Zalman reserator 1 plus

[A1Killer]

Hi im thinking of going water cooling and i was looking at some external kits and the zalman reserator 1 plus looks like it would be a good one can yall tell me if that kit is a good one or which one would yall perfer to get over it now keep in mind i have an lian li v1000 case and with the 6800gt i have very little room in there as it is please help me find the right kit for me cause im new to water cooling and dont want to destroy my case or components i put alot of money in to my setup and dont want to replace everything just yet

edit: oh and if you can could you please give the url on where to buy the kit at that way i dont get lost looking for it lol

[ghettocomp]

My initial opinion of the Reserators is not that great. I have a friend that bought one against my advice. He found out that it will only cool about as well as air. basically, It looks nice, but performance is somewhat iffy, especially if you plan on doing any kind of overclocking.

I wish I had a little more personal experience with that kit. Some people seem to like the thing..

[SewerBeing]

My initial opinion of the Reserators is not that great. I have a friend that bought one against my advice. He found out that it will only cool about as well as air. basically, It looks nice, but performance is somewhat iffy, especially if you plan on doing any kind of overclocking.

I wish I had a little more personal experience with that kit. Some people seem to like the thing..

Bashing it (the reserator) for its performance is sort of like saying a truck sucks because its slow when you compare it to a ferarri. However you are not using it for what it was designed for. However I would love to see a ferarri move as much stuff around as said truck. They are not comparable because they do not have the same goals, they only use the same means of accomplishing that goal.

I submit that you can do better for silence such as a Swiftech Storm, Swiftech MCP655, BIP2 or 3 with some fans running on 5V. However again its not as quiet as a reserator will ever be

[ghettocomp]

Bashing it (the reserator) for its performance is sort of like saying a truck sucks because its slow when you compare it to a ferarri. However you are not using it for what it was designed for. However I would love to see a ferarri move as much stuff around as said truck. They are not comparable because they do not have the same goals, they only use the same means of accomplishing that goal.

I submit that you can do better for silence such as a Swiftech Storm, Swiftech MCP655, BIP2 or 3 with some fans running on 5V. However again its not as quiet as a reserator will ever be
:shrug: This is why I said I wish I had more experience with the thing. I like the looks, but as I also said, the friend can't overclock very much because its cooling capacity is not what was sold to him as... :) It is very quiet though.

[SewerBeing]

:shrug: This is why I said I wish I had more experience with the thing. I like the looks, but as I also said, the friend can't overclock very much because its cooling capacity is not what was sold to him as... :) It is very quiet though.

I know you said that but I was just trying to make a general point. Yeah the cooling capacity is limited because it inherently has only a little air movement over it. If your friend installs a ceiling fan he should and will see a drop in temps.

[ghettocomp]

I know you said that but I was just trying to make a general point. Yeah the cooling capacity is limited because it inherently has only a little air movement over it. If your friend installs a ceiling fan he should and will see a drop in temps.
LOL it was in the room with the ceiling fan! anyway, he likes it but has given up on overclocking :)

[clocker2]

Bashing it (the reserator) for its performance is sort of like saying a truck sucks because its slow when you compare it to a ferarri. However you are not using it for what it was designed for. However I would love to see a ferarri move as much stuff around as said truck. They are not comparable because they do not have the same goals, they only use the same means of accomplishing that goal.

Precisely.
I am seriously looking into the Reserator for it's ease of installation and silence.

The original model reputedly had some pump failure issues...it's too soon to tell whether that has been rectified.

I have seen installations that used better waterblocks than the Zalman's to good effect and also forced air cooling on the tower itself.
A forum buddy in Finland runs his outside the window and gets remarkably low temps with it.

The Reserator, along with most Zalman products in my experience, seems to be a quality bit of kit and while it doesn't compare to a high-end waterloop in performance, it does not require any case modification to install and seems to have some room for end-user improvement should you desire.

[voigts]

Well, of course if your friend in Finland puts it outside of the window it is going to be COLD!

The silence issue led me to go with a car rad (http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?p=3928048#post3928048) setup. I didn't have to cut up my case to do it, and it required minimal modding to the case itself with the way I was able to set it up. If I ever did remove the rad, literally all I have to do to put the case back to stock is patch a few holes for the rad mounts. And having it mounted to the case makes it easy still to move around, which is not the case with the reservator. Not to mention that I was able to get the copper rad for $35 new off of ebay and use the pump/blocks I want (yes I got a good deal).

It sure beats the price of a reservator. Thanks to the good deal on the rad, I have about half the reservator price between the rad and pump ($115).

I realize that this is not for everyone, but it sure has worked out great for me, is uber-quiet, and still gives me decent temps with plenty of cooling capacity.