W/c Setup Suggestions

[zbarnes]

So far I am looking for a good deal on the following:
Swiftech MCW6002-a
77' Bonneville Heater core
1/2" Home Depot Tubing until figure out how much I need, then clearflex60.
2x120mm fans
Tupperware shroud and Reservoir
Mag 3(heard some bad stories), or Hydor(L20 is cheap, but can it output? Is the L30 good enough?), or another pump around $50 or less
Zerex AntiFreeze (or anything else that is suggested)
Fittings, and hose clamps

Some recommend the Hydor L20 as it is cheap and needs no work for 1/2" tubing, but it looks puny compared to the Mag 3 and others.

Anyone know of a way to get blue UV dye without buying a whole bottle of it?

Still undecided about: the 120mm fans (want moderately low noise, but good cooling efficiency, I've been suggested the Delta WFB1212ME), and the Pump.

I am running on a budget, so no $70 pumps, or waterblocks, $40 radiators, or more than $15 a piece fans.

Suggestions?

I am building this system for an oc'd athlon xp 2800 on an aopen ak79d-400vn mobo, geforce fx5900 oc'd, dual 256 mb Cosair Platinum Twinx oc'd, 3 hard drives, one dvd burner, and OCZ Powerstream 420w psu.

My case is too small for much else, so most of this w/c will be running outside.

I know Weapons sells the premodded core. And Weapons stuff does look like, well, the STUFF. But I am looking to do this for around $120. So I'd rather make my own radiator since I have the welding tools needed. About the tupperware reservoir, I saw in a guide how to do it. Ya, I know, ghetto. But I tell myself ghetto homemade watercooling has to be better than nosiy air cooling, eh?

I also don't mind buying second hand to keep the cost down, so I browse ebay for all these things. If I could find a really good deal on one of those AquaXtreme Z05's or Swiftech mcp600, I'd go for it, but they seem rare and not near $50.

Dankis used to be the best fans for $4.99, now so expensive... talk about supply and demand. That shows you how much they can be made for though. Does anyone have links to modding fans? "..with the fans slightly modded..." I see that terminology but I never see any explaination.

Thanks!

Edit: I was probably going to do 1/2" tubing, so however that affects the pump, I know the mag 3 needed to have 1/2" fittings attached.

[zbarnes]

How about if I could get the Eheim 1250 pump, ac relay included for $50, used for 4 months? Is this worth it? Would this be better than the mag 3, and hydor L30, (or any others that are around $50 new)?

[jman1310]

i think so

[HammerSandwich]

If you're doing this mostly for noise, the vidcard's fan will remain a major problem. PSU and HDs (depending on model) are next in line. Unless you're running a monster OC, your CPU's not dumping a ton of heat, so I'd suggest that WC is not the best path for less noise on your budget.

[Cranky]

i'd take a 1250 over a mag 3 any day of the week..

[zbarnes]

Well, the Eheim deal got bought by someone else. I'll probably be asking about some other deal later....

As far as the video card fan, it is actually very quiet compared to most I have heard. Still though, I will probably get a Maze ( the 3 or the 4, I can't remember) GPU block EDIT:or a swifty mcw50, a few months down the road.

My hard drives do alright too on noise, though I have three of them (WD80's). So the beast of a noisemaker in my computer is the CPU fan. The heatsink is from a stock 2800+ cooler( the fan shattered), and the fan is from a coolermaster that was on a Athlon 1.13 ghz .

From what I see on the forums, lots of people do their systems cheaper than most people think. As long as I make my own radiator (albiet ugly), I think I can keep the cost/ performance ratio good.

At OCforums I get:

"don't cheap out on a pump for your setup, you truly get what you pay for - the hydor's purely suck flat out - they don't have the best flowrate or amount of head, and if you exceed the rated head of them, after a while the propeller just starts to spin and wobble mindlessly, not pumping any water, which isnt good"

Extreme overclocking:
"you recommed the Hydor L20, is this better than the mag3?"
"No, but it's cheaper and no work required, with less noise and similar(ish) performance.

"How about the Hydor L35 being better than the Enhiem?"
"nope, Enheim is better."

XtremeSystems:

"Well I would go with the hydor l35.. it is more powerful than the 1250"

I have heard that mag 3's, the hydor's, and the enheims are all better than each other! Crazy!

My guess is that angryalpaca must be right

"ALL standard pumps perform about the same. By standard, I mean pretty much all pumps with flow between 180GPH and 5 feet pressure to ~400GPH and 12 feet pressure. In a typical system, consisting of a Procore and an MCW 6002, there will be NO measurable difference between these pumps. Changes start getting noticeable on the low end faster. The differences get larger with more blocks, and more resistance, but they’re still very small. "

Can anyone else back this up?

I won't skimp on the cpu block(swiffy mcw6002) but from what most people say, most pumps from about $50-75 perform about the same in a water cooling setup. Some are just more fancy than others. (DC and whatnot).

What do you guys say about these fans:

The Panaflo M1A $12
http://www.jab-tech.com/customer/pro...artner=froogle

Or these enermax http://www.jab-tech.com/customer/pro...&cat=81&page=1


Anything better for around the same cost?

If you guys know of any good deal on anything in the system, let me know.

Thanks!

[Cranky]

why not do a swifty mcw50 for your gpu block?