WaterCooling Kit

[drakore]

Hi, I realize there are some threads on this already... but I browsed through them and they are mainly about building your own with radiators and pumps bought separately.

I am looking at 1 of 3 kits and would like some advice on which to get? I am mainly getting one because I can't fit a good heatsink on my board, because things are very tight around the CPU. here are the kits:

1. Swiftech H20-120
2. Gigabyte Galaxy II
3. Corsair Cool.

My system specs are listed below... I am more interested in the top 2, not so much the Corsair Cool... Also I live in Canada so a wide selection of kits is not available.

 

[thilanliyan]

The swiftech kit would be your best bet. I had the original Galaxy and actually used it to cool my video card using a separate Danger Den water block. It worked fine for that purpose. I then switched it to cool the CPU and within 2 months a crack had developed in the CPU water block. IIRC they haven't changed the CPU water block for the Galaxy II so you might run into a problem with that later. I would definitely spend the extra and get the Swiftech.

 

[tylerdustin2008]

Yes exactly what he said. It will perform allot better than the others but a pretty big margin.

 

[drakore]

Thanks a lot for the info guys... greatly appreciated... thilan did you have the block on your C2D? if so what kind of temps were you getting with the gigabyte set?

 

[aigomorla]

Originally posted by: drakore
Thanks a lot for the info guys... greatly appreciated... thilan did you have the block on your C2D? if so what kind of temps were you getting with the gigabyte set?

NO DO NOT GET THE APEX KIT!!

why? because you can buy a petrakit which has better manuals on installing, and better parts.

http://www.petrastechshop.com/pecoel.html

its OOS right now, so wait on it. And try to get the larger radiator MCR320 as the options.

Also i highly recomend you add a Reservoir, Swiftech Micro Reservoirs are very excellent products.

 

[buddhatb]

Originally posted by: aigomorla
DO DO NOT GET THE APEX KIT!!

why? because you can buy a petrakit which has better manuals on installing, and better parts.

http://www.petrastechshop.com/pecoel.html

its OOS right now, so wait on it. And try to get the larger radiator MCR320 as the options.

Also i highly recomend you add a Reservoir, Swiftech Micro Reservoirs are very excellent products.

That Petrakit is $100 more than the Swiftech H20-120 Kit.
Newegg has the Swiftech kit for only 149.99.

 

[aigomorla]

Originally posted by: buddhatb

Originally posted by: aigomorla
DO DO NOT GET THE APEX KIT!!

why? because you can buy a petrakit which has better manuals on installing, and better parts.

http://www.petrastechshop.com/pecoel.html

its OOS right now, so wait on it. And try to get the larger radiator MCR320 as the options.

Also i highly recomend you add a Reservoir, Swiftech Micro Reservoirs are very excellent products.

That Petrakit is $100 more than the Swiftech H20-120 Kit.
Newegg has the Swiftech kit for only 149.99.

which is also the more reason why its better.

That swiftech kit only comes with a 120 radiator. Okey, 120's are about as good as a ultra120 Extreme in comparision.

You need a larger radiator to see any big benifits for watercooling.

If that pricetag is a little steep, the cheapest i could piece one for you that would work is around 200 dollars with shipping.

Besides that i wouldnt recomend you looking at water. You'll be disapointed, and also it wont be worth the work/effort to build. Unless you just want to play around with a cheap water kit and then end up upgrading the entire thing when your ready.

 

[ChefJoe]

I went with water cooling (the swiftech kit with an e6420 at 3.2 GHz) and am very happy. In a warm room running my normal programs for a while the AB9 Quad GT reports 33 C . Orthos tends to bring the temps up to around 45 C. While I don't doubt the larger radiator would give better cooling, I think it accomplished what I really wanted (quiet). If the single radiator isn't enough cooling you could upgrade to 2x 120 mm one or buy a second 120 mm... but I don't think you should worry about it with a core2 duo.

BTW, I have a P180B (P182 version) and decided to put the radiator hanging off the back 120mm slot with the 120mm fan internal. I had to cut a bit of the side panel's rear "tabs" off but nothing near the screw holes. I would suggest ordering a few extra feet of tubing and a few more feet of the spiral wrapping to allow the pump to go in front of the PSU down below, the tubes to snake around behind the motherboard tray and the reservoir to go where the storage box goes behind the drive cage (this layout is very similar to the Swiftech modded P180B case). Good luck.

 

[thilanliyan]

Originally posted by: drakore
Thanks a lot for the info guys... greatly appreciated... thilan did you have the block on your C2D? if so what kind of temps were you getting with the gigabyte set?

Yes I had it on my C2D...unfortunately I was getting about the same temps under load as previous Thermaltake Big Typhoon (about 60-62C Orthos load, measured with Coretemp) so it wasn't worth it anyway.

 

[drakore]

Ok it looks like the Petra kit will be my choice of kit. I just have a couple of questions.

Should I get the apogee waterblock?
What fluid should I use?

Aigomorla, what is that kit that you said you could build for 200$? I am just curious.

Thanks for all the help

 

[drakore]

Ok I am sort of leaning towards building my own system... it seems like I can get more for less...

So far this is what I have chosen:

Apogee GT Exteme CPU Water Block
Swiftech Micro mini resevoir
Swiftech MCR320QP Triple radiator

Now I am unsure of what pump I should get. I was looking at the Swiftech MCP655. Since I am only using this for CPU is there a cheaper one I could get instead, like the Danger Den MAG II?

Thanks

 

[drakore]

ok I have decided to go with the HW Labs Black Ice GT Stealth 360 instead of the Swiftech MCR320QP. This was I can keep the whole system in 1/2"

 

[FireChicken]

Originally posted by: drakore
ok I have decided to go with the HW Labs Black Ice GT Stealth 360 instead of the Swiftech MCR320QP. This was I can keep the whole system in 1/2"

im pretty sure you can use 1/2" barbs on the swiftech 320. I would stick with the swiftech if you can get it. From the guys at petratech. The 320 performs well if you are using low speed fans. The 320 and Black ice GT 360 perform about the same if you are using medium speed fans. But I would bank the swifteh will have a slight edge. I have the Black ice GT only cause PT was sold out on the 320s.

Now I am unsure of what pump I should get. I was looking at the Swiftech MCP655. Since I am only using this for CPU is there a cheaper one I could get instead, like the Danger Den MAG II?

Also from the guys at petratech. On paper the mcp 655 has great flow rate but if there are restrictions in your loop the flow rate will siginifantly decrease with this pump. The 655 is suppoed to be a rock solid pump though. The 355pump with the PT top is supposed to maintain a good flow rate because it a great head pressure.

 

[drakore]

ok the setup has been changed to this:

Petratech Elite Kit Rev 2 w/o radiator
Radiator: Thermochill PA120.3
Resevoir: Swiftech Micro Resevoir

 

[aigomorla]

this is a thumbs up in my book. You just got the upper tier of watercooling now.

 

[drakore]

Aigomorla's approval is all that matters to me haha... but seriously he has been a great help with all the equipment choosing... the only problem i have now is finding high flow nickel 3/8" Thread with 1/2" barbs... sold out everywhere!!! ughh