Cooling WC...Really that quiet & cool?

Currently in the process of upgrading my main PC, I have pretty much decided on the components but are still toying with the idea of Water Cooling.
What I would like to ask is... The people who use Water Cooling, is it a lot quieter than a decent Air Cooled system and what problems have you come across?

My Spec (current and parts to be bought)...

Lian-Li PC7 Case
ANTEC NEO Power 480W PSU - Single 120mm fan, pretty quiet
ASUS A8N-SLI Premium - Supports Cool 'n' Quiet
AMD Athlon 64 (ADA4400CDBOX) X2 4400+ Socket 939 Dual Core 2.2Ghz 1Mb and 1Mb Cache - Cool 'n' Quiet make a difference?
Arctic Cooling (AC-FRZ-64P) Socket 754 939 940 CPU Cooler with Heat pipe cooling - Cool 'n' Quiet vary speed of this?
2x 512MB OCZ PC3500 RAM
Asus 7600GS SILENT 512MB DDR2 PCI-E - Silent
3x ANTEC Blue Led 80mm Fans (2x Inlet, 1x Exhaust) - Speed Controlled by PSU
4x IDE HDD's
3x Optical Drives (Not all will be used)

From what I have read, one Radiator powered by a 120mm fan with a CPU block would be sufficient for my needs, but as I would also have a pump running would this be louder overall than the system I have listed above and maybe not much cooler

 

with Cool & quite enabled you probably won't have to worry about watter cooling, when I had my X2 on air for a brief period I ran cool n quite and it was, well, cool and quite Also low-end watercooling (eg a pump/120mm rad/cpu block) would be about the same as a highend heatsink, like the TT big typoon. But if you intend on overclocking then wattercooling maybe a beter option.

-Fr4nk

 

Is the Big Typhoon quieter and more efficient than the Arctic Freezer 64 Pro?

 

The pump you can make silent (with modding to the fixxing normally)...and the fan on the 120 rad - if you buy an expensive one... they are virtually silent...
The bigger the rad the slower the fans can spin...and if you get one big enough like mine then you don't need any fans at all .

Ed

 

the biggest problem.......... leaks. never had hsf leak on a video card

 

And I've never had a waterblock leak on a video card *touch wood*. As long as you do it right, it won't be a problem. Unless you have an enemy with a knife.

It's got pros and cons for sure. I love having a watercooled machine.

CnQ makes some degree of difference... I've had pretty varying luck with it. On a friend's build it worked a charm, but it's never seemed to go right on my own systems. Of course, it doesn't play well with overclocking, as you might imagine.

 

So, it's a question of Rad Fan & Pump 'v' CPU Cooler as the rest of my system would be passive cooled...Anyone have experience of that comparison?

I know this case would mod to take a 120mm Exhaust fan as later models come with one fitted and it would look pretty good with WC installed but it might just not be worth it...

 

You'd probably be best-off with a big-ass heatsink and a silent 120mm fan. It'll be a lot cheaper and probably nearly the same noise-level.

 

He's right. I went from water to air and apart from a few degrees, not much has changed except I got some money in my pocket from selling all my wc stuff

 

Any recommendations then, Arctic Freezer Pro & Thermaltake Big Typhoon are two I have considered...Zalman too maybe?

 

I went with the Arctic Freezer Pro as it was cheap and I heard good things about it. I know the TTBT is one beast of a cooler, but it's like £30 vs £12 for my freezer

 

Is the TTBT even compatable with the AMD 64 x2 4400+ ...?

 

Don't be so lazy. Look for a compatibility list on the TT website

 

I did, thats why I asked...It doesn't mention 64 x2 in the list!

 

I would assume "Athlon 64 / Athlon 64FX" means it'll cope...

 

I'd love to see the air cooled solution for my 7800GTX @ 540/1450 that can keep it at 35 degrees while running banchmarks.
A big assed large bore W/C setup, done properly takes some beating.

 

Many things for many types of people. You so pro-water (I can't talk)