Hi All,
I went into my PC shop today to finally order my PC. I was recommended to buy a water cooled case as apparently they are much more efficient at keeping things cool and are extremely quiet. The theory sounds good to me. It was suggested I get a Koolance case.
Has anyone heard of them? Are water cooled cases reliable? What are the chances of a leak? And other other questions I haven't thought of?
Just in case you are reading this Nestor, here is my final configuration:
Koolance Liquid cooled Middle tower with a 450 Watt power supply> ASUS P4P Deleuxe Motherboard> Pentium 3Ghz@800Mhz processor> 1024 MB DDR 400mhz by Corsair (dual Channel)> Matrox G550 32 MB DDR Video Card> 80 Gb and 200 GB Western Digital ata 100 hard disks with 8 MB cache> NEC 1300 DVD +/- RW > ACER 17" TFT monitor (model AL 707).
Perhaps some of you will think that is over the top.
Some final questions. Is a 450 Watt power supply sufficient or should I go for a 480 watt? Is the RAM type correct? Anyone heard of NEC DVD writers? The guy at the computer shop thought the Matrox G 550 was a strange choice of vidoe card. He thought it was a bit dated and might not fit in the board. Would anyone suggest anything different?
Feel free to criticise or modify my choice of components. All suggestions and comments will be very welcome.
Thanks in advance for your response(s).
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Weirdo The Weird on 2003-07-30 16:07 ]</font>
Water Cooled Cases
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samplaire
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The guy has got games in his mind saying the card is outdated, I belive. Matrox rules for years for its stability and this factor is the essential one in a DAW system, isn't it?On 2003-07-30 14:05, Weirdo The Weird wrote:
The guy at the computer shop thought the Matrox G 550 was a strange choice of vidoe card. He thought it was a bit dated and might not fit in the board.
Sir -
Nestor
- Posts: 6688
- Joined: Tue Mar 27, 2001 4:00 pm
- Location: Fourth Dimension Paradise, Cloud Nine!
Hey Werdo, how are you...
I think you don´t need a water cooling case, unless you are planning to overclok, otherwise, if the price is much more expensive than a already good case, I personally would not get one. If the price vs service justifies the spence, so it´s good. I think you have to be clear about what you need:
How many HDs are you planning to use? 2
How many processors? 1
Are there any SCSI drives generating great heat? No.
Are there several Barracuda SATA V drives? No.
Are you planning getting "all" your PCI slots full of creamware cards? YES! but you can´t... so No.
Conclusion: You don´t need a water cooling case cos there is not the need to cool great heating superfices, or massive quantities of hot drives, procesors and cards.
If the case brings you a really much quaeter envirnment, well... this is rather interesting.
At the same time if the case is very cool, components will last longer, but you´ll probably change your system in about 4 years or erlier, so you don´t actually need it either.
As far as I know, Thermaltake also does water cooling and there are no liking problems at all, it would be very hard to brake a system nobody touches cos there is not tear and wear at all, except their funcioning. I don´t think you´ll find any problem on liking. Water cooling casea are top of the line, so they are very well done. But, again, I have to say they are done for gamers, not for DAWs, rather for those crazy overclokers that want everyday go higher and higher...
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450Watts PS will give you a very nice support, it´s good enough, BUT, get the best possible brand! Thermaltake, Enermax and Antec are known to be one of the best in the world.
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Go to corsair forum and register there, post your motherboard and ask which is the best posible ram you can get for your system. The Ram Guy will answer you with clear words, just tell what motherboard you are going to use and that the system is going to be a DAW. Anybody called Ram Guy in their forum, is a specialist in this matters and there is no posible way for you to mistake. This is what I´ve done myself.
Anyway, Corsair is the bevy best ram in the world, so there is nothing to think about, if you have the money to pay it.
***
Very good choice of HDs to my tates, you´ll fly! Western Digital Cabiar SE are the coolest drives of the market. And also you have chosen enough space to be in peace for quite years to come.
***
Can´t comment onto the Acer Screen nor onto the Nec DVD, cos I don´t know them, sorry.
Again, 450 for a Power Supply it´s a very good amount of power, so no problems, it´s a good choice!
Good luck man!
I think you don´t need a water cooling case, unless you are planning to overclok, otherwise, if the price is much more expensive than a already good case, I personally would not get one. If the price vs service justifies the spence, so it´s good. I think you have to be clear about what you need:
How many HDs are you planning to use? 2
How many processors? 1
Are there any SCSI drives generating great heat? No.
Are there several Barracuda SATA V drives? No.
