Parts? 300 Budget.

[patrickadizzle]

Ok so I have the following.


E6600
DFI ICFX3200 T2R/G
Sapphire Radeon X2900XT 1GB
CM Stacker
OCZ GXS 700

And

300 Dollars

I think those are all the things you need to know..

I want to cool both the CPU, GPU, and the Northbridge.

Now I'm not just cooling the north bridge to look e-cool, I really need cooling on that thing. It gets HOT and holds my overclock back alot.

Any way, Yeah I was looking at petras kits, and they are overall pretty cheap..

But I had a few questions..

A. Is a full block better then say a maze 4 with Copper Ram sinks?

B. My northbridge uses the hook retention, not a hole with a pin. Will this be tight enough? If not is there anything I can do about it...

C. How big will the rad need to be, and where the hell should I mount it? (I'm lost for ideas)

D. Does it matter that I will be going quad core on jully 22nd? (yay price cut) (Ie: Upgrade rad)


Thanks for the help :)

[[cTx] Nooc]

A. there isn't a full-cover block for r600 yet that I know of. maze 4 sucks btw, use mcw60 with new ramsinks. edit: just saw the thread with FC blocks for r600. they are made by dange den and aqua computer, so presumably they suck. wait for a full-cover block from EK or go with mcw60

B. mcw30 that NB. if those hooks are not tight enough, just attach the mcw30 with arctic silve adhesive

C. triple rad (mcr-320-qp). mount it in front of your stacker: MUST WATCH> http://youtube.com/watch?v=PEDPWVLY3Ks

D. triple rad should suit you and your quadcore+r600 well

so if you have $300 get the petra's GPU elite kit and add another $30 for mcw30. this should total to about $350 which is of course a little over your budget but it's well worth the money

[patrickadizzle]

A. there isn't a full-cover block for r600 yet that I know of. maze 4 sucks btw, use mcw60 with new ramsinks. edit: just saw the thread with FC blocks for r600. they are made by dange den and aqua computer, so presumably they suck. wait for a full-cover block from EK or go with mcw60

B. mcw30 that NB. if those hooks are not tight enough, just attach the mcw30 with arctic silve adhesive

C. triple rad (mcr-320-qp). mount it in front of your stacker: MUST WATCH> http://youtube.com/watch?v=PEDPWVLY3Ks

D. triple rad should suit you and your quadcore+r600 well

so if you have $300 get the petra's GPU elite kit and add another $30 for mcw30. this should total to about $350 which is of course a little over your budget but it's well worth the money


I don't have a problem saving a few extra bucks. 350 is bad at all.


Thanks for the help and advice. :yepp:

And yeah I was looking at Petras, He has some good prices.

Also, It's been awhile since I been in the "know" of watercooling.

Are Tygon tubes still the way to go? 1/4" Right? :confused:

[[cTx] Nooc]

I don't have a problem saving a few extra bucks. 350 is bad at all.


Thanks for the help and advice. :yepp:

And yeah I was looking at Petras, He has some good prices.

Also, It's been awhile since I been in the "know" of watercooling.

Are Tygon tubes still the way to go? 1/4" Right? :confused:

yes tygon is great. 7/16" is the size you want. however if you are looking to buy a petra's kit he sells masterkleer not tygon, which is great tubing for less $$

[patrickadizzle]

Ah 7/16" alright.


Yeah I remember tygon being expensive.


Would you personally use Masterkleer?


Also, last question, How long do you usually test for leaks? Not really a burning question, but I'm just curious..

[[cTx] Nooc]

yes masterkleer is very good indeed. a lot of people here use masterkleer if not tygon. you should assemble the loop outside your PC and test it overnight. honestly if nothing leaks right away it probably won't later. but you can do some stupid things that will ruin your equipment and cause leaks: extra long fan screws that pierce rads, over tightening metal clamps on metal barbs (guilty:p: > crushes your tubing), running your pump dry etc. etc.

[patrickadizzle]

Oh god that must have been fun. Water Cooling Disasters scare me. Specially with expensive hardware heh.

Also, quick question.

Watched the video you posted, and damn that is a great idea. Didn't even think about that, but any way, what is that material he uses? Will it come with the rad? Or is it something I can pickup at my local home depot.

