Bigwater SE or 735

[lemonmike]

Ive decided to go the watercooling way for my new PC. But ive read some reviews on the internet and they are both getting good reviews. Im wondering if any of you have these and give your views on it and maybe tell me which one is best. Also will they fit into a Thermaltake Soprano case with the Asus P5W64 mobo, and support Core 2 Duo E6600?

Cheers

[Taxation]

The 735 is newer, and the bigwater SE has a huge res that takes up a optical drive bay.
Go 735.
Most people will say for you to go custom, but these kits do perform pretty well.
Word of warning, i wouldnt mount the rad inside the case, it will hog alot of space, i would mount it externally.
Do your research and you wont end up with a fried chip.
Remember to "hot wire" the power supply 8)

[lemonmike]

Remember to "hot wire" the power supply 8)

Do you mean about testing it for leaks? Like putting some wire from the psu to the cooler instead of assembling it on the mobo first?

[Taxation]

Put psu wires in the water :shock:
nah matey, you get a piece of wire with the kit, and it goes into the atx power cable(the big rectangle one)
between certain pins and it allows the power supply to power up, but only gives power to the molex connectors (small rectangle ones), and that is how you fill you system.

Fill res to max>"hot wire" psu>water goes round>add more water until the slushing noise from the pump goes :D
Dont have any power cable going to the motherboard, or you could fry it

[Big Beere]

Or just do what i did and set it all up... whack all the power cables in.... fill tank up half way... turn system on.. whhhack the rest in :P ..

Big B 8)

[Taxation]

No, do not be a fool like big beere, he was lucky, i would do it the way that i said, it is alot safer

[Big Beere]

On a serious note, i recommend something slightly better than Thermaltake... even though they look good, ive heard a few bad reviews about them. The actual CPU block has been cracking and a lot of leeking has been occuring.

From personal experience ive had a dodgy one. It took me about 2 weeks to find out why my liquid level was slowly but surely dropping. Some how the liquid was leeking via the pump, which soon stopped the pump from working and causing my CPU to hit its max temp. and shut down!

Its hard to figure out if the pump is actually working or not, as its so quite. The only way to find out if its working is to feel a slight vibration :P

After stripping it all out, draining it over night and packing it the next day (quite a big job, because that means the mobo has to be taken out and the backplate ripped off, again!) I decided to go back to the good old heatsink & fan.

Now im happy with my new Zalman CPU cooler :D

I will show you a pic of my watercooling setup before and after.

[b]Watercooling in system, about 2 hours after the photo was taken i noticed the leeking
http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2006-1/1129813/DSC00826small1.JPG


Taken the whole kit out to discover the liquid around the pump area. After close inspection it looks more like the liquid had been burnt... as theres quite a few black marks. Not good having liquid near a pump which is supplying the power, especially when liquid is leeking around the pump lol
http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2006-1/1129813/DSC00842small2.JPG



Now happy with my new Zalman CPU cooler :D :D :D + The inside looks more tidy :wink:
http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2006-1/1129813/DSC00868small3.JPG



Cheers,

BIG B 8)

[Big Beere]

But Tax, not all of us got supplied with a nice peice of wire :P

BIG B 8)

[Taxation]

then use a paperclip, works just the same :D

[Nox]

green to black, green to black

Nox

[Nox]

i i don't recommend doing what BB did - leave it on a 24-48 hour soak test with some newspaper in the bottom (this shows leaks up very easily)

Nox

[Taxation]

and that liquid isnt burnt, it is corrosion, from the copper blocks and the alliminium of the case

[Big Beere]

copper blocks you say?

Yea, when i first installed it.. i did leave it running for about a day and a half, it was fine! Everytime i turned the system on, id always look out for any drips.. I also got a black marker pen and put a mark at the current water level on the tank. That was very helpful, as a few weeks later i noticed it dropped by a few MM... then i kept an even closer eye on it :)


and that liquid isnt burnt
burnt sounds more of a dramatic word :P


cheers,

BIG B 8)

[lemonmike]

@ taxation: LMAO!

Did you think i meant getting a wire and putting it in the water! Lol no, i meant like what you said but i didnt explain myself very well. Im still wary of watercooling, it may be good and look wicked ( imo ) but i dont know whether to stick with a fan or not.
Heres the specs of my new system (when its built, not for a few months yet)

Core 2 Duo E6600
ASUS P5W64 blablabla
ATI/AMD R600 / Nvidia G80
600W PSU
Thermaltake Soprano case
Western Digital Raptor 10,000 RPM
Vista Home Premium (yes i know that i should wait a while after release but im impatient)

Does watercooling actually offer better cooling than a fan (3rd party)

[Big Beere]

nice spec..

OHHH yes, you cant beat watercooling..

when my system was cooled by water, it was cooling an AMD Athlon 3800+ Dual core @ stock speeds.. i was getting about 33/34 degrees. Overclocked the CPU to 2.85ghz and it only went up a few degrees.

