Liquid Cooled Computer Cases

[Khane]

So I am building a new PC mainly for gaming and am having difficulty deciding whether or not the cooling benefits of a liquid cooling case are worth the higher price tag as opposed to standard air cooled cases.

The reason I am considering liquid cooling is because of the many many reviews of the 8800gtx (the graphics card I bought for the new build) saying that the card itself is great but needs to be kept cool or it's performance deteriorates quite noticably. Cool enough that most air cooled systems won't suffice if you want to run the card at 100% capacity.

I am not a tech god by any stretch but do know enough to build the system myself. If I decide to go liquid I will most certainly be buying a case with a pre-built liquid cooling system but do I really need it?

I understand liquid cooling is quiet as can be but fan cooled systems never seemed amazingly loud to me so that's not really a decision-maker for me.

This is the case I've been looking at:
Thermaltake VD4000BWS Kandalf LCS Liquid Cooled Super Tower ATX Case

Anyone have it and is it worth the price tag? Anyone know of better systems out there?

While we're on the subject. What are some high end power supplies. I'd rather splurge on a good reliable power supply than risk the 8800 sucking the life out of a cheaper one.

[Tripamang]

Well most in case cooling systems aren't going to even address your video card, and the case built ones are rather anemic. You're better off building/getting a customer built one for your specific setup.

I suggest just looking around stuff like dangerden.com and figure out what kind of parts you want to use, buy them all and put it together yourself. Keep in mind that a lot of cases just don't have the space/fan slots that are necessary for a good water cooling setup. So plan your case around what you want to build, I suggest a double 12cm slot somewhere.

As to the 8800GTX needing to be cooled to run at maximum performance, I am kind of at a loss. Mine runs fine no matter the temperature, it doesn't underclock itself to remove heat, it just cranks up the fan. Someone is feeding you bullshit, but if you're into overclocking that's a whole nother ball game. The 8800GTX doesn't overclock well, but if you do go water cooling you get another 10% of it.. maybe :P

[Vorph]

I'm not a fan of liquid cooling at all, so I'll just skip to the PSU question...

OCZ GameXStream 700w is plenty for a single 8800GTX and most SLI setups. There's a 850w version if you want to go all out.

[dub]

Liquid cooling voids a lot of warranties as well. I'm not keen on all the companies, but I know EVGA doesn't like them.

I've got an 8800gtx and a thermaltake armor case with 4 case fans. My card idles in the upper 50's and doesn't break 75 under load. My 3Dmark06 score broke 10k *barely*.

Do whatever you want, I'm just, ya know, sayin'.

[Vorph]

Yea, eVGA is really anal about that stuff. You can't even replace the stock fan with a nvsilencer or accelero, let alone a water block, if you want to keep your warranty. BFG doesn't have that problem, don't know about other brands.

Strangely enough, eVGA sells video cards under the 'Black Pearl' moniker with a water block factory installed, but they are only available in Europe.

[Kaosu]

I think you guys might have that wrong.

I've replaced the stock heatsink on my EVGA plenty of times, and the reps from EVGA has no problem as long as you put the original heatsink back onto the card and there is no physical damage.

Liquid cooling systems are awesome, hands down. Of course, why go with liquid cooling when phase shift cooling is only a few hundred dollars away?

My modded vapochill LS is badass.

[Vorph]

They might not always enforce the warranty limitations, but that's how it reads.

And the problem with vapor phase change is if you're that serious about overclocking everything you still need a water cooling system for the video card and the north bridge.

Imo unless you're buying a X6800 or AMD fx, there is no reason to even consider anything but air. Even with a X6800 I still wouldn't touch it myself, but I can at least understand why people bother.

[Kaosu]

Vorph, that isn't always true even if you are serious about overclocking. You don't see anything substantial when watercooling the SB/NB, unless you are doing extreme overclocking to which, most people just opt for Dry Ice or LN2, not even bothering with the NB/SB. They tend to just do voltage mods, crank up the settings, and let the chill in.

[Hippos II]

alright, guess i'll set some things straight...
installing aftermarket cooling on an evga card DOES NOT void the warranty

Question / Issue
Does water-cooling or installing a third party cooling solution on my video card void the warranty?

Answer / Solution
Installing third party cooling solutions does not void warranty on our products. Just be sure to keep the original cooling solution as it will have to be on the card if it is ever sent in for RMA. Any physical damage such as burn marks or damaged PCB will void the warranty.

and also...

Originally Posted by Tripamang

The 8800GTX doesn't overclock well, but if you do go water cooling you get another 10% of it.. maybe :P

the 8800gtx overclocks just fine, i overclocked it 75mhz on the core (575 stock to 650mhz, ~13% oc) with absolutely no problems using just the stock cooler (bfg card, but they all use same cooler anyways unless you get evga ko card which has their signature cooler on it). i can't give you accurate temps for this though because my fan has been broken since i got the card, causing my card to run 20C hotter (im just now getting around to rmaing it).

anyways, i've done water cooling before and i didn't really like it because when i wanted to do work on my computer i had to be gentle with it. it was also far more expensive than air cooling and weighed the case down quite a bit more so it was a PITA when i wanted to move it (i go to LANs a lot).

[Daerath]

Answer this question.

Do you want to overclock your system so that it has more power than the fist of an angry god?

No? Then don't bother with water cooling.

[Vorph]

Originally Posted by Hippos II

alright, guess i'll set some things straight...
installing aftermarket cooling on an evga card DOES NOT void the warranty

Yea, my bad on that. It's actually BFG that voids their warranty for changing the HSF and not eVGA.

[guanna]

If you have the money, there really is no better case for cooling than these two. The power supplies are rather anemic, but im pretty sure they can be upgraded.

Zalman TNN300AF Noise Free Multimedia Micro Tower Case w/350W Fanless PSU - FrozenCPU.com


Zalman TNN500AF Noise Free Mid Tower Case (w/ 400W Fanless PSU) - FrozenCPU.com

the entire tower is a massive heatsink, stellar reviews for overclocking and cooling as well.

[Vorph]

Please Note: This case supports all graphics cards with heatsink mounting holes up to ATI Radeon 9700 and nVidia geForce FX 5700.

(If you wish to use ATI Radeon 9800 or Faster models and nVidia geForce FX 5800 or Faster models, please contact us to order the ZM-VHPD1 optional VGA Heatpipe-D set.)

I think Zalman could stand to update their product info.

Also, take a closer look at that PSU... it sure doesn't look replaceable with a standard unit to me. I'm sure it was a great case 2 years ago, but not anymore.