To watercool an Antec 300? Or not! *Updated W/Pics!*

[KeaBorg]

I've been kicking around the idea of putting WC back in my rig for a bit now. I originally opted out for a Corsair H70 but the bug has bit me again, and I don't really like the temp's the h70 is giving me.

My questions are:
Are the heatercores still the king of the 2x120mm class? I've researched this quite a bit but have not come up with any definitive answers. I'm looking for something that will fit behind the front two intake fans nicely.
Also what pump would even be considered good for this? My old rig had the DD-CPX 12v DangerDen Special, but I didn't much care for it as sometimes it would whine and the tach wire NEVER worked.

PC Specs:
i7 920 D0 Has gone 4.1ghz but is limited to heat since I've aquired the h70
Asus Rampage III Formula
12gb of Mushkin 1333 Ram
2x GTX 260's in SLI
Intel 120gb SSD
850w XFX Black Edition PSU
All housed inside an Antec 300

As the parts list so far, I have:
Heatercore out of a 77 Bonne w/AC since I can get it next to nothing due to father working at a napa store.
CPU Block: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-113-_-Product
Pump: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-082-_-Product

I can order fittings later as well as get tubing locally since this won't be a show pc and clear tubing will work fine.

Thanks in advance

Chad

 

[KeaBorg]

No ones fit anything like this into an Antec 300?

 

[KeaBorg]

Done! Temps are ALOT cooler then what they were with that god aweful H70 and with my new i7 930 4.4ghz can be had 24/7 at 1.33v.

 

[Wanescotting]

Nice! I like the tubing. and yes the h50/h70 aren't that great. I have the same cpu block, you will enjoy it

 

[Gillbot]

Good pump choice IMHO.

 

[KeaBorg]

You can't even hear the pump. Big improvement over my last WC loop and much better temps then my H70 thats for sure.

 

[OVerLoRDI]

well done sir

 

[aigomorla]

LOL and another victim to watercooling. :X

You know once u get a good setup running, its very difficult to go back.

And if u think CPU watercooling is impressive, wait til you see GPU watercooling.
That will knock your socks off.

 

[KeaBorg]

LOL and another victim to watercooling. :X

You know once u get a good setup running, its very difficult to go back.

And if u think CPU watercooling is impressive, wait til you see GPU watercooling.
That will knock your socks off.

I have no need and NO room as you can see in those pictures. I don't even bother to OC my gpus due to the fact that the main game I play doesnt even care as long as its a DX10 card lol.

But yes after me and Gill built the 1st setup I had from my 775 system I'll never go back to air cooling this is quieter more efficient and looks better

 

[aigomorla]

But yes after me and Gill built the 1st setup I had from my 775 system I'll never go back to air cooling this is quieter more efficient and looks better

meh i tried to get your brother on gpu watercooling.

do you know what happened?

He proclaimed the card dead, and returned it to me. :biggrin:
(9800GX2)

 

[KeaBorg]

meh i tried to get your brother on gpu watercooling.

do you know what happened?

He proclaimed the card dead, and returned it to me. :biggrin:
(9800GX2)

LOL I had a waterblock on my 8800GT but i was too lazy to try it and didn't really oc it much so I never did. But the sheer size of the 260's in this case i could only imagine the cutting I'd have to do to get those to fit

 

[BonzaiDuck]

meh i tried to get your brother on gpu watercooling.

do you know what happened?

He proclaimed the card dead, and returned it to me. :biggrin:
(9800GX2)

Well . . . I toyed with the idea . . . Aigo knows. I was posting a lot during '07. "Do I want to spend the extra bucks?" It might only cost an extra two Franklins . . .

But I have to ask whether it makes a difference to OC this latest i7-2600K build to . . the low 4-point-somethings on air, or try for the extreme . . .

Anyway . . . the way this is going at the moment . . . plenty of time to change course.

I'm looking at tempering the Kilowatt hours. No more 4-drive arrays. Hoping for that SSD-HD combination. For "reliability," I'll increase the drive-size in my WHS, and add a hot-swap drive to the workstation for cloning and backup.

So there -- I've got to ask "Do I really NEED SLI?" My best guess is that a Fermi 570 card would provide the same performance as an SLI config from an earlier generation of cards. So . . . if I don't overclock the vid-card, why would I need to water-cool it?

Decisions, decisions. It's all about decisions. And it's all about "personal" decisions . . .

 

[Gillbot]

The biggest hurdle for me GPU cooling is the sheer cost of GPU blocks. No thanks. Plus I don't need to WC my GPU, it isn't taxed too much while i'm playing freecell.