Suggestions for watercooling setup?
 

I wanna get into to water cooling and I have been looking around on the front page some and a few other sites. I don't know what my budget is really, I would say around and under $200. I wanna overclock, but keep it queit at the same time. Should I buy a kit or peice together one myself? I would like to cool the CPU and NB, but not my video card. I would like to keep everything in my case (SX830), but not necessary.

From what I gathered, I want 1/2 ID tubing, everything has to be copper and plastic (no mixing Aluminum and Copper) and get a heater core. I looked around at waterblocks and saw the Maze 3, but I got the idea it wasn't that great. Spiral might be good, but no reviews out yet? Swiftech is good, but doesn't have good flow? Please correct me if I'm wrong. Also, if you have any links on good places to buy stuff in the US, I would appreciate it.

Thanks,
Grendel99

well, its usually cheaper to buy everything from one place than it is to buy from several.

if you buy from Dtek, you could get a TC-4, unpainted core, Danner 250GPH pump, and some 1/2" ID / 11/16" OD tygon tubing and that will be ok. youll need a fan and shroud for the core tho. good 120mm fans are cheap; you can find panaflos for well under $10 if you look. im using some of these myself. you can build a shroud out of cardboard and tape. now if you dont want to build a shroud yourself, or you want something thatll look nice thru a case window, you might want the core combo. at this point you may as well get the TC-4 max-inline kit and a NB block.


now if youre buying from DDen, you can grab a Maze 3, modded core, NB block, and some 1/2" ID tygon 3603 tubing. the ehiem pumps are good, but costly. what you can do is buy a Danner mag-drive pump from Petsmart ([url=http://www.petsmart.com/fish/shopping/water%5Fpumps/products/product%5F770.shtml]here is the page[/utl]). you need to mod the Danner pump so it doesnt leak. you can do this buy sealing the housing with a $2 tube of Permatex water pump & thermostat housing RTV silicone (available at any auto-parts store). youll need a 1/2" MPT and a 1/2" FPT brass hose barbs as well, and you can get those at Lowes or Home Depot (youll need some teflon tape too if you dont already have some).

thats for an inline system (no res / airtrap). if you dont want to bleed the system manually for hours, you could build yourself an airtrap. just get a marine electrical junction box (from Home Depot or Lowes. costs about $7). youll also need some 1/4NPT 1/2" hose barbs; get those from Dtek or DDen. a tube of plumbers goop would also be useful (another $2-3). thats it; it shouldnt run you over $160 for top-notch stuff. GL

Is it worth it to get a reservoir? What about a kit from dtek like this one and what's the difference between that one and this one . One is inline, but I don't know what that means.

The kit is like 175-180, is that a pretty good price?

They also have two kits with a sidewinder block and an aluminum reservoir with a copper block. I thought you couldn't mix copper and aluminum?

This kit looks nice:MAX-INLINE w/ Sidewinder Waterblock . I like the clamp it uses to hold down the waterblock. I would really prefer to NOT bolt the damn thing to my motherboard.

Inline just means that the pump has two hoses attached to it, one goes in, the other goes out. The pump is in the middle of the line. The non-inline concept is the submersible pump. The pump must be submerged under water, and has one hose leaving. The water is draw into the pump from the surrounding pool of water. In the kit (not inline) the pump is fully submerged inside the resevoir they provide.

Which is better? There are a few factors affecting this, you can search around, but I think inline is mostly preferred but its still a little bit of a toss up with factors being cost, heat in various forms, and hassle.

GL

Ok, thanks for explaining that. I'm now thinking about getting some of webmedic's stuff.

a res makes it a little easier to fill / bleed thats all.
the first kit is in-line, the second is not (has a pump / res combo)
you can mix metals, but you need to protect against galvanic corrosion.
the sidewinder block isnt as good as the TC-4 tho...
160-170 is about right for what you want...

I think for your first kit the Max w/ TC-4 kit is the best way to go,, the ONLY thing i dont like about the TC-4 is that there isnt a version with an attached coldplate for pelts like tha Maze3-1, which is the ONLY reason i'm considering a Maze3-1 over a TC-4

With peltiers do you just sandwhich it between the WB and CPU? Do you have to waterproof the board or anything if you use one? I'm not thinking about a pelt now, but down the road it would be nice.

Ok, what about the Poly Topped Spiral with 1/2 Chrome Barbs(From DTek), heatercore w/ 120mm fan and shroud (From webmedic) and pump (from webmedic)? All 1/2" ID I believe.

EDIT: The Maze 3-1 looks very similar to the Spir@l. Would it be worth it to get the Maze 3-1 over the regular Maze3? How is performance between the two (Spiral and Maze 3). Does it matter if it's Chrome, Brass, or Polypropylene barbs?

No, you have to use a "cold plate" (more acurately called a spacer).

The pelt needs lots more clamping than what the CPU can handle.

If you feel rich, then get the silver cold plate from becooling ($50). I've never drilled silver, but it sounds fun!

I'd use a TC-4 with that plate, but my tools are up:cry:

I just edited the above post, so please take a look at the edit :)

What's a cold plate used for?

It's what you use to sandwich your pelt to your waterblock. This cold plate is mounted with a lot of pressure.
See here:
http://www.procooling.com/articles/h...just_how.shtml
Once the Pelt is assembled to the waterblock, you can then mount it to the CPU.

Ah ok, I see now, cool. Do you have to do any thing else like prep the board to use a pelt? Does it get cold enough to cause condensation?

Yes, it will cause condensation. Many articles available to protect against that, if you search throughout this forum (actually the Pelt cooling forum)

just go to octools.com and read the socket A sealing article.

Ha yes, me and my handy man approach:

1--Chevette heater core at scrap yard, you pull out: $10
2--Via 1300 w/ 1/2" nips $22
3--Some thick vinyl tubing $.40/ft 10ft= $4
4--Get some used MAZE style block from the pro-selling forums: $20-25
5--A fancy Panaflow FDB 120mm fan ~$15
6--Grease for hose fittings etc... $2-5
7-- Misc eblows, T's, Y's ~$5

total ~ $80... while you're at the scrap yard grab ALL the clamps you can rip from junked rides too, they don't care! lol :)

IMHO: THose "kits" are no more than overpriced rip offs for something you could do with some spare time and turning on an extra .5% brain power to slap it together

GOoD luCk! :D

Cool, I'll have to pay a visit to the local junkyard :D

Gredel check your PMs

hey fragenstein, grendell and I have been talking about picking up webmedics stuff, what do you think, I notiice you have the res have you seen the other stuff, it looks nice and I like the via 1300.

just looking for opinions from someone who might have seen his stuff.

Do I need to add Water Wetter or similar? I think the answer is yes, but just want to make sure. I was thinking of getting the Purple Ice just b/c of the color (well also for the thing it's made to do). Is it just as good as Water Wetter, or is there something better?

YES, You're going to need some type of additive to prevent any possible corrosion AND the most annoying; that whatever type of milky whitish like organism that clouds your once clear tubing!

Hey todd. I run his res setup and heatercore setup as well and I love it. The res does have a via aqua 1300 which puts out some real good flow. I don't run his block however I had a maze3 and now I'm using a maze 2, but I have a spir@l comming tommarow so we'll see how that performs. Sorry about the late reply I've been in the middle of Mandrake change over:D

Frag, make sure you report your results of your Spir@l :)