Are you planning getting "all" your PCI slots full of creamware cards? YES! but you can´t... so No.
Conclusion: You don´t need a water cooling case cos there is not the need to cool great heating superfices, or massive quantities of hot drives, procesors and cards.
If the case brings you a really much quaeter envirnment, well... this is rather interesting.
At the same time if the case is very cool, components will last longer, but you´ll probably change your system in about 4 years or erlier, so you don´t actually need it either.
As far as I know, Thermaltake also does water cooling and there are no liking problems at all, it would be very hard to brake a system nobody touches cos there is not tear and wear at all, except their funcioning. I don´t think you´ll find any problem on liking. Water cooling casea are top of the line, so they are very well done. But, again, I have to say they are done for gamers, not for DAWs, rather for those crazy overclokers that want everyday go higher and higher...
***
450Watts PS will give you a very nice support, it´s good enough, BUT, get the best possible brand! Thermaltake, Enermax and Antec are known to be one of the best in the world.
***
Go to corsair forum and register there, post your motherboard and ask which is the best posible ram you can get for your system. The Ram Guy will answer you with clear words, just tell what motherboard you are going to use and that the system is going to be a DAW. Anybody called Ram Guy in their forum, is a specialist in this matters and there is no posible way for you to mistake. This is what I´ve done myself.
Anyway, Corsair is the bevy best ram in the world, so there is nothing to think about, if you have the money to pay it.
***
Very good choice of HDs to my tates, you´ll fly! Western Digital Cabiar SE are the coolest drives of the market. And also you have chosen enough space to be in peace for quite years to come.
***
Can´t comment onto the Acer Screen nor onto the Nec DVD, cos I don´t know them, sorry.
Again, 450 for a Power Supply it´s a very good amount of power, so no problems, it´s a good choice!
Good luck man!
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Astral Fridge Magnet
- Posts: 347
- Joined: Sat Oct 13, 2001 4:00 pm
Hi Nestor,
Thanks for your response again. Very much appreciated. I hope you don't get too sick of my "stupid" questions.
I have decided not to go for a water cooled system. Actually, it isn't that much more expensive than the Thermaltake case. Despite the fact that water cooled cases are probably built to very rigorous standards, my perhaps "irrational" fear that water and electricity don't mix got the better of me.
Regards and best wishes!
Thanks for your response again. Very much appreciated. I hope you don't get too sick of my "stupid" questions.
I have decided not to go for a water cooled system. Actually, it isn't that much more expensive than the Thermaltake case. Despite the fact that water cooled cases are probably built to very rigorous standards, my perhaps "irrational" fear that water and electricity don't mix got the better of me.
Regards and best wishes!
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Nestor
- Posts: 6688
- Joined: Tue Mar 27, 2001 4:00 pm
- Location: Fourth Dimension Paradise, Cloud Nine!
Hello Weirdo...
Well, first of all, I don´t think your questions are stupid... In fact, when we don´t know something and we ask questions is because we don´t know. Not knowing is in no way to to be stupid, it´s just not to know.
Let me tell you something interestinhg... If you ever want water cooling in the future, cos you actually go for SCSI drives or something like that, you can easily build a water cooling soution with a Thermaltake kit. They sell it separately so you can addat it to whatever case you have.
I think your system is going to be absolutely fantastic! You´ll see!
The only important thing from now on, is for you not to get crazy tempted installing everything that may fall into your hands, like so many people do... Install the strictly necesary app you have, and forget about everything else, just incline yourself to get to know what you already have, and you´ll be surprised at how many things and different posibilities you may have with just a few applications.
This is the only thing you have to be carefull from, so your system keeps as free as posible of software contradictions.
DO BUILD DRIVE IMAGES before the start of your heavy installationg moment... I´ve just saved my head cos I didn´t remember to install first Cubase and after Cubase, SFP. Fortunately I already had an image, and well... it was so simple... IN JUST 1.5 MINUTES my system was back to the purity of the biginning... can you believe it?
I¨m so glad Micha and Dark have given me the advice to build images, they saved my head...
Well, get a coppy of TrueImage, from Acronis, it´s the best. I´ve tryed DriveImage, and despite the fact that meny people is getting well with it, there are still problems. TrueImage is VERY simple and will probably save your head too!
Good luck AND please, tell us how things are going on...
Well, first of all, I don´t think your questions are stupid... In fact, when we don´t know something and we ask questions is because we don´t know. Not knowing is in no way to to be stupid, it´s just not to know.
