Im totally confused here... i dont know the basics of water cooling.. So here i go.. Will a water cooling kit work with all sorts of GFX cards ,Processors,chip sets or does it always have to specificlly support particular products? for example if i get a water cooling kit today for my 6800GT's would the cooling kit work if i upgrade my setup by buying 2x7800GTX's..... Could water cooling damage any of my of my componets.... Could it explode or leak... Like for instance if there's a socket change in the near future would the cooling kit still work on a socket change... what do you think of this one is it any good..... http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/acatalog/info_2607.html
most water cooling kits out there are universal for current products, so ur pretty safe with changes to the pc. With Water Cooling you might have to make sure u get a reliable brand, that your case is big enough. Some kits need some maintenance with most of them with maintenance every couple of months, mostly the coolants. Just read the products specs, it should tell you most of what u need to know. There is a water cooling kit called the Aquagate by CoolerMaster, i heard that its a great system, with ease of use for people new to water cooling. Hope this helps.
Aquagate is probably fine, but the problem is that the $100ish kits don't seem to beat high-end aircooling, which cost less. A waterblock is like a heatsink, it works on anything with the same supported socket. When a new socket comes out, all bets are off. I've seen conversion kits (swiftech for instance) for older blocks when a newer socket comes out, but I wouldn't assume it. Video cards are more problematic because they tend to come out every 6-12 months, and in theory the mounting hardware can change not only from generation to generation, but within the various card types as well. My understanding is that 6800 and 7800 mounting is the same. The good news is that there are more conversion kits for GPU blocks to accomodate this fact, but once again I would not assume this to be the case. If not, then you need to buy new blocks, which are about $50 for something decent. For CPU and SLI GPUs, this is pretty much the cheapest kit you can get away with: http://www.frozencpu.com/ex-wat-76.html You would still need to buy 2 GPU blocks, of course, bringing up that total to something closer to $350. Keep in mind that water does not really cool, it just moves the heat... its air across the radiator that actually does the cooling. The main advantage of watercooling is that you can have a much larger cooling surface than if it had to be physically attached to the CPU/GPU. If you want your watercooling to perform at least as well, the radiator shouldn't be any smaller then combined size of the heatsinks you're replacing. That's why I'd say for multiple blocks you want at least a dual 120 mm radiator, or 2 seperate 120 mm radiators.
Marri - if you get DangerDen Maze4 gpu blocks, you can run those on just about any video card... I planned my wc setup do I can run these on my GTs and then on my GTXs (or better) when I get them... The video memory really does not need to be water cooled imo. Just a simple set of mem sinks, or keeping the ref heat sink works great for the gddr3. For the cpu, many blocks these days are made to be as interchangeable as possible, so it's very likely that socket 939 blocks will work on the next socket... but not sure on that... at any rate... The issue of leaks is a big issue... if you do get one it could ruin your equipment... that's why you should use top quality tubing, like Tygon, which has a think "gummy" side-wall and makes a great seal on the barbs... lots of people perform "leak tests" without the components in the computer, so they can ensure that their water "loop" (the tubing, blocks, pump, resevoir, and coolant) has no leaks... I did my leak test for 24 hours... some people do their for days... you put white cloth or paper towels under all of the connections to make sure nothing gets by your eyes when inspecting the results of the test. It will not explode, but you can have pumps burn out I guess, which is why you should use quality components when running watercooling... that does not necessarily mean the most expensive, but just ones which are good. If you are unsure of what is "good" you can get a kit from "dangerden", or "1-A coolings", or "swiftech" which generally use high grade components... also, reading lots of threads helps... I sometimes use the www.xtremesystems.org as a good place because there is a LOT of good watercooling info there... I have a work-log on hardforums detaling mine and my friend's first time water cooling experience... I am using a pre-mod and his is from scratch, so you can see which one suits your ideas/desires. http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?p=1028193233#post1028193233 EDIT: www.frozencpu.com,, www.xoxide.com, www.coolerguys.com, and www.crazypc.com are some good places to see watercooling kits and components for sale.
Yeah, I used to leak test... now I don't even bother, maybe 5-10 minutes with the pump on and everything else powered off. Even if it did leak a bit, you can just get the hair dryer out or leave the whole motherboard out in the sun for a few hours, as long as it isn't on at the time it will probably be fine. Dangerden.com actually has great blocks and also decent prices, especially on hardware labs radiators... you can check them out if you're feeling adventureous enough to build your own.
Leak testing is definently something that can be by-passed. I litereally dont bother at all, assemble my stuff, turn it on and let it go.. the most leak testing I do is when I am bleeding my system and water is running through. One thing I will mention, the only downside about tygon, its not the super tubing a lot of people think it is. Sometimes it can be too soft and kink more than regular tubing can. Overall, tubing cant make super tight turns, but its descent.
thanks G L , [G] , revenant Im still cant find the various kits mentioned here... but im still looking.. revenant : i do have another question like do these kits always have support for dual GPU's or are they generally packaged with extra GPU coolers...etc do these water kits mention any where for being SLI supportive.. btw thats one cool guide you have there... looks like lots of hard work... here's whats available here : http://www.asetek.com/main/page.asp?sideid=641
