It's a waste of money. If you want to make a huge difference, put a ton of weights on it firmly (like a big heatsink on the bottom and top and sides), then soft mount it, give it proper breathing room, and damping materials. And if you want to take advantage of the water loop, sandwitch HD between ...

If I read correctly, your hard drives are hard-mounted. Try detaching them and holding them in your hand to get some idea about how much noise they'd make on elastic suspension.. if that does not satisfy you, only then consider some enclosure. Personally I am running 160G single-platter Barracuda 72...

Yeah, german engineering has a reputation, and often for a good reason.. ...but as if the products weren't expensive enough already, it's also expensive to import as well. Such as this kit sold at Sharka Computers: http://www.sharkacomputers.com/aqcoxtcocpuw.html Yeah. I personally like to order di...

n00btard wrote:and if you see me "pimping" German watercooling stuff, it's because I love everything German for some strange reason...

Yeah, german engineering has a reputation, and often for a good reason..

One random comment still: the EKWaterBlocks is one man company - you order one, he will make one. This means that customizations are a lot cheaper if you want some special stuff, and it also means that you should be able to just say "it has to fit layout of this mobo" and he makes sure it does.

1) I can't fit a Thermalright on the Northbridge due to my video card, which is right above it. After I remove its own heatsink I might be able to put a water block there with the tubing on each side of the card, but it is really tight. And yes, that is the only slot that's x16 compatible (although...

The PSU is listed as 19db-26db depending on load. Will it be a showstopper if I keep it? I.e. will it render the water cooling efforts useless? Remember to take manufacturer dB numbers with grain of salt. Even non-silencing hardware sites have quoted Tagan to be loud, so I am really surprised if th...

-radiator accepting 3*120mm fans or two 2*120mm fan radiators Forgot to explain this part. Swiftech tells about their own 3*120mm radiator: Under the test conditions this indicates that the MCR320 can dissipate in excess of 400 Watts while maintaining a 10°C temperature differential between the co...

FI have obviously a bit too high speed on some of the fans, but what is an acceptable temperature for an AMD Opteron if I install fanmates? 50 Celsius? Depends of the CPU, but you should be safe all the way until 65 Celsius, if not more. In terms of water cooling, what would happen if I put for ins...

Joe's recent editorial on Water Cooling - Wheres the Magic? over at Procooling sums up the current state of the industry pretty well I think. My comments on it (and this thread, basically) are in the Procooling forum thread about the editorial. Thanks for the link, it indeed was interesting. Howeve...

And by the way, check this guys shop: http://ekwaterblocks.com/shop/index.php. People have praised quality of his work and he ships imperial-sized barbs from Europe.

which one do I need? My understanding is that when in doubt, take the bigger barb. You might need to warm the tube to get it over the barb, but once it's there, it makes a very tight seal. For what I know, tygon is fairly flexible, so there should be no real problems in strecthing it over the 12mm ...

high voltage, usually between 20 and 50 kV." Let's just say that moving even small (I mean really small) ammounts of air - and thus removing heat from any component in a PC - using the described technique ist just beyond the capabilities of the low-energy environment of our desktops... Remember tha...

They have the same noise levels right...? If I get the one with the water tank does that mean I don't need a reservoir anymore? Noisewise, I think the reservoir at least imposes further restrictions to placement of the pump as the reservoir should be pretty high on the water loop. But remember that...

I'd say there is plently of magic in water cooling with silence as goal. That's one ingredient the procooling guys don't seem to prioritize. You are on the money here. Yes, you can build web surfing machine for Average Joe and make it quiet with air by selecting proper components. But the emphansis...

Just starting a water pump makes more noise unless it's in a dead box. Anything but passive rads are sure to lose out because of the fins that actually can make as much noise as the fan itself on low rpms. It depends. Many people have samples of Laing DDC that runs quieter than undervolted low-rpm ...

Nope :-( Does that make for a big difference? A thin acrylic cover? Not thin, but the 25mm one sold by Alphacool and several others: http://www.alphacool.de/xt/images/product_images/info_images/3313_0.jpg And yes, it makes all the difference. It seems to be like night and day, whether you are using...

snutten wrote:my DDC is not at all as quiet as my 1048

Does your DDC have the acrylic top?

DirtyLude wrote:I have this thing running right now. Sorry, no completed pic.

I have to say that it's aesthetically very pleasing. There are some advantages in paying for premium engineering..

Something that would be an issue with a diamond waterblock is that diamond is relaitvely brittle - you'd probably shatter the waterblock if you dropped it. Not *so* brittle. It's not exceptionally good, but still plenty good. If I googled correctly, fracture toughness values for certain materials a...

thanks greatly for the link, wow, those guys are making a killing on that item. Theres basically nothing to it and at $250 what a ripoff. Hmmm, there is no shop selling if for less than $250? You might want to check international sellers, Alphacool website ( http://www.alphacool.de/xt/index.php/cPa...

dean.collins wrote:anyone know how loud the DDC pumps are?

For comparison betweem my unit and few quiet fans, see this:
http://zds.iki.fi/zds/projectlog/2005/12/12/80.

Do you know how much these radiators hold in fluid volume? Do you know what the heat dissapation rate is? It seems Alphacool sells them rebranded to Cape CORA. Check if you can get them cheaper with that name.. Alphacool website is also available in english. And btw, if only german specs are availa...

Right now I'm running Nexus NX-4090, which is nice piece of equipment indeed. For my next chassis I will most likely get Antec NeoHE 430W. It's not too efficient, but if fed with cool outside air, it should run reasonably quiet. The biggest advantages for me however are strong 12V rails and modular ...

Does that look correct? Yeap that's the one. That one looks slightly better than the one I have, mine has thin corners which look like they'd break if I use the corner screws to mount. So your links look good :) Indeed. I have exactly that type of cover (bought from Coolputer, http://www.coolputer....

I'm now weary on why do some DDCs are noisy as heck and why others aren't? Does running a DDC on foam without fastening it to the case harm it in any way? Does under-volting harm it with relation to noise? Other than running them dry, what else can harm them? I'd blame sample variance. It seems the...

I'm basically trying to decide if I should sell the DDC and keep the Mag or get the alphacool cover. Hence my math. Sorry again for the confusion :) Heh :). How about getting the cover, comparing the noise levels and then selling the louder one, in case of DDC with the new top? So many people want ...

oh no, sorry I wasn't clear :) , yea the alphacool cover is $30 here in the US and the DDC is $70 which would add up to $100. That vs the Mag II LE at $40. I've browsed some stores in europe and I've seen some modded DDCs with the alphacool cover for about 60 euros, is that possible? I wonder if it...

unimatrix0 wrote:I'm a bit hesitant on spending $100 with the alphacool

$100 sounds like a lot.. at least here in Finland the acrylic cover itself costs just mere 26,90 €: http://www.coolputer.fi/tiedot.asp?t=1394.

unimatrix0 wrote:The only reason I'd love to keep a DDC is for the space savings and the looks of a possible alphacool clear cover.

I strongly recommend the acrylic cover. I in fact thought you already had it, otherwise I had suggested it.. It's almost as mandatory as DC power if you want to run DDC quietly.