[[cTx] Nooc]

Oh god that must have been fun. Water Cooling Disasters scare me. Specially with expensive hardware heh.

Also, quick question.

Watched the video you posted, and damn that is a great idea. Didn't even think about that, but any way, what is that material he uses? Will it come with the rad? Or is it something I can pickup at my local home depot.

it doesn't come with the rad. funny you mentioned home depot because that's exactly where you should seek it. industrial grade velcro, very tough stuff. you can also use it to mount your pump.

[patrickadizzle]

Cool sounds good.

So:

Petra'sTech CoolKit GPU Elite - Rev.2

* CPU Block : Swiftech Apogee GTX (+ 8.00)
* Included Radiator : MCR320-QP & 1 Fan (+ 14.00)
* Included Fans : Yate Loon D12SH-12 (High)
* Coolant Additive : Pentosin G11 (UV blue)


And Chipset cooler.

Swiftech MCW30 Chipset Waterblock


Total - 356.98 + XX.XX Shipping + Industrial Grade Velcro.



Sound good? Anything I should change? Any accessories I should check into?

[[cTx] Nooc]

ditch the GTX for a D-tek fuzion. the GTX would be nice in a CPU only loop, which yours isn't. also, you don't need the high-speed fans. medium speed or low speed ones are more than enough. everything else is OK

[patrickadizzle]

Ok, fixed.

Thanks for all the help Nooco. Much appreciated. Will be ordering parts soon, will post work log. :up:

[[cTx] Nooc]

NP any questions on air or water cooling I'm there ;)

[Sparky]

I use the masterkleer as well. Good stuff, never had tygon but IMO it is too pricey and the masterkleer works well.

[santiagodraco]

Cool sounds good.

So:

Petra'sTech CoolKit GPU Elite - Rev.2

* CPU Block : Swiftech Apogee GTX (+ 8.00)
* Included Radiator : MCR320-QP & 1 Fan (+ 14.00)
* Included Fans : Yate Loon D12SH-12 (High)
* Coolant Additive : Pentosin G11 (UV blue)


And Chipset cooler.

Swiftech MCW30 Chipset Waterblock


Total - 356.98 + XX.XX Shipping + Industrial Grade Velcro.



Sound good? Anything I should change? Any accessories I should check into?

There are a couple of full coverage R600 blocks available, I'm running the Koolance right now and I'm very happy with it. See this post for information on what's out there http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=150591

Personally I like the idea of a full coverage block to move most of the heat generated from the memory chips (and the 2900 generates a lot of hit from them) out through the cooling system. By doing this you can reduce the speed of your system fans, thereby decreasing overall system noise. For me this is a big advantage.

Based on the performance I'm seeing from this Koolance block on my 2900 I also question whether any GPU only blocks will perform much, if any, better.

[ranker]

Forget the Koolance block. Either stick with an easily upgradeable, non acrylic cracking, MCW60 block for your GPU or get an EK FC block. EK's the best in the business when it comes to FC blocks and doesn't use alu to boot.

[patrickadizzle]

What would you recommend.

I know next to nothing of the difference between FC and Regular.

[ranker]

What would you recommend.

I know next to nothing of the difference between FC and Regular.

Full cover solutions cover the entire block, including the ram chips, voltage regulators, i/o chips, and the GPU core itself. They're often much simpler to install as you won't have to mount ram sinks individually. However, they're usually more expensive, and most are locked into that card generation (as in, you won't be able to reuse the block on future video cards down the line). They run a little bit hotter as you get the added heat dump from the other components so its usually best to run these in a separate loop. However, there's nothing wrong with running these in the same loop as the CPU as most people won't care/worry about the rise in cpu/water temps. But for someone like me that chases that every bit of temp drop he can, I'd use these only in a separate loop.

The GPU-core only blocks are much cheaper, often less than half the price of a full cover block. They're compatible with like 90% of the video cards on the market and some have been reusable for the past few years across a variety of generations. However, one must purchase heat sinks to add onto the ram chips/vregs/etc making it a time consuming process. These types of blocks are usually best for single loop solutions as the pressure drop/restriction isn't as bad as the full cover ones.

In the end, this is more of a preference.