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Zalman Reserator

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infiniteq

Registered
Joined
Jul 7, 2004
Location
Schaumburg, IL
Hi all,

I'll be attempting to water-cool my system with the Zalman reserator over the next couple of days. I searched but didn't find too much info on this particular setup. What temps should I shoot for for safe, non-OC'd operation of my machine? Also, what's the best way to monitor temps? I currently use the Intel Active Monitor but am open for any better suggestions.

thanks
 
squeakygeek said:
I haven't read much on the reserrator and haven't seen or used one, but my speculation is that it wouldn't be very effective.

It is 100% effective and does exactly what its supposed to do, reasonable temps with little to no noise... Its not aimed at overclockers, its aimed for people who want a silent pc.
 
Icebl@ster said:
I heard that u have to fill it bak up alot

It's a sealed-loop convection device. Why would it need to be filled a lot if it wasn't leaking? :rolleyes: I've read more than a few reviews on it and no one mentioned anything like this.
 
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jabtek said:
It is 100% effective and does exactly what its supposed to do, reasonable temps with little to no noise... Its not aimed at overclockers, its aimed for people who want a silent pc.

Do you have any data to back this up? If you aren't overclocking and all you want is reasonable temps with little to no noise, there are much, much cheaper solutions. I don't even see a need to use water. Why use this and not something cheaper?
 
squeakygeek said:
Do you have any data to back this up? If you aren't overclocking and all you want is reasonable temps with little to no noise, there are much, much cheaper solutions. I don't even see a need to use water. Why use this and not something cheaper?

Its fanless = no noise

Equivalent to moderate/high end air cooling which is perfect for the non overclocker. It is designed to be silent not designed for overclockers.

http://www.systemcooling.com/zalman_res-01.html
 
squeakygeek said:
Do you have any data to back this up? If you aren't overclocking and all you want is reasonable temps with little to no noise, there are much, much cheaper solutions. I don't even see a need to use water. Why use this and not something cheaper?

Hunt up the Anandtech review, it's complete. As for why someone would use it as opposed to something else, the simple and most direct answer would be because they want to. And frankly that's enough for me. ;)
 
jabtek said:
Its fanless = no noise

Equivalent to moderate/high end air cooling which is perfect for the non overclocker. It is designed to be silent not designed for overclockers.

http://www.systemcooling.com/zalman_res-01.html

So why not use a Thermalright SP-97 with a Thermaltake Smartfan II set on the lowest setting? It would be perfectly sufficient for a non-overclocked computer, and at 17 dba you won't be able to hear it. At SVC, the SP-97 is $44, and the Smartfan II is $10, for a total of $54 before shipping, compared to the street price of $250 for the reserator. So what makes the reserator worth another $196? don't say silence.

RedViper said:
As for why someone would use it as opposed to something else, the simple and most direct answer would be because they want to.

Sorry, but this is a waste of forum space.
 
squeakygeek said:
Sorry, but this is a waste of forum space.

You just crossed the line. My post was no more a waste of space than yours. Unless, of course, you think whining like a baby about things that don't concern you in the slightest is worthy of bandwidth. If people like you would spend their time out of other peoples' choices AND pockets, places like this would be a LOT less split-second hostile.

And next time, save the back-handed mock "apologies" and just ignore anything I say that bothers you. Consider THAT fair warning, sir.
 
squeakygeek said:
So why not use a Thermalright SP-97 with a Thermaltake Smartfan II set on the lowest setting? It would be perfectly sufficient for a non-overclocked computer, and at 17 dba you won't be able to hear it. At SVC, the SP-97 is $44, and the Smartfan II is $10, for a total of $54 before shipping, compared to the street price of $250 for the reserator. So what makes the reserator worth another $196? don't say silence.


We could go round in circles all day discussing this, why buy a reserator and not an Koolance thing, or an SP 9x or any other silent heatsink, or even a mobile athlon and aim for passive cooling.

The answer is simple, its a huge great big radiator/pump and it does what its supposed to do, cool a cpu at stock settings with no noise and be easy to install for people who have little knoledge of water cooling.

What makes it worth $196 more than an SP 97 is the ability to remove all fan noise from your case. Try running your SP 97 without a fan and you would wish you spent the $196 extra.. It might not be worth $250 to you, trust me though it is in demand, people are happy to pay $250 for it and will continue to do so for a considerable amount of time.
 
jabtek said:
What makes it worth $196 more than an SP 97 is the ability to remove all fan noise from your case. Try running your SP 97 without a fan and you would wish you spent the $196 extra.. It might not be worth $250 to you, trust me though it is in demand, people are happy to pay $250 for it and will continue to do so for a considerable amount of time.

Exactly! :thup:
 
Plenty of comments on this water cooler in the forums for silentpcreview.com. Basically it works perfect for 99% of the people who buy it. It is silent and is capable of cooling a non overclocked CPU & Vid card. Not a bad deal if you want to water cool and achieve silence!
 
jabtek said:
We could go round in circles all day discussing this, why buy a reserator and not an Koolance thing, or an SP 9x or any other silent heatsink, or even a mobile athlon and aim for passive cooling.

The answer is simple, its a huge great big radiator/pump and it does what its supposed to do, cool a cpu at stock settings with no noise and be easy to install for people who have little knoledge of water cooling.

What makes it worth $196 more than an SP 97 is the ability to remove all fan noise from your case. Try running your SP 97 without a fan and you would wish you spent the $196 extra.. It might not be worth $250 to you, trust me though it is in demand, people are happy to pay $250 for it and will continue to do so for a considerable amount of time.

You must not have read my whole post... a thermaltake smartfan II on its lowest setting is only 17 dba... you can't hear it...
 
squeakygeek said:
You must not have read my whole post... a thermaltake smartfan II on its lowest setting is only 17 dba... you can't hear it...


17dba but the heat has to go somewhere so it goes into the case, so you will need other fans to get the heat out of the case and to get airflowing through the case. The reserator takes the heat outside of the case so it will make obselete the vast majority of fans needed in a case.

No one is trying to sell you the reserator, if you don't want complete silence move on to something else, it does what its supposed to do at a reasonable cost, the quality with all Zalman products is high.
 
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It may not make sense to some people, but there are folks out there who hate computer noise, of any kind. And frankly, it seems like there are more of them every day. Spend some time on the Anandtech "case & cooling" forum and you'll see a trend. Not to mention a sometimes open hostility towards forced-air people. I don't see anything wrong with the market catering to what people WANT. If they have to pay trough the nose for it why should I, or anyone else, care?

BTW, the products name is Reserator 1. Considering the way people are snapping them up, we'll probably be seeing even better products of this type, and innovation is good for all of us. If you don't want to buy one, don't. But how is whining about other people buying them productive in any way?
 
is there anything special about the reserator? besides its radiator and silence abilitys is it jus a tubing with fins? or is the inside of the tube have a unique design. to me i think 250 is too much for a bunch on aluminum and metal. im a penny saver kinda person..
 
RedViper said:
we'll probably be seeing even better products of this type, and innovation is good for all of us.
I saw a pic of an Innovatec Reserator clone.
It was more heavily finned and appeared to have four separate chambers.
I'm very intrigued with the concept of the Reserator and agree that Zalman always seems to have excellent fit and finish, but I can see room for some improvement.
I'd think that if the interior of the chamber were finned also the extra surface area would lead to better heat transfer, but maybe that doesn't matter?
Sooner or later I'm sure I'll break down and get one, if just to try.
It would make a nice sculpture if I don't like it's performance.
 
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