i want to start using a water cooling system for my p4 prescott chip is the any brands to look for any to stay away from (i live in new zealand) and does colouring the water effect the efficiency of the water block(i think there called) and are they loud
There arent many companies to stay away from just stockist, first off the colouring wont have any effect on the performance however you might want to add some sort of additive to the water in order to break down the surface tension which can have a slight effect the additive will also prevent algae from forming in your water which isnt good!! If you have lots of money to play with you might even consider fluorinert as your coolent the prices are high but I heard you can pick up re-claimed fluorinert at something like $10 per pound which is great since its effectively 98% the same stuff. This is the stuff they use in the cray I believe and was designed esp for the task the lower SHC of the stuff is less than water so it can't "hold" as much heat but by that same token the heat it can hold is lost much quicker. If you want the specs PM me I have them somewhere. As for loudness water cooling isnt totally silent but its a hell of a lot better than what your using now, the only real noise makers in the system are the pump and the fans on the radiator and the latter are pretty silent because 120mm fans are used instead of 80mm as such they can push the same amount of air at a lower revolution rate hence they're quieter
Generally stay away from anything that comes in a pre-made kit, unless its from D-Tek or Asetech. No colouring the water wont effect the efficiency to any noticeable degree. How loud the system is depends on what type of fan you have on the radiator, and how cool you want the system to be. ie a highly OCd system would need more/better cooling and so will need a more efficent/larger radiator with better (maybe) louder fans.
I always forget the pump, I have a Zalman reserator so never see the thing tho... Just stick it on some nice rubber mounts and almost all pumps are close to silent really.
thanks so the water colouring nothing speacial usless i go for the good stuff and nosie isn't big how hard are they to set up and is it better to by a kit or by it bit by bit
Are you going full-on (expensive) watercooled or just having a go to see what all the fuss is about? Big/Small budget?
I just managed to pick a Maxxxpert kit up for £45. It has an L20 pump, 120mm Papst fan, acrylic reservoir, 120mm radiator, 10mmOD tubing, with all the connectors and hose cutters, and a decent CPU block. Obviously £45 was a sale price, but I thoroughly recommend it as a first step into watercooling. Shame I can't use it for months <A88>
a good one but not very expensive i am in aus so i dont know how much a pound is but i a look at about $120-$150 aussie dollars if that helps
Well .... you'll need to decide on what you want to watercool, CPU? Chipset? GPU? HDD? Voltage regulators? PSU? etc Are you a confident modder and welling to spend alot of reading and reseaching (learning how to make a loop, learning all about barbs, learning all about water flow and additives, learning all about tube size, blah blah blah )? If so you would get the best performance out of picking you own bits yourself. Otherwise ya better off going for a kit with simple (well relatively simple) ikea type instructions, where everything have planed and packaged for you to follow with minimal modding required, ie Zalman.
look whats available to you in Aus then work it from there as it should give an indication as to how much its going to cost. People here could recommend all sorts of kit but if its not easily available and you have to import then your budgets gone already. As Gundam said you need to have a clear idea of what you want to cool (CPU, GPU etc) and why you want to water cool it. OC, silence or because you can?
i to am looking to have ago at water cooling aswell. im planning on using it on my 2nd pc to start with, untill i get abit more experienced. so im looking for a entry level set, ive seen this set for £69.33 from overclockers.co.uk. is that a good deal? im looking at a maximum budget of around £80, any suggest. ive decided to keep my larger case (a Chieftec full tower) so i have plenty of room in there...
Why do it on your second PC? You'll benifit alot more going the extra mile for Danger Den blocks and water cooling your 1st PC. Do everything properly and you'll have no problems at all, i don't think you can call it 'experience', more background knowledge and research. As for the other person, keep away from Thermaltake water cooling solutions, like I say, Danger Den blocks, Eheim/ Hydor pump and a BIX radiator and you're geared for some nice OCage
AngelOfRage That looks like quite a nice buy for the price. Although thats an entry level kit it gives you a lot of flexibility as the majority of european kit also uses 10mm tubing. When you have more money and confidence you can replace the CPU block with one from a range of companies as well as adding GPU blocks etc. Push fits are also an added bonus! If you have more questions then i would suggest starting a new thread instead of taking over this one.
Hey Atomic any chance you could look at your reserator for me and tell me how the tubing connects to it? If its barbs whats the thread on them? Cheers.
