[dmdougie]

Im just about to buy and install some upgrades for my computer. I built it myself about 2 1/2 years ago. There has never been a very good air flow within the chassis, when in bios i have noticed system temps in the high 60's, but more worryingly, CPU temps in the high 70's - some occasions even 80's. I know that when i installed the CPU the bond wasn't good or something and basically almost fried the CPU as a result, this is one of the things im going to replace but dont wanna do the same thing again!

OK so to the point, are water cooling systems such as this one more effective than fans? if not then should i install more fans to my chassis? I currently have 2 intake and one exersion.

any help greatly appreciated
-Doug

[dmdougie]

Hey guys, just been searching around and found this new chassis. What are your opinions on it? Would it keep my system temps down low enough?

Thanks again guys

-Doug

[alex]

Hi Doug, welcome to TCF.

Regarding the two products in the links. Short answer is no.

A passive external radiator offers no, repeat no, benefit over a good heatsink and fan for the cpu. It will also cost a lot more, take up more room, and more than likely won't cool the cpu as well as a HSF.

The Tai-Chi is, frankly, a lousy case. I have some knowledge of building into this and it wasn't the most pleasant experience.

Swap the Tai-Chi for an Antec 900 and you're golden.

Molex powered fans (can daisy chain them together but it does make creating a neat build difficult). Comes with all intake/exhaust fans installed and they're rather quiet as well.

For the HSF get an Arctic cooling Freezer 7 / 64. (you don't say what cpu you have but there are various flavours of this hsf).

Remove the t.i.m from the cpu using methylated spirits or simply a cotton bud/kitchen towel corner. Re-apply by purchasing arctic silver 5 (about £5). Attach the AC7/64 and I can almost guarantee you'll see those temps halve.

But build neatness comes into it as well. Hide any extra length on your cables behind the motherboard, in a spare drive bay etc so you don't restrict the intake airflow.

[dmdougie]

Hey, thanks for the advice. My current processor is an intel pentium 4 3.6GHz HT. Iv'e just been using the standard fan that came with the chip. So if I bought the Antec 900, would you reccomend buying some more fans? I read some reviews and one guy said he added a fan to the side panel which seemed to work out pretty well, how easy is it to do this? Dont really wanna take a drill or whatever to the case and totally screw it up!

Think Im going to go for the Intel core2 E6850, I currently have the MSI 925XE NEO MoBo, will this support dual core? If not what MoBo should I be looking at? Also, I wasnt able to see what kind of RAM I have, I know it's DDR2 but nothing more beyond that...would I need to buy some more if changing the MoBo?

Thanks for your help, much appreciated

-Doug

[alex]

Originally Posted by dmdougie Hey, thanks for the advice. My current processor is an intel pentium 4 3.6GHz HT. Iv'e just been using the standard fan that came with the chip. So if I bought the Antec 900, would you reccomend buying some more fans? I read some reviews and one guy said he added a fan to the side panel which seemed to work out pretty well, how easy is it to do this? Dont really wanna take a drill or whatever to the case and totally screw it up! Think Im going to go for the Intel core2 E6850, I currently have the MSI 925XE NEO MoBo, will this support dual core? If not what MoBo should I be looking at? Also, I wasnt able to see what kind of RAM I have, I know it's DDR2 but nothing more beyond that...would I need to buy some more if changing the MoBo? Thanks for your help, much appreciated -Doug

Hi Doug, as it's a P4 at 3.6ghz it'll run hot full stop but in that (antec 900) case with an Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 pro, and using arctic silver 5 t.i.m I can almost guarantee you'll see temps in the mid-30's to low-40's.

Bin the current reference fan attached to the cpu and get the AC7/A.S 5.

There is a mount already pre-installed on the windowed side of the Antec for a 120mm fan so there's no modding required. For this fan I'd recommend the Zalman ZM-F3 as it offers the best balance between airflow and noise. Just make sure you use the (included) resistor to reduce the voltage from 12v down to 7.5v as, when running at peak at 12v, the fan can get a tad loud (for me anyway you might not be bothered). It's costs about £6.

You don't need to purchase any other fans as all the other case fans are pre-installed.

[dmdougie]

OK, sounds good thanks, now I just need to get the money together and everything else should fall into place!

Thanks for the help
-Doug