good cooler are just as expensive as watercooling! when you go for cheap watercooling ... for sure and cheap watercooling is better then any good cooler ... if we don't mind some selfemade AL waterblocks ...
If I got to choose ... always go for watercooling ... the only problem is the space ... if ya want to transport ur PC often then its maybe not the optimal solution to choose a cheap watercoolingdevice

I read a review on the Zalman CNPS7000A-Cu cooler the other day (don't remember which website) and it was comparable to some of the high-end coolers out there ... with the notable exception that it was VERY quiet. If I were looking for an air-cooled solution, I think I'd give this one a SERIOUS look.

As far as water cooling goes, I'm well into my 3rd year on my current rig (been into water cooling for over 4 years now) and it's still going strong. The BEST thing about water cooling is -

1. it's QUIET !!! The only thing quieter is nothing at all (no fans).

2. you can move it from system to system and it will work no matter what CPU you throw it on. This is, at least in my mind, a BIG plus because as you upgrade your CPU (which means that 99 times out of a 100 it WILL be a hotter runing CPU), the water cooling rigs just keep working. We don't have to go out and buy a new heat sink every time we upgrade. We just slap the water block on top and we're done.

3. it's transferable between Intel and AMD CPUs. MOST water blocks come with (or can be purchased this way) the option of both Intel and AMD mounting brackets. So, if you switch to AMD from Intel, you're still covered. There are some obvious exceptions but for the most part, water blocks are fairly generic.

4. did I mention that it's QUIET !!!

5. it's expandable in that you can add more water blocks and radiators if the need arrises. In my case, I've got 3 water blocks (CPU, GPU and NForce2 chip). I've also got 2 separate water cooling systems in my case. One is just for the GPU and the other one is for the CPU and Northbridge chip (NForce2).

6. you CAN get pretty close to phase change system performance using TEC/Peltier water blocks but the cost goes WAY up. That's what I'm doing and the performance I'm getting is astounding (at least to me) considering my CPU is a lowly XP-2100. It was hand picked though.

Now for the down-side to water cooling ---

1. it's NOT as cheap as a regular old heat sink and fan (although it's a LOT quieter). However, it's also NOT a lot more money than one of the more expensive, high-end heat sinks and fan combos out there.

A good water block will run around $50.
A good water pump around $20.
A good radiator around $40.
A reservoir is very handy so we'll throw in another $20 for that.
Tubing and hose clamps will run around another $10 (max) and you can pick that stuff up at Home Depot and save even more.
You'll also need at least one low-speed (meaning quiet) 120mm fan for the radiator but 2 in a push-pull arrangement works even better ... so we'll call that another $20 (for 2 fans).

That's it. Total is around $160. You'll also need some distilled water (89 cents at just about any grocery store ... for a GALLON). In actuallity, you DON'T need a reservior and ONE fan will work fine so if you want to scrimp a bit, take $30 off the total.

Instead of a reservoir you just throw a "T" fitting (from Home Depot) into the line going to the water pump intake. You put a section of hose on the "T" to fill the system and when it's filled, you just plug up that feeder section and you're done (a 1/2" bolt, some aquarium glue and a hose clamp works great). So, if we go the cheap route we're only looking at around $130. A top-end heat sink and fan will run you around $60 (minimum), so we're already almost half way there.

2. you need a fairly large case to stuff all the water cooling junk into. I bought THE biggest case I could find (the Lian Li PC-76) and I got exactly what I paid for (it's HUGE!). Not only do I have room for two complete water cooling systems in this case, but I also have room for two power supplies. One powers JUST the TEC on the CPU water block. It's a Mean Well 12volt 350 watt job. I also have a volt-modded Enermax 650 P/S for everything else. Along with my volt-modded 9800 Pro and volt-modded 8RDA+ motherboard, I NEED stable power (I'm really into volt-modding stuff, if you haven't already guessed). More bang for the buck!

I've also installed water cooling systems into normal sized cases (mid-towers) but obviously, the bigger the case the more options you'll have. I KNEW I was going to go for the gusto and stuff my case with everything I could think of so the Lian PC-76 was not over-kill (even though it was REALLY expensive).

3. preparing a motherboard and/or video card for TEC water blocks is NOT for the meek or timid. You have to know what you're doing with this stuff and tripple-check everything. You have to be meticulous about water fittings and making sure nothing leaks. But, once everything is done, you can basically forget about it. Especially if you use aquarium glue on ALL the fittings. NOTHING will leak if you use that stuff.

The worst thing that ever happened to one of the water cooled systems I built (and I've built about 20 so far) is that a water pump failed while the system was running. What happens when a water pump fails?

