I need to shut my pc up.

Everythings housed in an Antec P180 case, so the case fans aren't an issue.

I've narrowed the noise down to:

Graphics Card - a 7600GT which produces quite a bit of noise.

CPU Cooler - Akasa 961 - while quiet at 800rpm, temps rise to almmost 60 degrees C when running programs (gaming, DVD etc).

So, I think the way to go is water-cooled.

Anyone got any experience, or know anyon that has?

I'm thinking of an Alphacool Xtreme 240, as their radiator fans are the quietest around (without going totally passive).

The only problem is that it doesn't have a VGA block compatible with my graphics card.

Conversely, there is a swiftech apex ultra plus kit, which does have the required vga block, but fans are quite loud.

Would the swiftech block be able to be placed in with the alphacool? Are water cooling kits, assuming the connections are the same, as mix 'n' match as pc components in general?

Depends on the pipe sizes really. You could always buy the kit with the noisy fans and exchange them for quieter ones? I've always quite liked the look of the Waterchill kits, particularly the triple fan one, but its quite big money for keeping your pc cool and quiet!

well, the alphacool says it's 10mm external, 8mm internal diameter tubing

the swiftech lists as 3/8".

Which is about the same......

Is it that simple to change the fans? Don't they need to be able to push a certain amount of air to work with the rad?

I've got a zalman v900 gfx cooler somewhere as well, because i'm conscious that i woudn't have anything to cool the ram on the gfx - though they don't have anything attached to them at the moment.........

If it's as interchangeable as it appears, I'll buy the alphacool kit and bung in the Swiftech VGA block.

I don't think pipe size being almost the same is adequate really. Last thing that you want to do is get a leak in your case!

If your GFX card doesn't have heatsinks on the ram at the moment, then I wouldn't worry about it too much. Unless your going to be heavily overclocking the system then it shouldn't really matter. You can always get some little heatsinks to stick on them if you're worried about it.

As for changing the fans, it shouldn't cause any problems. Just look for fans that push an equivalent amount of air and run quieter. I've got some of the Akasa 12cm ones in my case (just air cooled) with the clear surround and orange blades, and they're nice an quiet. I've thought about water cooling quite a bit, but never had enough spare cash or the bottle to go ahead with it. Watercooling can handle some pretty mad overclocks, so I wouldn't worry about it too much if you change to a fan with a slightly lower airflow rating. I'd recommend buying Custom PC if you need more info. They quite often have reviews of water cooling kits in there.

Jo,

when I was in Singapore a couple of years back I saw a pc with a built in fish tank....live fish et al.

Not usre it help but that's what your post made me think of.

Go the whole hog

http://www.techeblog.com/index.php/tech-gadget/another-oil-cooled-pc

Joe,

http://coolercasesuk.co.uk/

Might be a good place to ask/start/read.

The Athlon64 can handle 60c easily, my o/c'ed opteron only just hits 55c when the ambient temp is V high... and im running the standard AMD cooler (non heatpipe version)

I would look at a IceQ for your GFXcard, also make sure youve got the latest drivers.. ive got a 7800gt and only the most recent drivers have made the fan-speed control work semi-properly:thumbup:

TBH, now that manufacturers have realised that heat is a major issue.. water-cooling is becoming quite an extreme measure.. im a AMD worshipper lol after having a AXDA athlon XP, and experimenting with water-cooling, delta fans etc, i think that the AMD64 is a excellent processor, and is fine with the stock cooler, unless your a enthusiast who craves every last mhz.

Unless your a over-clocking fiend. watercooling is very much overkill... a decent ally case with quiet case fans (mine are tied into Qfan on my asus mobo) and possibly a decent GFX cooler like a IceQ should be fine..

If you not gonna oc then dont get wc. Just get aftermarkets coolers for your cpu and gfx. Zalman are VERY quiet and lower temps

I use one on my x800xl and 3700+ (@2.9)

WEll i'm getting there......

installed a Zalman VF9000 on the grpahics, which has actually droped the temp on there by 3 degrees and is almost inaudible.

I thought i'd get a bit clever and change the thermal compound on the CPU to Arctic Silver 5.............

And I saw my temps rise by 6 degrees straight away and dropping the cpu fan speed, it starts to climb qujite qujickly..........tried re-applying compound, re-seating cooler, etc..........

So looks like a full-blow CPU water cooler is required.

I've earmarked two potentials.......

1.http://www.coolercases.co.uk/water_cooling_dangerden_kits.htm - Maze 4......

or

2. http://store.over-clock.com/O_CuK_Hand_Spec_d_Kits.html - StormPro+, though i would want to change the fans to the Silenx Xtrema Pro's.........much quieter.........

