Watercooling...

[lazer_viking]

I'm thinking about getting some water cooling. I've been interested in this for a long time and I need something that will do better than my stock AMD thing. I almost got a zalman 9500, which by the reviews I read is SIIIIIICCCCKKK, but then I was like, hey wait, i REALLY want some water cooling...
So I looked at the new reserator 2 from zalman. I always shyed away from watercooling because it looked to complicated, but after I watched the installation movie I kind of understand it now.
So now I'm intrigued.
The reserator 2 is a fan-less system but I read from a review that it doesn't cool as well as a fan system. Is this true?
My budget is $300-$400. The reserator 2 was something like $315. I have $301 in my account, and after my FX-57 and my 7800 gt sells, I should have enough. Although, I'm going to need a new CPU after the fx-57 sells... so thats like $235 for the CPU I want... 301-235= $66 + $~300 estimated for the sale of my fx-57, and + $165 for the sale of my 7800 gt = $531 to play with. Okay so I have more to spend on water cooling than I thought. But I also need to consider that I may not get what I want for my hardware I'm trying to sell. So lets say I have 450$ to spend for good measure.

So anyway yea what watercooling system do you think I could get for 350-450? I need something that..... basically cools the system real good. I'm going to have a 4400+, I have a 7800 gt at the moment, although I'm planning on upgrading to an 8800gtx or 8900gtx when they come out. I have some money saved up for that one already that im not touching regardless what comes up.
do you think a water cooling system I get now thats compatible with a 7800gt will be compatible with the DX10 cards as well?

 

[Baez]

ouch sounds tight for money . the best wc systems are just like the best computers: u build them urself. but if u really want a pre-built system for around that price i would go with the zalman 9500. fan radiators still seem to be doing the job much better than everything else and from what i've heard as well, it's an extremely reliable pre-built system. but since u want a little higher level thermaltake are awesome. from a few reviews ive heard that the tt symphony takes temps down 15C+ . uses five fans, which is more than enough, and a full aluminum tower from $350 and up

 

[lazer_viking]

You can build water cooling systems yourself? How do you go about doing this? Like... you can BUY the parts for a water cooling system? I totally up for doing that, but I wouldn't know where to begin. Nothing like some good old googling and posting on techist.com though lol.
Also, I'm not really tight on money, since I'm 15, and I'm inheriting my dad's truck... I don't really have anything I need to pay for. Plus when I'm 16 I can get a job n that'll pay for insurance. *thinks to himself, "$_$" lol.
So what is a site to go for to get these watercooling system parts?

 

[Lord AnthraX]

Yes you can. Its much better then a kit.

http://www.petrastechshop.com/


Really great site. you can hit up the owner on AIM if he is on, or call him, and they will help you for the perfect watercooling system.

Really a great company as I have dealt with them my self

 

[Baez]

best how-to guide around http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=54331&highlight=watercooling+guide

 

[lazer_viking]

My Shopping Cart
That's what I came up with. I didn't get a block for the northbridge, partly because I don't know what it is, and I didn't know that it was a cruical part of the system that got hot. Is it what's under the little fan on my motherboard? I always wondered what was there... anyway, yea. What do you think of my first stab at building a watercooling system? I'm suprised how cheap it came out to be, compared to all the other things I was looking at. Did I leave out some important part? I'm really having trouble believing it only costs $235...
A lot of their stuff was out of stock though.

 

[aspire]

http://www.petrastechshop.com/aqmpprolieda.html
http://www.petrastechshop.com/swmcgpuwa.html
http://www.petrastechshop.com/swmcqposerab1.html
http://www.petrastechshop.com/swmcin12pu.html
http://www.petrastechshop.com/1id3odtyr.html 10ft
http://www.petrastechshop.com/ststwohocl.html 12 of them
http://www.petrastechshop.com/1odtf1and7id.html
http://www.petrastechshop.com/madeficap.html
http://www.petrastechshop.com/ptthta1wi50r.html
http://www.petrastechshop.com/swmcrre2raho.html
http://www.petrastechshop.com/peg11coadb4o.html

Thats everything you need aside from about a liter of distilled water

All total thats 321 plus tax and shipping

 

[lazer_viking]

Can you tell me why there are northbridge blocks? What a northbirde does? Why it gets so hot it is necessary to have a block for it, yet I've never heard of it?
Also, I was just thinking about the layout of a water cooling system. Does it go: Pump -> CPU Block -> GPU Block -> Northbridge Block (if applicable) -> Reservoir -> Radiator -> Pump -> etc? If so, wont hot water be sent to the GPU? Also, where does this T-Pipe fit into the equation?
edit: Ohhhh okay yea just read the guide to watercooling on this topic (thanks cvb) and it said the T-line is used in place of a reservoir. How is that? where does the 3rd opening of the T-line go to?

edit: the sentence "yet I've never heard of it?" is inaccurate. I have heard of it, yet I've never considered it such a high performance component.

 

[Baez]

You should read the whole guide. I used only this to make my first system.

10. North Bridge Waterblock

This is an item that, for the most part should have never been created. If you are a performance user, you will want to stay away from these. The NB (north bridge) waterblocks are generally overly restrictive and do not do much of anything for your overclocking capabilities. There are some exceptions to this, but for the most part your NB will be cooled more than adequately by the stock cooling, for by an inexpensive air cooling option.

The legitimacy of the NB block is a little bit greater for those users searching for the almighty silence. If you want to get rid of the noisy fan that plagues your NB this is a viable option. But I stress to try a zalman fanless air cooling unit first before you try a NB block, because it will hurt the overall performance of your watercooling loop. I should note though that there are some exceptions where the NB block can actually help flow, but these are very rare and I only know of one such situation.

 

[Baez]

Also ur question about the order in which they go is mostly up to u if u create ur own system but water's heat tranfering capabilites are amazing. it can cool or heat things up extremely well without really changing it's own temp. so no the water would be almost an identical temp once it passes the cpu. also the water is constantly flowing so each particle just quickly passes over each block. it doesn't sit there. hope that answers it