I was thinking if i had some extra cash that after Christmas I might invest in some water cooling for my Armor full tower series.. the new board I got is a micro ATX i believe (i"m guessing it is just because it was smaller than my other board and lacks the 2 PCI slots it had.). Not to mention its a beastly case anyways... Im kinda scared to install one myself unless someone wants to tell me its completely safe.. just liquid + expensive electronics + me = Something or someone is getting electricuted. Anyways.. any recommendations? I have a spare PSU slots cause its a big case, a couple of bays under my CD/DVD drives as well as optimal space in the bottom of my PC.. Ideally I'd like to have something that cooled both my cpu and my videocard, but if its in excess over $300 and It still doesn't include VGA cooling I'd just get that in later..

Christmas is comin early! (9800GTX tomorrow..!)

Hey its really safe in terms of you not getting hurt, though there is a bit of risk to your components. Especially when your new to it, chances are a bit higher that something will go wrong. Though if your into overclocking, or going for silence, or just want something cutting edge, it definatly is rewarding to install it yourself, and have your comp watercooled! For 300 dollars you should be able to build a decent setup for your cpu and videocard. You may have to use some used parts, but there are definatly deals to be had out there. For your videocard there are waterblocks that just cover the gpu, then you use small heatsinks on the ram. Or there is full coverage blocks, that cool the all of the heat generating devices on the card. If your looking to keep costs down definatly go with the former, Id recommend Swiftech mcw60. Yepp, definatly look into swiftech products, their great for the price. Also you may want to considering going with a triple rad for cooling that best of a card, and cpu.

If it is done properly and secured, just double check all your joints and connections, you shouldnt have a problem. Also Rob wont put any liquid cooling together at the shop. So you can order it, but building it is up to you.

Build the loop and run it outside of your case for a few hours/day as a leak test and then mount everything inside once it's running well. I haven't put together a water cooling system myself but I think the above suggestion was the best advice I have heard given to people who are thinking about it.

Denty I should get him to hire me for doing water projects lol.

I'd suggest going with a Swiftech MCR320 rad as it's the best bang for your buck rad going on the market today & only a few degrees behind the big boys. Most blocks also are all within a few degrees cooling mostly also but just some are slightly more restrictive. It's for the better as they are the ones that cool your cpu the best. I'd look at the DK Fusion V1 or V2 or maybe Apogee GTZ or EK Supreme? You'll prolly find a good used Fusion around if you look though so that would prolly be your best bet.

Pumps range in size price ect also. the best little pump out there right now I think is the D-Tek DB-1 & affordable. Go with a Micro res reservoir to as they are pretty cost effective as well. Then your choice of tubing barbs ect for size & whatnot.

Far as GPU's go Odis is right for now go with what he mentioned there with some good quality ram sinks. Full cover blocks are available & just as effective so if you happen to find one for your card somewhere used they don't go bad lol. I'm using EK full cover blocks myself but with tri sli you don't really have much room to play with.

There are some really good deals around but as per robs rules I can't post links to other shops online or not. Take a look around the for sale sites also other Canadian comp sites as well.

Just to get you into what to look for I'm going with a Mountain Mods H2gO case, stuffing 2-220 rads & 1-120 rad with all the tubing ect in it. Only cooling cpu & 3 gpu blocks atm till more are available for my i7 setup. even then it'll prolly just be the NB that I WC the SB & mosfets are fine on there own & don't need the extra tubing getting in the way.

Sorry if my post seems so long. Any other questions don't hesitate to osk one of us will hit you back. The good Dr. is also pretty knowledgeable on this subject as well so if he sees this i'm sure he'll chime in lol.

Yeah thats what i planned on doing Flama.. I'll look into swifttech. I was checking out the thermaltake kits just for fun, their "leak proof" designs..

From the swifttech site it seems to be roughly $450 for a high-end liquid cooling solution.
(HIGH END)
$67.50 Triple Radiator (MCR320-QP-K)
$99.95 MCP655™ Pump with speed controller
$69.95 Apogee™ GTZ water-block
$29.95 MCW30 Chipset cooling
$129.95 Obsidian Nvidia VGA cooling
$25.95 MCRES-MICRO Reservoir

Did i miss anything ? I'm guessing I'd have to buy all the fittings and tubing as well..
$2.60 40" SmartCoils625 (clear)

(LOW END)
$46.95 MCW60-R VGA Cooling
$29.95 MCW30 Chipset Water block
$49.95 Apogee™ GT water-block CPU
$84.95 MCP655 Pump
$43.50 Radiator (120m single)
$25.95 Reservoir (same as the other one)


or $350 for the low end (basically took the cheapest of everything, with the exception of the reservoir)

I'd honestly prefer the $450 setup because it's a badass triple rad, and everything on it is a step up..



Also looked up Thermaltake real quick, this isn't a kit its just in the upgrades section so basically a custom build, I won't list them but it came to $275 the only thing different other than price is the liquid tank/pump were in one for $69.99 AquaBay M5

edit :
Found a Swiftech H20-220 Apex Ultima Liquid Cooling Kit $260 for a complete kit.. that has everything the custom had but for $260 instead of $450... wow..!
Oh wait the only big difference is it has a smaller radiator..and no VGA cooling. o.o what a deal?




Any thoughts? suggestions =)

Don't know if you saw what I posted there or not but do yourself a favor & Don't buy Thermaltake it's crap in all seriousness. They don't listen to what We the people buying this crap have to say & continue to make more crap that nobody wants. They'll get the hint someday lets hope! lol. They continue to use Aluminum in their products & when mixed with other metals it 's not good. Corrosion ect bad. Copper & brass are they only things you want in your system other than nickel coating of course!

The Swiftech kits are pretty good to as you can somewhat pick certain things you want to use right. Up to you though what you want & how you want it in your system.

No i didn't see the part about Thermaltake but thanks for the advice.. as it looks anyways the only thing I saw appealing about them was the way the barbs assembled and locked down tight.. but all of the swifttech gear looks pretty tight.. I'm gonna have to measure and whatnot to see how big a rad i could actually fit because I don't really want it all hanging off the back of my PC to be honest. I'll also look up those parts you post =)

a random question off topic of water cooling.. but whenever i have to load something big like Maya or Photoshop i get a scritching sound.. is this my HD? I just bought a new 500GB one I'm using as my OS/programs one now so I don't think its my 2 older 250GB WD's doing it.. sound plausible ?

Could very well be that yes. I'd disconnect your other drives completely so you can isolate that one to see if it is indeed the drive making the sound.

Also If it's ease of locking your tubing in place look at getting some Compression fittings maybe? Available from most online stores ect. Here's a peek at what they look like.

Yer jamming all that stuff on an 8800?

Ooooh shinies!

No Steve 3 of those 8800's lol My i920 & NB when it shows.

I wish I cared enough about my computers to give them the royal treatment, but for WoW and pira^H^H^H downloading linux distro's it's not worth it.

Yeah it's a hobby to me really. I got out of building nitro trucks cause I got bored of it. Before that it was reptiles & before that it was fish. Trucks & fast cars were in the mix there some wheres as well. Now I'm into water cooling computers. lol

Anyone know of a benchmark (reliable) for doing your harddrives? If ones all scratchy sounding I wanna found out and im guessing a benchmark would make it stick out like a sore thumb