External water cooler kits

Discuss cases, PSUs, and various cooling techniques in here.
LVCapo
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External water cooler kits

Post by LVCapo »

Okay, I've decided to go with a WC kit. I haven't decided which to use, but it has to be external because of all the stuuf I have crammed into a small case (Cooler Mater Wavemaster TAC-T01)
I have been giving alot of thought to the Corsair Hydrocool 200. Fry's has iyt on sale for $189, but I will pay more somewhere else, because i'll never set foot in that store again.
I don't want to just cool the CPU, I also want to cool the NB, and VGA chips. If I get the base Corsair setup, what waterblocks should I get to use with it? Is there a better solution out there than the Corsair model?
I just installed the 3.2 E in my chaintech board, man this thing smokes. It is running at 3.76 with the memory set at 2.5-4-3-5. My memory scores on Sandra aren't great, but I think thats because I'm not running it at 500MHz. The Chaintech board doesn't let you OC the memory independently, and it doesn't let you toggle on/off the PAT either, other than that a great board.
One thing I noticed about the 3.2 E, the temp doesn't fluctuate much between 3.2 and 3.7, maybe 2C?! It is running fine at the default V-Core, but regardless of what I am running the system at, my video card is too hot to touch, it feels like it is about to catch fire.
Anyway. Give me some opinions on some good water blocks that would be compatible with the Corsair, I think it runs 3/8 in tubing.
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Post by Bio-Hazard »

Ok, I'm running the Corsair Hydrocool 200ex in my main system and I'm very happy with it so far............I've had it for about 2 months now. You can go the the Corsair Forums and read what alot of people think of the system and the problems they are having also.........support seems to be fairly good if done in the correct manner...... :D Some people seem to get upset with the support they are getting, but it seems to be their own fault........... :shock: One of the members in the forums is a engineer from Delphi who designed the system and is very helpful with questions and problems.
Corsair is bringing their own GPU and NB blocks sometime in the near future and also a totally new cooling system (don't know when thought). The Corsair system uses 3/8 tubing on the inside of the cooler and 1/4 inch from the system to the CPU (keeps the pressure up)
I'm using Koolance GPU block for my 9800Pro and it works great (test reviews are good also) But there are different ones out there.
That's MHO, I did alot of research on the different coolers and Corsair seemed to do the best for the external ones......... 8)
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Post by LVCapo »

Bio,
I am pretty impressed by the Corsair kit. I am concerned about something though. I have the P4 3.2 E, I am doing this project to cool my system for extreme OCing, I know the Hydrocool has a max of 200W, can it handle my system with the NB and video card?
As far as the waterblocks, ones i am looking at are the Danger Den Maze 4 series, and the Innovatek stuff. I know they are expensive, but I believe in doing things right, not just half a$$ing it. What would be your recommendations for the blocks?
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Post by Bio-Hazard »

You can get Danger Den blocks in 6mm size but I really like the Koolance blocks, in the tests i've seen the new Koolance blocks have done just as well as the big name blocks that have higher flow..........it's a matter of putting the right blocks together with the right flow rates. If I were you I'd Google the Koolance blocks or go to their web site and look up the reviews on the new series of blocks, they really do perform well even with 1/4 inch tubes........Check out the Corsair forums as well in reguards to the max power output of everything you're trying to cool. I think you should be ok even with CPU, GPU and NB..........I'm also planning on putting a second rad in my case between the CPU and GPU just for some extra cooling power....... :shock: If you go to the Corsair forums look for the user named Stev............he can answer your Intel questions better than I, he is the Delphi Engineer that helped design the system.......... :D
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Post by Apoptosis »

Image

Capper,

I've run my Prescott above 4.3GHz on the above system. I don't water cool my GPU because I change between ATI and Nvidia too much and don't feel like changing the block over every day or so.

I use Corsair's Hydrocool on both my AMD and Intel systems (I have 2 of them) and I've had 100% success with them over the past 6 months.

EDIT: I've changed waterblocks on the Hydrocool to what should be better and the performance dropped... It's pretty much setup as is to be the best.
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Post by LVCapo »

Okay, after alot of research I see that an OC'ed P4 3.2 E will gnerate 103-105W, the NB will generate 90-100W on my Chaintech board. so that maxs out the Corsair, or does it? If you are taking it to 4.3, and also cooling the NB no problem, then it undoubtedly has room above to 200W limit. I think I'll take Bio's advice and just use the Koolance blocks.
what concerns me is my video card is smoking hot, I don't OC my card and am using a Iceberg 4 to try to cool it, with AS 5, but it is still too hot to touch. If I cool down my CPU and my NB, will that in any way help the temps of the VC?
I would like to find a way to cool all three components. my CPU is at 49C running at 3.2, my NB is at 127C, and like I said, my VC is too hot to touch
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Post by infinitevalence »

The iceberg sucks. you would do much better with a 1U copper heatsink and a good low profile fan. This will require you driling mounting holes in the heatsink but the end preformace will kill any off the shelf vga cooler.
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Post by Bio-Hazard »

