I want to get this and yes I heard the stories, I.E Hose leaking the short curcuiting the system. Hows does it work? and what is a chim (amd xp 2500).

Water circulates and cools down the CPU or whatever you conect it to. Just like a car, except on a smaller proportion.

As for chim, I dont think such an object exists.

I think you mean a shim, which is put over the processor to keep the heavier water blocks from crushing the core of the processor.

I have seen first hand the horror stories you mentioned (friends' video card fried at a LAN party once, the next time around, the hose breaks open, but no damage that time).
The main thing I can say is to go with a trusted company like danger den or thermaltake, and name that has been around or known, and not to do your own kit yourself with a fish tank water pump from one place, and some hose from another, and other random stuff like that.

There are 4 mostly standard parts of a water cooling system that I can think of: the heat sink/block, tubing, reservoir (sometimes integrated into the pump), and radiator
Basically, a copper block goes over the processor, sometimes using the clips the normal heat sink/fan combos hook onto, while others may use the 4 holes that should be on the board. Not all motherboard manufacturers follow the standards in giving a certain amount of space around the socket for the CPU, or putting the 4 holes around it which are sometimes needed for the size of some water-cooling blocks

the purpose of the 4 holes around the cpu socket are for the really heavy heat sinks or blocks that have the potential to damage the motherboard if used on the regular clip. In the case with you asking about a shim, that would be for the heavier heat sinks/blocks.

2 hoses come off of the heat sink/block, one to take water in, and one out. From what I remember, the pump is pushing the water into the CPU block directly, and then after the CPU goes through a radiator, like you see on air conditioners. A fan blowing through the gaps of the vast tubing cool the water down again for use.

That is the basic idea of one, but some do cover cooling the chipset, video card, RAM, and even hard drives in addition to the CPU.

Any questions or comments? Corrections? Go ahead and post and I’ll clarify if needed

You forgot the fan part that cools the radiator.

Do I need to buy a shim with my cpu? Or do I need thermal grease?

should I get this one http://www.coolerstar.com/aqiiliqcool.html or this one http://www.pchertz.com/customer/product.php?productid=16973&cat=&page=1

I'm going toward the cheaper one

You still need thermal paste, preferably artic silver 3, or the best out at the moment, and if the water block looks heavy, it wouldn't hurt to go ahead and get a shim.

And copyright, you are somewhat right; I left that off since most of them are integrated together.

Cheaper is not always the best case in water cooling. The thermaltake is pretty cheap, but the performance it compares to in normal fan heat sinks is about the same. If you wanted to overclock a lot, a higher priced one would be better.

Looking over the Ahanix Iceberg, I would have to definitely say the thermaltake solution, because the Ahanix has a SERIOUS flaw in it (yes, the horror stories you speak of have happened often) where the reservoir has cracked over a few months, and drenched the cases. Until this is fixed, definitely do not get it.

Ok I'll take the thermaltake

There is a quite nice waterchill kit thats not ultra pricey that should provide decent cooling, available from a number of places, overclockersuk to name but one.

Essentially you have a pump to pump your water round, a radiator to dissipate heat and a fan to blow over the radiator. Then from your pump you will have tubes attached to your cpu, graphics card and maybe northbridge. You can connect these in series or parallel, read round the www for advice on this. You may want a reservoir so you dont have problems with air bubbles floating round which wouldnt help you too much.

If youre careful you shouldnt have problems. Make sure you set up all your kit outside of the machine first. Then turn the pump on and leak test it for at least 24 hours before leaving it in your case. Remember that if kit gets wet, its ok providing no electricity is running through it. Sometimes when it is its still possible to dry it out in the airing cupboard.

Theres lots of literature on the web on watercooling. this may attract some enthusiasts in here, and I hope this helps your problems.

Danger Den kit is respected as the dogs bollocXs for watercooling.

And even if you do get a leak when the machine is on because you use de-ionised or distilled water as cooling the which don't conduct electricity the chances of your conponants dying is greatly reduced then if you used tap water. I fi had to go for a kit i would proberly go for the waterchilll kit but if you want the best performance you will buy the parts separtly like i did but but that can cost in the region of £200 but that sounds way out of your price range.

what is distilled water...I remember I heard this word in biology couple of years back

distilled is de-ionized water

how do I make distilled water or get it?

Water can naturally distill if left for long enough on its own. Water is commonly known as H20, but can conatin H+ ions and H30+ ions if my chemistry serves me correctly, both of which will conduct electricity somewhat. Distilled water is cheap to buy in various shops like a hardware store.

Isn't boiled water distilled?

De-ionized water is car battery top up water so you should be able to get it from most garage's.

You can buy it in a grocery store

I decided that the Water cooling is too risky and I'm just going to go with a volcano(dunno what number though)

Just do a little research and you can find out if something is reliable or not. There are some that can be trusted like danger den, and any other ones that get major user support, you can assume they are reliable

If you are going with a volcano series heat sink/fan, the volcano 11: XASER edition is very good. I tried the volcano 9 out, it has the ability to control the CPU fan speed, but i don’t think it does while the system is on (both me and a friend both had these, and the system reboots if we try to change them while running)

The 11 has the back plate, and front bay controller that can be changed while the computer is running

I can only come up with one gripe with both of these heat sinks, they are somewhat hard to put on. They clip on to all 6 of the notches on the CPU socket, instead of the two middle like most heat sinks do. The advantage to this is it is less likely to come loose, than the two clip heatsinks.

If you do a little bit of reading on one of the overclockers sites, you can safely learn the do's and don'ts of watercooling and also learn how to make (if you are into DIY) a high quality and very safe setup for cheaper than you can buy premade.

water cooling isn't that risky, distilled water isn't a must niether, the only reason people put that in is to prevent corrsion to componants.
there are other aditives to do the same, a product called water wetter will do it - as well as break surface tension in the water - improving temps.
another good anti-corrosion additive is vehicle anti-freeze.

just research carfully, it is a little more risky than air cooling, but if you want to overclock then there are plenty of advantages.

don't let 1 thread in 1 forum put you off ;)

Just use prestone, lol...

Originally posted by littlejack
water cooling isn't that risky, distilled water isn't a must niether, the only reason people put that in is to prevent corrsion to componants.

also to stop things from growing as well! A bit of anti-freeze will help. You might want to take a look at www.wetandchillychips.co.uk, the forum there's quite friendly and you can get all your questions answered.

OK, to re-phrase, i 've had my water-cooled set up runnin 24/7 for over a year, i have no growth and no corrosion - i used standard tap water and antifreeze.

Antifreeze is designned to prevent corrosion, and algi growth. (unless allowed to go dry, then becomes corrosive.) Also it has properties to break the 'surface tension' of water, better for heat disipation.

There are lots of commercial products that do the same, water wetter is one of them.