Best Watercooling Kit for my System

[airhendrix13]

Hi,

The topic summary basically asks my question but, I have an EVGA 680i Mobo inside of a Thermaltake Armor Tower w/ the side fan. I plan on buying and OCing a Q6600 after the price cuts and I feel air cooling w/ my Zalman 9500 won't be enough to hit my desired OC around 3.2GHz and up. I do understand that the G0 version of the Q6600 will be better for OCing but I can't guarentee I'll get one. I also want the kit to be able to cool my 8800GTS, but right now it runs on the stock fan, and I dont know if there is an option available to cool it. This will be my first LC kit because I've had very good air cooling.

So now for the question:

What is the best watercooling kit available for around $200?

Thanks,

airhendrix13

 

[PCTC2]

Well, I can tell you the Zalman 9500 won't be enough. My Zalman 9700 could only do 3.6GHz on my E6400, let alone my Q6600. If you want a cheap outlet, get a Thermalright Ultra120 eXtreme, lap it, and thrown 2 Scythe S-Flex Fans on it.

As for water-cooling, if you want to watercool both your 8800GTS and your Q6600 OC'ed to 3.6GHz, you're going to need a custom kit that might need to be mounted externally (you might be able to squeeze it into the bottom of the Armor with a little case modding and casters for the bottom.

Swiftech MCR320 120.3 Radiator 55
MCP655 Pump 80
D-Tek FuZion CPU 65
EK FC-8800GTS GPU 130
Swiftech MicroRes 20
Master-kleer 7/16 ID tubing

That's probably the best set-up for you, for about $350. It's a little more, but the $200 kits won't dissipate enough of the heat to be worth it. An overclocked quad and an 8800GTS put out too much heat for a 120.2 radiator.

Plus, read Aigo's W/C guide. it's pretty good for everything. . Hear that aigo?

EDIT: I have a similar set-up to yours. Read my thread.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Aigo insists that OC'ing a quad-core pretty much means water-cooling, and I won't argue.

PCTC2's advice seems sound, especially for the radiator.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

If you only want to water-cool the CPU, and your 8800GTS will continue to be your single VGA choice, the HR-03-Plus by ThermalRight is a darned good air-cooler for that nVidia card.

My stock temperatures on the BFG 8800 GTS 640mb were pushing 70C during game-play with an idle value around 46C. After installing the ThermalRight, the load temperature doesn't exceed 53C with an 80x15mm Zalman OP-1 fan installed, and about 58C with no fan installed.

 

[airhendrix13]

Alright, thanks for your help guys, I appreciate it.