Aquarius III VS DYI kit (great results)

Aquarius III VS DIY kit (great results)

A couple of months ago I bought Aquarius III and installed into my Rig (P4C800 E Dlx, 3.2E D0, and BFG 6800 Ultra OC) hoping to get better temps than my Hyper 6 HS. I did get better temps allright but by 1C idle and 2C load. I was not happy with that, so I went ahead and get a dual heatercore along with BIP sigle Rad and put them in series after taking the Aquarius III rad off. my temps went down 2C at idle and 4C under load. I was ok with that for a month or so (idle was 34C-37C and load was 47C-49C with the CPU at 3.9 and stock vcore) temps rise about 3C idle and 5C under load with the Cpu at 4.1 and vcore at 1.525.

Here is a pic of how my setup looked like


I then went ahead and decided to get some decent setup, I ended up with the following

Swiftech MCP650 12v DC Pump
Swiftech MCW-50
Swiftech MCW6002-P
MCW50-NV4045 (GeForce 6) Kit
HydrX Extreme Duty Coolant
Criticool Waterplant reservoir
Clearflex 1/2" ID Tubing - 15 feet
1/2" Stem to 1/2" Hose Barb Fitting
2x dual heatcore with 2 120mm fans on each


here is how my system looks like later (externally mounted)




my temps now are (keep in mind that I now also cooling my 6800 ultra VGA in the same loop.)

Room temps: 23C-26C

At 3.9/ stock vcore
Idle: 28-31
Load: 32-34

with the CPU at 4.16 with 1.536 vcore
idle: 29C-31
Load: 33-36

Gpu @ 476/1.19 (MCW50 ROCKS) I can run any 3D benching programs all day long with no signs of artifact nor freezes)

Idle: 37-42
Load: 43-46

My Max overclock went a bit higher as well, it went from 4.16 to 4.24 and my VGA Max overclock went a lot higher as well, well going from stock cooling to watercooling is the key huh it went from 448/1.14 to 478/1.19

here are some Screen shots

3Dmarker 2005 best score

Sandra and Max overclock

3Dmarker2003

3Dmarker 2001

How did you do this externally? I'd be veryinterested in doing this myself if I knew what to do.

I cant see the results thumbnails though, clicking them simply puts them in a new window, same size though

Nice temps/overclocks!

Pics fixed now.

How did you do this externally? I'd be veryinterested in doing this myself if I knew what to do.

Click to expand...

well as you can see in the pics, I built a shround, mounted it into a small table, fixed the pump and res to the same table and ran the tubbing to the back of the case. It does not very good comparing to you guys with fancy cases and all, but its performance is what I am after

DamienKC said:

How did you do this externally? I'd be veryinterested in doing this myself if I knew what to do.

I cant see the results thumbnails though, clicking them simply puts them in a new window, same size though

Nice temps/overclocks!

Click to expand...

Pics come up as:

http://img7.exs.cx/img7/2667/PCandRad.th.jpg

erase the ".th" for full size:

http://img7.exs.cx/img7/2667/PCandRad.jpg

Very nice and clean btw

I really like the table, that is quite sharp looking. Well done!

is it very loud?

it's not that loud really, louder than my Aquarius III, but nothing that bothers me .

Looking good! Your DIY kit is basically a Swiftech kit, haha.

Yep, the Aquarius sucks big time. I jumped on the watercooling bandwagon with the big red flag waving for the Aquarius as well. There are some decent mods to be done to teh Aquarius (fitting to larger rads in the case, external rad like you had, etc). But to cool the newer CPUs coming out, and also the hefty price of the Aquarius itself, it was time to upgrade.

So I put a little system togather over the last several weeks.

I'm finish up the case mods this weekend, and then place it all togather next week. I wanted to do an external setup just you did, to keep the coolest possible air around the radiator. I've lost a lot of time debating the best setup. And after I got the parts, I've yet thought of another one. We'll see sometime next week.

wooooooooooooow, these sure look nice bro.

are you only going to be cooling the CPU with that, or it's CPU+GPU?

what kind of PCU you will be cooling?

xtatdsm said:

wooooooooooooow, these sure look nice bro.

are you only going to be cooling the CPU with that, or it's CPU+GPU?

what kind of PCU you will be cooling?

Click to expand...

Didn't mean to steal your thunder mang. Was just showing everyone that large rad(s) and external cooling is the way to go!

Will be cooling the CPU (or dual CPUs/dual core units next year and beyond), as well as both 6800 GTOs in SLI (the PCI-E OEM version of the Ultra. ) when the newer mobos come out (see sig).

Currently running a prescott 560 (3.6Ghz).

Didn't mean to steal your thunder mang. Was just showing everyone that large rad(s) and external cooling is the way to go!

Click to expand...

it's good man

Will all the extra tubing put a bigger load on the pump?

FuPaKiLLeR said:

Will all the extra tubing put a bigger load on the pump?

Click to expand...

That's a question I have debated myself for a while. I wouldn't think so, not by much. If you use a sealed system (like a t-line), the amount of work to move the water is the same rather it's a 1' loop, or a 100' loop.

Sounds good to me.