If you think you might not want to water cool the VC along with the rest of your system you could use the Arctic Cooling VGA Silencer.......it works very well and is very quiet.........I had 2 of them on my different systems before I water cooled my main rig.......I'm still using one of them on my old 9500Pro and that card is clocked 350/310 24/7. The back of the card is warm to the touch, but not blazing hot...........I used to have a modded Copper HSF on the card be it was way loud and kept the hot air in the case.........The VGA silencer expells the hot air out the back of the case and help lower the case temps as well......... 8)
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Post by Bio-Hazard »

Apoptosis, where did you get the Corsair NB block??????? Last I heard from my friend at Corsair/Delphi the blocks are not out yet........I tried to get one from Corsair a few week ago to review for a different site and Corsair said they were not released yet??????????
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Post by Apoptosis »

They aren't out yet. Last I heard they were doing some changes to the Hydrocool line. Nothing to hold off your purchase the Hydrocool 200EX is not going to change from what I understand.

You guys would be amazed what I have thats not out yet. ;)
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Post by Bio-Hazard »

I was just wondering about the blocks...........I know they are coming out with a high performance system soon..........no bells and whistles......just great cooling......... :shock:
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Post by LVCapo »

So after talking to Fry's store manager, and agreeing with her to give them another chance, i drove the 45 minutes to their store tonight because they had a big sale sign on their Corsair display that said "in stor sale $189", tought it was a good deal so i had the sales guy climb up and get me one, the one he handed me said $229 so I asked him if it was the sale model and he didn't know. finally found out the 189 was for an opened box model missing the cooling fluid and heatsink. It wasn't marked on the sale sticker, just a little post it note on the back corner of the box....great service, Newegg fromhere on out, nothing else.
I have been pulling my hair out today over all this research into the best WC kit, everyone seems to like the Corsair except for the 200W limit, then you go to another site and they say not to buy a cooler with 1/4 hoses, only 1/2 hoses. Do they make external coolers with 1/2 hoses?
I was also thinking about getting an internal kit and using that like the Asetek kit, but in this Tac-T01 i don't know that i would have enough room, and I already know that it would probably be too tight. Something else i thought about was buying an internal kit and making a seperate enclosure for it, kind of making my own external WC kit. what do you guys think about that?
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Post by Bio-Hazard »

The idea of building your own external kit is just what I plan on doing for my main system as soon as I have the cash...........I'm going to put the Corsair system on my slower system. I already have a old case stripped down and ready to cut up to fit the parts in. Now all I need is the cash.............. :shock:
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Post by LVCapo »

what external kit are you looking at? Iv'e been thinking about the WaterChill CPU/VGA/Chipset cooling kit - KT12A. It got great reviews. Basically we would be building the exact same thing as the stock external coolers.I don't think it would be hard to make an enclosure for it.
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Post by Bio-Hazard »

I'd wait just a bit for the Water Chill, Hydro is coming out with a new pump that has high flow and is a bit smaller than their current one. I was thinking of putting together a custom system out of mostly Danger Den parts...........they have a awsum new 12v pump that beats all the 115v pumps..... :shock:
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Post by LVCapo »

After alot of thought and research, and some input from Bio. I decided to invest in the Danger Den Tech TV super cooling system. It is expensive, but this is my baby, and it deserves it.
I talked extensively to someone at Danger Den and wanted to pass along some information to anyone looking at their equipment.
First, get the TDX block with the copper top, the lucite runs 2-3C hotter. Second, they have found out that the pure silver block shows 1C improvement over copper, so don't waste the extra $65 on the silver. third, the Black Ice Extreme !! is bigger, but not much better than the original black ice extreme. If any of you are looking at their stuff i hope this helps you save some money, and when I get my setup Thurs or Friday, I will let you know how it turns out.
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Post by infinitevalence »

Thats awsome. cant wait to see some pictures :) you must learn to use the digital camera.

you can host up to 10mb for free at http://www.gallery.cybertarp.com
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Post by LVCapo »

yeay, yeah, yeah....I'll work on the camera. you have no idea how many people are on me about that!!!!! Here I am building a thermonuclear supercomputer and everything, and can't work some stupid camera.
Itried sending Apop some pics, but i think I screwed that up too.
i'm really excited about the cooling. i just have to figure out how I'm going to cram it into this wavemaster case. Tech TV used the same case, but i can't find any pics of it, Max PC used it as well for their rig as well with WC.
I really don't want to cut up the case, but there is nowhere to mount the Black Ice Extreme radiator and 120MM fan. What I might do is extend the blowhole on top and mount the radiator externally on top of a fan, which would suck cool air down through the radiator into the case, mount the resovoir and pump on the bottom of the case. what do you guys think?
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Post by infinitevalence »

It sounds good but i bet you can put it on the inside and have the air blowing out. that way it will still look good. the pump and res should be on the bottom any way soo good plan there.
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Post by Bio-Hazard »

I've seen alot of water cooling systems with the rad in the top of the case, seems to work rather well and saves alot of space. And with your Wave Master case their isn't much air flow in the front of the case anyways..... :shock:
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