Water Cooled Cases

GeoffScratcher · #1 20-10-2008, 13:54

Any recommendations chaps???

I've seen a couple that take my fancy

i.e. Scan Computers UK: Thermaltake Kandalf LCS VD4000BWS Black Aluminum Case with Windows Liquid Cooling w/o PSU

anyone make any recommendations - I would rather fork out the extra cash and buy a case that has a kit pre installed (ok it might not be quite as good as one that you buy and then put together yourself).

As I am pretty gash with a dremmel and would almost definitely balls it up and injure myself in the process.

Anyone recommend cases that you can fit WC too without modding?? Budgetarily speaking I am looking to spend max £300 on case and cooling - thats why the kandalf looks appealing - 3 x120 rad in the front door £160 sheets - leaves me £140 in the kitty to upgrade parts of the WC system if it turns out to be pants.

Geoff

Colossous · #2 20-10-2008, 14:12

To be honest i'd shy away from Thermaltake, imo the quality is not up to scratch and the extra spent on a Lian Li or Silverstone (personal favourites) is worth the extra money.
If you're after an easy to install kit i have a Swiftech kit Chilled PC UK - Watercooling made easy, Over 700 products in stock is really easy to install and claimed maintainance free for five years, i usually use high end custom watercooling kit in my projects but for what this cost and the temperatures it returns with the fan on low revs (very quiet too) it makes me wonder why i spend the extra on expensive kit !!
You can see the installed kit in my Silverstone TJ09 in this thread - New build time !!

affiliate13 · #3 20-10-2008, 14:47

Run from the TT w/c stuff. I have been doing loads of reading on it recently and some of their kit like the Bogwater range are known to leak on some folks.

GeoffScratcher · #4 20-10-2008, 17:05

thanks for the input chaps - I shall steer well clear of TT - there is no way I want to spring a leak after forking out so much for it to end in....................

What about these 3 here then???

O-CuK :: Over-Clock UK Ltd - Pre-WaterCooled Cases

I like the look of the Thermochill h2GO - my concern is that it may be a bit too small. Anyone heard any horror stories of this electrocuting their Grandmother / gerbil / starting a small house fire that quickly left the whole family destiute

this is a thread that you may well have read before - just thought that I might share it with those that haven't - still makes me chuckle thinking about it now!!!!

Kramer and other members promoting water cooling- you have alot to answer - AVForums.com

It is a windup by the way!!

Clunk · #5 20-10-2008, 17:35

That AVforums one is an old one

Anyway, I would strongly recommend finding a case that you like the look of...a fairly big one and then get it cut to accept the radiator of your choice.

The rest is pretty straight forward to fit.

You will pay a huge premium for a pre watercooled case and often, it's just exactly the same as choosing your own and getting it cut properly.

ChilledPC do this kind of service, but get him to confirm that there are no marks on the case BEFORE he cuts it, that way, he can't claim that the marks were already on there if any accidents happen during the cutting.

Have a look at the Lian-Li PC-A77 review in the reviews section, I had that specially cut for the job...I haven't built it up yet, but you can see what cuts are needed and chilledpc did that one.

GeoffScratcher · #6 20-10-2008, 19:03

as always guys many thanks for the input - I shall indeed have a right good decko at that Lian Li number.

what sort of money are you looking at for cutting?? and are there any cases that you can buy that have watercooling in mind, but not fitted, but would not require case modification or would this invariably compromise the cooling solution itself?? i.e. things like rads not in ideal location etc.

But what about more hardcore cooling??, as I am basically looking down the barrel of 350 to achieve this, could i or should i be looking at more exotic ways of cooling, or mundane i.e. better air cooler for my cpu

Ideally I would like to have this bad boy at 4 ghz or maybe slightly higher.

Clunk · #7 20-10-2008, 19:09

There's always going to be some work involved, but that's part of the fun

Just so you know, 4GHz on that CPU is unlikely for day to day running. I would say that 3.7GHz would be more realistic...unless it's a really good one.

Phase change cooling is an option, but it's noisy and you need to insulate the board against condensation.

To be honest though, a good water set up will be adequate and will take you to whatever the 24/7 limit of the CPU is.

You could make a separate box and stick all the water cooling gear in there.

GeoffScratcher · #8 04-11-2008, 01:28

bought the thermaltake Kandalf from Scam

let you know what its all about

geoff

GeoffScratcher · #9 04-11-2008, 12:37

To be honest chaps I am really impressed with this case so far. Its been running for 4 days now and is yet to leak on me

And although I realise that various parts of it are not the best to say the least i.e. CPU waterblock, the pump etc.

As a first foray into watercooling it does the business as far as I can see. I rotated the waterblock 90 degrees so that my in is at the bottom and the out is at the top (try and create a bit of extra resistance).

The long and the short were that my idle temps at 3.6 Ghz were down to the 20'C mark(i had the window open is this cheating???

) and on small FTs on prime peeking at around 45'C

With my poor old Freezer Pro I was shutting it down at 70 for fear of laceration from hurtling molten silica.

So yes all in all well chuffed, it was desperately simple to put together (i mean I managed to put it together) and I only cut my self really badly once, but to be fair this was on the sadistically sharp heat spreaders on my memory and not on the case.

It does what it says on the tin. 161 new British pounds for a case and a watercooling kit - belting!!!

P.S will rotating the cpu block in the way described above potentially eff things up at all??