Hey all…I’m a noob. New to the site, new to water cooling, everything. This really isn’t for the people who have been doing it for a long time, but maybe another noob will get something from it.
This all started with the idea to spend $40-$50 to buy a better heat sink for my cpu since I’m currently using the stock hs/fan. About a month ago I saw an Evercool 201 water cooling setup on ebay for $80 plus $15 shipping and decided to buy it. It was only a little more than the Zalman fan I was looking at. My A64 3200 was running hot (IMO) with the stock heatsink. Under full load it was 58-60C. I’m on the folding team so it’s under full load all the time. So I place a bid and win the WC-201 setup. In the week between ordering the kit and receiving it I read here that these little all in one kits are crap and if you bought one you’d be aching to modify it right away (very good opinion, it’s exactly how it happened). I’d already paid my money, so just sighed and decided to give it a go anyway. And hey, it’s half what a pro kit would cost.
It arrives, I install it in about an hour (no leaks, no problems) and check my temps. Took about 20 minutes to get up to 50C so I think everything is fine. Ten minutes later it’s at 59 and I’m grumbling…2 hours later it’s at 62C and I’m pissed. Not only am I out $95 but the thing is running hotter than before. I do a little investigating and find a kinked hose. Okay, better, temps hovering around 57-58C. Still not happy about spending the money to get the same level of cooling as before. Not surprising though, the tubing is 3/16” ID and the whole system only holds 5-6 ounces of water.
The fan on the main radiator is weak so I decide it has to go. I try a few creative mounting arrangements to get a 120mm fan attached to the 80mm grill but nothing works well enough (without more case mods than I’m willing since I don’t want to disassemble the system entirely). I find a 120mm-80mm shroud online, but it’s out of stock. So I look for high throughput fans. NewEgg has the Volcano which is 80cfm; main user comment is that it’s LOUD, and another one from Thermaltech which is adjustable up to 70cfm. I buy both hoping I can tolerate the loud fan, if not I’ll use the adjustable. In the meantime I attach a second fan to the radiator: 1 push, 1 pull. Very slight change in temp. I now have more fans running in the water cooling setup than I did in the air cool. Not good.
A few days later, while waiting for the new fans to arrive I get the idea about moving the main unit outside the case (later found an article about doing this, nice to see someone else thought it was a good idea too). The drive bay setup is simply a pain in the butt. I also decided to try immersing the secondary radiator in water. The idea was the unit would have to heat all the water before the system temp would rise, effectively giving me a large reservoir. Worked. Somewhat. It upped my time from 20-30 minutes to reach max temp to around 4 hours and lowered the max to around 55-56 instead of 58-60C. I rarely move the computer so having a half gallon bucket (sealed) mounted to the top is not a big deal to me. Better, but still not happy.
The fans arrive. The volcano is definitely loud, but it does lower my max temp to around 50C. Another “but” here…but I sleep in the same room as the computer and it bothers me. It lasts 3 days before I decide it’s time to make a change.
The connectors used on the WC-201 are some oddball size. Very close to 5/16” compression fittings but not quite. Because of the o-ring, 5/16 fitting will work. Bad news is that 5/16 is the OD, the ID of the tube is 3/16”. I decide to just use the connector as if it’s a burr and push a larger tube over it and connect with a hose clamp. Pull out the calipers and the OD is .440. Too large for 3/8 and too small for 1/ 2 (and can’t find 7/16 ID tube). I find some 3/8” silicone tube which will stretch enough to fit. I also visit the pet store and buy a 250 gph pond pump. From the auto parts store I buy the 86 Chevette heater core I read about here. The only thing I’m keeping are the waterbocks.
So once again everything is disassembled and rebuilt. I decide to run the tubing outside and have an external radiator and reservoir. Heater core is attached to a personal fan which keeps it cool to the touch, and the pump is submerged in 3 gallons of water. I’m using 3/8” hose fittings to connect the radiator/pump to the waterblock assembly inside the computer. This allows me to detach the radiator/pump and move the 2 parts separately.
