Is there hope to Improve the Zalman Reserator 1? or lost cause?

I'm writing this because I'm not sure if I want to invest more money on upgrading this unit.

Right now I plan on purchasing a large fan to blow hot air away from the fins - an upgraded external pump and a VGA water block.

All of which will set me back by about 100 bucks. I paid about 200 for the unit so total cost would be upwards of low 300 dollars.

With the above upgrade, will I see a dramatic improvement over what it is now? Right now my temp will peak at 58C and Idle about 44-46C - that is withOUT a VGA water block installed. I can only imagine installing a VGA waterblock will make it worst.

Based on my calculations, if I made the above modifications and with the water block for the 7800 GTX, I'll be happy with 53-54C Load temp.

Is this reasonably easy to achieve? or should I ditch the unit and buy an actively cool radiated WC platform? One reason why I bought the Zalman was because it was appealing, I don't want hoses to go everywhere in my room- nor do I want to modify my case.


Thanks.

Think of it this way, the more you mod it (if you do it right), the more of an entirly new water cooling system you have. If you finally get fed up with the Zalman unit because it does not get the temps you want, then you can just swap the rad/res with a T-Line and a rad and you'll have an entirly new system.

Sell it if you can.. then just buy:

Rad
Pump
CPU / GPU block
fans
radbox (dont have to mod your case.. like $20)

or buy an apex kit + a gpu block if you want.

No point getting a passive solution and making it active when there are better active solutions out there in the same price range.

actually, i've got an Xice passive watercooling unit (ec900) that spanks the reserator 1 without prejudice. it's also easily moddable and many users have added small fans to increase the ability of the rad to wick away hot air.

dave

dave_graham said:

actually, i've got an Xice passive watercooling unit (ec900) that spanks the reserator 1 without prejudice. it's also easily moddable and many users have added small fans to increase the ability of the rad to wick away hot air.

dave

Click to expand...

? If that was directed at me, I'm not saying you cant make a passive solution better, just saying for the same price you can get a better active solution. Short of a few hundred CFM of air blowing over the whole thing you wont even come close to good active cooling.

Unless you have like 6 rads or something

cardboard/pvc/acrylic/whatever tube over the fins, gap at the bottom. Mount a fan to the top @ 5-7v or so.

Install a pipe that makes the inlet water go to the TOP of the alu before travelling to the bottom, rather than one contained loop.

Should not cost much, will improve cooling heaps.