Cooling Advice

[1Avatar]

Heya guys-

Been on the forum for a few weeks now and I must say it's a great place!

I've recently been looking into potentially watercooling my rig, but I haven't got a clue as to what's best and what's most reliable, I'd prefer if I could get my hands on some form of kit or relatively few manufacturers for different parts to help streamline my buying process and would appreciate suggestions because I haven't got a clue where to start except that the reviews I've seen on some kits like Koolance, Zalman reserator and Cool Master don't really bring the temps down much further than my current setup.

As much as I'd like phase change, it's a little too much coin for this geeky pastime and my components are getting a little old to really invest much more into it, but I like it's performance enough that I don't mind hanging onto it as I don't play too many games but do a lot of video editing.

I currently have a Pentium 4 2.66 overclocked to 3.2ghz with a Zalman 7000a-Cu HSF, an Radeon X800 XT on the way and 2x 512MB Corsair XMS PC3200. Idle temps sit around 35c-ish with load coming in at 50c after about an hour of playing NFS Underground 2.

My main thing about cooling is that it's winter here in Calgary Canada, so ambient room temperature is nice and cool for a computing environment, but I don't want to risk anything come spring and summer when temps come up.

Any help or direction would be much appreciated, sorry bout being a noob about this, but I only got into overclocking and modding the last few weeks and reading up articles and posts don't quite answer all the bases nor offer al the parts lists that would help me out.

[Android Vageta]

For pump and radiator you want Koolance EXOS Watercooling:

EXOS Aluminum (http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=11-155-987&depa=0)

For the CPU block look at the 478 TDX Block from DangerDen:

478 TDX Copper Block (http://dangerden.com/mall2/more_block2.asp?fmmore=210)

This should help some, I mean, this is all you pretty much need to know, Koolance pump and radiator and DangerDen CPU block.

[Killer Munkey]

i woudln't recomend a kit, i used a water cooling kit from a buddy of mine and it performed worse than my high end air cooling, the same will probably happen to you. but building your own from different parts would give you more of a benifit. i'm building my own soon from a hob knob of parts.

Mag 3 Drive Pump : 40-50$
DangerZen TDX block: 50$
1986 Chevette heater core (radiator): 20$ at auto part store
Tubing: you can find some 1/2 inside diameter tubing at a local hardware store

Resivoir: either get a premade one or make one out of tubaware which is what i'm doing and have it big enough to submerge the pump in it and have water freely drain into it to be pumped back out

then all you need are the clamps and such to to fasten the hook ups to the different parts. those snake steel clamps i think there callled would work well, the ones that tighten by using a screw to pull the metal ring tighter.

altogether it might cost me 120-130$ to build my own water cooling set up that beats the pants off manufature kits.

hope this helps

[Hawk]

:welcome: to the BE 1Avatar. . . :wave:

[Snafu]

:welcome: 1avatar to BE from a fellow Canuck. Hope you enjoy time here. We are here to help and take you to the BleedinEdge.

Winter time for most means cooler room temps unless yo are like me and have a fireplace running in the same room :bonk: . Luck to you with your water cooling :thumbs: .

Below is some information we post for new members that some have said was helpful such as The BleedinEdge Story (http://www.bleedinedge.com/forum/be_pagegen.php?id=about_be). When we are not tweaking our rigs or helping folks out we put our unused cycles to work the the BE Folding@Home Team Info (http://www.bleedinedge.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1418)

If you are interested in telling us a bit about your User Name...what's it mean?? (http://www.bleedinedge.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1319) or some info on Your System (http://www.bleedinedge.com/forum/showthread.php?goto=lastpost&t=5856). There is also Post Your Pets (http://www.bleedinedge.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1766), The Computer Room Thread (http://www.bleedinedge.com/forum/showthread.php?t=490) and even a BE Family Photo Album (http://www.bleedinedge.com/forum/showthread.php?t=2601&highlight=photo+album). Or maybe you would prefer to read through the Forums on BE (http://www.bleedinedge.com/forum/index.php?).

In the end hope you relax, put your feet up and stay awhile.

[Rukee]

we can put our feet up?? :look:

[1Avatar]

Thanks for the warm welcome and all the help guys! You run and maintain a great forum!

Any advice for what to use on the GPU? It'll be a down the road thing cause I'm not sure I'm'a gonna overclock the X800 out of the box until I bring the rest of my system up to a reasonable spec.

[Snafu]

Glad you like it here :thumb: .

If you are not going to oc and it is running fine then the stock should be okay. For aftermarket coolers there are the Arctic Ice coolers.

If you would like to consider a home-made option there are a couple of threads on this subject here (http://www.bleedinedge.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3231&highlight=cooling) and some ideas/links in here (http://www.bleedinedge.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3285&highlight=video)

Viper John (http://imagevent.com/marginjohn/) also does some interesting cooling mods that will give you some nasty ideas for cooling.

:thumbs: