WaterCooling Kit

[0roo0roo]

Originally posted by: sparkyclarky

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo
http://www.coolermaster.com/index.php?L...BU1+AQUAGATE%20Mini%20R80%20%2F%20R120

It's an interesting concept, but the reviews have shown performance to be less then stellar in comparison to decent 'standard' watercooling setups. There is also much concern about the closed nature of the unit/coolant leak over time. While it is guaranteed to work for 2 years, what happens after that? I'm sure some of us have kept CPU coolers around for longer than that (my SLK-800 is going on 2.5 years now and is still in the upper echelon if air coolers).

well yea but its 80 dollars. standard water can cost much more. and either way its a lot of money to spend, neither gets the bang for buck of air, but the 80 dollar one is still cheaper by a lot. as for lasting a long time, you don't get water for reliability or long term, its for either silence or bleeding edge. bleeding edge people upgrade a lot..gamers upgrade a lot. so how long a cooler lasts doesn't matter that much. 2 years is probably just what is garranteed. i doubt its more unreliable then a cars cooling system which can easily go 5 years with decent coolant at much higher temperatures/stresses. not really bang for buck again. the slk was nice, i had one, but i wouldn't say its in the upper echelon anymore at all. have you seen todays air coolers? they are massive monsters with 5+heatpipes and 120mm fans. slk800 is a joke next to these.

 

[HardWarrior]

The parts all all first rate, so that's good. The only problem I see is the low-quality 3/8 inch ID tubing.

 

[sparkyclarky]

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo

Originally posted by: sparkyclarky

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo
http://www.coolermaster.com/index.php?L...BU1+AQUAGATE%20Mini%20R80%20%2F%20R120

It's an interesting concept, but the reviews have shown performance to be less then stellar in comparison to decent 'standard' watercooling setups. There is also much concern about the closed nature of the unit/coolant leak over time. While it is guaranteed to work for 2 years, what happens after that? I'm sure some of us have kept CPU coolers around for longer than that (my SLK-800 is going on 2.5 years now and is still in the upper echelon if air coolers).

well yea but its 80 dollars. standard water can cost much more. and either way its a lot of money to spend, neither gets the bang for buck of air, but the 80 dollar one is still cheaper by a lot. as for lasting a long time, you don't get water for reliability or long term, its for either silence or bleeding edge. bleeding edge people upgrade a lot..gamers upgrade a lot. so how long a cooler lasts doesn't matter that much. 2 years is probably just what is garranteed. i doubt its more unreliable then a cars cooling system which can easily go 5 years with decent coolant at much higher temperatures/stresses. not really bang for buck again. the slk was nice, i had one, but i wouldn't say its in the upper echelon anymore at all. have you seen todays air coolers? they are massive monsters with 5+heatpipes and 120mm fans. slk800 is a joke next to these.

I have seen today's air coolers, and the reviews have shown very little improvement over the SLK-800. More copper does not immediately translate into better cooling if you don't have some proper engineering behind it. That Coolermaster was showing temps not much better than air, but with many more potential failure points along with a higher price. And while it's true that you generally wouldn't want to go water for the utmost in reliability, the difference with a standard water setup vs. the Coolermaster is that if something breaks with the standard water, it is generally an easy fix with any number of parts available. The Coolermaster breaks and you might as well trash it due to the closed nature of the entire system. Another thing you failed to take into account was what exactly is upgraded by certain sectors of the market. CPUs get upgraded fairly frequently. Motherboards often a bit less than CPUs if they can still take advantage of newer chips. RAM can have a very long lifespan with wise purchasing (my PC-3200 from 2 years ago is still just as viable today if I were to build an entirely new system). Not everything is upgraded all that frequently, even by people who want bleeding edge gaming performance. A properly designed CPU cooler can last for years, assuming that no major socket changes come along. And even if they do, a new heatsink is fairly cheap. A new waterblock is fairly cheap. A new self contained system such as that Coolermaster is gonna cost another hundred bucks. It is seriously lacking in the price/performance ratio, even compared to more expensive alternatives like decent watercooling setups.

 

[Bona Fide]

I'm not pretending to be well-versed in water-cooling, but I've heard GREAT thing about Danger Den's cooling kits. Moreover, they let you put your own customized set together.

 

[NINaudio]

Danger den's stuff is very good. Swiftech's stuff is also very good. The "kit" he's buying is issentially a custom set of high quality components.

 

[sOKaLiBoY]

just installed this kit on my rig. running a 3700 san diego at 2850 right now. vcore is at 1.67. idle 27c - load 39c. must say it is a pretty sweet setup. will try to bump up to 2.9 later this week.


oh and a warning. the kit comes with 7/16" ID - 5/8" OD tubing. The tubing with fit snug on all of the 1/2 adapters. The only problem is that the pump has 1/2 connectors but they are not tapered. It is a bitch to try and get them on.

 

[sparkyclarky]

Originally posted by: sOKaLiBoY
just installed this kit on my rig. running a 3700 san diego at 2850 right now. vcore is at 1.67. idle 27c - load 39c. must say it is a pretty sweet setup. will try to bump up to 2.9 later this week.


oh and a warning. the kit comes with 7/16" ID - 5/8" OD tubing. The tubing with fit snug on all of the 1/2 adapters. The only problem is that the pump has 1/2 connectors but they are not tapered. It is a bitch to try and get them on.

That's crazy that they're including the 7/16" stuff, because from what I've read that diameter tubing is supposed to be the new craze amongst the WC crowd. It offers compatibility with the usual fittings, roughly the same performance as the typical 1/2" stuff, and better tube routing. Swiftech really did their homework on this kit.

 

[NotquiteanooB]

Here's a review of the Corsair watercooling kits. Impressions, installations etc.

http://www.legitreviews.com/article.php?aid=168

 

[Mattd46612]

Got the kit all setup and used my own GEIL thermal paste that I had some luck with before. Seeing sub 30c temps when entering windows from cold boot, and tops out at 41c during 32M PI. Now keep in mind this is at 1.625 Vcore and 2.9ghz. I Just have it thrown together Im going to do a custome setup and get my pics up. It was a real PAIN to get the tubing on the pump. I had to boil water and soak the tubing in hot water to soften it and get it on. Since Im building a custom case for it I will have to redo all the tubing so I will probably get 10 feet or so of 1/2" ID tubing. Everything came nicely in the kit together and really didnt take much time at all to setup. I think the results speak for themselves, also I believe the thermal paste still has some settling in to do.

 

[NINaudio]

Nice temps. They are the same as what I get, except my load temps are 1-2° higher.