UnaCoolers H2O buyer's guide up to date?
 

I've been wanting to make the switch for a few years now but haven't got around to it. The recent case mod linked from slashdot got me thinking about it in a big way. But the watercooling he used is quite expensive, and only seems to be easily available in Europe.

So the stuff in Una's guide form 2002 looks quite good. Cheap, and hopefully easily available. But I'm wondering if things have changed a lot in the past year.
[list=1][*]Is an escort core still enough to cool a Ge4, an Athlon1400XP+ and a regular ASUS chipset?[*]Is the advice to 'invent your own fittins' still good? Or are push fittings so widely available that they should be used?[*]Has anyone had any problems with the suggested equipment?[/list=1]

Any help or advice would be much appreciated. I'm very familiar with hardware, but haven't done any modding short of adding an extra fan before.

Oh, I should probably say that my main goal is noise reduction. Right now my computer drives me crazy while it's turned on! :mad:

Frac

Yes the Escort core is still plenty good. It is a rather large core in fact. Got one sitting right here. it is bigger than the popular Chevette core and most of the one's being sold as PC WC rads. hardest part will be trying to fit it in a case. Mine will not fit in my SX830.

Well fittings should be whatever you want to use. I am not a fan of push fitting but they are fine. I still like the good ol hose barb and clamp. User preference though.

I would suggest not getting the Una block as it is all bare aluminum. Not a good thing with a brass rad. In fact Joe should remove that article just for that reason. Also the Rio pump is not good enough.


Also note a $12 air cooler will cool about as good as that setup. The first paragraph is not at all accurate anymore.

The article should be removed or updated IMO.

I know my case is already pretty crowded so I had been thinking of plunking down the core outside the case. I suppose it might get too hot for this to really be an option. And the fan, if it's absolutely necessary, might cause some unpleasant incidents. (I had heard of at least one person cooling a setup similar to mine using only a reservoir -- but this seems rather risky.)

Given that the Rio pump isn't really up to the task, what sorts of flow rates are generally needed. Are the larger aquarium pumps still an option?

Frac

12 volt pump, great for what you need. Click me!

BrianW