How much is a decent water cooling setup?

[markrb]

I am just curious how much a decent, but not super high end, water cooling system is?
I am about sick of my heatsink fan noise and if I can't get the alpha 8045 to fit on my MB I might
just consider going that way. How much better, other than noise, is it over an air cooled setup?
Do most people run it with the side of the case off or do they mod the case to fit the hoses?
What potential problems are there?

Thanks,
Mark

 

[lastig21]

It seems a decent watercooling setup usually runs just over $100 depending on where you order it from, but could be as cheap as you want it to using milk jugs, aquariums, old car radiators, etc. The price could be much more too. There can be many benefits of watercooling, and if you are careful there is little risk. For non-overclockers you probably will not need any fans or will need minimal fans. For overclockers you can hit much higher speeds because of the better cooling, but will need high cfm fans to get the heat off the radiator (probably little noise reduction then what you have now). Most people on these forums (including me) mod their cases to hold the equipment and keep their sidepanels on to prevent excessive amounts of dust in their cases. The hoses are not the problem when it comes to fitting things in a case, it is the radiator and reservoir.

 

[ST4RCUTTER]

Here's my watercooling breakdown:

12" Radiator from Becooling..............$30
2 120mm Ultraclear@89CFM............$29
Magdrive 3 350GPH.............................$39
Jagged Edge waterblock.....................$30
Hoses, clamps, plexi-glass sump.....$20
--------------------------------------------------
Total: $148


Was it worth it to me? Well, I can sleep a whole lot better with my computer on now and hopefully I'll never have to buy another HSF again. If I had to do it again, I could've done it a lot cheaper than $148. You can get radiators for like $12 if you go to the right place. Ebay has em, and I've heard that some foreign car uses a radiator that works perfect for this. You could probably go with the 6" radiator and one very strong 120mm fan and be better off than the HSF you have now. A smaller pump would do the job too. My Mag-drive 350 is definitely overkill.

 

[Jen]

<< Here's my watercooling breakdown:

12" Radiator from Becooling..............$30
2 120mm Ultraclear@89CFM............$29
Magdrive 3 350GPH.............................$39
Jagged Edge waterblock.....................$30
Hoses, clamps, plexi-glass sump.....$20
--------------------------------------------------
Total: $148




Thats the price it came to for me to get my water cooling setup together. although i used a maze block and car heater core for radiator. and used a electrical plastic box from home ripoff. if you go with the mag drive pumps be sure to seal them up real well around the houseing. mine got a big leak in it and i had to take it all apart to fix it


Jen