Help choose my new watercooled pc

[bigpun69]

First of all just wanted to say hi! I've been visiting Hexus.net for years and its always helped me pick out parts when i've needed help so thanks for all the great reviews

I'm building a new pc in the coming weeks and need to pick out the parts for it. Currently I have the following list but need your help and advice on it

Intel E6600 C2D (want to overclock this to around 3.5GHz hopefully - is this the best option?)
Asus P5W DH Deluxe motherboard
4gb Corsair Ram (4-4-4-12) consisting of 4x1Gb sticks
Nvidia 8800GTX 768Mb DDR3
1TB SATA RAID setup

I wanted to know first of all out of these parts if there's a particular bottleneck or anything that isn't recommended. I mainly want it to for video editing, graphic design and java programming but after seeing the Crysis game I want it to be able to handle that with ease

Also, whats power supply would you recommend for all these parts and a water cooling system?

I've never water cooled a system before but i've been building pc's for years so am comfortable putting the kit together but don't know the parts to go for! I've been out of the pc building game for a while (as you can see with my lame setup at the moment ) so really could use the help and advice.

Cheers

[Nemz0r]

If you're water cooling, i'd grab a Q6600 when the price drops, you might not get 3.5GHz but 4 cores will love water cooling .

[chrestomanci]

If you are new to water cooling, I would suggest an all in one external kit such as a Zalman Reserator or a Corsair Nautilus 500, as they will be easier to fit than an internal system, and still quite effective.

The Zalaman got a glowing review on Hexus a few years ago, because it was silent and effective, though it is less suitable for overclocking. You can also get blocks for your GPU, Northbridge etc quite easily. The Cosair is cheaper, and should be better for overclocking. It was reviewed by Hexus earler this year. The 500 in the name refers to 500 watts of heat power it can shift, which is massively over specified considering that even the hottest prescot CPUs only put out 120W, so it should be able to cope with an overclocked CPU, and graphics card with room to spare.

[Clunk]

The Zalman and the Corsair wont be adequate for an overclocked quad, unless he is one of the lucky ones that doesnt need any extra voltage. Also, the waterblocks for quads are different as they have a larger cooling area.

You need to be looking at decent cooling, and decent cooling isnt cheap, although it is pretty straight forward to fit, if you read up a LOT first

You also need to decide if you want to go for performance, or silence, or both.

Look at;

D-Tek fuzion cpu block or Swiftech Apogee GTX
Thermochill PA120.3 radiator (especially if you are chucking a graphics card in the loop, and want to use quiet fans).
D5 or DDC pump.
EK blocks are great for the graphics cards, and there is a newish line of swiftech blocks that look good as well.

As for your list of stuff.

If you havent already bought it, I would ditch the P5W DH and go for a P5K deluxe wifi, the quad overclocking is excellent.

[bigpun69]

Cheers for the replies guys

Im going to wait til after July 22nd as thats when the prices go down I've heard. I'm going to go for the quad core as it'll become well within my budget. I didnt really want to go for an all in one kit for water cooling as chrestomanci mentioned, I really would like a separate set of parts that I can assemble myself. I'm not put off by doing that one bit.

It terms of what I want, performance and silence.

Clunk, other than the parts you've listed is there anything else i'd need?

Block, Radiator, Pump, Tubing and fittings...do I not need a reservoir?

[chrestomanci]

Pumps usually come with a reservoir. You may also want a bottle of water additive. (Wetter, anti fungal, dye etc).

[Clunk]

Cheers for the replies guys

Im going to wait til after July 22nd as thats when the prices go down I've heard. I'm going to go for the quad core as it'll become well within my budget. I didnt really want to go for an all in one kit for water cooling as chrestomanci mentioned, I really would like a separate set of parts that I can assemble myself. I'm not put off by doing that one bit.

It terms of what I want, performance and silence.

Clunk, other than the parts you've listed is there anything else i'd need?

Block, Radiator, Pump, Tubing and fittings...do I not need a reservoir?

Ok, performance and silence, you can go for the stuff I mentioned above, and I prefer 1/2" fittings, if space is tight, you can use 7/16 hose on the 1/2" fittings.

Reservoir really depends on what will fit in your case. The case that you choose needs to be fairly large for the type of cooling you want. There are quite a few cases that will fit a PA120.3 inside You will need to buy it from somewhere like kustom or over-clock and get them to cut the holes, unless you want to do it yourself), such as the Lian-Li v2000, Lian-Li G70, I think the stacker will take a PA120.3 stood up in the front drive bays. Best to google for the case and see what comes up.

Hose clamps, they are available from any decent watercooling place (or b+q), dont use the plastic snap together ones, they are rubbish.

Depending on the barbs that you get, you might need a roll of PTFE tape, but you can now get the barbs for thermochill rads that have the built in o-ring, so you dont need the tape with those.

A bottle of zerex.

Distilled water if you can get it, if not, deionised will do.

Funnel (tesco value funnels 3 for 49p).

A big syringe is handy to have for adding/removing water from the res.

Get more tubing than you need, you will always do it wrong the first time and waste a load

Some kind of rubber/silicon mat for the pump to stop vibration. It is amazing how loud the hum and buzz gets if they arent insulated.

Also, if space is a problem, you can ditch the reservoir and use a t-line. This is easier to make, but can be a pain in the arse to bleed.