Em, i'm new to water cooling, so i really need something simple,and works well. Recently i have a bit of extra cash to spare, so i contemplated to buy either a CoolerMaster Mini Aquagate or Bigwater 12cm (i can only find non-SE model atm). Or i could also choose a Tt Big Typhoon (read about the great performance).

But i found one disturbing news from lyn, the Tt bigwater non-SE had a high RMA rate because of pump failure. The contrasting fact is many Bigwater users swear by bigwater. May i have a confirmation on this?

About Mini Aquagate 12cm model, i did google around, but all i could find is very biased reviews, most of which compares the performance of Aquagate to very outdated heatsinks or even stock heatsinks (who use stock anyway). The same case applies to Bigwater. And most importantly, i didn't find a review done by the more reputable websites (overclockers.com or tomshardware.com)

What is better, aquagate or bigwater? Since the price is so similar. Or should i not get a water cooling at all? I'm currently using CAK4-88t, i swapped the fan for 3 bladed Tt at very low fan speed for quieter pc. The temp i got is mere 37c web surfing and 42-43c full load. Before you complain my temp is inaccurate, please take note, i heavily underclocked my processor and it only throttle to full speed in heavy load conditions. Even at full speed the Vcore is only 1.375v-~40w max heat dissipation. Even the passively cooled CM NB cooler (Zalman clone) and my fancooled WD hdd is much hotter than the heatsink.

I really need a honest review, aside from the fanboyish review and the biased review of the unreputable websites. I'm sorry if i threaded on anyone's foot.

Please advise.

But wasn't those premade kits designed for the ease of use and budget of beginners? I know i couldn't / wouldn't achieve great temps if i use those premade kits, but custom kits overwhelmed me. there's too many waterblocks to choose from, from the little that i know, i've gathered the likes of swiftech, dangerden, northcool or something like that. I understand that the price of the water block alone already could be used to buy a whole Tt Bigwater kit, complete with coolant.

but what is the reliability of these custom watercooling kits? the last thing anyone would want to do is to splash their coolant onto their several grand system. What can we do if it really happened? can we rma the mainboard? or what if the pump fails while we're busy pumping lead onto the half-life 2 alien?
I've even read about the Tt Rocket's puny design, where the pump leaked after the water is heated slightly, resulting in terrible consequences. If this could happen to those pre-made kits, what are the chances it won't happen to a custom kit?
anyone ever actually suffered a leaking system? what can be done to prevent this from happening? (forget about non conductive fluid, it's too expensive to speak of)

RM500 for a starters' system is, IMHO, quite expensive. Forgive me, i know of people who would spend 3k for a cyrogenic cooler, but i'm not one of them. I know I'm cheap. The cheaper alternative is premade kits, but upgrading is not an option. But, what if all we need is a simple kit, which performs like the first day we installed it, year in year out?

Is there such a kit? Or is there a custom kit designed to require little or no attention?

Hello, i'm back.For those asking bout where i heard the high failure rate of Bigwater's pump, i read it from the OCParadise's forum. Since i got here, i'm willing to share something with you all.

Actually i'm one of those early users of water cooling, remenber Senfu? I used their first WC kit, but before that, i've made my own waterblock, fashioned from a couple of 1cm ID copper tubing. It's quite effective, could reduce the temp of stock K6-2 usual hsf ( who care about their hsf those days?) by more than 9c. That time i'm in secondary school, and together with a few friends, we displayed the homemade cooling at our science fair. Needless to say, most visitor didn't even knew we need a fan to cool our processor. Back then radiator is unnecessary, you could run the water off a bucket and the water will only get slightly warm after half days of gaming (half-life and counter-strike) Ah, those good old days, where processors were so cool....

Anyway, i quit using Watercooling after buying the Senfu because it scuks big time. If there's a worst industrial design award, Senfu WC Kit will be the first prize award. Imagine using a aluminium base, copper fin water block. The waterblock literally corrodes itself away, and not to mention the terrible cooling temp. My homemade copper piping waterblock is much better at cooling than the senfu waterblock. Finally i stop using it and replace my cooler to aircooling, my first cooler is Volcano 7+, cooling is good but the noise is terrible. I sold the cooler after 1 week, and had been using a Globalwin CaK4-88t until now, occasionally buying new fans, currently using Volcano12 extreme fan, because the Globalwin heatsink is still better than the Volcano12 heatsink. Imagine the heatsink cycled through the 4 complete pc upgrades i did in the past 2 years!!

Since i'd used the Globalwin for so long, i'm itchy to get a new cooler again. So, not willing to repeat the experience i've had with Senfu, i'm really pushing reliability as the main factor when i want to choose a cooler.

I think most people will switch back to aircooling after they grow out of their overclocking sickness, until watercooling had more to offer for their reliability and price.

P/s: I still have the Senfu waterblock with me, anyone willing to buy it for their pc museum?

This post has been edited by ernie ball: Aug 19 2005, 02:04 PM