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Good case/HSF or Koolance?

Garion

Platinum Member
I'm looking to build myself a new box in a month or so and am trying to decide on the proper case and cooling combination.

I'm going to be getting:

Athlon 1.33 (266)
A7M266 motherboard (Or a KT266 if they get more stable)
256 MB PC2100 (CAS2 if it gets cheaper)
MSI Geforce II PRO 64 MB
Pioneer 16X tray loading DVD
CDRW (eventually)
60GB 7200 RPM HD

I plan on doing some moderate overclocking of the CPU and video card, so I want more than stock. I know that a generic case doesn't have adequate airflow to do this right and to keep the temps down.

I want to keep things pretty quiet - I've heard some Heatsink / fan combos are really loud, not to mention one or two case fans plus the power supply.

When I do the math, the Koolance case starts to make more sense.. It's about $195 w/ the CPU and GPU Coolers. A good reasonably-quiet case (300 watt Fong Kai FK-603)is about $100, plus a thermoengine/paste ($30) and an upgraded GPU fan ($20), an extra case fan ($10), shipping is $20.. Cost is only about $15 difference and the Koolance gives me a lot more cooling and is very quiet. (I'm from Seattle so I can pick up the Koolance at the distributor - No shipping!)

I really don't want to do anything so radical as a peltier - The quote of "Some people put vasoline on their CPU posts so they don't short out when the humidity builds up" leaves me a bit wary of them, considering I'm not going to OC to the extreme..

Anyone care to comment? Everthing I'm seeing about the Koolance is positive (with the exception of one reviewer who got a defective one). The only possible negatives I hear are high case temps. Some might say that I don't really need the GPU cooler, as the Geforces don't run hot, but hey - For $15, it gets the cooling into the water and lowers the ambient temps in the case itself.

- G
 
I would say definitly go Koolance if you want to. The only thing I would do is wait until Koolance releases upgraded power supplies because as of know, the PSU doesn't bode well with ddr mobo's and ram. Be sure to keep up to date with the news section at Koolance Eventually they will have more options for cooling/noise preferences. Other than that I think you're pretty much set.
 
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