WC kits

[blk03MitsuES]

i know you guys are usually against commercial wc kits, but thats no big surprise, after all this is a community for people that like to piece together your own stuff.

with that in mind, any of these kits good enough for a first timer doing wc with a budget?

link

and yes i know you get what you pay for. so i know those arent the best of the best. but i'm sure one or two should be decent....right?

tax season didnt go that great so there's not enough for a new project, just enough for upgrades so i figured i'd wc either of my pc's. my vid card dont need to be water cooled so all i basically need is a rad, block, pump and reservoir. fittings, tubing and coolant is available at work.....

[Zephik]

Swiftech is what you want if what you want is decent to good water cooling on a budget. But be warned, do not buy those "compact" models. They are rubbish if you ask me. Does it even seem like a good idea to build some tiny half ass pump on top of the cpu heatsink? Bah, just stupid and rubbish and cheap if you were to ask me. So stay away from those ones.

When you buy a kit, if it does not have either one of these pumps, its my advice not to buy it. The pump in my opinion is the most important part in the loop, so you don't want to skimp out on it. You want it to be built out of high quality materials and you want those high quality materials to be well designed and implemented throughout the product. That will ensure excellent long lasting reliability. Also, those two models are what "the pro's" use as well, so you know your in good hands with them.

So that said, here is what I like to recommend to people who don't want to either spend a load of cash on building a custom kit, or on a pre-built kit. They are good kits whether you are a beginner or an intermediate user. Advanced users of course either spending a boat load of cash on either a pre-built kit or their own custom kits. But I would bet that, at the very least, eight out of ten people would be satisfied with any of those kits.

If you can't afford the "GT" kit, then I would say go for Premium kit as its not too much more than the Micro kit. Looking at it, I would say that it even takes up less room as well, since it can be mounted in a 5.25" drive bay. Also, I think the radiator is a double pass, whereas the micro is a single pass. I think.

[crenn]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835108105
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811999633
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835106077

These will work (like the others) but these ones should be fairly decent.

EDIT: What Zephik is recommending is proberly better.

[Zephik]

I'll also add this in as well.

You would more than likely be better off with a high quality Air Cooler than you would be with a low quality Water Cooler. That will also save you money, since high quality Air Coolers will run you in the range of $50 to $70, instead of $80-$120 on cheap Water Coolers. It'll also save you a few headaches as well.

The performance will be just about the same though, sometimes in favor of one or the other, but usually in favor of the Air Coolers from what I know. But you also have to remember that Air Coolers are retardedly more reliable compared to water coolers, especially cheap water coolers.

[Spawn-Inc]

go with the swiftech one or just go high end air (TRUE 120).

[si-skyline]

I would recommend not getting a premade kit with a plexi res on it.. normally the turnout of them is that they crack or split easily, if one did come with one i would personally rip it out and replace it or if something got in the way of replacing it then i would just use a simple t-line

[J-Roc]

http://pcwatercoolingshop.com/ <-- this is a great place for kits with good pieces. I was actually going to buy my WC kit from them but i found a deal on my case which included the WC stuff. You might need to upgrade the blocks from thoes kits later on but they are better than ThermalTake blocks.

[edit]
Umm, there seems to be a lot less items on that site then the last time i visited. I dont know what the deal is.

[blk03MitsuES]

I would recommend not getting a premade kit with a plexi res on it.. normally the turnout of them is that they crack or split easily, if one did come with one i would personally rip it out and replace it or if something got in the way of replacing it then i would just use a simple t-line

is it just the premade kit plexi res or just any plexi resevoir? cus i've seen lots of members using plexi reservoirs either bought or homemade.....

[Zephik]

is it just the premade kit plexi res or just any plexi resevoir? cus i've seen lots of members using plexi reservoirs either bought or homemade.....

Not all reservoirs made out of plexiglass will leak. Some will, some won't. Its impossible to say for sure in my opinion. But you should _always_ leak test your equipment. Here is how I would do it.

Assemble your loop in an easy to clean area, such as a sink or something of that nature, fill the loop with either distilled water or coolant and turn it on for an hour or more. If there are no leaks, then your good to go. You should check your kit periodically for the first week to make sure everything is hunky dory, then every month or so after that.

Just remember, if you buy a cheap product, then you get a cheap product. Thus resulting in a higher chance that you will get either a defective or flawed something. Whether it be the reservoir, the pump, the blocks, the tubing, the clamps and/or barbs for the tubing, or the radiator (although personally, I've never heard of someone having a broken radiator.) etc etc.

You can almost always trust Danger Den as well as most Swiftech kits/products. Just an FYI.

[si-skyline]

its normally on premade kits.. the companys work on a budget and try and get the lowest prices. there more then likely companys out there who make good parts but the res is normally the weak link in the set up.

I run a plexi bay res from a company i cant remember, it cost me a bit tho and it has never failed on me, but the opening top is starting to crack.. so il get rid of it soon, but i think that was due to exessive force opening and closing it xD