Am I crazy to watercool my rig when my wife...

[eklock2000]

So I've been on the fence about water-cooling for some time. My main goal is to set it up for complete silence...the wife could at least appreciate that. The fans have just been driving me crazy lately.

I'm concerned that if something went wrong with the system, she wouldn't know what to do. Pump fails, leaks, etc. I consider myself pretty meticulous and am confident about setting up the system. How likely is it that a leak would develop over time. If I stay on top of the coolant levels periodically and check the system every few months, am I good to go? Is it worth setting up flow/temp alarms?

Oh btw, I already tried to get her to commit to using our Dell Inspiron M60 as "her" computer, but it just wasn't "fast" enough for her. Amazing what a 4 min. boot time does to a woman...😀

Thanks,

EK2K

 

[PCTC2]

Originally posted by: eklock2000
So I've been on the fence about water-cooling for some time. My main goal is to set it up for complete silence...the wife could at least appreciate that. The fans have just been driving me crazy lately.

I'm concerned that if something went wrong with the system, she wouldn't know what to do. Pump fails, leaks, etc. I consider myself pretty meticulous and am confident about setting up the system. How likely is it that a leak would develop over time. If I stay on top of the coolant levels periodically and check the system every few months, am I good to go? Is it worth setting up flow/temp alarms?

Oh btw, I already tried to get her to commit to using our Dell Inspiron M60 as "her" computer, but it just wasn't "fast" enough for her. Amazing what a 4 min. boot time does to a woman...😀

Thanks,

EK2K

You are good to go. I have only had one leak due to not having a hose clamp on a tight tube and it slipped off. My pump has also died once, but once your computer reaches a certain temp, it just shuts off. An alarm probably isn't worth it as long as your CPU has some sort of thermal shut-off point (modern CPU). If you want silence, go for it.

 

[aigomorla]

there are pumps with RPM headers, so you can track your RPM.

Connect it to your cpu header and you can set shut down incase of failure.

Watercooling comes with a hugh price tag, and also space requirements.

For a completely silent system using water, it requires a hugh price tag, and massive radiators.

Water isnt yoshi that gobbles heat magically and indefinitely.

I think you'd honestly end up spending more on the completely silent water setup then a dell at this point.

The Dell would probably = its quietness too.

Dayam Dells are quiet tho.

 

[eklock2000]

Thanks guys,

Sounds like I need to refine my goal of "silent" to "quiet" operation. My HD4870 is damn loud under load when I game. I'm not interested in "silent", especially at any pricetag. A second computer has already been shot down by the wife. I'm considering components similiar to LOUISSSS's post...

Rad: Swiftech 320 QP - $60
Pump: Swiftech MCP655 - $70
Block: Danger Den MC-TDX $60
VGA: Danger Den HD4870 block $130
Res: Swiftech Micro Rev 2 - $25
Tubing: Primochill ½? PrimoFlex Pro LRT - $20
Fans: Suggestions?

My Specs:
ASUS P5Q-Deluxe BIOS 0506
Intel E6850 w/ Zalman 9700
ATI HD4870 512MB (Catalyst 9.1)
4Gb ? Kingston HyperX PC28500 (KHX8500D2K4/4G)
Corsair CMPSU 1000HX ? 1000Watts
Cooler Master CosmosS
WinXP SP2

I would like to consider Xfire or going to a GTX295 in the future. The CosmosS has plenty of room for more rads. Thoughts?

Thanks,

EK2K

 

[aigomorla]

and as i said in louis post,

change the cpu block to a d-tek fusion if possible.

Change your rad to something thicker so you can get better thermal displacement at lower fan speeds and less noise.

the Fesser is a better candidate for you, as well as the XSPC RX rads if you dont mind the poor paint job.

Tubing save some money and go with masterkleer.

And you also need 2 barbs for that res, and if you go with that rad, you'll need 2 more.

 

[SickBeast]

You can obtain silence on air with a big enough heatsink for your CPU, and an aftermarket "silencer" heatsink for your graphics card.

Then you just have the hard drive spinning plus the fans in your power supply. For that I recommend getting and SSD, and purchase an over-specced high-efficiency PSU with a good 120mm low RPM fan.

 

[aigomorla]

you know what you do...

u give your wife the computer, and you build yourself another one and not do LC. !

then you have somethign your wife wont touch. 😛

That way if your wife steals the new one, you got your old one, and if she keeps the old one, you can start LCing the new one in the future.

 

[PCTC2]

Originally posted by: aigomorla
you know what you do...

u give your wife the computer, and you build yourself another one and not do LC. !

then you have somethign your wife wont touch. 😛

That way if your wife steals the new one, you got your old one, and if she keeps the old one, you can start LCing the new one in the future.

OR you can build a new one that's "better" but more budget and get the old one for yourself and save some money vs buying a new enthusiast-level computer for yourself.

You know... pick her up an E5300, P5Q-E, 4GB DDR2-800, and an HD 4670, 550W Corsair PSU, and a decent case (such as a Lian-Li LANBOX), give it to her as a gift, get your computer to yourself, and then LC it.

She's happy AND you're happy.

 

[eklock2000]

You guys want to call her and convince her on that one...?😀

I would love to build her a budget pc, but we really only have one office. We kinda had a blowup when the whole laptop thingy went down and she said i should move all the "computer crap" to the garage (hmm...it's about 10C cooler ambient in there:thumbsup🙂.

Besides, any money on a new computer would go pretty far in a nice LC setup.

Off Topic:

Anyone got any thoughts on this new rez...TyphoonIII

http://www.primochill.com/

Thanks,

EK2K