hi there, ive been thinking of building a new PC, got a £1000 budget, was just wondering what the advantages and dis-advantages are in a water cooled system, as i would like this as it looks sooo cool,

cheers

:: blade ::

P.S whats the best water cooling system out there

Its a bit of an open ended question to be frank but i'll do my best.

Firstly, watercooling is good if you're going to overclock your system as it allows you lower temperatures, but good air cooling also allows good overclocks and is much cheaper.

I've now got my E6400 (2.13ghz stock) running at just over 2.6ghz on air cooling (been up since 8am learning this crap). Temp idle is now 32c, peak 39c. So thats e6700 performance for 200.00 odd less.

Theres two schools of thought for water cooling- High flow and low flow. I genuinely can't be bothered (sorry) to go into the advantages and disadvantages to both on here so i'd suggest you read up. Besides, the advantages/disadvantages i'd quote are only my opinions and believe me, opinions vary.

Theres also passive water cooling, this is basically just a (huge) radiator that the coolant flows into to be cooled without the aid of fans. I had a Zalman Reservator, which was a huge blinking thing, it was external to the case so i needed more room, and it kept my 7900gt at 52c at peak, on the upside it was totally silent but it cost 200.00. I've now fitted a VF900 cooler to the card, its near as dammit silent and at peak the temp is 42c. 'Nuff said on that score. Plus with passive you'll only be able to cool one component per radiator (And its the same with the all-in-one solutions-see below)

You can purchase ready-to-go water cooling systems but these are usually compromised in some areas and don't really give any benefit over good air cooling, and are also, again, much more pricey.

If your concern is noise volumes, you can get differing mounts and fans and some quiet air coolers, mix all that with a fan controller (MCubed Big NG would be my recommendation) and you can control the noise.

Theres, imho, really no point watercooling unless you're going to watercool the whole system (cpu, gpu, northbridge, southbridge, ram). This can prove to be an expensive exercise. The reason for doing the whole system is simple: Any components you don't cool are still going to need air cooling, so you'll still need fans, the tubing for the 'water' will interrupt airflow, you'll have less room, and you'll still have the noise.

As an example my boss has a core2 x6800, 2x 7900gtx in sli, and 4gb ram (lucky rich B****ard) all watercooled using 2 triple fan radiators, danger den blocks, 1/2" tubing and various other bits and he reckons it cost him near a grand just to watercool the pc.

The best blocks, apparantly, are Danger Den. For a pump, i'm told the best are Swiftech. But its all about mixing and matching components to get the best balance for your system, as every system and user need is different.

For a pricing exercise i would suggest going to Vadim Computers : Custom Built PCs and price up some water cooling kit, doesn't matter what, just create a list of needed components (radiator(s), block(s), tubing, coolant, pump, resevoir, tube clips). I think you'll find out just how expensive it can be.

Don't forget you've also got to worry about refilling the res, bleeding air, ensuring the pump isn't too weak, or too powerful, mount the res at the highest point of the cooling loop etc etc

to sum up, i'd only go down the watercooling route if you intend to do your whole rig AND if you intend to oc. You might be better investing in a good case, good fans and a fan controller. Bung your hdd(s) in a Zalman heatpipe cooler, attach all fans with the rubber connectors to stop vibration.

Have a nosey Quiet PC UK - Quiet Computer Hardware for a Quiet PC for ideas.

If you want a 'bling' pc with lights, invest in a case with a windowed side panel (Antec 900 is an awesome case for the price) you can still achieve this look with l.e.d fans and suchlike. It'll also cost a huge amount of money less.

Hope this helps.