Some water cooling questions...

[Mutley]

Hi all,

I'm about to build a new PC from scratch (no, I'm serious this time).

Its going to be based on a the Abit AB9 QuadGT board, an E6600 CPU, an nVidia geforce 8800GTS or X, in a P182 case.

I wash thinking of getting the Zalman Reserator 1 V2 to cool the rig, because I think it looks good, and I want quiet cooling.

I notice that the cooling unit (or whatever you call it), that comes with the Res. won't cool an 8800GTS/X....is there any solution to this - can I get a third-party cooling unit for this?

I'm a complete noob as regards water cooling, any advice appreciated...is there another quiet water cooling system I should be using instead (for a similar cost)?

Thanks!

Mut.

[Clunk]

Will the reserator be able to deal with the heat from all that? I wouldnt have thought so.

If you have the space, or another box to put it in, then a Thermochill PA120.3 will be ideal, and you can use silent fans on it.

GTS and GTX blocks from EK should be readily available.

[dangel]

www.asetek.com kits are a good place to start - push fit systems are dead easy to plumb together and can be customised as much as you like. Go for something with a double raditor (2 x 120mm fans) and it'll cool just about anything (CPU, chipset, graphics etc). EK blocks are good for graphics as clunk says. Zalman seems a bit overpriced and is unlikely to cope with too much heat..

[Mutley]

I see on Zalman's web site that they are coming out with a water block for the 8800GTS/X though...

Is the asetek stuff quiet?

[Colossous]

I'm a watercooling noob who's been doing a lot of research for my 1st build too. It seems that kits like Asetek and the Zalman reserator dont offer much in the performance stakes ! High quality air cooling will offer the same results at a reduced price, i'm regarding people like Clunks advice to be on the ball to be honest and you could spend some time looking at Extreme Systems forum where theres lots of user reviews etc for watercooling set ups ?

[Butuz]

I've been amassing bits to watercool my rig too.

I looked at the reserator and almost bought one, but decided to build my own system and integrate it into my current case.

I dont think the passive reserator will handle extreme high end CPU and GFX.

Butuz

[dangel]

Mine is, i've got a kit with a double radiator with two slow spinning 120mm fan and i really can't say i notice it

You can pretty much chop and change components easily when you DIY - all you need it to buy 'barbs' to fit your system when buying any waterblock (e.g. I buy 10mm push fittings for any block i buy). I added an alphacool GPU block to mine that way and have just bought a new CPU block for my C2D rebuild (which I still haven't got round to doing lol). The only noise you'll really see from any watercooling setup is from pump vibration and that's only if it's on a resonating surface - i just put mine on 1/2" of foam rubber and it's quiet as a mouse.

I'd want to see some stats for that zalman GPU block when used in conjunction with the reserator and CPU block personally. At least with a kit you can swap things out easily - with the zalman system i'm assuming you're stuffed if the pump dies for example.

Performance? My X1900XT is overclocked to the max in CCC and it's core hits a max of 35-40C (depending on ambient temperature) versus 80-90C on air. CPU (Athlon X2 939 @ 2.4ghz) hits a max of 39C at the same time. Asetek stuff is ok really - it's not the best thing ever but it does the job well and I found it to be a good starting point for watercooling: having everything there in one box made life easier and all the fittings matched etc. For a GPU it's better to have a full cover block (cools the whole card) than a core block on it's own though (IMHO) which is why i put the alphacool block on. I'll probably get an EK block for the 8800 GTX when I get round to buying it. I've got no issues with asetek's pumps or CPU blocks. I've had my kit a long time and it's been utterly reliable - asetek were using L30 pumps and black ice radiators at the time. The only problems i've ever had were a leaking reservoir (perished rubber seals after 3 years) which i replaced and algae build up (due to the fact i didn't know what the heck i was doing - fixed with redline water wetter in the system [toxic]) initially. Of course, you could just buy the bits yourself - it's probably cheaper and you've got more choice. There are better CPU blocks out there than asetek ones, and full cover GPU blocks are a better idea too. I like the newer asetek pumps as their software monitored/controled and 12volt - mine is 240v relay-switched (old skool).
I'm not convinced i could cool cpu/gpu this effectively with no noise on air! Asetek stuff isn't passive so shouldn't be compared with the reserator

Perhaps we can draw up a list of bits for you to buy if you're not buying a kit?