Now i have gone back to the basic cpu/fan, system ideling @ 40/41 degrees (has even hit 50c in the summer).. thats about 6/7 degree increase. (also @ stock speeds).

Pros & Cons about Watercooling:

Pros:

Looks great
Low CPU + GPU temps (if you w/cool your gpu)
Overclock with less worry about the temps
Better than CPU Fan

Cons:

Alot of hassle to install
Can go horribly wrong
More hassle to unistall
Less room in case


But, its up to you! You could look for the best heatsink+fan to cool that E6600 of yours... .. .. .. cheaper than watercooling anyway :)

BIG B8)

[Taxation]

watercooling hasnt gone wrong for me
looks meh(my case is the uber bodge)
quiet, and vista premium, thats gonna cost a bomb, and word is that the G80 is gonna be cooled by a fan and a watercooling block/rad (rad is on the block)
And the G80 will need 2 6pin power connectors by the looks of it.
Have you already got the soprano case, because if you dont then i would recommend a slightly better case, the door on the soprano is surposed to by flimsy and not of good build quality, get the tsunami :D

[lemonmike]

@ BigB

Hmm, thats the thing im worried about: can go horribly wrong.

This is the first PC ive built and as im 17, i dont get loads each month for the best watercooling out there. So its watercooling under £80 or Heatsink and fan.

BTW whats the best make of heatsink and fan to get for my CPU?

@ taxation yes ive already got the case and a PSU :S

[Taxation]

Best rad and fan, a 120mm rad with guess what, a 120mm fan :D
If you get a kit then nothing should really go wrong with it.
If you go with a custom kit without knowing what to do, then it will go terribly wrong, just dont copy BigB :wink:

[lemonmike]

lol, this PC im making is gonna sound like a jets if theres anymore fans put onto it lol. I think im just gonna have to look around and see whats available, narrow it down and ask u geniuses/almost-a-genius!

[Taxation]

to be honest, when you add watercooling to cool the cpu and the gpu, the noise is dramatically decreased, because it is being cooled by a 25DB fan, instead of a 30db cpu fan and a very loud gpu fan.
And you get much better temps with watercooling than with air because water is a better conductor of heat compared to air.

[Big Beere]

True.. but ive got x7 120mm fans.. x1 90mm fan + Cpu+GPU fan... and there's hardly any difference with noise really!

If your that bothered, just turn QFAN on and let the fans fly when needed.

To be honest lemonmike, unless your going to overclock the system or be doing some extreme hardcore gaming orrrrrr using some intense programs.. get watercooling...

If your not going to be overclocking, or just want to play games on the odd occasion.. get a good CPU FAN.

When you have the system set up for the first time... give it a few months and decide if you need/want to install a watercooling kit. As i've heard the DUO chips are far better at keeping a cool temperature anyway, unlike most AMD chips.

Cheers,

BIG B 8)

[lemonmike]

Well i game a lot and im on the PC for a few hours a day unless im out or about so maybe watercooling would be the way to go. Or buy one of those beer fridges and stick it in there!
Someone mentioned about not getting a thermaltake watercooling kit. Which other make is good?

[Taxation]

The watercooling that BigB was moaning about was the 745, same pump ,but just more rads.

i have an asetek kit, that novatech doesnt sell.
Im not going to mention the name of the store because novatech are a compnay and we shouldnt advertise elswhere.

If you get a kit,then make sure that it is a 1/2" kit, these have more waterflow, and that means that they can cool more effectively, but the tubes are harder to bend than 3/8"

[Big Beere]

I cant slate watercooling, it is infact the way forward! It makes your Rig a proper gaming beast pimped out with the neons/tubing/waterblock ... followed by the brilliant hardware it self!

The only reason im not as fussy with it anymore, is the bad experience i had. And all the hassle it is installing it, and un-installing it.

But personally, if i was you, i would build the rig first, wait a few weeks/months and decide if you really need/want it.


Cheers,

BIG B 8)

[lemonmike]

I might just do that! Btw if i wait a couple of weeks after its built, how does the stock fan perform on the E6600?

[Taxation]

No idea, some people are saying that it does miracles, but they also said that about the stock fan on the X2 3800, which doesnt perform too well.
Dont expect miracles.
It should be able to keep the processor at a relatively stable temperature of 40C i should think,depending on room temperature aswell.

[Big Beere]

Yeee... My current Room temp is 18C .. CPU = 36C / Mobo = 25C - not bad really!

BIG B 8)

[Taxation]

dude, there are now thermaltake liquid cooled systems now availabe, the armour and the kandalf.
Both sporting huge rads at the front door, and they perform well also :D
If you want some good colling, and you want water cooling, then the thermaltake lcs cases are what you want for out of the box performance

[lemonmike]

The only problem with those is that:
1. there a bit to big to fit where i need the PC to be
2. the price!

But they are very nice and i would definitley get em if i had a bit more to spend!