redce water temp

Ok I posted this on [H] but figured I would post it here also. Doesn't hurt to have more ppl read it.

Ok here's the situation:

Room temp 85F
Water temp 88-90F
CPU AMD 2100+ (Palamino core) not OC'ed
ABIT AT7

I am looking for a way to reduce the water temp in my system. I have a 10"x10"x2 heater core with 4 80mm fans on it (with shroud) that is keeping the water 4 - 5deg above ambiant (which I do not think is bad). And a 1qt resv. Pump is Ehiem 1250

WB is a DD Maze 3 and only the CPU is cooled (ATM) and temp on CPU is 108-109F idle and 113-115F underload (F@H and/or gaming for several hours)

Can anyone come up with a way to reduce the water temp without using a TEC and keep it very cheap like under 20 if possible. Also want to keep it some what mobile so no dorm fridges (already have another machine with that)

One suggestion is to increase water pressure. Not sure if this will help or so anything else.

Also those powered coolers (Igloo's and the like) are TEC's so thats out of the question.

As a side note, I thought my CPU temps were high, but from some other posts on here it looks like I am right in line with everyone else that is watercooling a Palamino.

So any ideas on how this can be done? And reducing the ambiant temp is a side issue and will not be done anytime soon.

You could try evaporative cooling (bong) but that would only lower your water temps a bit and is more of a hassle than a fridge I would think. Short of being Merlin, there is not really much you can do without actively cooling the water or lowering ambient temps, which is not an option. 4-5 Deg above ambient is OK, you should be able to cut that to 1-2 above ambient with an efficient rad. Maybe try some more powerful fans.

So is your heatercore not dissipating all the heat ~> water 4 - 5deg above ambient? If so, I bet 2 120mms would push more air through the core then 4 80mms, or even 1 powerful 120mm

I tried the 2 120's did the same thing. So thats not it. I have plenty of air going through it.

I am going to try changing out my water. At the time all I had was Anti-freeze (yeah yeah) so I am going to try the Window washer Fluid and see what it does in there.

And if that doesn't help then I guess I'll break down, build me a TEC power supply and get a TEC. But thats pushing it......

I use antifreeze. It didn't raise temps at all. I'm using about 10%. Are you planning to overclock? TEC would be overkill if you're not...

mikildemion said:

I tried the 2 120's did the same thing. So thats not it. I have plenty of air going through it.

I am going to try changing out my water. At the time all I had was Anti-freeze (yeah yeah) so I am going to try the Window washer Fluid and see what it does in there.

Click to expand...

Are you saying that the 4-5 Deg above ambient liquid temps is with 100% antifreeze? If so, that is the problem right there. I would bag the window washer fluid idea, that stuff is nasty and pure distilled water will cool just as well or better.

Oh wow 100% anti-freeze

no no no. I have enough anti-freeze in there to tint the water. I would say no more then 15% more like 10% in there. But its all I had at the time. And there is distilled water in there also (no tap water).

I am not planning to OC. I'm happy with the speed of the system, plus I can only get the FSB 9 over stable. So no point to OC at this time. a TEC is definatly over kill. But I would not put it on the CPU it would be used to chill the water.