watercooling kits for socket 939?
 

Hey guys,

Ive spent the last two years saving up for a new rig. So now my budget is decent, but my experience is non-existant.

At this point these are my planned specs.

Athlon64 FX-53 (939)
MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum
1GB OCZ EB PC3500
ATI Radeon X800 Pro
2x WD Raptor 36.7GB Raid 0
1 WD Caviar 200GB
Lian Li PC6070B
Sound Blaster Audigy 2
Creative Megaworks 6.1
DELL 2001FP

Im hoping to cool the CPU, GPU using watercooling but Im having a problem finding a kit that is compatible with socket 939.

As much as Id like to use DIY solution, given my lack of experience, I prolly wont.

Any suggestions?

Also, if anyone feels any of the components I mentioned above should be changed... please let me know.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

-ad187

Nice! except I would get a mitsubishi crt and logitch z680 for speakers...but thats just me [-_o]..

The best thing to do would be put togather one yourself. Since I've done so much research on socket 939 cooling I can definatally give you some suggestions.

I know your not very open minded about "DIY" stuff, but basically you'll have to do the same amount of work for a kit (mounting waterblocks, connecting tubes, and bleeding air bubles). So you might as well go for performance and efficiency:

CPU WATERBLOCK: for an AMD64 processor, the swiftech 6000 seiries is about the best performance you can get, and the only high performer than is redily available (to my knowledge).

Then comes the pump, tubing, tubing clamps, radiator(and fan), gpu block, and distilled water.
The radiator will depend on the size of your case (and where you will mount it).

As you can see, its quite simple. You will definatally prefer putting it togather in the long run. Way easier to upgrade, fix, and optimize.
___________________________________________

Hope that makes it easier... Instead of the usual replier being really indirect so you have to figure everything out yourself...

Thanks man,

I'm gonna look into the swiftech block.

I was hoping to keep the setup as silent as I could. Do you have any suggestions on the components I could use?

Oh and about the CRT's, I had to rule em out early cuz I dont have the desk space.

-ad187

That's quite a budget you have. I'm jealous.

The swiftech mcw50 gpu cooler has been tested at overclockers.com, and fits your card. http://www.overclockers.com/articles977/

Skip the RAID-0. It only risks losing your data: see here:
http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=2101

You have some challenges ahead to make that a quiet rig, not to mention silent.

WC on the CPU and GPU is a good start, but you'll want the largest (except thickness) radiator you can fit. Putting a large radiator into a 6070 won't be easy, and that case has very limited air intake. You need to commit to modding it or choose something else. Finally, most hardcore silencers add damping materials to aluminum cases; steel may not require this.

Those WD drives are a problem as well. The 37GB Raptors are noisier - and slower - than the new 74GB version. There is no 200GB Raptor, but the standard WD JBs are very loud drives. If you're more interested in performance than quiet, I'd suggest a 74GB Raptor plus a 160GB Samsung SP1614. Go with 2 1614s if quiet is more important. You'll want to decouple any HDs from the case in some manner to help reduce vibration.

To get the very best performance (especially out a case with few fan intakes/outakes), some people cut a hole the size of their radiator in the top (usually dual 120). I dont know if your up to cutting that hole (I wouldn't be), but if you are, you now have an easy way of keeping your case non-cluttered, and a really high performance radiator that gets air directly from outside.

The pictures here: http://www.cluboverclocker.com/revie...070b/page2.htm
give you a better idea of where you can place the radiator. I'm not sure exactly where you would place it at first... Consider the 'make a hole in the top of your case' idea first.

You aint gonna loze your data! The risk is very small, and I wouldn't consider buying more expensive raptors to image my other raptors, when I have a very small chance of losing data in the first place. The solution to most computer problems applies here: don't use winblowz...

The case already has sufficient dampening. Silence won't be so much of a problem, It isnt usually a problem even if you have an all fan rig.

How effective would the Zalman Reserator w/ Swiftech waterblocks on both CPU and GPU be?

I don't need to make this a hardcore w/c system but just enough to OC the FX-53 to FX-55 speeds and the X800 Pro to XT speeds.

The Zalmans dropped in price significantly and is now available for around $180 (used to be $300). It's also the only kit thats made to be silent and saves me the effort of modding my case. (I read the other thread and wanted to clarify that seeing as to how strongly some people feel against the reserator)

Also, does anyone know if theres a Reserator 2 in the making?

Oh and I meant 200GB Caviar in my earlier post, thats been fixed.

RAID-0's fine. I know the risks of losing data but as for all my important data, its gonna be on the Caviar. The Raptors are there simply for the little 5-10% avg. bump in performance

-ad187

I already got the raptors man, so that part I wont be able to change.

I looked into the Samsung and it seems like a good idea. Just that it costs as much as the 200GB Caviar.

Would it help if I used a hard drive silencer on the caviar? or would it still be too noisy?

-ad187

Have you considered something like the swiftech H20-120 Kit?
I'd think it would be much better for OCing than the Zalman Reserator.

I have a caviar JB in a 'smart drive' enclosure, and it's very quiet.

As far as the reserator goes, read this thread here for some perspective:

http://forums.procooling.com/vbb/sho...ight=reserator

It may meet your relatively easy overclocking goals (as opposed to getting those core speeds from a 2000MHz chip).

Did you mean to H20-220 kit? I couldnt find info on the H20-120

I just looked into it the 220. It seems like an excellent solution. Its got some of the better components which Ive seen mentioned many times in the procooling forums.

I'll prolly have to switch to a bigger case, thinking about the Lian-Li PC-73SLB.

