Cheap water cooling?

Alf

Alf

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Whats a good, cheap Water cooling kit? im thinking $200 (104 pounds) 0r lower.
 
But it doesnt seem to Keep the CPU too cool... I know its your article, but do you recomend it? cause i would like to have a quite water cooled system and one that keeps the CPU around 50c.
 
Alf said:
But it doesnt seem to Keep the CPU too cool... I know its your article, but do you recomend it? cause i would like to have a quite water cooled system and one that keeps the CPU around 50c.
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In short, - no.

For the money, the system's good, and it's quiet.

But I'd rather spend a little more and get quiet and cool.

My comments/views in the article were pretty much on the money ;)
 
floppybootstomp said:
But I'd rather spend a little more and get quiet and cool.
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So what do you recommend? how much should i spend?
 
Alf said:
So what do you recommend? how much should i spend?
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The system I reviewed costs £85.00.

From looking at other 'ready made' water cooling systems, start with a budget of £135.00 and typically spend £160.00.

Sorry I can't do it in dollars, but you get the idea.
 
floppybootstomp said:
Sorry I can't do it in dollars, but you get the idea.
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Ah, no problem, i get the picture... so its really that expensive??
 
Alf said:
Ah, no problem, i get the picture... so its really that expensive??
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Fraid so :(

I looked into water cooling systems a lot when my XP3200 was running at 60C with a Thermalright SLK-800. I got lots of advice, looked at what other people had used and finally decided on a combination of parts that cost around £150.00 but which I was assured would work well.

In the end I tried an air solution with a Gigabyte Pro 3D Rocket cooler and now have CPU at full load at 42C. It cost £29.00.
 
Has anyone here tried assembling their own water cooling setup, rather than one off the shelf?
 
floppybootstomp said:
Fraid so :(

I looked into water cooling systems a lot when my XP3200 was running at 60C with a Thermalright SLK-800. I got lots of advice, looked at what other people had used and finally decided on a combination of parts that cost around £150.00 but which I was assured would work well.

In the end I tried an air solution with a Gigabyte Pro 3D Rocket cooler and now have CPU at full load at 42C. It cost £29.00.
Click to expand...

I used a Rocket 3D and got very low temps - BIOS reported 18C at idle and 22c at load. I think the bios was reporting inaccurately, but I was able to do some excellent overclocking with no adverse heating issues.

I considered water cooling, but decided that the possibility of leaks, and the time and cost wasn't worth the cooling results.
 
I haven't, but there's a thread on here somewhere about the time when Ian made an air conditioner from a polystyrene box, a cooling fan, and lots of ice ;)
 
Haha i actually built one too!! Used an 80mm YS Tech fan for drawing air into a box full of ice, and a 92mm Vantec tornado for chucking it out. What a waste of ice, fans and 9v batteries that was. Did it work? No. Did my room get soaking we because the ice melted? Err yes.
 
I`m working on my own watercooling set up at the mo.

One hint... second hand. A lot of overclocking forums have a selling forum, thats where I bought my CPU block for around half the price. The reservoir I improvised on by using a coffee jar with 2 holes drilled in the top for tubing. The radiator (well, heatercore) and pump are coming from www.componentsuk.co.uk. They`re cheap, but I dont know about a U.S. equivalent. There has to be some... Americas big enough!

Tubing came from ebay, as did the pump relay. Pump relays are a con. £26 ($40?) for... whats basically a switch. I got mine off ebay as well, might make my own version and sell them for £10. :)

Kenny

Basically, try looking for second-hand stuff. :)
 
Sorry... Nescafe :)

Think about it.. an "official" reservoir is... a plastic box, with the barbs for the tubing to be secured.. around. (like a plug) The tubing for the coffee jar idea goes through the lid and is a pretty tight fit. The coffee jar is fixed upright, and the lid is screwed on. its pretty safe :)) untested tho. That will change :)
 
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