Replace fans or go to water cooling?

[kwo]

I'm responsible for keeping a friends' computer gaming experience relatively up to date on a somewhat limited budget.

Over Christmas, I bought him a RaidMax Scorpio ATX-668 case

While it's all pretty - he complains that it is far too loud for him. The rest of the components (rather mid/low end at this point) are as follows:

ECS N2U400A
Sempron 2400+/stock fan/heatsink
512mb Kingston HyperX DDR500
Nvidia 5700LE
30GB 7200rpm ATA133 Maxtor HD

He mentioned watercooling - but I've no experience with that as of yet and am a little leary of setting that up for him, considering he's several states away from me.

I was thinking that perhaps replacing all the fans in that case with quieter ones would help.

What do you all think? If so, what fans would you recommend.

I've often heard that Panaflo's (L1A) are very quiet and good. Would these significantly lessen the sound level from the stock fans in the case (6 x 80mm)?

 

[Chode Messiah]

get some 120mm fans, and a fan controller and u should be fine. I have liquid cooling and its a pain in the ass to set up if u dont know how to. Plus ur parts aren't going to put out much heat. Go for air cooling

 

[kwo]

Thanks for the reply -

But...I think I"m not understanding something...how could I fit a 120mm fan into an 80mm hole? In other words, if you look at the link (I corrected it) - It's got 2x80mm back, 2x80mm front, 1x80mm top, and 1x80mm side.

Where/how would I put 120mm fans?

 

[stevem326]

I can't tell you exactly how to fit a 120mm fan into an 80mm hole, but I'm almost certain the noise is as a result of having those six 80mm fans in there to begin with. That's a lot for most people. I have just two 80mm fans in my case and it never gets higher than about 84F inside. At the most you would need 3 fans in my opinion.

My suggestion would be to just replace 2 or 3 of the current fans with quieter ones and get rid of the others.

I can't recommend quiet fans, but here's a website that might help Silent PC Review

 

[kwo]

Thanks! I'll check it out now.....

 

[mjdart]

Installed pic, very compact, very quiet, very cheap $119, it fits every mobo/CPU

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y25/mj...%20Big%20Water/TtBigWaterInstalled.jpg

Pictures of kit:
http://photobucket.com/albums/y25/mjdar...nt=Thermaltake_Big_Water_Packaging.jpg

Installation pics:
http://photobucket.com/albums/y25/mjdar...iew¤t=1_ABIT_AA8XE_CPU_Block.jpg

Where I bought it - very quick shipping for cheap cheapest took 2 days!
http://store.pcpowerzone.com/thclbigwa12l.html

 

[kwo]

looks cool - but it also looks like I need a 12cm/120mm fan grill - and I only have 80mm......

Wouldn't mind having one of these myself, though....

 

[Phlargo]

fitting a 120mm fan in a 80mm hole? That sounds like a sexual problem.

 

[imported_Kensai]

Just buy 80mm low-speed panaflo's....

 

[Snowice]

all u need is a fan controller!

 

[DJMiX]

How well does that pump work ? and is it quite ?

Originally posted by: mjdart
Installed pic, very compact, very quiet, very cheap $119, it fits every mobo/CPU

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y25/mj...%20Big%20Water/TtBigWaterInstalled.jpg

Pictures of kit:
http://photobucket.com/albums/y25/mjdar...nt=Thermaltake_Big_Water_Packaging.jpg

Installation pics:
http://photobucket.com/albums/y25/mjdar...iew¤t=1_ABIT_AA8XE_CPU_Block.jpg

Where I bought it - very quick shipping for cheap cheapest took 2 days!
http://store.pcpowerzone.com/thclbigwa12l.html

 

[VigilanteCS]

Originally posted by: mjdart
Installed pic, very compact, very quiet, very cheap $119, it fits every mobo/CPU

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y25/mj...%20Big%20Water/TtBigWaterInstalled.jpg

Pictures of kit:
http://photobucket.com/albums/y25/mjdar...nt=Thermaltake_Big_Water_Packaging.jpg

Installation pics:
http://photobucket.com/albums/y25/mjdar...iew¤t=1_ABIT_AA8XE_CPU_Block.jpg

Where I bought it - very quick shipping for cheap cheapest took 2 days!
http://store.pcpowerzone.com/thclbigwa12l.html

Do they have one of those kits available for an Athlon 64 socket 939?

 

[mjdart]

Complete video review with flow rates (120L/hr) and such stated. In my impression the flow rate is low but I think the CPU water block design allows more heat transfer and then longer time in the radiotor and reservoir to disipate heat more thouroughly.

Closeup of CPU block with flow path
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y25/mjdart/Thermaltake_Big_Water_CPU_Block1.jpg

Click to watch video review
http://7of9.keystreams.com/gameman/arch...m_videoreview_529_bigwater_02_512k.wmv

 

[wisdomtooth]

In addition...

Get rid of that loud-a$$ POS Raidmax PSU with its dinky noisy 80mm fans (and PATHETIC 13-amp 12V rail) and get your friend a near-silent Seasonic Super Tornado 400 PSU.

 

[kwo]

Originally posted by: wisdomtooth
In addition...

Get rid of that loud-a$$ POS Raidmax PSU with its dinky noisy 80mm fans (and PATHETIC 13-amp 12V rail) and get your friend a near-silent Seasonic Super Tornado 400 PSU.

My word...such vehemence over a power supply........but thank you for the recommendation......