water cooling, any tips?

[Bagezio2]

Hi. I was gonna get a new computer soon (build it myself) and i wanted to know if I should look into water cooling? I am starting to get into overclocking, and I have already fried 2 or 3 cpus this month because of an old, crappy heatsink and fan.

And I am also wondering if I should look into heatsinks for the system RAM and my vid card RAM, or anyother thing that might need more cooling.

Any tips that anyone has would be helpful.

[MikeSty]

Originally Posted by Bagezio2

...and I have already fried 2 or 3 cpus this month because of an old, crappy heatsink and fan.

Wow! 2-3 cpus in a month? Okay, I really wouldn't blame the HS/F ... it's probably because you've OC'd too much. Why didn't ya learn on the first or even second try?

I don't mean to be offensive but I'd be worried with you water cooling. I mean, if you really want to do it, build a lightweight AMD system and then buy a Zalman Reserator with VPU block and pwn that.

Be careful and good luck.

[Bagezio2]

Originally Posted by MikeSty

Wow! 2-3 cpus in a month? Okay, I really wouldn't blame the HS/F ... it's probably because you've OC'd too much. Why didn't ya learn on the first or even second try?

I don't mean to be offensive but I'd be worried with you water cooling. I mean, if you really want to do it, build a lightweight AMD system and then buy a Zalman Reserator with VPU block and pwn that.

Be careful and good luck.

no offense taken and thanks for the tips.

The reason I blamed the HS/F is because its like.. 10 years old... i wouldnt be surprised if it was the first Socket A heatsink made..... and also the 3 processors were all old... they were all AMD Athlon XP 1800+...all 3 of them... don't ask me why but they just are :/.

But my first OC attempt was succesfull, it worked and ran smoothly. But then i had a spare cpu that I wanted to see what kind it was because it didn't say anywhere on it. so i put it in the same mobo, yea I know I probably should have reset the bios to normal but i forgot to.. then the pc wouldn't turn on... yea..

[skaven]

There are several options for watercooling, depending on how involved you want to get. Koolance makes the best "fully-integrated" watercooling solutions. They're also pretty slick looking, with LCD temperature gauges and lights and stuff.

The Zalman Reserator is another nice setup, with integrated pump, reservoir, and radiator. However, the whole unit is separate from your chassis, and because it doesn't actively cool the water, it probably isn't very good for overclocking.

If you want to do discrete components (which really isn't as hard as it sounds...) I recommend going with an Innovatek kit. This is the setup that I used (with some extra accessories so I could cool my chipset and video card with water as well). The components are top-quality, and the basic kit has everything you need to get started. here is how I've got my watercooling set up. I spent around $300 on my setup ($200 for the kit + $100 in accessories).

Just be careful, man...you sound like one of those guys that just goes "balls to the wall" and doesn't really regret when things go south. That's not inherently a bad thing, but it's really easy to destroy a $2000 computer should one of your water hoses leak, or you forget to turn your radiator fan on, or your pump doesn't come on, or any number of things.

[JStrider]

I got my waterblock from www.Dangerden.com i think it was their maze 3 got my radiator from them too

got a pump from the net... same kind they were selling at dangerden.. and some tygon tubing from the hardware store...

and i made my resevoir/filler with pvc from the hardware store...

the biggest weakness with my water system is the radiator is too small... when i was just in the planning stages i thought i wanted the whole thing to be 100% internal so i went with a little 80mm radiator... i wish i had gone with one that fit 2 80mm fans... if not bigger...

[Redjake]

"fried 2 or 3"


which one is it two or three if I fried more than one I would sure as hell remember how many

anyway, water cooling is worthless. the only reason to get it nowadays is noise reduction. you can overclock with a heatsink and fan just as much as with watercooling. but, if you have fried "2 or 3" CPUs recently then obviously money isn't an issue!

the main tip I keep hearing over and over is:

no matter what water cooling system you buy, hook it all together first OUT of the computer and let it run for a day or two and see if it leaks. no leaks after a couple of days = install it in the computer

[JStrider]

yah with just a water cooling system your not gonna get better then a good heatsink... just quieter...

now if your going with a below ambient system... like a peltier on the cpu and your cooling the hot side of the peltier you can get way cold temps...

but you gotta seal your cpu from condensation...

