Zalman Reserator 1 Plus setup

The original flow setup for the water is out from the Reserator to the CPU > Norhtbridge > VGA block.

But I also use a Harddrive waterblock, so the first water that comes out the Reserator goes to the harddrive and next to the CPU.

My question is what will be better for my temp is it this setup or I switch it around so the water comes first to the VGA > Northbridge > CPU > Harddisk?

i say whichever will make it so you have less tubing, or wherever you can add it in more easily

although i say a hdd waterblock is completely useless

The order of the blocks is irrelevant.
Whatever gets you the shortest, most efficient loop is best.

techun said:

although i say a hdd waterblock is completely useless

Click to expand...

Ask voigts what he thinks of them...seems a convert to me.

If you are trying to cool a CPU, GPU, chipset, and hard drives with a Reserator....good luck.

Seems I recall that Zalman now has some sort of booster fan adaptor for the Reserator- mounts the fan on the top (I guess pulling up).
I have seen Reserators enclosed in large acrylic tubes with fans on top to actively pull air over the fins but that kind of ruins the look.

Probably your best move at this point would be to treat the Reserator as a large, passively cooled reservoir and add an actively cooled rad into the loop.
After that, a block or pump upgrade would be in order.

Too bad Zalman didn't fin the interior of the Reserator as well as the exterior...seems like that would improve the heat transfer considerably.

clocker2 said:

Ask voigts what he thinks of them...seems a convert to me.

Click to expand...

I wonder how many people have even tried hard drive water blocks who swear up and down that they are "completely useless." Hmmm, 7-10c decrease in hard drive temps requiring no fan given that my data is worth more than the computer to me hardly seems "completely useless." Heat in my experience is the #1 enemy of hard drives regardless of what they say the allowable operating temps are. And if it was for nothing else but to get rid of one more fan, it would be worth it to me.

The hard drive blocks don't dump much heat into the water, not enough to visibly effect your CPU temp. There is very little temp difference across a standard watercooling loop (about .5c). So the usual recommendation is to just route things in the shortest and most efficient manner possible.

The reserator is really not designed to cool all of those blocks. It is designed to barely cool a cpu and that is about it. If you want an effective passive setup, the reserator is not the way to go. I also have read about a new fan gizmo that Zalman has made to fit over and better cool the thing, but to me this defeats the purpose of passive. I prefer to stick with my small car rad. It may not have the bling factor of the reserator, but it sure cools whatever I throw at is passively.

Guys what are you talking about? The Reserator rocks. Just to know that it contains over 2.5 liter of water just that makes it heat effective. I have cooled with air and water and that gave a worse effect to my temp and allot of anoying noise.
I idle temp CPU 32 Case 33 with my Rese cooling all parts and a very close load temp around 34-38. Also note that I have a FANLESS PSU and still I have this low case temp. That can be described with the effictifnes of the Reserator and also that it cools the harddisk that produce allot of case temp if it's not cooled. (note that I have my PSU outside my case.)
Also with no fans you get a normal room temperature. And that's one of the most importent things.

the amount of water has nothing to do with cooling capacity...

Believe me IT does. I have tried it. If you still don't believe me use your imagination. Let me help you. If you want to boil a cup of tee. What water will start to boil faster?
The one container with less water or the one with allot of water for many coups?

you just unknowingly proved yourself wrong... the small amount of water WILL boil faster, but it will only reach 100*C. The large amount of water will boil slower, but it too reaches 100*C. the amount of water has nothing to do with how low your temps are, but rather how fast your system reaches the temperature.

If i have a system with 50 gallons of water it would take 30 minutes to reach my final load temp

if i have a system with 1 gallon of water it would take 1 minute to reach my final load temp.

the load temp will be the same regardless of how much water you have

Once again, I'll jump in with a pro-Resorator (really, pro-passive cooling) comment.

