Just wondering how many members have water-cooled PCs , and how they get on with them?

I don't overclock, but like ever more peace and quiet and in particular am interested in the Zalman Reserator because it's fanless (it's also cheap compared to many kits). However I presume the pump on any waler cooling system is still audible, but the reserator is everywhere described as silent so I'm not sure?

Also do you still need at least one case fan to reduce the ambient temperature in the case? My PSU is a (virtually silent ) Silenx model, it's not passively cooled but it shifts almost no air at all so I guess the answer (for me at least) is yes.

Just disconnect all your case fans and see how it goes.

ive got a beast of a machine, and i have got 5 case fans, but dont use them... so the only running fan in my machine, is a voltmodded 92mm fan on the cpu and the 120mm fan in the psu... and it runs fine.. it *occasionally* crashes when doing heavy gaming for hours... but 99% of the time its fine

is it a AMD or intel?

Hi - the Zalman is excellent if you don't want to OC. It sux if you do, but then that's not what it was designed for

If you go this way, you may also wish to look at your graphics card - if it's got a fan, you may be better off getting that watercooled as well, or alternatively buying a silent version.

Fans in themselves don't make that much noise, it's just because they have to move such crazy amounts of air for modern CPUs (Intel & AMD mainly, but hey, Apple's latest CPUs by IBM are also using a very sophisticated system) they get noisy.

If you want to go the whole hog, you can also get a silent CPU from Zalman. That said, in my experience buying a high quality PSU which has plenty of spare capacity and a thermally controlled fan tends to do a beautiful job as well

Next one is the hard disc - you may want to look into getting a quiet version of that too, Seagate has a good reputation for quietness there.

Hope this helps a little

It tends to get a little pricey so I'd personally go for CPU fan replacement first.

The waterpump, by the way, is not that noisy, as it has a very low frequency & noise production (high quality pump used by Zalman). So that should be virtually noiseless

Thanks for replies ,

At present it's Intel S478 but will soon become an S939 AMD64, most probably 3200+. This still shouldn't put out too much heat fingers crossed, and no northbridge fan either. My graphics card is a toasty 9800 Pro - when I got it it increased my ambient temperature by ~12 degrees :eek: so I'm reconciled to keeping my 120mm exhaust fan even if watercooling.

The fan in my PSU is so slow that to be honest it is silent but the other side of this is that the air flow is minimal - I'm sure that a 120mm fan in my PSU would have been OK by itself.

I was definitely going to watercool both CPU and graphics cards together, my graphics card is acceptably quiet (I have an 'Acousticase' from quietpc.com which is lined which thick foam - itself another reason to worry about ambient temperature ) but to leave the fan on there when I have a shiny Reserator would seem a missed opportunity.

WW - I bet you meant 'silent PSU from Zalman' - yes as well as them being underpowered from what I've read they have a capacity to explode :Yikes: so I'll definitely stick with fans there! If I ever need to upgrade my PSU I'd go all out for capacity like the Tagan 480W which ironically might be quiter than my current setup because I might then also lose the last case fan.

I've got a Zalman flower cooler but to be honest I'm not impressed with it because it puts out a faint but perceptible high pitched whine. I'll see how I get on with the stock AMD cooler instead until/if I switch to water.

Finally re hard drives, I actually like hearing my hard drives (one quietish Hitachi deskstar and one loud Maxtor plus9) because when they aren't being accessed it draws attention to how quiet everything else is

Oops yeah meant PSU rather than CPU - :duh:

I have some PSUs here by Levicom, Aria.co.uk sells those, for example, and they are pretty quiet.

For your new system I'd definitely get something at least 400W, as a hot PSU won't last very long (trust me, got 30+ PCs in the house... )

Enermax, Levicom, Antec TruePower, all decent brands.

I didnt know about blowing up PSUs from Zalman I must admit.

Fans dont have to be that noisy, it's the CPU one that makes most noise, the 9800Pro one is pretty bad too, but you can get a watercooler block for that too.

I havent gone for watercooling mainly due to the enormous number of PCs I've got, they're in the loft now due to the noise so I can understand why you dislike the noise...

If your upgrading to a Athlon 64... go for a retail cpu with a amd cooler.. these are actually pretty quiet... and any 939 mobo worth its salt will support AMD cool n quiet.. which clocks back the cpu when its not being stressed to save on heat... and the cpu fan slows down too

ive got a 550w ctw psu at the moment, and its serving me fine... even with 9 hdds - i also find it actually holds its voltages better than the enermax i had before (that couldnt handle the power ) - it cost 1/4 the amount for a equiv enermax one too

ive got a overclocked r9700pro, which is cooled by a zalman passive heatpipe cooler... its a big thing, but negates the need for a fan on the gfx...

also just to point out..

if your not planning to overclock, there is cheaper ways to a quiet machine

my bro has a aquarios III watercooling system in his machine... and my machine is still quieter.. and its more powerful too:D ive got a 92mm papst 25db fan on a TTslk-92 heatsink on my amd cpu, my zalman heatpipe on the graphics card... i dont use the case fans (they are voltmodded to 7v anyway)

my 5 disc scsi array only powers up when needed..

basically it means my machine is pretty quiet... and easy to live (and sleep) with as its in my bedroom and on 24/7

Big fans running at lower speeds are great for lower noise

Heatpipe is ok on the gfx card, but some of mine weren't stable without additional fan blowing over the heatpipe-heatsink (Zalman jobber again). With a big fan blowing over it is was fine, and slightly more quiet than the stock one, but for the risk of damaging the gfx card I didnt think it was worth it

...I didnt know about blowing up PSUs from Zalman I must admit...

Well OK maybe 'popping and smoking' PSUs would be fairer. Not specific to Zalman but literally every review I've read of a passively cooled PSU (in Custom PC magazine and I think Tom's hardware guide and maybe a couple of other sites) has ended in smoke and tears after a capacitor fails. Custom PC actually had both the passive PSU's they had in a group test blow up a couple of months ago. Not worth risking ~

nah that sounds bad

I've blown up a few PSUs though which were 'el-cheapo' ones, 400W rated, and they blew when they got over 30 degrees C. Mainly as it's 400W max and probably something like 200W continual. Not best when you spend that much on the rest of the PC :(

Since I took a motherboard out once with a blown PSU I've not bought any cheap ones and spent that extra tenner or twenty quid to feel safe

6 Case fans, sounds like a jumbo jet and runs at a nice 33 degrees C. Also have filtered the fans by placing weaved bandage between the fan and the case. Nice and Clean.