death, but a good stable OC. Also my main priority is to try and get my rig as quiet as possible.

So I'd like to know, since it's my first attempt at watercooling - do I get a kit or go for the parts seperately? If so, what do I need to order so have a complete setup for my cpu & gpu?

As mentioned, I'm going for a q6600, a 8800 GTX housed in the Antec P182 which has features already there for the watercooling set up. Priority for me is reliability and quietness, and I know they both come at a price, but like everyone here - always looking to save a bob or two if I can. Based in the UK if it makes any difference.

Cheers everyone!
Click to expand...

Thermochill PA120.2 radiator, Swiftech Apogee GTX for your Quadcore, Laing DDC 9w pump (3.1 revision I believe).

Thermochills are made in the UK and are considered the best performing radiators hands down. Since you're in the UK, you won't get taxed like us Yanks. They're optimized for low speed fans so you'll be able to obtain maintain effective cooling for your radiator even with low CFM fans.

The Laing DDC pump comes in two models, the 9w and the 18w model. The 9w isn't as powerful as its 18w cousin, but it's much quieter and is compact. They are produced in the EU, so once again, you won't likely be paying any outrageous import fees.

The only import I'd suggest would be the Apogee GTX. They're the top performers for quad cores.

Yate Loon fans are quiet, cheap, and effective, especially in conjunction with a Thermochill radiator.

If you prefer the kit route, like Bill, I'd suggest calling up Petra's tech shop. They're more than happy to spend a lot of time answering your questions and making sure you make the right decision for your needs, even if they can't supply the bulk of your order.
 
Lots to look at already! Thanks a lot - I'm not sure what route to take as of yet. Have a bit of research, didn't know about that website, looks like a really good place to start...

I'll also take a good look at Petra's shop. Talking one to one with someone would actually be a really good way for someone to explain my millions of questions in one go lol

I'll keep you informed of the choices I think I'll go for, and if you guys could let me know if I'm on the right track or not, or to swap out one component for another, do tell when it comes the time.

Again, thanks for the help :D
 
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