Aquarius II Liquid Cooling?

[CaRnaGe]

Does anyone know if this product is effective. I'm debating whether to purchase this unit for a Xaser III case or purchase the SP-94 by thermalright/w Volcano 7+ fan. Which one do you think would offer the best CPU cooling?

 

[LCARS]

They'll both probably cool about the same. The Aquarius II will be quieter though.

If you really want watercooling than I'd shop around some more.

 

[scottchen]

SP94 with a 92mm fan, Papst or Enermax fan could cool better than Aquarius at same noise level. SP94 with 92mm Tornado or Delta could cool much better than Aquarius but at about 4x the noise.

-Intel PIV 2.4C @ 3.84G -Asus P4P800 -OCZ Copper 2x256 4000EL memory @ 275mhz 3-4-4-8 -Sapphire 9800pro @ 490/780 -SB audigy -80G Maxtor Diamond Plus9 Ultra ATA-133 hdd -450 Enermax PSU

 

[LtBlue14]

don't get the V7+ fan for the SP-94, it's only a 70mm fan. Unless you're thinking of the smart fan II, which is not used on the V7+. In any case, you don't want that either - you want a 92mm fan, even a quiet one will move a decent amount of air and get you good cooling results
you WILL be overclocking with this setup, won't you? because if not, anything above the stock cooler is superfluous

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this signature area is too dern short, no space to put your system specs

 

[jon_west_uk]

I have the Aquarius II water cooling kit in a thermaltake Xaser III case and thought that you should know that it is probably the biggest pile of junk i have bought!!!!

I got it on special offer thinking that it would be a bit of a novelty and that it would work great with my new case.

When i unpacked the system (i was a little excited i have to admit!) i found that the finish on the heatsink was pretty poor. It had one scratch down the length and the copper had tarnished where the plastic covering had not been applied properly (apparently this is common with a lot of thermaltake coolers). I then realised, after trying to install the system, that it doesnt really fit the Xaser III case as the extra side panel fans and hard disk areas sit exactly where the pump and radiator are designed to fit. (dont be a geek like me and try and put the radiator in the bottom hard disk area as you wont get enough air circulation and the temps will skyrocket)

This means that these components have to sit where my PCI slots are - which sucks! I then found that the heatsink only just fits on my mb (gigabyte 8knxp) and that the cpu cannot sit in the centre of the heatsink - not favourable.

I am getting idle temps of 38-41c (intel 3.06ghz 800fsb)and if i push my machine - which is what i wanted my machine for - i quickly get up to temps of over 60c at which point all the case and mb alarms start bleeping and i have to close all my programs to cool the cpu down.

You may also be thinking that you will buy the aquarius because it is nice and quite but please remember that you have 7 fans in your case and that they will be 10x louder than the aquarious system so you might as well save your cash!

So to summerise dont buy this water cooling system unless you are a fireman and are addicted to all things liquid!

I am not an expert at any of this so if i have gone wrong with my set up anywhere please forgive me (if i have tell me so i can sort it out!) but i am a little pissed that my temps are so high.

Can anyone recommend any good alternatives? I now dont really care whether i have watercooling or not as i am a little short on $$$$$ so if you could recommend some cpu coolers that will cool my system nicely so that i can continue video editing etc i would appreciatte your help. Remember i dont have too much room around my CPU so Zelman fans are out of the question and even some of the thermalright coolers dont fit! I will be overclocking in the future so i will need something with a bit of grunt!

Thanks for all your help. Let me know if you have any further queries.

Jon

ps. after hunting around for possible reasons for my aquarious not to be working properly i found that a lot of people were moaning about the quality of thermaltake coolers so if i were you i would look elsewhere. On the upside i am really happy with my case (well i am now after i took the stupid quick fit pci holder off, as it wouldnt fit my ATI Radeon 9800pro!)

pain is getting your balls chopped off by a combine harvester...

 

[LCARS]

You'll be able to get better temps if you get a stronger pump and mount the radiator on the outside of the case.

 

[jon_west_uk]

I agree, but the thought of modifying my case doesnt appeal to me as it is a very decent case and has so many fans that the temp inside is actually not bad at all. For a while i did just simply open the side panel and let the radiator breath that way but it didnt make that much difference. The one saving grace of the case is that the fan on the side panel blows directly onto the heatsink which actually reduces the temp by several degrees.

I am not going to try and get a more powerful pump as this will put unnecessary pressure on the seals and not do much in terms of actual cooling as the increase in water cooling efficiency in the radiator will be at the cost of decreasing the transfer of heat in the heatsink to the water as the water will not be in the heatsink as long! Getting a better pump would therefore not do much to help me cool the system. Plus if i wanted to increase the speed of the water i could simply remove the springs which would reduce resistance in the tubing (i know this would be more risky as the tubing could be crushed thus cutting the flow completely but it would be an option).

I think that i am now going to move away from the aquarius so if anyone has a good cheapish ($50-70)alternative then let me know. Aircooled or water i dont care anymore! Just as long as i am getting decent temps.

Jon

PS am i being dumb when i freak out when the temp reaches 60 degrees celcius. What sort of temps should the CPU run at?

And how much of that aquarius cooling solution should i have used with the distilled water? Think i may have been a plumb and used all of it!! Is this wrong?

pain is getting your balls chopped off by a combine harvester...

 

[LCARS]

I wouldn't worry about seals breaking because of a larger pump. Since both the waterblock and radiator could handle well over 200psi.