After 15-16 hours at full load, CPU is 45C and case temp is 33C; so a 13-15C drop in CPU temp from the stock hs/fan, and it’s quiet. I’m happy. I can not hear anything from the external radiator/pump assembly but I can feel the vibration in my feet. Noise from the computer itself is low; just the incoming and exhaust fans.
Now for the bad news: the cost. I’m down about $240 after buying the original kit, hoses, fans, fittings, new pump, heater core, etc. For that I could have just bought a kit from danger den and gotten a better setup.
So there’s the moral of the story for the other noobs: Just buy the good kit. It’ll save time and money in the end. I’ve probably put 15 hours into the various rebuilds.
Current cooling system:
Pondmaster 250gph pump (inline or submersible, VERY loud if not submerged)
3.5 gallon bucket as a reservoir and pump holder
86 Chevette heatercore attached to a 6” personal fan set on low (cannot hear it on low, is loud on high)
3/8” silicone tubing, translucent, glows blue under the blue case fan
Evercool cpu and gpu waterblocks
About 3 ounces of Water Wetter
I’d like to eventually get a better cpu waterblock but not right now. When I do that I’ll replace all the tubing with half inch tygon and probably go back to air for the gpu.
Right now I’m considering taking the heatercore out to see if that improves flow. The core feels cool all the time so I’m not sure if it’s helping; the 3 gallon reservoir might be enough.
Computer System is:
Athlon 64 3200+ 2200 core speed socket 754
Asus K8V Deluxe MB
1 gig Kingmax PC3200 DDR (2x512meg)
Nvidia 5600XT 128meg (best card for less than $100 when I bought it)
Xpider mid tower case with 500W PS
Maxtor 7200 IDE drives (120 and 160 gig) – will eventually replace with SATA
Lite-On 4x DVD +-RW (piece of crap)
Win XP Pro
On to step two: Overclocking...
Misellus
This all started with the idea to spend $40-$50 to buy a better heat sink for my cpu since I’m currently using the stock hs/fan. About a month ago I saw an Evercool 201 water cooling setup on ebay for $80 plus $15 shipping and decided to buy it. It was only a little more than the Zalman fan I was looking at. My A64 3200 was running hot (IMO) with the stock heatsink. Under full load it was 58-60C. I’m on the folding team so it’s under full load all the time. So I place a bid and win the WC-201 setup. In the week between ordering the kit and receiving it I read here that these little all in one kits are crap and if you bought one you’d be aching to modify it right away (very good opinion, it’s exactly how it happened). I’d already paid my money, so just sighed and decided to give it a go anyway. And hey, it’s half what a pro kit would cost.
It arrives, I install it in about an hour (no leaks, no problems) and check my temps. Took about 20 minutes to get up to 50C so I think everything is fine. Ten minutes later it’s at 59 and I’m grumbling…2 hours later it’s at 62C and I’m pissed. Not only am I out $95 but the thing is running hotter than before. I do a little investigating and find a kinked hose. Okay, better, temps hovering around 57-58C. Still not happy about spending the money to get the same level of cooling as before. Not surprising though, the tubing is 3/16” ID and the whole system only holds 5-6 ounces of water.
The fan on the main radiator is weak so I decide it has to go. I try a few creative mounting arrangements to get a 120mm fan attached to the 80mm grill but nothing works well enough (without more case mods than I’m willing since I don’t want to disassemble the system entirely). I find a 120mm-80mm shroud online, but it’s out of stock. So I look for high throughput fans. NewEgg has the Volcano which is 80cfm; main user comment is that it’s LOUD, and another one from Thermaltech which is adjustable up to 70cfm. I buy both hoping I can tolerate the loud fan, if not I’ll use the adjustable. In the meantime I attach a second fan to the radiator: 1 push, 1 pull. Very slight change in temp. I now have more fans running in the water cooling setup than I did in the air cool. Not good.
