Best Watercooling System 4 F-Day? Need Advice!

[Merovingian]

Fathers Day is almost here and I'm buying my dad a watercooled system, which is best? Both noise and cooling performance are factors. I was looking at the Coolermaster aquagate system as all their other products seem to do pretty well. Any thoughts or ideas?

 

[Xed]

Zalman reserator is pretty quiet, cools pretty decently for a kit (cools a lot better if you have a fan blowing over it). I can't speak for any others since I've never used them

Most will say to take your time and build your own, could be a fathers day project with dad

 

[Merovingian]

I suppose I could build my own, but he lives in new york and I don't have much time to order, build and ship out again to NY. I hear that the Zalman WC system is super quiet but not very cool at all (without the fan) I hear air cooling does a better job of cooling.

 

[QueBert]

The Aquagate is decent, reviews I've read it doesn't cool that much better then the best heatsink, but it's one of the cheaper, pre-assembled water setups you can get that's worth a damn. I dunno what your budget is here, but you should look into the Koolance, you can get the older model, which is real nice for the bucks.

 

[Merovingian]

Cool, I'll check that out...Heh, nice avatar.

 

[BioHazards]

Cooler Master AquaGate Mini 120 are cheap and work very well and not all that hard to install.

 

[imported_Kensai]

Zalman's resorator will perform better than high-end cooling, hands down. It's a very powerful water cooling system. A great present for your dad.

 

[lambchops3344]

you could really please him and build one from danger den... not that complicated at all...

 

[Merovingian]

Zalman seem to get really poor performance reviews on cooling but extra sweet on sound. I need to clock a venice 3000+ to 2.6-2.7 plus and two 6800GT's. So I cannot run a passive cooling system. I like the CM solution because it is easy for a first time watercool install plus it has all the easy basics like warnings for low fluids. The danger den looks interesting, the CM aquagate mini is soooo sweet but wont cool my graphics cards, or will they? And the Koolance cases are...well not what I think would be a solid compromise between looks and function, IMO =). But I'm open to building one like from danger den, gonna have to check that out.