Water cooling recommendations?

[vinson]

I'm looking to build my first water cooled system here soon and I was curious what people's experiences were with the various water cooling setups. Any recommendations or feedback from those in the know would be greatly appreciated. I know Tom really likes the Innovatek system but there are a lot of other systems out there as well.

Thanks,

Dane R. Vinson

 

[nnnyyy]

koolance exos!

 

[Blain]

I'll give you mine...

* If I had it to do all over again, I'd buy a radiator by itself.
* Do some research and end up buying a Maze2 -1 or -2 (for Socket A). The Maze2's are plentiful and can be found in the For Sale/Trade at good prices.
* Buy a Maxi-Jet 900 and modify it for "inline" use. Maxi-Jet 900's sell for about $21-$24 shipped.
* Buy "softer" water lines. I bought my vinyl hose at Lowes. It's cheap enough for sure. But it's just too stiff to work around in my case.

If I would have bought smarter I could have rigged my whole water cooling system for about $110 and some change, shipped. As it is I've got over $140 (and an extra water block), in it. If I sold my extra block I could recoop some of my $$. But I might use it in the future.

 

[Dug]

A coolercore from Dtek
A waterblock from DangerDen Maze2 or 3
A pump that matches your system. The higher rated (more gph) pumps have been proven not to offer better cooling unless you are running long lines. (Such as you have your setup outside your box)
I'm using an AquaVia 1300 and it works good but it vibrates too much.

If I was going to do it all over again I would have just bought a complete kit from DangerDen
consisting of
Maze3 copper block with 1/2" fittings
Eheim 1048 pump
Sunon 120mm fan
4oz of water wetter
artic silver 3
7ft of 1/2" clearflex tubing
1 reservoir
10 hose clamps
and one T fitting and 1 Y fitting

Yes you can get all of these for a hair bit cheaper individually, but once you add in shipping and running all over the place, this is much easier and a solid set up with everything you need.

If you can afford it I would probably get the Koolance external system. Not the best in cooling, but an easy to use and good looking system.