Opinions on an Upgrade

[MotF Bane]

I already asked my friend on this, and he said to take the second option... personally, I'm addicted to the idea of water cooling... so here's the two options, and what I have...

Right now:
Demon IV case, it's a midtower, with lots of no-name 80mm fans howling at me. I'd guess somewhere around 50 dBA, from where I sit 2 feet away.
Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 Rev 3.3
Gigabyte 7600GS
E6400 L626 with a Sunbeam CR-SW-775 (think Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro, but not quite as good)
Silverstone Olympia 650W
Ballistix 1066 5-5-5-15 2x1GB 2.2V

The video card is running happily at 500 core, 433 memory (866 effective on GDDR2?)
The processor is at 70C dual full load, 416 fsb, Vcore 1.3875, Vfsb +.2, Vmch +.2
The memory is running 4-4-4-12 1040 2.2V

I'm getting a Thermaltake Armor case, a Yate Loon 88cfm/40dba fan (I'll add a rheostat), and four Yate Loon 47cfm/28dba fans over the summer. After that...

Option One:
D-Tek FuZion CPU block
D-Tek FuZion GPU block
Thermochill PA120.3
Swiftech MCP355 w/Petra's top
Masterkleer tubing
Long Life red additive (from PT)
EK High-Flow barbs
MCW30 Swiftech chipset block
Total = 400-450

Option Two:
8800GTS
Tuniq Tower

Anybody have an opinion? Advice? Something? 😀

 

[aigomorla]

LOSSEN YOUR VOLTAGE ON THE RAM!!!

i blew mine running it at 2.25V after 3 months. I hear from pro's over at xs, you shouldnt push more then 2.175 on them if your running 24/7 on them.


But now lets take a look at what i am good at:

Ditch the Armor. Get a CM Stacker T-01. The open bottom will make it a lot friendly for you to internally mount a radiator. Get a tool called the nibbler, to help you nibble the bottom of the stacker. You need to make that hole bigger so you can fit that PA120.3 inside.

http://i125.photobucket.com/al...aigomorla/IMG_0406.jpg

The D-tek fusion GPU is a POS. Petra aka Alex aka owner of petrastechshop did some testing on the block. He says theres a hugh pressure drop on it. Get a MCW60 instead.

You need some alphacool barbs for the Thermochill PA.
http://www.petrastechshop.com/aqhifig3th1o.html x 2

I also recomend the EK 1/2 barbs for your MCW30.

I also recomend a reservoir. The swiftech Micro reservoir is a very excellent choice. You will need ek barbs on that as well. The plastic ones are too painful to work with on 7/16ID tubing.

Get about 15 feet of tubing if this is your first job. You'll thank me when you hvae a OOPS, i didnt want that there...

MAKE SURE, your pump never runs dry. Also MAKE SURE you connect the reservoir outlet, to your pump's inlet. This makes sure your pump never runs dry.

This is for option 1 incase you decide on that.


Option 2 is kind of a waste when the 8900's are suposed to arrive soon. They have blocks ready for the 8950GX2. XSPC made a OPPS apearance of it at CES.

 

[MotF Bane]

My memory is rated and warrantied by Crucial to run at 2.2V... so even if they burn out, I can get them replaced.

CM Stacker T-01 is the basic CM Stacker, right? I've looked at those; I want a slightly showier case. Plus, I was planning to mount the radiator along the front, as I only have one optical drive. I don't want it inhaling dust through a bottom mount.

Thanks for the information on the D-Tek GPU block and the Alphacool barbs. I had already planned EK barbs for all three blocks.

I wasn't planning on a reservoir, I was thinking to use a T-line for maximum performance, as I've heard reservoirs kill flowrate.

Tubing, okay I'll go with that.

Additional note; the same friend who told me to take the second option already has a full liquid loop, and he'd be willing to help me piece this together so as to not destroy something.


I didn't know about a... whatever that is appearance by the 89-- series, that should help push prices on 8800 down at release, so I'll deal with that then.

Water it is.

Edit:
Do you have a link to Petra's testing of the D-Tek block?