What's the best prebuilt watercooling kit?
 

Hello,

I'd like to purchase a complete and ready to go watercooling setup, with all of the necessary pieces. Which one is the very best?

I've run into a few so far which seem good- DangerDen, and BECooling. My case has a 120mm fan in front, so I can attach a BlackIce right to that. I want a completely quiet system, so I'm just going to use one Panaflo L1A 120mm in front. I'm really shooting for a silent PC.

-uoi

I have the Becooling setup - Black Ice Extreme, Maxijet 220(?) and Black Edge block. My CPU runs, at best guess, 41-45 degrees. (Note - try not to keep radiator directly beneath a heat register, if possible.) I've never kept it at load long enough to find out max temperatures, but 10 minutes of Sandra increase temperatures by less than 2 degrees.

I'd personally like the Koolance EXOS system if I cared nothing for the self-built aspect of PC cooling, but despite both that and the high price, I don't think it's been on the market long enough to say whether all those self-contained parts are a hassle to maintain if they crap out.

It's good that you're spending some time worrying about the fans. A quiet, high-flow fan will make the difference between a mediocre cooling setup and a good one. Arguably, that's true for any system, but that's where I've run into most of my problems.

Just have fun, don't worry too much, do your research (as apparently you are), and be prepared to fork over quite a bit of change.

Alchemy

Home-built. If you are installing it into your current case, you are a better judge of what will fit than a manufacturer. By and large, pre-built/assembled are expensive and are poor performers. Learn how to use a dremel and do research on components, and you'll be much happier by building your own system.

Definitely a better choice, I agree. Just buy all the parts from a place like danger den or dtek or be cooling, not cpu/fx and put it all together. Basically the same as buying a kit but your not locked in to a full component kit, which may have some crappy parts. The putting a whole in your case part is pretty easy, just need a dremel, drill, or saw.

Tis true!, most kits seem to lumber you with a crappy pump and small tubing to start, then a poor radiator and fans ;) ...

Having said this I'd say Inovatech look good to me, but I'd never buy a kit all in one...

what I'd recomend is: block of your choice, Clearflex 1/2inch tubing, heatercore (Dtech is good sized for fitting inside case easily), any 120mmx38mm fans (YSTech are pokey), the pump is a hard one though, I'd definatly go with one that has an 'off~centred' outlet, Iwaki20RZT, Little Giant, ect, use a Ehiem1250 or Via1300 to start with if you're stumped, Via if you plan to upgrade to a high pressure/head pump soon cause they're cheap...

PS, saying that I don't really beleive a 1250 has anything over a 1048 in performance, nothing that'd warrant paying extra for, the head increase is too small, so it depends on whether you want extreme performance or a good quiet system, performance=Iwaki ect, good&quiet=1048+...