Thoughts?

Would it be easy to just swap the fans like I think?

Have you tried an aftermarket CPU cooler yet? I use Gigabyte 3D Rocket on my P4 2GHz, and I am pleased with the result. Zalman is also recommended. How about your PSU?

If you are willing to spend that money in WC. Why not upgrade to Core 2 Duo when the price fall? I heard people said that Core 2 Duo is much cooler than other CPU in the market.

Here is a good website specialised in PC cooling, it has Zalman's WC system and Totally No Noise Case, not cheap tho.

http://www.quietpc.com/gb-en-gbp/home

Arctic silver takes a while to cure. Something about the silver particles taking a while to align themselves. Temp usually drops after a week or so. I prefer the ceramique, as its non-conductive, so if you get a bit messy, it doesn't matter as much. Supposed to have better conductive propertys too.

coolercases is good. Did this a while back, as it was a project I'd started and had to complete.

It's still working, don't forget your water wetter/pink dye.

It's quiet..yes very quiet.

Shame I'm hardly here to enjoy it and of course it's struggling to keep up now..need new comps, but I sure as hell was not going to risk new comps and water on the first attempt...

I've gone for 1/2" setup and do not under estimate the amount of space required, in my yeon yang cube I have a few tight spots, but thats because I changed my mind half way through and now use the top of the case to store books and not as the rad vents.

I have been water cooled for a couple of years now and would never go back to an aircooled PC.

My office at home is quite small being a partial garage conversion so it needs to be quiet.

I use a Zalman reserator which is old hat really now, it cools the CPU (AMD 64 Dual Core 4800), the graphics card (X1900XT X Fire edition) and the Southbridge of the Nforce 4 ultra chipset.

The only thing I had to do was when I put the ATI in, I did a change of coolant and used "water wetter" in the system, everything stays pretty cool (42C - cpu / 80C ATI trust me it ran 90+ C under load on air) , even under load.

[/img]

It is a big chunk of metal to have on the desktop mind, and people do a double take when I say thats my CPU cooler

Anyone tried a peltier chip under the processor? Was thinking of trying this on my next system.

Peltier is expensive to run and you still need to get rid of the heat somewhere.

Out of interest, you did put a vary thin layer of Artic silver on didn't you, a thick layer will cause the heat build up you describe.

Personally any heat sink compound that is in liquidey paste form will do an ok job with any half decent heatsink.

Yes, I put a very thin layer of Arctic Silver on.....then with the idle temps much higher than before, I took it off and re-applied a little blob as per instructions.......no different.

It's an aftermarket cooler on a Core 2 Duo chip - the reports that the Core 2 Duo is cooler are misleading - it consumes less power than P4's, but basic laws of physics of cramming more and more transistors into a small package mean you're going to get heat. I've got an old AMD Athlon XP 1600 thats never goes above 48 deg and there's a dual core Pentium 3.2 in the office that's quite happy sitting in the 36-46 range all day long.

I think one of the problems is the crappy clip mechanism that a lot of cooler-manufacturers are going for with the new Intel socket LGA775 - just four push pins...it just doesn't feel right - often seems loose and very fragile. WIth all the removing and re-installation, i think I've damaged one. From what i read, water-cooling has a plate that i screw on the rear of the m/b to secore and hold it in place......

A decent cooler will also have a plate that screwws onto the back or a spring plate.

The spring plate and 4 screws cools a Dual core Xeon just fine , so i really think it's just a carpy heatsink tbh.

i really think it's just a carpy heatsink tbh.

Akasa 961......not that crappy............

However...looking at a good water kit at the moment.....just need to work up the courage to do it......

If you do water make sure you realise that most coolers will have a a heat exchanger with it's own often quite loud fan on it.

Personally I can recommend the Zalman ones, and also our thermal guy at work specifically doesn't recommend artic silver unless you like your pockets being cleaned out for no reason. All the compound is doing is filling small homes to make the surfaces mate better and so give better heat transfer.

Have you checked all the pushpins are down correctly and that they didn't get damaged at all when you removed them.

Not sure what it is made of, but it's an intel cooler for a P4 not a core duo by the looks of the specs. The lids (Head spreader) of the core duo are at a slightly different hight to the P4 so you might not be getting proper contact with the top of the chip.

Water cooling, make sure the block is specifically for the core 2 duo as oppsed to the P4.

HTH

EDIT:

Just looked and you don't say which CPU you have. However you say the fan runs at 800rpm, the spec says it should auto adjust from between 500rpm and 3500rpm depending on CPU load (I assume by a temp sensor). Is this auto speed up of the fan happening?