Let me tell you something interestinhg... If you ever want water cooling in the future, cos you actually go for SCSI drives or something like that, you can easily build a water cooling soution with a Thermaltake kit. They sell it separately so you can addat it to whatever case you have.
I think your system is going to be absolutely fantastic! You´ll see!
The only important thing from now on, is for you not to get crazy tempted installing everything that may fall into your hands, like so many people do... Install the strictly necesary app you have, and forget about everything else, just incline yourself to get to know what you already have, and you´ll be surprised at how many things and different posibilities you may have with just a few applications.
This is the only thing you have to be carefull from, so your system keeps as free as posible of software contradictions.
DO BUILD DRIVE IMAGES before the start of your heavy installationg moment... I´ve just saved my head cos I didn´t remember to install first Cubase and after Cubase, SFP. Fortunately I already had an image, and well... it was so simple... IN JUST 1.5 MINUTES my system was back to the purity of the biginning... can you believe it?
I¨m so glad Micha and Dark have given me the advice to build images, they saved my head...
Well, get a coppy of TrueImage, from Acronis, it´s the best. I´ve tryed DriveImage, and despite the fact that meny people is getting well with it, there are still problems. TrueImage is VERY simple and will probably save your head too!
Good luck AND please, tell us how things are going on...
*MUSIC* The most Powerful Language in the world! *INDEED*
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Astral Fridge Magnet
- Posts: 347
- Joined: Sat Oct 13, 2001 4:00 pm
Hi again Nestor,
Thanks for your response. And yes I intend to keep my new system a lean, mean, fighting machine. I will only install my 3 Pulsar cards, Logic, Cubase (perhaps), Absynth, Reason, Tassman 3, Reaktor 4, Pro 53 and my AMT 8 drivers. That's it. It will only be for music and nothing else. Whereas on the PC I have been using, I had everything installed. Also games and a lot of bullshit. Though I must say that everything still ran smoothly!! The only problem I had was that I would often get the dreaded " PCI Capacity reached" message. Even though I was hardly using resources. This though only happened with Logic, but not with Reason. I hope I don't get this message with my new machine. I haven't tried Cubase yet, though I have the program ( I bought it at less than half the price when Steinberg made the crossover deal to Logic users-so I took advantage of it).
I will definitely make an image of my drive straight after a clean installation. I always have. I use Ghost 2002. For me it works brilliantly.
Thanks for all your help
Best Wishes!!!
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Weirdo The Weird on 2003-08-01 19:30 ]</font>
Thanks for your response. And yes I intend to keep my new system a lean, mean, fighting machine. I will only install my 3 Pulsar cards, Logic, Cubase (perhaps), Absynth, Reason, Tassman 3, Reaktor 4, Pro 53 and my AMT 8 drivers. That's it. It will only be for music and nothing else. Whereas on the PC I have been using, I had everything installed. Also games and a lot of bullshit. Though I must say that everything still ran smoothly!! The only problem I had was that I would often get the dreaded " PCI Capacity reached" message. Even though I was hardly using resources. This though only happened with Logic, but not with Reason. I hope I don't get this message with my new machine. I haven't tried Cubase yet, though I have the program ( I bought it at less than half the price when Steinberg made the crossover deal to Logic users-so I took advantage of it).
I will definitely make an image of my drive straight after a clean installation. I always have. I use Ghost 2002. For me it works brilliantly.
Thanks for all your help
Best Wishes!!!
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Weirdo The Weird on 2003-08-01 19:30 ]</font>
If you go for watercooling it shure gonna be expensive. You need to buy cooler for HD's, mabe grafic card and maybe RAM.
That is because there would be little airflow inside your case. (just for radiator)
Go for an alu-case (biger = is more air)
withgood airflow. good luck
Ps Powersupply; of course bigger is better, but more important is probably to get a quiet one. (I have a 350w Enermax silent serie and it delivers what i need for my 2 CW cards)
..and..look at the new Matrox P650, its a AGP 8x
a PC is never over the top, its old fashion before you start it
.....but then....who cares
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: arela on 2003-08-02 07:22 ]</font>
That is because there would be little airflow inside your case. (just for radiator)
Go for an alu-case (biger = is more air)
withgood airflow. good luck
Ps Powersupply; of course bigger is better, but more important is probably to get a quiet one. (I have a 350w Enermax silent serie and it delivers what i need for my 2 CW cards)
..and..look at the new Matrox P650, its a AGP 8x
a PC is never over the top, its old fashion before you start it
.....but then....who cares
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: arela on 2003-08-02 07:22 ]</font>