Best of all, it doesn't leak.

[plonq]

The water kit was surprisingly easy to install - in fact it would have been done in half the time if I hadn't kept going back to the instructions to see what I was forgetting to do.



While I had the case open, I took the liberty of turning all of the case fans down to their minimum speed. There are four fans built into the case, not counting the one in the power supply, so I decided that there was no good reason to turn them up any higher as long as things are running cool. Most of the reviews for this water block suggested keeping its fan cranked down to minimum speed as well. I did that, but I'll keep an eye on the temperature and turn it up if the video card starts running hot.

Between the passive cooler on the CPU and the water cooler on the video card, this may be the quietest computer I have ever owned.

Comments

[fuzzytoedcollie.livejournal.com]

So, how cold can the antifreeze mix get before it freezes up?
*tries to imagine a chip operating temperature below freezing...*

[pfcottontail.livejournal.com]

Uh oh; the next step is invariably scouring quietpcreview.com for passive PSUs and quiet HDDs!

That picture is pretty bad-ass, and I want to hear how the OC'ing on your GPu and CPU turn out.

[plonq.livejournal.com]

I probably won't be over-clocking the GPU for a bit (unless I can find the over-clock switch in the drivers). Since I just swapped out an X1300 for an 8800Ultra, I think it will be a few weeks before I begin to look for more performance out of it.

On the CPU side, I have been over-clocking it since I got the system. This MB came with some neat software that, if I read the description correctly, over-clocks the CPU and memory dynamically based on demand. There are lights on the MB itself to let you know how badly you are over-clocking. Most of the time, the "holy shit, are you nuts?" lights are lit.

While a quieter system wasn't really part of my original plan, I'm still a bit jealous of the silicon grommets in atara's case that sit under the drives.

[pfcottontail.livejournal.com]

Awesooome! \m/