Hey all. I currently am running an air cooled setup, and have been for quite a while. I did a bit of research on water cooling, and would like to make a future upgrade. What I am looking for is a kit to install, since I do not have sufficient knowledge to piece a system together myself.

Running with an ATX Mid-Tower right now. I like the concept of Coolermaster's Aquagate Max, but unfortunately the dual 120mm radiator will not work with my case. Is there anything worth getting that is like the Aquagate that only has a single 120mm radiator? Or will a single not provide much cooling ability?

I would also replace the stock waterblock with something a bit better (D-Tek), as the Coolermaster stock is pretty primitive.

Thanks

P.S. Looking to mount pump/reservoir in empty 5.25" bays.

Unless you have a MASSIVE case (you don't), you can always consider having the radiator mounted externally. A mid-tower case is just not an ideal setup for a water cooled rig. I had a TT Armor (a massive case) and ended up having an external radiator... I THOUGHT it would fit internally, but I didn't feel like taking my case to a fabrication shop to have someone cut through it just so I could avoid going external. Just a thought.

Actually I have a Tt Tsunami Dream (mid tower) case and my system is water cooled. the only thing I had to do was buy a 1" hole saw and cut 2 holes in the back of my case for the tubing for the radiator hookup to pass through. Everything else is inside the case.

IMHO I recommend talkting to the guys at Danger Den ( http://www.dangerden.com ) and put together a custom water cooling loop as that will give you the best performance you can get.

-ouch1

I have the thermaltake armour LCS , you could check that out

depend on what aircooler you using now. athe Swiftech and DD offering is much more better in performance and value.

so i suggest you either get the "cheapest" Swiftech H20-220 compact watercooling kit ot just get the Xigmatech S1283 if you want to keep the cost low.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/c [...] html#sect0

performance is at the same level as the Zerotherm's NV120. and its more then 3 times the cost. not worth it at that price.

Interesting. Why do you want to water cool? Is it for quiet or overclocking? I have an almost completely silent PC using the Zalman Reserator I Plus water cooler. It's wicked good and the numbers are very good too. It has no problem keeping a Q6600 (OCed to 3.0Ghz) happy with a Radeon X1950pro at the same time. It's also completely silent and looks mucho cool. It's also outside of the case so it really doesn't matter how much space you have (or don't have) inside.

I would go with a Zaleman symphony kit as a single 120 radiator wont be much of an improvement than a good air cooled solution.

My second piece of advice is don't do it. I have a hand selected no compromise parts list. I can tell that I will never do it again. After installing it my overclock maxes out at exactly the same place it did on air for GPU and CPU. Sure it runs cooler even in stealth mode just no improvement in the oc. Now things that took minutes to upgrade take hours or days with leak testing. It's just not worth it unless you're going for quite solution.

Q6600
8800 GTX
Swiftech MCP655
HW Labs Black Ice GTX480 4x120mm
Swiftech Apogee GTX
1/2" tubing
No clue who makes the GPU block and too lazy to open the case.

last thing i will say in this thread is if you really want a watercooling setup for just 120mm radiator. get the Swiftech H20-120 compact. thats the best single 120mm radiator kit around for its price.

but as i said before. stick will air cool.

when i look at water cooled systems... i often see temps around the 40 C mark... and i don't think thats good... at least compared to my thermalright si-128... keeps my e6420 at 32 C (3.2 ghz OC).... I wish I could get it cooler but it doesn't seem like water cooling would do that? am i wrong? idk... lol

The WC component that probably has the most dramatic effect on coolong performance is the radiator (and fans). A lot of the kits you see employ a single 120mm rad and fan. In most cases that will only at best equal a good air cooler.

If you are space limited inside your case, I would look at the Swiftech H20-220 Compact kit - though that means mounting the rad externally. That would be for cooling the CPU only.

Funny my water cooled temps are usually around 25C at idle (around 1C higher than ambient) and 29-30C under load. And that is only due to it being summer. In the winter it is usually 5C lower. And that is with a single 120mm radiator and fan.

I can't wait to build my next loop. I am gonna get a ThermoChill 120.3 rad & cool my cpu and gpu. Then OC the cr&p out of them.

-ouch1

i think the worse watercooling kits is those preinstalled kit, as you only need to screw the radiator in place and waterblock onto the socket.

I am using a ZEROtherm CF800 for cooling my Pentium 4 530 at stock clocks. Current temps are 44-48C idle, 55-60C under load. My case is really loud, probably because of the Antec Basiq 500W fan and my 7900gt fan screams at 100% all the time, even at idle. Watercooling would be for silence more than overclocking, as I may do a bit of OC on an 8400 when I get it.

its best to get a triple 120mm radiator and mount it on the top of your case with some L-bracket from your local hardware store.

I suppose the real solution for silence is to get rid of my current power supply and get a new one. The fan on there is louder than my 7900 GT fan. And also snag a new video card, because the 7900GT fan blasting at 100% all the time because of bad manufacturing BIOs just gets irritating after a while.

I would hate to drill holes in the top of my case to mount something, which is why I was looking at those kits. Ideally I would like to have a bay mounted pump/res and have the radiator where my rear 120mm fan is. If a single 120mm only performs as well as a good air cooled heatsink, most of the high end air coolers (NV120 for example) is very noisy at its full cooling potential, as with most other air cooling solutions.

Even though I am using a CM Stacker I still had to place my rads outside of the case to achieve the best results. I have one rad for the CPU and one rad for my GPU.

I think that single rad solutions aren't as condusive to achieving the best results when (or if) you o'clock both the cpu and gpu. Regardless of the potential of the rad, one of the components will have to suffer from their own generated heat and the heat carried over from the other source before the rad is able to cool the liquid down - a tenuous situation at best.

phreejak since you mounting the radiators outside why didnt you go for a full fat version 3x120 radiator instead of those skinny 2x120?

the 2x120 rads worked fine for what I was doing.

ok fair enough