Been out of the loop for a long time...
 

Back over a year or more ago I bought a Swiftech MCP300 pump, MCW50 video card block, and MCW5000 CPU block. These were heavy duty blocks at the time but now I see that there are much more fancy blocks. I haven't even been running water cooling for the past year because I've just been too busy to put it back in my system after my first MCP300 crapped out, and now I'm afraid to use the replacement I got because they are notoriously bad. I'd like to get back into watercooling though because I have a nice single-pass radiator (2-342, is that still pretty good?) that I modified a while back and never put it into use.

I'm thinking I can keep the MCW50 because it appears that I can buy new mounting brackets from Swiftech. My question is, should I upgrade the CPU block? I don't even know if I can get a Socket 939 mounting plate for this block, which was originally made for P4 and older Athlon sockets (can't remember exactly). I know I'm going to get a new pump, so I'll be researching that soon, but as for the GPU and CPU blocks, what's new? I haven't paid attention to watercooling gear in so long that I have no idea what's out there.

Thanks.

p.s. I have an old P4 heatsink that I want to attach to my northbridge (stock coolers are just horrible, really). Is there a kind of thermal paste/glue that will be strong but not enough to prevent me from ever getting the heatsink off without ripping the chip off with it?

Re: Been out of the loop for a long time...
 

Right now, it's really hard to beat the 29.99 price of the Dtek White Water block (complete with universal mount), and it outperforms your 5000 handily, according to pHaestus' testing.

Re: Been out of the loop for a long time...
 

That block looks good. Which is considered more reliable/safe though: the quick connects or standard barbs? There is also a copper topped one with nickle barbs on Cooltechnica. For the alu topped blocks, what should I do to prevent corrosion?

Re: Been out of the loop for a long time...
 

I have no experience with the quick connects (even though I have a pair). I'm fond of the barbs with any clamp.

There really isn't much you can do, other than the usual use of an anti corrosion additive. Personally I'm leaning towards Zerex, but I haven't checked it out thoroughly yet. If you have to open the block, try not to scratch the anodizing.