Questions regarding my Antec 900 build

[Aden]

I've nearly purchased all the bits and pieces for my Antec build.. and now have a few questions regarding it.

Am I able to mount an additional 120mm fan in the top three 5.25" bays without a HD Cage?
I'm wondering this as with the supplied two 120mm fans they are mounted on a harddrive cage each but can I mount an additional fan uptop without purchasing another cage.

Are there any good external fan controllers (to sit on a desk)?
As I would like to use all the front bays on the case for fans but would also like to control the fan speeds easily, I'm going to need an external fan controller.

If theres not a good external fan controller:
Are there any controller cards for fans available, so I can controll ALL fans through my OS
I havnt seen any about, but because the motherboard only has 2 or 3 fan headers, and i'll have upto 7fans.. how would I control these in XP / Vista

Would a Thermalright True Black be better than a single CPU Watercooling loop of the following:
I'm looking into watercooling my CPU, (for performance but also silence) as I like to download while sleeping and have yet to purchase NAS, but don't want a big bloated WC setup, just a simple loop for the CPU and not too heavy modding. This would be my first watercooling setup and I'd like to keep it simple.
I've been looking at these: XSPC Passive Aluminium Reservior
Now the impression I got from this is that its a radiator / reservior (due to its 'passive' name).

So my ideas are shown here:

Idea 1

• Single 250m XSPC Radiator / Reservior
• Then the Pump
• To the CPU Block
• Back to the Reservior
• I figured that this might have problems though, such as:
• not cooling the water effectively
• which would lead to warm water looping the system

So idea 2 was born:
Idea 1

• Two XSPC Radiator / Reserviors
• Then the Pump
• To the CPU Block
• Back to the 1st Reservior which starts to cool liquid
• Then to the 2nd Reservior to continue cooling
• Back to the CPU block to continue the loop

I figured that more liquid & larger surface area for passive cooling (two reserviors not one) would give more time for cooling before the same liquid is looped again and the increased surface area for cooling too.

But would this be effective?
Thats my main question - I don't want to go through the hassle of setting all this up and finding a Thermalright True Black performs just as well / or better and I could have just used a fan controller to slow or passive the True overnight.

So please give me your thoughts, suggestions etc for this.

Thanks

EDIT - [b]The other thing I'd like to know is if you have any further recommendations incase the passive reservoir isn't enough on its own, such as bay radiators and radiators easy to install on the Antec 900 without looking bloated, lots of modding etc. As much as i want 3front fans in my case, i'll happily take two and use the top 3 bays as a radiator etc.

[Thorsson]

I'd suggest that this was better in the Chassis & System Modding forum up above.

[Aden]

I'd suggest that this was better in the Chassis & System Modding forum up above.

Ah yeah, I'll PM a mod to get it moved

[Zak33]

moved by moi

[Webby]

So many people watercooling

First point I will make is that those reservoirs are made of aluminium and mixing aluminium and copper in the same loop is not a good idea.

If all your planning on cooling is the CPU then I would suggest you look at the Swiftech Compact H2O 220 this will provide everything you need to cool your CPU efficiently and will be very neat as it only uses 2 components plus tubing to connect them together. You could mount the Rad in the front bays behind the fans or out the back of the case where you are currently considering the passive rads. If you want a bit more control over your components and do not intend to cool more than just your CPU then you may consider the following,

Pump - D-tek DB1 - £28
Radiator - Swiftech MCR220-QP-RES - £29
CPU Block - XSPC Delta V3 - £30
Reservoir - Included in Radiator
Tubing - 7/16" Tubing 3m - £6
Fittings - 1/2" Highflow barbs x6 - £7.50
Fans - 2x 120mm fans of your choice

This gives you a better CPU block and options for expanding in the future, the pump is slightly limiting for upgrades but a second could be added in the future to increase the flowrates if required.

As to fan controllers you could get an aquacomputer Aquaero it has 4 fan channels but you can run multiple fans from each channel (if they are the same make and model they will have similar speeds at the same voltages) it will also allow you to monitor 6 (i think) temperatures sensors and can all be controlled from aquasuite their software. The other option is an mcubed Tbalancer.

