WaterCooling Setups?

[Epox4life]

My first watercooling setup *kit.

http://mercury.walagata.com/w/fetuskiller/Watercooling.JPG

My second watercooling setup zalman res with added stuff.

http://mercury.walagata.com/w/fetuskiller/zalmanwater1.JPG

I just ordered a new pump to add on to the zalman kit, what else could I do to increase cooling power, I was thinking a new CPU block.

[Soong]

Looks like you have a 100 pound passive radiator and an 80mm radiator? I don't get that but, if you want to increase cooling power why not start with some active cooling?

[Fighter2a]

Ditch both those radiators and get the 120mm radiator with 1 or 2 fans.

[Epox4life]

Yea it goes
zalman res - CPU - 80mm rad - GPU - back to zalman res.
I want to go with active cooling but then I got this whole passive setup.
I think I will make a new watercooling setup and put it on the next computer I build cause its about time I move over to 64bit.
Oh and the one good thing about the zalman passive rad,
is that if the room is cold I the CPU runs at 18C.

Ok so if I bought a Hydor SELTZ L 40 II Water Pump.
What kind of rad should I buy?

[Fighter2a]

Your best bet is probably to have the radiator be external. This will make the fans sound louder so I'd probably get a BIP II or III with some really quiet fans.

[Fighter2a]

Or you could go crazy and use a bunch of those 80mm radiators with fans. Since you got a bunch of 80mm fan spots. But if you get rid of the bottom drive cage you could probably fit a 120mm radiator down there with some cutting.

[Otter]

What is that thing at the left of the second picture? If that's a radiator, I don't think you need more rad. If all you've got is the 80mm rad, that's definitely the weakest point in your system. If you can fit a 120mm like Figter says, you should see a good drop in temperatures.

I love the idea of going fanless, but in reality, there isn't much point to it. The quietest 120mm fans are so close to silent it doesn't matter, and even a pair of orange Nexus/Yate Loons at five volts will give your cooling capacity a major boost.

[Perseus]

I love the idea of going fanless, but in reality, there isn't much point to it.

There is indeed a point to totally fanless/passive cooling, and that's silence. Not quiet, silence. I'm no noise Nazi by any means, however some people are.

[Otter]

Even most silence nuts use fans, and while the quietest fans running at five volts do make some noise, it doesn't matter as long as it's not detectable. Unless the machine will be used in an anechoic chamber, for practical purposes, there is such a thing as a silent fan.

Of course, fan bearings do eventually wear out and start to make more noise. And some people hate even the idea of fans on their system. I didn't say there was no point to going completely fanless, only that there wasn't much point to it.

[Perseus]

I didn't say there was no point to going completely fanless, only that there wasn't much point to it.

The "point" is in the eye of the beholder, Otter. ;)

[Otter]

Aye. And ouch!

[bryan_d]

I would honestly purchase atleast a double 120MM RAD of some sort. Be it heatercore or premade, that L40 is hot as heck. I own one and when I was doing my leaktesting, the loop was actually VERYy warm to the touch. my body was not cold, (normal 37 degrees Celsius) so if the loop was hotter meaning it surpass 37 degrees with no heatsource but the pump itself!

I hope your passive aluminum tower can dissapate the heat of a CPU and the 55W pump you have. I would suggest getting a heatercore from autozone (pontiac bonny 77) and putting the correc barbs in place. If you are going to stay with your current zalman blocks, then buy 3/8" barbs for the heatercore and also buy some 3/8" barbs for the pump too! There is very little chance your 3/8" tube will fit over Hydor's barbs. Or you can just buy some reducers but you will spend more cash with the different size tubing

Good luck with your system,
Bryan D

[96s10]

Epox I've currently got the reserator 1 (blue one). All I did was added a Danger Den D4 pump and turned off the reserators one. I also had it cooling my 3500+, 6800, & my raptor. Did quite well as long as I had a fan on it.

[Perseus]

Epox I've currently got the reserator 1 (blue one). All I did was added a Danger Den D4 pump and turned off the reserators one. I also had it cooling my 3500+, 6800, & my raptor. Did quite well as long as I had a fan on it.

I'm surprised that Zalman hasn't come up with some sort of addon fan unit for the Reserator.

[Damian]

If you have a passive setup like that, why do you have a chipset fan? That's going to make much more noise than any good 120mm fan will. Ditch that stock chipset heatsink/fan and get this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835118214

Next, what kind of power supply do you have? Is it completely silent? If not, then get a nice, quiet one with a 120mm fan (not that all 120mm power supplies are quiet). I have a Barton@2.33ghz and 9800pro and a Fortron 300W. It powers the computer just fine and is completely inaudible when i close the case, even when nothing else is turned on.

As for the watercooling itself, sorry to say this, but my recommendation would be to sell both the 80mm rad (it's not really doing anything, especially without a fan, other than restricting water flow) and the passive tower rad. Get a nice, decently big heatercore. Purpose-built rads will be much more expensive and perform anywhere from drastically worse to a tiny bit worse compared to a good heatercore of the same size.

If the heatercore accepts one 120mm fan, get one; if it accepts two, then get two. Don't just get any 120mm fan; hit up www.silentpcreview.com to see what's the best. You'll find that Nexus fans are known to be the holy grail, but are pretty expensive at $20 a pop. Nexus fans are basically just rebranded Yate Loon fans that run a bit more slowly and have slightly higher quality standards. If you look around, you might be able to find a Yate Loon for $6 or so. Now that you have the fan, buy a fanbus or rig one up (probably no more than $5 in parts) to undervolt the fan. Make sure to have a shroud going from the fan to the rad.

Lastly, get a silent pump that doesn't have too little flow. I myself have an Eheim 1048, and as long as you put it on some foam to suppress vibrations, it's completely silent. It's not that expensive either.

If you do this, you'll have a nice system that's much more silent than what you have now and will perform much better.

Either that, or get another kit if you want your watercooling to remain mediocre.

[Perseus]

Aye. And ouch!

:p