Choosing Cooler

[Richie]

Hey,

I came accross a Thermaltake AGP waterblock.
http://melbourne.anyware.com.au/images/thermaltake/cfan-aquavga.jpg

Im running a AMD Athlon XP 3000+

As i was already looking into getting a water cooling setup this sprung to mind as being a nice combo.

I thought that would work out quite nicely with the agp block and cpu block that would come with a kit.

Because at the moment the Vantec AeroFlow with TMD fan isnt really cutting it, as it stays ~45 degree mark under load.

So if someone could recommend me which watercooling setup , or maybe a great HSF that would cool nicely.

Also, can you upgrade the pump on these kits such as a tt aquarius, bigwater, or coolmaster aquagate with the smaller tubes.

Help greatly appreciated.
Kind regards,
Richie.

[MaxxxRacer]

Well first off let me be the first to welcome you to Xtreme Systems, where we kill hardware with Xtreme Effeciency.

As far as WCing ur system.. stay as far away from the TT WC systems as possible. they are absoulte garbage of the highest order. I also dont suggest getting a kit at all. well i take that back. there are 1 or 2 kits that i would reccomend.

so you want to cool your cpu and your gpu.. first question is, how much money do you want to spend.(dont say 100 dollars or something stupidly low like it) second question is how big of a radiator can you fit in the case. the standard for cpu and gpu cooling is a 2x 120mm radiator.

BTW, read my Introduction to watercooling Sticky. Its at the top of the page here in the WC section. it will give you lots of info and save you alot of time and energy of typing questions up. Once you read that I also suggest my pumps sticky which I have a very condesned version of with my reccomendations at hte top of the page so its realy easy to decide on which pump is best for yourself.

[Richie]

Ahh thanks for that warm n fuzzy welcome :)

Il check out your threads now on Watercooling and Pumps.

I was looking at spending money gradually over time to make a watercooling setup that would trump any AirCooling setup, spending the least money.

Which i know is kinda impossible, but i like to think i can do it.

Also now that you have said i should be able to fit 2x120mm fans in my case im kinda worried :/ as i already have alot of fans and wiring going around my case - i have a Chiftec Dragon with 12 fans with cathodes etc so the case is kinda short on space except for at the bottom.

This lead me to look for a watercooling setup with a radiator/fan which is 80mm - which then lead me to the Aquarius II setup.

As i know now that that are shonky il stay away from them.

Also what kind of results am i going to get with a 80mm radiator size??

I want the smaller one (not the 120) because i dont want to hack up my case with various mods etc - even though i love mods i just like ones which can be removed such as my 80mm fan in 2 x 5.25" which is easily removed. And not to permanent.

Kind regards,
Richie13.

[koei]

I don't even know why but bought the Aquarius III awhile back and it turned out to be just about useless. Seemed like I can spit more than the res holds and the flow is very restrictive. Had it sitting there for awhile but now I decided to put it to some use, to cool a pelt which in term chills the water for my loop. It can manage to keep cold side of a 80W~95W pelt below 0C but the water temp is already about 35C. If you want to use something like this to cool your system, you can only really use it for either a CPU or a GPU, without much head room. If cooling both, it won't be able to handle the load and you will be better off using air cooling.

[MaxxxRacer]

Richie, a single 80mm rad will not cut it.. I would be surprised if you could effectiivley cool just a cpu with a single 80mm rad. If you were to get a dual 120mm rad you would be able to take out all of your other fans...

Like for my setup the only fans are the rad fans (that is other than the mobo and psu fans). Granted I hae 4 120mm fans on it, but thats a little xtreme im most cases.