[Aden]

So many people watercooling

First point I will make is that those reservoirs are made of aluminium and mixing aluminium and copper in the same loop is not a good idea.

If all your planning on cooling is the CPU then I would suggest you look at the Swiftech Compact H2O 220 this will provide everything you need to cool your CPU efficiently and will be very neat as it only uses 2 components plus tubing to connect them together. You could mount the Rad in the front bays behind the fans or out the back of the case where you are currently considering the passive rads. If you want a bit more control over your components and do not intend to cool more than just your CPU then you may consider the following,

Pump - D-tek DB1 - £28
Radiator - Swiftech MCR220-QP-RES - £29
CPU Block - XSPC Delta V3 - £30
Reservoir - Included in Radiator
Tubing - 7/16" Tubing 3m - £6
Fittings - 1/2" Highflow barbs x6 - £7.50
Fans - 2x 120mm fans of your choice

This gives you a better CPU block and options for expanding in the future, the pump is slightly limiting for upgrades but a second could be added in the future to increase the flowrates if required.

As to fan controllers you could get an aquacomputer Aquaero it has 4 fan channels but you can run multiple fans from each channel (if they are the same make and model they will have similar speeds at the same voltages) it will also allow you to monitor 6 (i think) temperatures sensors and can all be controlled from aquasuite their software. The other option is an mcubed Tbalancer.

Before I consider watercooling further, apart from the reduced sound (hopefully...), will I see improved temperatures through watercooling or aircooling. As i plan on overclocking the q6600 or q6700 a bit (perhaps more than a bit.. ) and don't want to reduce the ability by going one way or the other.

[Webby]

Decent water cooling will provide you lower temperatures than you will see from conventional air cooling however with so many factors involved in overclocking having a water cooling system will not guarantee you a bigger overclock, it can not hurt your chances though.

Oh by decent I would include both systems I listed above if you want really low temps then you need to increase the radiator size to the max (within reason) so a triple 120mm rad or even a quad but the quads are really expensive.

If money is no object you may want to consider the Thermochill PA120.3, Feser Xchanger 360 and the about to be released XSPC RX360 they start price wise from about £55 but will provide the best cooling for quiet situations. They also offer duel rads in the same design which are obviously cheaper but only offer 2/3 the cooling capacity, for a loop with just a quad CPU though you should be fine with a duel, if a triple will fit though it will offer better performance.

[Aden]

Decent water cooling will provide you lower temperatures than you will see from conventional air cooling however with so many factors involved in overclocking having a water cooling system will not guarantee you a bigger overclock, it can not hurt your chances though.

Oh by decent I would include both systems I listed above if you want really low temps then you need to increase the radiator size to the max (within reason) so a triple 120mm rad or even a quad but the quads are really expensive.

If money is no object you may want to consider the Thermochill PA120.3, Feser Xchanger 360 and the about to be released XSPC RX360 they start price wise from about £55 but will provide the best cooling for quiet situations. They also offer duel rads in the same design which are obviously cheaper but only offer 2/3 the cooling capacity, for a loop with just a quad CPU though you should be fine with a duel, if a triple will fit though it will offer better performance.

Hmm well, I think I'll hold off on the Watercooling idea until the build is running etc and then I'll consider it during 2009 when I have some money.

I don't want to waste cash on a poor watercooling kit which will need upgrading anyway, so I'll stick with aircooling for now

On a side note, do you know if I can mount 120mm fan in the top 3 drive bays of the Antec 900 without an additional hard drive cage?

Thanks for youre help

[UseItNow]

Webby, you seem to be our water cooling expert, just reading a couple of recent threads on water cooling, where you have posted with help/advice has given me a better insight into this method of cooling.

Thanks.

[matty-hodgson]

Webby, you seem to be our water cooling expert, just reading a couple of recent threads on water cooling, where you have posted with help/advice has given me a better insight into this method of cooling.

Thanks.

anything 'monitor' 'graphics card' or 'water cooling' and Webby's your man

[UseItNow]

anything 'monitor' 'graphics card' or 'water cooling' and Webby's your man

Bloody heck, you don't say?

[vincent.m]

be sure to show us how it went after!

[Aden]

Naww. I'm not watercooling now.. but will post up piccy's once the build is complete.