1. no more water flow
2. things start to heat up ... RAPIDLY
3. if you have a TEC water block, things REALLY start to heat up
4. if it goes unchecked and if you have NOT set the BIOS to shut things down at a REASONABLE temperature, seals can begin to melt and water starts to leak out all over everything (in the case of a TEC water block).
5. if you HAVE set the BIOS to shut things down at a reasonable temperature, then it (the BIOS) takes over and shuts the system down without incident.

Number 5 is what happened to the system I had a water pump failure on. It just shut itself down while I was surfing the Internet one night and I had no idea why. This system was SO quiet that I couldn't even hear the water pump. It was easy enough to figure out though what had happened and NOTHING got damaged. The water pump was a known high failure item that I paid good money for. I was just being stubborn about using it.

I had another system that was built into what is known as a SenFu rig. It's basically just a bunch of square metal tubes stuck together to form a couple of shelves. You just set everything on the shelves and go for it. No case at all. Everything is exposed. It's very handy for testing water blocks, pumps, different video cards, power supplies, etc. and since everything is exposed, temperatures are generally a lot lower.

Anyway, one day I was running this setup and had a TEC water block on an XP-2200A (just about THE hottest running AMD chip ever made) and when I shut the system down, I forgot to turn off the power supply to the TEC water block (uh oh). The hot side of the TEC kept getting hotter and hotter and hotter and pretty soon the water pump started making this really weird grinding noise. I generally leave water pumps on ALL the time because they consume so little power. Anyway, the seal in the front of the water pump melted and water got all over everything (the water pump was on the top shelf).

Fortunately, distilled water is NOT conductive so the only thing that happened was the water pump became a paper weight. Lesson leaned though and I started using relays to turn everything on and off with at that point. That's another item on the list too ---

4. you need to be SMART about power management. TEC water blocks burn a LOT of electricity ... which drives up the cost of ownership. Turning things on and off and making sure that the water pump and the TEC power supply come on at the SAME time is fairly critical.

Relays are cheap though and Radio Shack carries a ton of them. You've got a couple of options here though ---

1. just cut a hole in the back of your case and run the power cords out the back (for the water pump and/or TEC power supply). This is not very graceful and you'll have to use an AC strip (which most of us use anyway) to turn the whole system on and off all at once.

2. use relays to turn things on and off with. What I do is open up the computer's power supply and tap into the connector that supplies AC power to the power supply itself. I run 2 wires from there that I solder to a 12 volt relay with AC-rated contacts for about 2 amps (for a water pump). The 12 volt side of the relay gets a Molex connector that I plug into one of the power supply's Molex connectors. When I turn on the computer, the relay also turns on and the water pump turns on as well. I did the same thing for the Mean Well power supply that supplies power to the TEC water block on my CPU.

3. get yourself a handy-dandy Dremell Tool and make cutouts in the back of your case for additional 3-prong AC cord connections. That's actually what I did to my big Lian Li case and I have 3 power cords hanging out the back. 1 for the Enermax 650, 1 for the Mean Well and one for big Eheim 1250 water pump. The other water pump is a smallish Via Aqua 1300. It gets it's power from the AC plug in the Enermax 650 and everything is turned on and off with relays.

This is actually the cleanest way to handle power distribution (using separate power cords for everything). The only problem with it is that you run out of holes to plug things into in your power strip fairly quickly. By the time you add in a power cord for your monitor, one for your printer, one for your scanner, one for you amplified speakers, one for your cable modem, one for your desk lamp, one for your phone, one for the coffee pot ... well, you can see where multiple AC strips would come in pretty handy. I have 2 very BIG ones.

Water cooling a computer is pretty cool. You get to talk with people who are TRUE nerds and geeks in the extreme and the more you learn about it, the more fun it is to experiment and try different things. You also get to push the outside of the performance envelope a LOT harder than you would with conventional cooling methods (especially if you dabble with TEC water blocks). And, it pays for itself in time. What do I mean by that?

Go to this website - http://www.glexcess.com/xsmark/show.asp and click on the "View Results" bar. By default it will select 1024x768x32bit, all CPU types and all chip manufacturers. This is the current standings web site for GL Excess (an OpenGL benchmark). On the following page you'll see a listing for this resolution (1024x768). Take a look at #5 (OldFart). That's my system and it's in pretty good company. Note that I am surrounded by AMD 64-bit CPUs and highly over-clocked P4s. Not bad for a $75 CPU.

Now ... you tell me. Is water cooling worth it?

Later.

WOW....
very nice Post !!

so, i´m a watercooling user and i´m very happy with it
i think i´ll never go back to Air-Cooling!