A few days later, while waiting for the new fans to arrive I get the idea about moving the main unit outside the case (later found an article about doing this, nice to see someone else thought it was a good idea too). The drive bay setup is simply a pain in the butt. I also decided to try immersing the secondary radiator in water. The idea was the unit would have to heat all the water before the system temp would rise, effectively giving me a large reservoir. Worked. Somewhat. It upped my time from 20-30 minutes to reach max temp to around 4 hours and lowered the max to around 55-56 instead of 58-60C. I rarely move the computer so having a half gallon bucket (sealed) mounted to the top is not a big deal to me. Better, but still not happy.
The fans arrive. The volcano is definitely loud, but it does lower my max temp to around 50C. Another “but” here…but I sleep in the same room as the computer and it bothers me. It lasts 3 days before I decide it’s time to make a change.
The connectors used on the WC-201 are some oddball size. Very close to 5/16” compression fittings but not quite. Because of the o-ring, 5/16 fitting will work. Bad news is that 5/16 is the OD, the ID of the tube is 3/16”. I decide to just use the connector as if it’s a burr and push a larger tube over it and connect with a hose clamp. Pull out the calipers and the OD is .440. Too large for 3/8 and too small for 1/ 2 (and can’t find 7/16 ID tube). I find some 3/8” silicone tube which will stretch enough to fit. I also visit the pet store and buy a 250 gph pond pump. From the auto parts store I buy the 86 Chevette heater core I read about here. The only thing I’m keeping are the waterbocks.
So once again everything is disassembled and rebuilt. I decide to run the tubing outside and have an external radiator and reservoir. Heater core is attached to a personal fan which keeps it cool to the touch, and the pump is submerged in 3 gallons of water. I’m using 3/8” hose fittings to connect the radiator/pump to the waterblock assembly inside the computer. This allows me to detach the radiator/pump and move the 2 parts separately.
After 15-16 hours at full load, CPU is 45C and case temp is 33C; so a 13-15C drop in CPU temp from the stock hs/fan, and it’s quiet. I’m happy. I can not hear anything from the external radiator/pump assembly but I can feel the vibration in my feet. Noise from the computer itself is low; just the incoming and exhaust fans.
Now for the bad news: the cost. I’m down about $240 after buying the original kit, hoses, fans, fittings, new pump, heater core, etc. For that I could have just bought a kit from danger den and gotten a better setup.
So there’s the moral of the story for the other noobs: Just buy the good kit. It’ll save time and money in the end. I’ve probably put 15 hours into the various rebuilds.
Current cooling system:
Pondmaster 250gph pump (inline or submersible, VERY loud if not submerged)
3.5 gallon bucket as a reservoir and pump holder
86 Chevette heatercore attached to a 6” personal fan set on low (cannot hear it on low, is loud on high)
3/8” silicone tubing, translucent, glows blue under the blue case fan
Evercool cpu and gpu waterblocks
About 3 ounces of Water Wetter
I’d like to eventually get a better cpu waterblock but not right now. When I do that I’ll replace all the tubing with half inch tygon and probably go back to air for the gpu.
Right now I’m considering taking the heatercore out to see if that improves flow. The core feels cool all the time so I’m not sure if it’s helping; the 3 gallon reservoir might be enough.
Computer System is:
Athlon 64 3200+ 2200 core speed socket 754
Asus K8V Deluxe MB
1 gig Kingmax PC3200 DDR (2x512meg)
Nvidia 5600XT 128meg (best card for less than $100 when I bought it)
Xpider mid tower case with 500W PS
Maxtor 7200 IDE drives (120 and 160 gig) – will eventually replace with SATA
Lite-On 4x DVD +-RW (piece of crap)
Win XP Pro
On to step two: Overclocking...
Misellus
