Can I improve my watercooling setup?

I was hoping to further improve my current water cooling. I am at 47C under full prime95 load (38C idle) when running my A64 3000+ at 2.5ghz @1.79v. Are there any hose configuration/higher cfm 120mm fan/or other options I should look into? Not looking to spend a lot of money, just make what I have more efficient with minimumal cost and hopefully drop a few more C. As you can see I am currently with a pump>cpu>gpu>res>rad configuration. Would a higher cfm fan on my radiator make a difference? How about adding a second fan for a push/pull? Or having straight instead of 90 degree barbs on my res? Any advice would be great.

Little thing you could do, would be to change the loop to get the rad right before the CPU block, because depending on your pump it might be putting heat into the water right before it gets to your block, the way it's set up right now. Don't know if it's worth changing the whole loop though.

Sure you could throw a High CFM fan on your rad, or yeah a push/pull. The 120mm Delta's are good, make sure you get the 38mm variant. What CFM is the alluminum fan you have now? If it's less than 70cfm definitely get some higher CFM fans, as they will make a significant difference, depending on how much noise you're willing to tolerate.

Also, yes, 90 degree barbs on your res hurt flow, somewhere in the ballpark of what 1.5 feet of extra tubing would do. Do you have a bay res? You should try to get it down as low as possible in the case to keep your tubing to a minimum, and limit the amount the pump has to overcome gravity.

uhh it looks like youve mized up the pump inlet and outlet, and i think you might have the block working backwards, 2 sides pumping in and the middle having water come out of it.

its kinda hard to see where things go in that pic.

Whoops lol, I can't see the block at all, but you did mix the inlet and outlet of the pump up. The top is the outlet, nice catch Excess.

eXCeSS said:

uhh it looks like youve mized up the pump inlet and outlet, and i think you might have the block working backwards, 2 sides pumping in and the middle having water come out of it.

its kinda hard to see where things go in that pic.

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Ya know, I think you mught be right. When I swapped my AN50R for my VNF3, I changed some hoses and it looks like I swapped my inlet and outlet like a knob. Okay, that huge oversight aside....

My fan is a 79cfm. I saw a Enermax that pushes 97cfm without much more noise, would the extra 16-20cfm help? If I stick with one fan, should I have the fan push or pull? I do have a bay-res, is a res even really needed anyway?

I'd keep the Res unless you want to put in a t-line. Reroute your hoses and see how far out of the way the Bayres puts your tubing. Post a new pic when you get a chance. The ideal loop is Res>Pump>Rad>CPU>GPU. 20CFM will make a difference, but not that much of one.

Since you only have one fan on the rad, maybe go for like a 105 CFM Panaflo H1a? Definitely have it pulling to eliminate the deadspot, and plus, you want the fan pulling outside air through your rad, not pushing warm air from inside your case through it. By switching the pump you should get a significant improvement in temps alone, because right now your rad is pretty much cooling the res...lol.

How much more efficient is a T-line compared to a resivoir? My res is mounted in the bottom bay, so about where the top of my picture is. I'll reroute my hoses tomorrow when I am done with my three 14hr shifts at work. That will correct the flow from my pump so I am not going the wrong way. I also picked up a 105cfm YS-Tech fan, that should show up in a day or two to pull some more air through the radiator.

you can play around with the others sugestions and might get some minor improvement . the thing that directly effects your cooling is the fas on the core. i would have a push pull with good cmf fans . the down side is that you increase noise.

if you re into modding and can make your own custom res you can un restrict the L30 inlet like im doing now with my next mod : see other thread

your temps are definately not bad for your system atm though

The ideal loop is Res>Pump>Rad>CPU>GPU. 20CFM will make a difference, but not that much of one.

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the pump he is using makes no diference if you are talking about adding heat to the system as its is within measurable tolerance so you cant give an ideal really . but that is how most systems are set up.

as for 20 cmf . that can e a BIG diference.

Have you switched your pump around yet?

I would recommend getting a couple of shrouds and putting your current fan pushing air through the rad with the 105cfm fan pulling. The shrouds should eliminate your deadspot problem. Also you could just try the 105 pushing with a shroud and only use that one fan on it, but definately put the fan on the other side of the rad so that it sucks air from outside of the case and pushes it through the rad.

You shouldn't need the 90 degree fittings on the res, i believe you can just use the straight ones and it will be fine. Make sure you have the pumps inlet/outlet setup right and I would suggest putting the rad right before your cpu block just in case. If the pump is adding any heat or isn't, either way you know it's the coolest water going through the block.

Well step one is done. I changed the flow around and remounted the block for good measure. Dropped the temps to 36C idle and 46C full Prime95 load with 23C room temps, so basically a 1-2C improvement. Should get my new 105cfm fan today or tomorrow and I'll put that on and see if that makes much of a difference. I also have another shroud and straight barb fittings on order so I can set up a push/pull setup if I am not satisfied enough with the 105cfm fan and can get rid of the 90 degree barbs on my res.