I wouldn't bother with an Antec 1200 case if you want to watercool as it's got a heap of fans which will be wasted.
The biggest benefit from watercooling is to have a quieter system, however IMO watercooling is very expensive for not a great deal lot of gain. You can spend around $150 on an aftermarket heatsink and fan and achieve similar overclocks that you can with $500 watercooling kits.
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I was actually in a similar position to yourself and then weighed up the pros and cons and couldn't really justify spending $200 or $300 more. I ended up buying a Thermalright Ultra-120 heatsink and a Scythe fan and have overclocked my Q9550 from 2.83ghz to 3.8ghz and the fan is quiet as.
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A decent air cooler with a quality fan costs about about $130 (eg: Thermalright or Prolimatech with a Scythe for example) and the Corsair H50 costs about $150.
They are about the same noise level as they both use 120mm fans to cool the heatsink/radiator.
The Corsair H50 will be about ~5C lower temps under 100% load for the extra $.
Ragnor: A decent air cooler with a quality fan costs about about $130 (eg: Thermalright or Prolimatech with a Scythe for example) and the Corsair H50 costs about $150.
They are about the same noise level as they both use 120mm fans to cool the heatsink/radiator.
The Corsair H50 will be about ~5C lower temps under 100% load for the extra $.
I've heard horror stories about buying cheap watercooling kits as the quality can be dubious and they just aren't as durable as more expensive parts. Tom's Hardware also concludes that at the same price Air beats the H50...
Corsair have a solid brand reputation for quality.
The first review is flawed, comparing a 2400rpm to a 1600rpm fan and not mounting the fan and rad properly.
The second review is kinda interesting but they put a 2400rpm fan on the H50 rather than a 1600rpm fan on the air cooler which would have been more interesting/realistic.
I don't have anything against air cooling. A $100 unit (like the Thermalright or Prolimatech) and a quality quiet fan $40 (Scythe etc) is a good solution but the H50 is a good option too.
AMDMAN: i was looking into getting the Coolermaster v8 cpu cooler , but i have to screw it onto my mother board and it might snap my Moatherboard
Don't worry, the coolermaster v8 would be fine :) it won't snap your board. It only weighs 800gm, well it's one of the heaviest coolers, but it requires a bit of force to snap a board.
Are you keen to build and leak test a kit yourself? if so, goto bit-tech.net and chekc out the forums, it tells you how to setup and bleed a kit, plus what parts are best to use.
I last used water cooling about 5 years ago on my old socket A and replaced the PSU fan with a silenx 60mm, it was so quiet I could hear the HDD spinning. I'd definitely recommend having a play round, just make sure it doesn't leak or you aren't covered under warranty :S
I have moved across the ditch. Now residing in Melbourne as a VOIP/Video Technical Trainer/Engineer.
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