New to WC question

[erakepio]

Hey all,

i'm building anew PC and I've got just a quick question about water cooling. Is there any maintnece required on the kit. Such as cleaning pipes etc every 30 days or so.

I just plan on running the system to play games such as crysis, spore, age of conan and everquest II.

any help would be appreciated

 

[Mr. Smith]

Keeping the answer simple as you are new to things - the maintenance in minimal.

Keep an all copper loop and clean/flush the radiator/s out with lots of hot water and you won't have to touch your loop for months on end.

If you use UV dye that will need topping up every 3 months-ish.

It is easy and definitely fun.

All you need is a pump, a cpu (and gpu block), a suitable radiator, reservoir, fans, tubing, barbs and fluid (not tap water!)

What are you thinking about cooling?? Budget?

 

[erakepio]

(including that last thread Mr smith) i'd be looking at around £1500-£1600 MAX on the system.

As I'm new to Watercooling, I dont think I'd be confident enough to actually self build one myself just yet

 

[Aqua-Pc's]

We will have some of these babies in shortly:

Cheap and all setup for you

 

[Mr. Smith]

It isn't hard. Honest. The first machine I built myself was watercooled, shortly after I joined this forum actually.

Pump has an in and out. You then make a loop using logic

E.g. Res>Pump>Rad>CPU>GPU>Res

For £1500 we can spec you a niiice puter. Do you need a monitor, if so what size?

Edit:

We will have some of these babies in shortly:

Cheap and all setup for you

No you didn't! Cool(sh)IT... Forget it. I don't want to hear about customer needs either. Spec up a proper loop!

 

[Aqua-Pc's]

Better?

 

[Mr. Smith]

Better?

Marginally

It has a weak pump, only cools the cpu and has a tiny rad - we have some nice proposed components - q6600/gtx. That kit won't cool the components adequately or give any scop for expansion...

I'm thinking that pump in marcus's avatar or a ddc ultra, pa120.2 or a nice tripple rad, fusion/ek cpu block, mcw60 for the gpu (for compatibility with future cards) and an ek multi opt. res.

 

[Aqua-Pc's]

But thats not very noobish or cheap

 

[Ham]

that pump in marcus's avatar or a ddc ultra

.....same thing mate

I rekon that the XSPC kit (maybe + a better rad) would be a good place to start.

After upgrading my loop to 1/2" i can say that its a total and utter pita compared to 10/8 compression barbs.

Basicly a place to start and decide if you want the hassle of installing water without spending a fortune.

 

[Mr. Smith]

But thats not very noobish or cheap

True. I didn't get the impression this was supposed to be cheap? £1500-1600 for a rig must mean there is £200 for a decent setup.

I think it is better to spend money once on decent things than scrimp and regret later...

.....same thing mate

Ooops.

 

[Aqua-Pc's]

As I'm new to Watercooling, I dont think I'd be confident enough to actually self build one myself just yet

Hence starting at the entry level part of the market

 

[nunzio]

The kit is the best place to start with, then build on top.

 

[Marcus]

Marginally

I'm thinking that pump in marcus's avatar or a ddc ultra

.....same thing mate

Actually the one in my avatar is a Pro but i'll let you off

 

[erakepio]

For £1500 we can spec you a niiice puter. Do you need a monitor, if so what size?

yeh i already have a monitor, it's a 19" Hyundai Imagequest. it's the max size that will fit on my desk until i get a new desk as the TV takes up most of the room.

What sort of spec? the self built machine i had was around £1150 without watercooling, just trying to remember what I'd selected...

Intel Quadcore 2.4GHz

XFX motherboard (cant remember the model...but needs to support DDR3 and up to 8Gb of RAM).

nVidia 8800GTX 768MB

8GB PC6400 OCZ (was £79.99 for 4GB)

800W PSU

2x 500GB Seagate HDD

probs overkill...but if i'll be running vista..i want to get the most outta DX10 that i can in my budget range. Plan on using it only for games mainly (crysis, Age of conan, Spore, EQII)

 

[Mr. Smith]

yeh i already have a monitor, it's a 19" Hyundai Imagequest. it's the max size that will fit on my desk until i get a new desk as the TV takes up most of the room.

What sort of spec? the self built machine i had was around £1150 without watercooling, just trying to remember what I'd selected...

Intel Quadcore 2.4GHz

XFX motherboard (cant remember the model...but needs to support DDR3 and up to 8Gb of RAM).

nVidia 8800GTX 768MB

8GB PC6400 OCZ (was £79.99 for 4GB)

800W PSU

2x 500GB Seagate HDD

probs overkill...but if i'll be running vista..i want to get the most outta DX10 that i can in my budget range. Plan on using it only for games mainly (crysis, Age of conan, Spore, EQII)

Right, the reason I asked about monitor size is resolution. If you had a large monitor then I would have said stay with the GTX. However, as you don't you are better off getting the 8800GT or the new 88GTS 512mb as both perform as well as the GTX but cost less.

8gb is a joke mate! I just upped mine to 4gb from 2gb and it was pointless, although I am on 32 bit XP. Seriously, just get 4gb...

Errr, you say you want a mobo that supports ddr3 yet you are buying ddr2? You need to decide if you want less, but faster, expensive ddr3 OR more, but slower, cheaper ddr2.

There are a few hybrid mobos that support both but they are crap.

Are you getting an Nvidia based mobo? Don't. Get an x38 or p35 (unless you are 100% using sli).

WC is easy regardless of what you may think or others say.

 

[erakepio]

yes i can see your point now. was a mistake in my typing there but never mind. I'm still unsure about DDR3. I've never used DDR2 as my current system still uses DDR memory, so i'm unsure of the performance increase levels etc.

as i said i just plan to game on this machine, so i'm assuming the faster, DDR3 would be better for that?

as For motherboard..I was thinking maybe one of the nForce 7 ones?

 

[nunzio]

I'd say clear of the nForce ones unless you are planing SLi. And 8GB of ram? you building a server/workstation?

Seeing that you will need vista 64bit, which has driver issues and bad support for games, you are best taking 4GB and using vista 32bit.

 

[erakepio]

ok. I wasnt planning on using SLi, but again..wouldnt mind the option of expanding. I knew vista had driver issues with most things, but wasnt aware it had issues with games etc. Played a bit of crysis and the AoC BETA at a friends house and it all seemed to be ok as he hasnt had an issue.

I'd probably end up choose 3GB of DDR3 and install XP in that case...

 

[Mr. Smith]

From what I have seen in other forums, including our own Kempez, Vista 64 bit users don't have issues anymore.

A few minor issues remain like rivatuner where you need to assign the driver at boot up... Most are now resolved. Sure it isn't perfect but when is anything ever perfect?

Erakepio - nforce chipsets are junk and have been since nf4 iirc. If you are not going to use sli avoid nvidia chipsets.

Just read the latest review on the site.