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XP-90C vs XP-120 vs ThermalTake BigWater

I

IBlender

Junior Member
Hi all!

I am building a new system based on DFI nF4 Ultra-D and Athlon64 "Venice" 3000+. I want to overclock it as much as possible, but I'm not sure which cooler I should buy.

I would appreciate it if you could give me a hand in choosing a cooler. The options I have are:
1. Thermalright XP-90C + Papst 3412/NGMV (92x92x25, 1400rpm, 14dB(A) - 28dB(A), 72m³/h ( 42.4cfm), 5,25'')
2. Thermalright XP-120 + Papst 4412/FGL (120x120x25, 1600rpm, 26dB(A), 94m³/h (55.3cfm), 5,25'')
3. ThermalTake BigWater

They all cost the same, which is also the optimal price for me. I'm aware of the fact that the Thermalrights are kind of "High Class" air coolers and the ThermalTake is a "Low Class" water cooling set.
 
Save some money and buy a regular XP-90.
The 1-2 degrees you get by having the sheer weight of the XP-90C is not worth it IMO, it scares me having that much weight on the socket. Dont get the XP-120, you loose access to some ram slots on the DFI.
Dont have expirence with the bigwater, had a homemade water cooling kit once, ask yourself if your ever going to want to take your machine to a lan party and remember how much water weighs 🙂
 
Originally posted by: IBlender
Hi all!

I am building a new system based on DFI nF4 Ultra-D and Athlon64 "Venice" 3000+. I want to overclock it as much as possible, but I'm not sure which cooler I should buy.

I would appreciate it if you could give me a hand in choosing a cooler. The options I have are:
1. Thermalright XP-90C + Papst 3412/NGMV (92x92x25, 1400rpm, 14dB(A) - 28dB(A), 72m³/h ( 42.4cfm), 5,25'')
2. Thermalright XP-120 + Papst 4412/FGL (120x120x25, 1600rpm, 26dB(A), 94m³/h (55.3cfm), 5,25'')
3. ThermalTake BigWater

They all cost the same, which is also the optimal price for me. I'm aware of the fact that the Thermalrights are kind of "High Class" air coolers and the ThermalTake is a "Low Class" water cooling set.
Click to expand...

If the XP120 has some issues with blocking thing that you can live with, then it would probably be the best choice.

I actually like the Big Water from Reviews. You will hear one of two generic pieces of advice when it comes to Thermaltake and watercooling.

1) Thermaltake have a reputation of some awful products and most people tend to stay away from them. Thermaltake, from reviews, seem to have created a very good product in the Big Water.

2) Water cooling is best done by customising your own kit from somewhere like DangerDen and then piecing it together. That way you get the best bang for buck since kits seem to be rather aimed at someone who hasnt experienced water cooling and wishes to take a peek at what it can offer and how to set one up before going custom-made.

Whilst I agree with both points in the majority of cases, Big Water does look like a good kit and if you arent confident enough to customise your own kit and put it together, it seems like an ideal kit to get the experience and provide slightly upgradable cooling.

In short, if you can live with the problems an XP120 might cause with your motherboard.... then its a shout between air cooling and dabbling in water cooling. Personally, I dont think you can really go wrong with any of these solutions.

As jtworldwide2 pointed out, the extra cost and weight the XP90C has over the XP90 isnt really worth the gain in cooling power but that is your call.
 
Originally posted by: jtworldwide2
Dont have expirence with the bigwater, had a homemade water cooling kit once, ask yourself if your ever going to want to take your machine to a lan party and remember how much water weighs 🙂
Click to expand...


You woman.
 
Originally posted by: jtworldwide2
Save some money and buy a regular XP-90.
The 1-2 degrees you get by having the sheer weight of the XP-90C is not worth it IMO, it scares me having that much weight on the socket. Dont get the XP-120, you loose access to some ram slots on the DFI.
Dont have expirence with the bigwater, had a homemade water cooling kit once, ask yourself if your ever going to want to take your machine to a lan party and remember how much water weighs 🙂
Click to expand...


QFT

XP-90 ownz
 
The Big-Water is entry water-cooling and won't perform better than exotic air cooling. I would recommend the XP-120 b/c using a 120mm fan will be more quiet than a 92mm fan while pushing more cfm, which will help in cooling your mosfets and ram. JMHO
 
Originally posted by: albumleaf
Originally posted by: jtworldwide2
Dont have expirence with the bigwater, had a homemade water cooling kit once, ask yourself if your ever going to want to take your machine to a lan party and remember how much water weighs 🙂
Click to expand...


You woman.
Click to expand...



haha after lugging that bitch to a lanparty or too, it got real old!!!
 
Originally posted by: McArra
If you want WC, the Big Water is a great choice, a lot more efficient than XP-90.
Click to expand...

From your signature I can see that you have a BigWater in your system. Have you also had an XP-90(C)? By "more efficient" you mean that you have compared them yourself or just that the BigWater has done a great job for you?

@all
Thank you for your posts.
Is the XP-120 really so bad for the DFI board?
 
The overwhelming measure of cooling effectiveness is the maximum difference between idle and load temperatures, whatever the room temperature and therefore the equilibrium idle value, except that the cooler you can make that idle value at any room ambient, the better for over-clocking also.

None of these solutions will get you below room temperature. Water cooling will get you closer to room temperature than the ThermalRight coolers -- which outperform everything else as far as we "know" at this moment.

I think that I and a friend who has a BigWater had obtained the necessary data to show that the BigWater reduced the idle-to-load spread to maybe half what it is with something like an XP120. We had to plug in the heat-leakage spec on his AMD and the TDP spec on my Intel to make that comparison.

Then there are more exotic ideas. Personally, I don't want to spend the $800-plus on an AseTek Vapochill, and I don't want to mess with urethane grommets to keep condensation off the electronics. But for a few dollars, you could build a "bong" or evaporative cooler that will drop your idle below room temperature. The usual design for a bong is an "open-system", requiring that you replenish the water periodically because it cools by evaporating (and you will lose even more as "mist.") Since it is an open system, you will want to filter the water because it will become slowly contaminated with dust and other airborne detritus. This also may have some implications for water-pump longevity.

I can't tell you which way to go here, only because I do not know precisely how much you wish to over-clock. You should be able to get a respectable 20% over-clock with air -- even 25% with luck, but this also is a function of your component choices such as motherboard/chipset, memory modules, processor. AseTek Vapochill boasts 50% stable over-clock settings. Water would be somewhere in between.
 
Originally posted by: IBlender
Originally posted by: McArra
If you want WC, the Big Water is a great choice, a lot more efficient than XP-90.
Click to expand...

From your signature I can see that you have a BigWater in your system. Have you also had an XP-90(C)? By "more efficient" you mean that you have compared them yourself or just that the BigWater has done a great job for you?

@all
Thank you for your posts.
Is the XP-120 really so bad for the DFI board?
Click to expand...

I had a Zalman 7000, which is not that far from the XP and the results of the change were really good. The people that tells it is only a little better than any air cooler has no idea of what they are talking about.

 
I am going to buy the BigWater. If it doesn't work well, I can always return it, get all my money back and then buy another cooler.

Thank you for your help!
 
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