Newbie install - done! - Overclock.net

cured · 03-04-06

Long text to follow, but you can skip to the whole pic archive at http://redcoat.net/water_030206/ if you prefer.

I'm a lurker and a newbie when it comes to water cooling. I've been reading forums for a few months on it with the idea that my new system build would "eventually" go to water cooling.

I built that rig with a zalman cnps9500 2 months ago, but temps were still too high (fx57 47 degrees prime95 4hrs, 52 degrees OC'd to 3ghz). I work in and with a number of enterprise datacenters, so I'm pretty good with air flow and circulation and felt my expectations were too high for air cooling in my office space at home.

With that in mind, I decided to accelerate my water cooling plans. Long story short, you take a mix of all the best components out there (with some semblence of respect for budget and a few personal preference choices) and you end up close to what Swiftech offers with their Apex Ultra package. Add the newbie factor of fear of components not fitting right, leaks, and general build quality questions when putting together a system yourself for your first foray into water cooling and it seemed like an easy decision.

I spent most of the day yesterday on it due to some hiccups with my rad barbs being spaced too far apart for the Thermaltake Armor pre-cut holes and a long long time spent trying to decide where to mount the res. Anyway, the result is pretty amazing by my (admittedly very low) standards. It was EASY.

To all those considering a WC setup, I would highly recommend the Swiftech kit for ease of install. Sure there's better parts here and there but this was a great way to get started with water cooling. Feel free to ask any questions if I can help guide someone along this same path.

Thanks to everyone on overclock.net for the insightful discussion - you helped me make a great decision!