[Lasereth]

If you fried 2 or 3 processors then you shouldn't be OC'ing in the first place. It's actually sorta hard to fry a processor by overclocking. Every motherboard made in the past few years has thermal detection onboard that turn off the PC if the heat threshhold is exceeded. If you're upping the voltage by such a large amount that it fried the processor then I'd consider different options.

Do what I'm doing when I upgrade next: buy a good processor so you won't have to OC. OC'ing causes instability in many cases. OC'ing is also about 75% luck and 25% skill. Sometimes you simply get parts that refuse to OC with any amount of stability. Buying a processor that's good enough to game with without OC'ing is much cheaper than frying 2 or 3 processors.

On top of that, processor speed means NOTHING compared to how important your videocard and RAM are concerning gaming. If you want a fast processor, that's one thing...but do you know why? Games would much rather have a faster videocard and more RAM than a fast processor. Benchmarks today are still reporting that a processor from the Athlon XP days will run a game just as fast as an Athlon 64 if you have a nice videocard and a nice amount of RAM.

Overclocking is just not worth it unless you have a system specially ordered from a site that guarantees OC'ing performance. Otherwise it's just a luckfest while you cross your fingers hoping the FSB will go up without getting a bluescreen. If I were you, I'd forget water cooling or OC'ing in general and just buy a $150 processor that will run games as fast as a $750 processor combined with the right videocard and RAM.

-Lasereth

[Bagezio2]

Originally Posted by Lasereth

If you fried 2 or 3 processors then you shouldn't be OC'ing in the first place. It's actually sorta hard to fry a processor by overclocking. Every motherboard made in the past few years has thermal detection onboard that turn off the PC if the heat threshhold is exceeded. If you're upping the voltage by such a large amount that it fried the processor then I'd consider different options.

Do what I'm doing when I upgrade next: buy a good processor so you won't have to OC. OC'ing causes instability in many cases. OC'ing is also about 75% luck and 25% skill. Sometimes you simply get parts that refuse to OC with any amount of stability. Buying a processor that's good enough to game with without OC'ing is much cheaper than frying 2 or 3 processors.

On top of that, processor speed means NOTHING compared to how important your videocard and RAM are concerning gaming. If you want a fast processor, that's one thing...but do you know why? Games would much rather have a faster videocard and more RAM than a fast processor. Benchmarks today are still reporting that a processor from the Athlon XP days will run a game just as fast as an Athlon 64 if you have a nice videocard and a nice amount of RAM.

Overclocking is just not worth it unless you have a system specially ordered from a site that guarantees OC'ing performance. Otherwise it's just a luckfest while you cross your fingers hoping the FSB will go up without getting a bluescreen. If I were you, I'd forget water cooling or OC'ing in general and just buy a $150 processor that will run games as fast as a $750 processor combined with the right videocard and RAM.

-Lasereth

ok thanks. And when I said fried i meant overheated. And the motherboards and cpus i used were all pretty old pcchips boads and athlon xp 1800+ cpus..

[P-Naughty]

Although I'm not sure on the quality, Thermaltake (and I believe Cooler Master or someone else) make a self contained system that can fit in 2 5.25" drive bays. Like I said, I have no clue as to how well they work, but it may be worth looking into. As for the Reserator, I have one and like it. It's a bit much when it come time to move my PC around, especially considering I have to drain it since I lost the tube clamps, but keeps my 3200+ at a nice temp.

And make sure you don't get an air bubble in the pump! Mine has one and the manual says to twist off the bottom after draining it. Well, I would, but the stand for it also screws on and the base ain't comin' off. Now I have to find a couple of wire coat hangers and supress both valves on the pump at the bottom of the Reserator and move it around to let the bubbles out. If I still had the box, I would send it back for a new one.