Water/Liquid Cooling Questions. (Or other quiet options)

Now, from what I've gathered, to setup my pc to use water cooling, I'll need blocks (for cpu, gpu, ect) reservoir, pump, and a radiator. My goal is to lower the noise coming from my desktop, since I'm getting complaints about it, so I want to cool everything with water cooling, since it seems to be the best 'silent' solution.
My main question is; is there anyone out there that would know exactly what I would need to cool a p4 (socket 478), an asus p4p800-e deluxe mobo, an Ati x800xt gpu, and single HD? As in, what would I need entirely, such as strong enough pumps, what tubing, ect. and for the worst part, would it be achievable with a $250 budget? The system is not over clocked, so extreme cooling isn't direly necessary, but it will go under fair loads from time to time during photo/video processing and gaming.
Any help would be greatly appreciated since I'm new to water cooling (but very familiar with PCs) Thanks.

 

Firstly no, water cooling is NOT the way to go if all you want is a silent PC. Silent PCs are actually best made using air cooling (see my PC specs for some ideas of what i've done). Water cooling is only recommended for people who want extremely low PC temps for high overclocks, or just to show off!
Get a decent CPU cooler, a better graphics card cooler, and some quiet case fans. All that can be done for half your $250 budget. For a good water cooling system, you'd use all of it.

 

I've looked into a bunch of air cooling options and it seems like everyone always says they're loud, such as silenx and other popular brands for lowing noise. What would you suggest as good silent option? The problem for me is that the computer is stored in a desk cabinet that's mounted to a wall, so there's a definite lack of ventilation. I can't change the desk, since it's technically not mine (dorm situation) but I would like to change the amount of noise it makes. The first step i'm taking it removing the 6 hard drives and compiling them onto one (terabyte drive) since 2 of the drives makes an annoying clicking noise when active (not to be mistaken for the 'dead drive' noise). And I've noticed a serious degree of temperature in the system lately since I'e had to move it there.

Edit: In the event I would use fans, my case has room for 4, top, door, front, back.

 

That's because SilenX are rubbish. The reason you've heard this is that loads of products are advertised as 'silent' and in actual fact, they're really noisy. I spend more time silencing my PC than doing anything else to it, and I've pretty much achieved my goal. With the right gear, it's certainly doable, you just mustn't fall into marketing traps. With water cooling you have other issues. You still need fans to cool your radiator, and it's not usually that easy to find a quiet pump that works well. Plus you'll still need a decent quiet power supply.

 

Would you mind pointing me towards some brands/products you've had success with? I wouldn't mind replacing the fans in PSU either, it's a nice 430w Antec, I've had it for about 2 years, so I'm sure the warranty wouldn't be an issue. Is there any model numbers you would need? I know the case fans are standard (80mm) but I'm not sure about the others.

 

Replacing PSU fans isn't something I've tried. Typically the best approach is to find a PSU that's nice and efficient, that doesn't ramp up the fan speed at high load. Such an example is the Corsair HX 520W. The PSU is the 'missing link' in my PC at the moment, and that's the PSU I'm after.
As for fans, I swear by Nexus and Scythe case fans. Both are exceptionally quiet at low speeds, and that's the key here. Low fan speeds. 120mm fans running at less than 1000rpm offer good enough cooling to keep even the most powerful PCs cool enough, but are also pretty much inaudible.

 

Definitely digging the Nexus gear, I like their p4 cpu cooler, and the fans seem really nice. What would you say about the PSU(s) Nexus offers vs the one you linked?

 

Nexus PSUs are well made, but they're not actually that quiet. Corsair ones are better for silence, believe it or not. Everything else Nexus make though, top stuff.

 

As far as my Ati x800xt, do they make replacement heat sinks for those? It's currently one of my loudest parts.

 

I bet it is. I had an X800 Pro for AGP, and it wasn't exactly quiet. Back then I wasn't into silencing PCs though.
You can use a Thermalright HR-03 (it must be the revision A version) to cool your graphics card silently. As long as you have at least two 120mm case fans, you don't even need to put a fan on your GPU at all using that heatsink. If your case ventilation's not very good (or won't be when you get silent fans) then get a Nexus realsilent 92mm fan and shove it on the top. Even at 12V those things are pretty much inaudible.

 

My case wouldn't have room for 120s, just the 4 (well, actually, 5 since there's 2 on the door) 80mm fans. Do you think the Zalman VF1000 would work on the same level as the other equipment (as far as noise goes)?

 

Zalman coolers at full speed are very noisy beasts (although maybe not quite as loud as stock cooling).
Go with a Thermalright, they cool far better than Zalmans, even if you don't even use a fan. If you've got five 80mm case fans you should be able to get away with an HR-03 with no fan. If it gets a bit hot, stick one on there.

 

Alright, so far I've got this on my list:
Thermalright HR-03 Rev A x1
80 mm Nexus x5
92 mm Nexus x1 (just in case)
Corsair CMPSU-520HX x1
P4 PHT-3600 P4 Quiet CPU Fan by Nexus x1

Any thing else you would think would help? Or this pretty much the best I'm gonna do?

oh, also getting a tube of arctic silver.

Edit: Also, how do you feel about Noctua? It seems to be another brand I'm running into search here and there.

 

Noctua are a bit of a difficult one. In my time I've tried case fans from them and overall, I didn't rate them. From new, they are probably the quietest fans of all to push as much air as they do. After about a week or so though, the bearings in them emit a high pitched whine, which although quiet, is certainly noticeable and highly annoying. I don't know anybody who's used one and hasn't had this problem. Overall, I'd vote Nexus and Scythe above Noctua mainly because of this. The latter two brands are known to emit a very faint ticking noise in the large 120mm variants, but with smaller fans, they are smooth as silk.
The parts list you've chosen is great, and should render any PC near silent. The only potential noise you'll have after using all that lot is from the hard drives. What make/model are your hard disks? Older, large capacity drives are generally the biggest culprits for noise. Also anything by Maxtor is never going to be silent.

 

I'm probably going to order two 500g by Hitachi, my experience with the brand has been good, but it's hard to say how they'll perform sound wise, the one in my web server is quiet, but I'll have to decide once they get here.

 

Are there any good liquid cooling kit for under $200. I found a couple, but I need more. Plus I need the barbs to be 1/2".

 

Cheap water cooling kits aren't worth buying. You can't afford to have low quality components in a WC system or you WILL get leaks.

 

So can you suggest one for me? Please?

 

I would build your own watercooling kit, it'll give you better results.

 

Your best option would be to install a 250mm fan in the side of your case. Quiet, epic airflow, cheap. They can be a pain to install if you don't know what you're doing. Check the following things:

http://www.directron.com/fan250mmled.html (a fan)
http://www.casemodblog.com/?p=66 (great installation guide)