Fun Stuff > CLIKC
The PC-building/hardware knowledge thread
est:
I am pretty sure that while I have placed a ban on buying any upgrades until Christmas the next set of upgrades I get will include a cheap/DIY watercooling setup. Only problem I find is that there doesn't seem to be much room inside my case. I got an Antec 900 and while it looks huge there is a fairly limited amount of space inside. Also, I have a raid card and a few drives inside the machine taking up a large amount of space, so that might cause some problems.
After I get all my tax crap out of the way I will have to re-assess what I am doing with all this crap. I am pretty sure I don't need this RAID card in here, because it takes forever to load up and doesn't give enough of a benefit. I could replace it with a Velociraptor for the boot drive plus my existing storage drive and be done with it, or perhaps even streamline is further using one Velociraptor drive and some kind of low-power linux fileserver box for the keeping of all my junx and the running of torrents, etc. Yesssssss.
3Z3VH:
From my experience watercooling isn't cheap if you want to do it right :(
The setup you see above cost me $400 in parts, and I just happened to have bought the perfect case for this setup before I ever jumped on the watercooling thing. With a single GPU in the loop, you could knock about $100 off of that, but even still I wouldn't call it cheap.
My best word of advice though, is do NOT buy a "kit" if you want any better results than your current air cooling setup (Of course, Petra's kits are the exception to this rule, since they build their "kits" from the same individual pieces most people would buy).
Also, depending on the goal you have with watercooling, your pieces will differ greatly... If you are going for silence, and never going to overclock, you would go for a smaller pump, and possibly a larger radiator than you would otherwise use if your only concern was overclocking.
For a basic parts list of what I did...
CPU Block: EK Supreme Acetal (Best rated CPU block on the market)
GPU Blocks: D-Tek Fuzion2 w/fitted UniSinks for the ram and mosfets on the card (Best rated non-full-coverage GPU block on the market)
Tubing: Tygon R3603 (Best evaporation and stain resistant tubing available, and it has a great bend radius) I used 7/16" tubing because it worked aesthetically, and for good cooling, and still fits on 1/2" barbs.
Radiator: Swiftech MCR-220 (Best rated radiator that would fit in my case)
Pump: Swiftech MCP655-Vario (Best rated, and variable speed made it easy to bleed, and quiet, though even set at full I can't even hear it)
I decided not to use a reservoir since I transport my case regularly for LAN parties, and did not want to worry about spills, instead I went with a fill-port. The downside is bleeding takes longer. With a fill-port you can get a simple clamp to put on the fill tube that ensures air will never get into the circuit during transport. With a reservoir... it isn't as easy, and you risk spilling inside your car/computer.
Nodaisho:
Does anyone know offhand what the problem was between Cornerstone P1500 monitors and 7900gs cards? I had a problem when I originally bought the card, but I forgot how I fixed it, and I think it is happening again, but now I can't find anything on it.
dennis:
I'm waiting for UPS to arrive with my new computer parts. They have a tendency to not ring the doorbell and just slap on a "we missed you" label.
I ordered:
Antec P182 case
Enermax modu82+ 625W power supply
Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3R mobo
Intel Core 2 Duo 8400 (9.0x333MHz=3.0GHz) cpu
G.Skill 2x2GB DDR2-800 memory
Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB HD
EVGA Geforce GTX260 core 216 55nm SC vid car
Tuniq Tower 120 cooler
MrBlu:
Feh.
My Sub $500 Gaming Machine is...:
Mobo + CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E7300 Wolfdale 2.66GHz LGA 775 Dual-Core Processor Model BX80571E7300
BIOSTAR TForce TP43D2A7 LGA 775 Intel P43 ATX Intel Motherboard
GPU + RAM: OCZ SLI-Ready Edition 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model OCZ2N1066SR2GK - Retail
POWERCOLOR AX4850 512MD3-DH Radeon HD 4850 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card
PSU: APEVIA ATX-CW500WP4 500W ATX Power Supply
HDD: Western Digital Caviar SE WD1600AAJS 160GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive (Or you could spend $8 extra and get a 250 or even 320GB HDD)
DVD Drive: SAMSUNG 20X DVD Burner with LightScribe Black SATA Model TS-H653N
Case: Rosewill R226-P-BK 120mm Fan ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
Total cost: $483.92
Don't trust Tom's Hardware. Ever.
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