Liquid Cooling Questions!

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First Time Builder Nam

New member
Ok as my name says, this is my first build, I've been compiling my list for quite some time, read many books and customer feedbacks on products but still have questions!

This is my list as of now....

Xcilo Windtunnel Case.

Silverstone ST85F ATX12V / EPS12V 850W PSU.

ASUS A8N-Sli Premium Mobo.

AMD Toledo 2.6hz Dual Core S939 w/ Dangerden TDX Waterblock.

2Gigs of Corsair Twinx2048-3200c2.

(2x) XFX PVT71JYHE9 GeForce 7950GT GPUs.

ASUS Physx P1 w/ Geforce 4 Waterblock.

(2x) Western Digital 74GB Raptors In RAID 1 w/ Alphacool HDD3 Waterblocks.

ASUS CD-ROM Drive

ASUS DVD Burner w/ Lightscribe

I have other things on the list I wont bore you with like the pump (Swiftech MCP655) and other things like tubing, clamps, UV light and such. I know the setup isnt the best in the world but its S939 (which is the only socket I can understand/know about) and at least its equipped with "the last greatest S939 CPU" Toledo2.6GHz.

Funny thing is that last paragraph was totally unneeded:rolleyes:. Ok time for the questions.....Will the MCP655 have the power to move coolent from 2 HDDs, a CPU and the Physx card and to the radiator? Is 1/2"OD better than 3/8"OD? Should I go with single, double or triple radiator? Is there a god? Whats Normalicy?
 
Well lets see, I hope you havent bought things yet. For the price of what your shopping about, you can easily get a higher performance c2d rig. As for watercooling, DO NOT watercool harddrives or physics cards. Theres no benefit, no reduction in noise, and most importantly no increase in performance. 1/2" ID is better then 3/8" ID. Triple radiator if your cooling SLI and a CPU, if not two duals, or two triples.
 
No.

I would drop the PhysX all together (card included, use the money on something more important)

Don't watercool the hard drives.

Watercool the video cards and get a triple rad.

BUT for the money your talking a c2d rig would be so much better for the same price.
 
first question......what is it you are after from your setup? best cooling or hush-hush uber silence?

second question, just like NoL has asked, have you bought everything that you have listed? if not, go for C2D, it'll wont take long for you to learn C2D.

and some suggestions.....

CPU block - swiftech / D-Tek

HDD block - dont bother with them, instead, buy blocks for your GFX

Rads - get a Thermochill 120.3, expensive but worth every penny, and depending on how you are going to WC you might want to have two Rads.

Pump, why D5? may i suggest DDC?

also, if you are like me, who dont like fans that make loud noise, water cool your NB and Mosfet aswell.

to give you a idea of what i mean by that, heres my setup

5.25 Bay Res > DDC > CPU > GFX > 120.1 Rad > NB > Mosfet > 120.3

with 10/8 hose and compression fittings and all 4 rad fans are linked to BigNG with inline thermosensor which control how fast my fan spin in relation to how hot my water temp gets.

hope that helps
 
thermochill is beyond worth it but if ur on a budget a PA120.3 by HW Labs is fine. pump DDC+ with alphacool or petras top.
 
If you havent got the video cards yet dont, get a 8800GTS/GTX instead.

If you already have the 7950s and they are the passive ones leave them passive the cooler works great and just water cool the CPU and chipset if you feel the need.
 
Since the S939 is being phased out I would only buy if the parts are selling at a cut down price. Apart from that, your rig looks pretty high-end so maybe think about a AM2 processor + mobo (if you want to stick with AMD) or dare I say a C2D.
 
939 = out of date

if you want to stay with amd, thats fine, go AM2

if not,

go Core2Duo much better performance/price ratio

meaning you also need DDR2, not DDR ...for either of those

and dispite what other people have said, watercooling hard drives is a good idea, IMHO, my Hitachi, get really hot, and i have to keep a fan on it all the time, to keep it from overheating....

my raptor doesnt make asmuch heat though, ...but it would stil be good

although, aslong as you have enough fans trained on them, you shouldnt NEED to watercool them, would just be a 1337 extra :D
 
I looked into getting a HDD waterblock a while ago and they don't seem very effective since they only cool the sides of the HDD and not the spindle area where most of the heat is generated. Plus it'll probably kill your flow rate. A big fan at low rpm ftw.
 
does the physX card get anyone killed? i havent used one.. but viewing screenies it just looks like a fancy way to decrease visibility and hence get yourself shot by a guy who already can see past the debri that is on your screen...
 
As I here the C2D is greater than the Toledo, I've seen benchmarking tests that show the Toledo to preform better at gaming than the C2D but almost everything else the C2D wins (by only slightly..I think).

I havnt bought anything atm, I'm still looking around. I would like to stay with the ASUS A8N-Sli Premium Mobo for the its flexibility and features like electronic sli, heatpiped northbridge and soforth. And I despise Intel's CPUs for those critical errors that send "unintentional" private information when a program screws up even if preformace is greater:(.

I'm not to worried about the noise level the computer will make but I would like to run as little amount of fans possible, thus the reason why I picked the Xcilo Windtunnle with its two huge 25cm fans and exhaust/intake vents, the XFX GPUs and watercooling. If I can find a better passive cooled GPU I'll prolly go with the better one.

The Alphacool HDD3 blocks are mounted to the bottom of the hard drives circuity board, not on the sides/top like most blocks I've seen. They would restrict flow because they swivle through the block in a snake like pattern instead of a oblong loop, which equals more heat disapation?
 
The C2D will cream an X2/170 in gaming, dunno where you've been looking :eek:

Alphacool blocks are designed more for lower flow situations thus they are more restrictive
 
name='Kempez' said:
The C2D will cream an X2/170 in gaming, dunno where you've been looking :eek:
Click to expand...

I cant remember the actual website address but they review equipment in comparisions with other equipemtn in the same bracket. Was one of those site thats gives you a introduction, closer look, specifications, tests, overall overlook, ect...
 
Well take it from us. C2D > 939 chips. Many here have gone from one to the other. Ive gone from tops of 200fps in CSS to in excess of 400fps, with 1GB less ram.
 
C2D > 939. im guessing ur looking at stock settings and @ tomshardware? and in that case yes the toledo is better in gaming aspects, but a Oc'd C2D is better than any 939 oc'd.
 
Well I dunno who it was but they got it wrong. Performance of even the lower C2D chips is quite simply awesome in gaming

Perhaps @stock but then who keeps a C2D @ stock :p
 
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