This would prolly break my budget....but Im considering it... :D
I went over that thread first, which is why I was not too keen on the reserator. The swiftech kit I mentioned above definately seems like a better solution.

-ad187

H20 120: http://www.swiftnets.com/products/H20-120-1.asp

The reserator is very quiet, but from what i've seen its not much better cooling wise than quality air (CNPS7000, SLK, etc)

Remember that the FX-53 is not a particularly great overclocker and is already at the top of the range, getting 200mhz out of it may not be easy.

If you're going to get a better cooling kit, you may as well get a cheaper cpu. The OC ceiling of that core is about the same across the board...you'll just have to overvolt/cool the cheaper ones more.

The reserator has its place. As you mentioned, there is no need to mod your case, and that price point would probably soften the criticism the unit saw at $300. Twin L1a's at 5v are quiet, but not as quiet as fanless.

Still, your drives, and the PSU required to run such a rig will end up being the loudest things in your rig, so keep that in mind.

IMHO, the reserator would be a nice complement to a SFF case.

True, the reserator is not much better than a good aircooling solution but the noise reduction is what I was looking for.

As for oc'ing the FX-53, it reaches 2.6Ghz easily on stock cooling components.

http://www.anandtech.com/guides/showdoc.aspx?i=2138&p=3

Oh, and its funny how google can find the H20-220, but not the H20-120, sorry about that shouldve checked swiftnets in the first place.


That makes sense. Last week the price of the 3500+ dropped $130 which makes it a good choice since it can also reach the speeds im looking for. Sacrificing the extra cache for ~$450 saved is fine with me.


Im still looking for a good silent PSU. Theres a bunch of fanless ones out there but I have narrowed down any choices. As for the drives, best I can do is use hard drive silencers and hope that the case can dampen the rest of the noise.


wuts an SFF case?

-ad187

Look at my sig. This was the first computer I've ever put together. I was a Mac person before this computer. I built the A64 wc machine with almost no experience inside a computer case whatsoever. So the "not enough experince to DIY" just doesn't fly.

SFF is small form factor...like the shuttle bread-boxes.
http://eu.shuttle.com/sn95g5.htm#sn95g5

silentpcreview.com has great PSU reviews with a slant towards silence....look at their reccommended list. http://www.silentpcreview.com/article28-page1.html

The risks of RAID0 have nothing to do with Windows. RAID0 also amazingly pointless because it offers virtually no benifit except in extremely specialized applications while at the same time doubleing the change of complete loss of all data stored on both disks.

If you have two raptors, just leave them as seperate disks.

Thats obviously not my point. I was only trying to help some of you dudes out that have kick ass hardware but shitty software. Putting togather a nice water cooled system, and then killing it with windows, the worst OS.

Okay,

So ive done some more reading and these new swiftech kits look pretty promising.

For now, the reserators definately out unless zalman comes out with a better performing system.

I read a review about an older Swiftech 8510A kit on xtremesystems.org and it performed decently with one radiator while cooling the CPU,GPU and Chipset.

Without looking at numbers, im thinking that the newer 120 and 220 kits would defiinately be better than the 8510A which is a year old.

Anyone have any experience with the newer kits? or does anyone have a DIY setup that resembles these new kits?

Thats where all the information about this kit can be found.

Also, except for swiftnets, has anyone seen these kits available elsewhere?

-ad187

I built my machine for games. Linux = not enough games. Macs OX10/Unix = not enough games. Windows = lots o' game.

The Swiftech kits look good, but the single-120 rad is not the best choice for silence. Phaestus should have some kit testing done before too long. After waiting 2 years, would another month or 2 kill you?

A Samsung HD is more expensive than a Caviar, but not than a Caviar plus a good silencing enclosure. To silence a ball-bearing drive, you'll need to fully enclose the HD; something like a Novibes will reduce seeking but not block bearing noise.

SPCR is a great resource, and you should find plenty of PSU info there. (Look into the HD silencing articles also.) I've a Seasonic Super Silencer that is really wonderful, though the Tornado looks a bit better in SPCR's testing. Note the Enermax Noisetaker review also.

I think its pretty obvious that you did mean that. There really no other way to read your post.

silence ?
understand how it works - with any system
jiggle the actual values on both axises, that curve never changes

http://www.thermal-management-testin...20vs%20dBA.gif

so, how much cooling will your ears tolerate ?

note: this data on a 2" core
the 'silent' solution (from Swiftech at present) would be 1 or 2 MCR120s with a Pabst fan or similar (with lower performance accordingly)

listen all, the big hose - small hose 'issue' is quite the same for noise; going for less noise will cost in terms of performance (and space also - larger rads and fans)

Im definately gonna wait a little while for the reviews to be out. Can't do much in the coming weeks anyways. Mobo isnt out. By the time mobo comes out I have finals, then im moving apartments and then I'll be outta town about 3 weeks. So I prolly have about a month before I can start on this machine

Also, theres the H20-220 kit which may be more silent. I'm gonna wait to see wut the tests say.


Not too sure about that. I mean both drives go for around $100(160GB Samsung, 200GB WD). The extra 40 gigs would cost me about $45-50 in terms of another drive (current prices on newegg, although I could prolly get it for 20 bucks on good day). I should be able to find a good hard drive enclosure for that much. Plus I really need the extra space. Theres a "quiet" version of the WD drive, 2000BB.
Has anyone ever used that?


wuts an MCR120?

-ad187

MCR120
http://www.swiftnets.com/assets/imag...s/MCR120-F.gif