I used a stock Resorator One Plus setup to cool an Athlon 64 3500, two 7800 GT cards and the northbridge. Load temps on the CPU were just a few degrees below stock air cooling, and load temps on the GPUs were about 10 degrees cooler than with the stock coolers. However - and this is the main selling point of passive systems - it was dead silent.

Also, if you replace the stock pump with an Eheim 1000 (or even an external pump), the flow increase can aid in cooling a larger loop.

That said, I would take care when setting up your loop. Throwing hard drive cooling into the loop will certainly tax the Resorator's default pump.

hookem2oo7 said:

you just unknowingly proved yourself wrong... the small amount of water WILL boil faster, but it will only reach 100*C. The large amount of water will boil slower, but it too reaches 100*C. the amount of water has nothing to do with how low your temps are, but rather how fast your system reaches the temperature.

If i have a system with 50 gallons of water it would take 30 minutes to reach my final load temp

if i have a system with 1 gallon of water it would take 1 minute to reach my final load temp.

the load temp will be the same regardless of how much water you have

Click to expand...

This is, of course, correct. What really matters is the surface area of the passive cooling unit. More surface area = more heat dissipation. The Resorator has 1.274m^2 of total surface area. It's ability to dissipate heat from the water is quite good, particularly if attention is paid to placement of the Resorator unit itself.

agreed. if more water is in contact with more cooling area, more heat will be extracted from the water.

Some reading at this point is my recommendation. For instance, a thread we just had last week here on OC was a review of 16 watercooling kits (which conveniently left out the Swiftech kits which are the best ones out). Here is their review of the reserator plus: http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/coolers/display/16watercooling_30.html . I don't know what you guys are doing to claim that this kit performs so well when EVERY evaluation of it bears out the fact that a good quality setup leaves it in the dust.

The amount of water only really comes into play when you have such a large volume of water that it is able to dissipate the heat before it reaches up to temp, in the order of like aquarium sized. As was mentioned, surface area is what matters when it comes to passive cooling, as well as orientation in the case of a car type rad.

Daddyjaxx said:

If you are trying to cool a CPU, GPU, chipset, and hard drives with a Reserator....good luck.

Click to expand...

what he said

hookem2oo7 said:

you just unknowingly proved yourself wrong... the small amount of water WILL boil faster, but it will only reach 100*C. The large amount of water will boil slower, but it too reaches 100*C. the amount of water has nothing to do with how low your temps are, but rather how fast your system reaches the temperature.

If i have a system with 50 gallons of water it would take 30 minutes to reach my final load temp

if i have a system with 1 gallon of water it would take 1 minute to reach my final load temp.

the load temp will be the same regardless of how much water you have

Click to expand...

If you have 1 gallon the temp would reach it's high load temp like say 50*C and it would stay there.
50 gallon would reach it's high load temp like say 35*C and stay there. So yes the more water you have the lower temp you can get.


This chart is a laugh



For only cooling the CPU also, very confusing when I get 34*C cooling CPU, GPU, Northbridge and harddisk and case fanless, it makes you wonder.

nicoliani said:

50 gallon would reach it's high load temp like say 35*C and stay there. So yes the more water you have the lower temp you can get.

Click to expand...

lol, no. as long as there was minimal heat transfer from your giant 50 gallon loop aside from the radiator, your load temp would reach 50*C in both cases...

no it wouldn't and heat transfer has not that big influence.
So you say 1 gallon and 50 gallon placed in same giant Reserator would reach same temp?
Then way should I fill it to the top when 1 gallon would be enough and I would get the temp I'm getting now 34*C.

no, i'm not talking about a resorator particularly...its different when more water is touching more of the device that dissipates heat

I would like to invite you to either a freshman chemistry book regarding heat transfer, a sophmore Chemical Engineer book on fluid dynamics, or a not scientific book "Aquarium caretaking." You are wrong, and I'm sorry that you do not believe it.
I also invite you to post your idle/load temps via screenshot, and perhaps a breakdown of your system with approximate wattage. I'm sure the resorator would be great if using a P3.