So Koolance?

[DreamThrall]

Some of you may remember my several other questions about upgrading the cooling system on my computer... a friend of mine just told me about Koolance today... I'm not totally sure I want to go with a liquid cooling system... but it would make sense since I probably wouldn't have to do much upgrading to that cooling system once it was bought. I was looking at the EXOS, but it seems a bit pricey (around $200 new .. a bit less on ebay), and that isn't including the liquid coolers for the cpu and gpu I would want. I noticed that they also have cases as well... are they anything good? I was previously looking at the Thermaltake V5000D, and this friend of mine told me that they're overpriced and all the fans they come with are crap. Any comments on any of this?? Thanks!

 

[P43.2/1Gig/X800P]

personally i dont care for them unless your pc is slow mine runs just fine the way it is if you got the money go for it lol

 

[DreamThrall]

well my 2800 is running fairly hot right now... plus, I want to be able to OC it a bit

 

[Asus]

well my 2800 is running fairly hot right now... plus, I want to be able to OC it a bit

A good active cooling solution will do wonders.

Koolance is nice because it is all intergrated and you don't have to find places to mount parts of the water cooling system.

A system you put together yourself generally will give better cooling than anything pre-made and you don't have to spend more. You do have to know something though.

 

[DreamThrall]

Well.... If I wanted a decent new case and wanted everything done under $300... noise (or lack thereof) is a high priority since I do audio recording. Can I afford to go with watercooling, or should I use stealth fans? I don't plan on doing everything on my own, I'm going to have that friend give me a hand since he has a clue.

 

[Griz]

I bought one of these a couple of months ago when i found out that my CPU was idling at 66C / 61C (diode / socket) with 6 case fans + thermaltake Volcano 9 air cooling.

Once i installed the EXOS (very easy to do) with a 300W cooling block on my CPU and 180W cooling block on my 9800Pro GPU. My CPU idle temps now average around 38 / 42C and up to 41 / 46C under load (and that's with ambient room temps of 26-27C).

I would definitely recommend the EXOS if either (i) you're not comfortable with setting up a component built water cooling solution (which would give bigger temp decreases) or (ii) like me, you don't have the room inside your case for the radiator, pump, etc.

Check out [H]ard|OCP's reviews;-

here
and
here

 

[DreamThrall]

Would a component built system be cheaper?