WC basic system, no OC

Discussion in 'Hardware' started by tigerray00, Apr 24, 2011.

  1. tigerray00

    tigerray00 Specialist

    I've decided to WC my first system. Up till now I've always run air cooling with better coolers but I live in Barstow Ca, and day time temps here regularly reach very high as well as the air being permanently dusty. My current rig has decent air cooling but due to the house regularly reaching 80-110 F. during the day and the tight space I have to keep my tower in due to the shape of my house I'm getting a lot of BSOD's due to heating issues (I think), during idle times. Not only that but I get graphics crashing when I'm gaming occasionally I think this is also due to heat.

    I want to go to a WC system as this helps keep the dust out of the CPU/GPU coolers and an external Rad is much easier to clean than internal heatsinks. I've read a few articles on WCing, but I'm just not understanding a lot of it.

    What I'd like is some recommendations on a decent well made WC system or kit that will CPU and GPU cool, is relatively inexpensive but long lasting and will cool better than Air on a non OC'd rig. Oh, and doesn't require modding my hardware to make it fit other than removing the mounted cooling components and installing the new ones.

    Here's what I have,

    Asus M4A77TD Mobo AM3
    Phenom X4 925 Processor
    SAPPHIRE 100282-3SR Radeon HD 5850 (Cypress Pro) 1GB 256-bit DDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card w/ Eyefinity
    8g 2x4 A-Data PC3 12800 gaming memory(heatsinked, thus the gaming, don't think it's actual gaming memory)
    1TB harddrive(current main drive but considering switching to OCZ Vertex 2 SSD)
    All of this is mounted in the Antec 1200 Full Tower case, with a Thermaltake 750W PSU. Decent basice air cooled full tower but the PS is bottom mounted thus adding to in case heat.

    I've considered just adding more fans but I don't think it'll help since I can't move my tower to a more ventilated area unless I move to another house. Thus the decision to go with a WC rig.

    Any advise on parts or kits to pick up to put towards this system by people that have done it would be awesome. There's so much hype out there about this part and that part that it's just too confusing to figure out what's actually good and what's not.

    I don't plan on OCing this system so supercooling isn't needed, just something that's better than air cooling and will let me move the fan/rad outside the case, and something very durable so I don't have to worry about it ruining my system in a couple months.
     
    Last edited: Apr 24, 2011
  2. dlb

    dlb MajorGeek

    There have been huge advances in the world of liquid cooling these days.... you now purchase a closed system the requires basically no maintenance for CPU cooling... here's a couple of the best and most popular:
    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835181015
    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835181010
    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835209049
    These are pre-built self-contained units for CPU cooling only.

    If you need video cooling also, then a bit more research is needed. Check out this guide: http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=72599 I honestly haven't read it in a while so I don't know if it includes video cooling, but I'm sure it does.

    Here's a few links to get started on GPU/video watercooling:
    http://www.tech-forums.net/pc/f115/gpu-watercooling-217472/
    http://www.xoxide.com/watcoolkit.html
    http://www.xoxide.com/chvgaco.html

    The big name brands in liquid cooling are Koolance and Swiftech, and the folks at EnzoTech have all kinds of fittings, parts, mounting brackets, and anything else you might need. Good luck! And post some pics once it's all rigged up!!!!

    (Actually - PSUs produce very little heat and are vented and cooled so well that it is not likely adding any heat to the case - I have a bottom-mount PSU also, but I have it rigged so it sucks air from inside the case and spits it out the back, where most people have it so it pulls fresh air and dust and cat hair and lint from under the case and pushes it out the back - with a bottom mount PSU, I personally think it's best to use it as another exhaust fan for the case, but then again I have five 120mm fans howling away at 85cfm and everything stays pretty cool)
     
    Last edited: May 1, 2011

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