Koolance case??

[JzAr]

For a while now Ive been looking for a case and also been thinking of water cooling. And then I found this case. I was impressed by it and now Im thinking of getting it. Is there any reviews or current owners that can give some feedback. Is it perfect or does it need some tweaking? Is it worth the money and does it cool well? Thanks in advance.

[Boilerhead]

It certainly isn't perfect. I just got mine yesterday and I am waiting for the mobo and a couple of odds and ends to arrive, but I can tell just by looking at all the parts in person finally that it is far from perfect. I got all the goodies with it including the HD coolers and I have my doubts as to whether or not it will have the capacity to cool an overclocked 1900+ and the GF3 GPU and the Northbridge chip and 4 ATA 133 drives.

I am going to plumb in the waterblocks for the NB and GPU, but I won't install the NB waterblock on the GPU until I am satisfied that the CPU and GPU have adequate cooling. The 1/4" ID tubing (really 7/32") is on the small side IMO and I have my doubts about the pump capacity. It doesn't come with a rear case fan, just whatever you get with the PS you choose, but there is a space for one.

What surprised me the most when I finally got it out of the box was how much smaller everything looked than in the website photos. It really is a compact setup. If you do want to try a Koolance I think you should wait for the tower model which is due out mid-month.

I'm looking at this as an opportunity to get my feet wet (hope not!) in WC. I have a string feeling that I am going to want to build a wc system from scratch after I have messed around with this one for a while.

I was very unimpressed by the chipset waterblock finishing. They weren't even close to flat. It's been a while since I did any lapping so I used it as an opportunity to brush up a bit, they're mirrors now which is really overkill for the northbridge, but should be worthwhile for the GPU. The CPU waterblock has a pretty shiny finish to it, but I am not convinced of its flatness, it seems a little wavy at first glance. It gets lapped later today.

I'll document the construction of the system over the next few days, I have to get a shower and run out to pick up a PS for it this morning. I'll probably have a bunch more pics to post next Tues or Weds.

Note in the photo that the waterblock on the left is reflecting the overhead light, it doesn't have a layer of copper :)

[seven-eleven]

what kind of sand paper did u use to lap ur waterblocks, since i've got a Koolance system and really wanna know.....many thz

[Neco]

I don't wanna sound like a moron, but while you can order extra waterblocks for certain parts for it...


I highly doubt this thing was built to sustain the heatload of 4 Hard drives (and I'm guessing they are all 7200 rpm) a CPU, a GPU and the northbridge.


I'm not ragging on you or anything, but jesus that is a little bit of a high expectation from that case..


What do you mean by small tho ? I have a mid-tower and that's what the Koolance always seemed to be to be, and well that's big enough for me personally :) tho a huge tower would look cooler - (unlike the pricetag I have seen).

I don't think it would have a problem cooling a GF3 GPU (from what I heard its the ram on cards that gets hotter these days) a CPU, and the Northbridge with a hard disk or two...

But I suppose its good your plumbing in addiotional lines.. I'd still be careful of those hard drive tho... it just sounds like a meltdown waiting to happen with that kinda setup :cool:

[Boilerhead]

I used 220, 400, 600, 1000, 1500, 2000 and then polished them with Silvo metal polish.

I use a plate of glass under the sandpaper and weight the corners so I don't have to fight any curl. Use a couple of drops of dish soap in about 1/2 oz of water (15ml) in a small saucer then use that to wet the sandpaper (you did get wet/dry sandpaper, right?) before you start sanding. It cuts much better and evenly wet, don't bother dry sanding, honest.

With the 220 you don't have to sand in a figure 8, you can just do a circular motion to flatten it quickly. Don't let it roll the sandpaper ahead of it and don't let the block chatter/skip over the paper. It should move squarely and smoothly over the paper. Make sure the paper stays wet so you end up with almost a slurry of thin goop between the block and paper. When the block is flat with the 220 grit scuff it in a figure 8 motion to get a nice cross-hatch pattern on it and then rinse the block and wash your hands. Here's a tip, remove the 220 sandpaper from the glass and set it aside before you wash your hands, you don't want to contaminate the run with the 400 with 220 grit! Wipe off the glass to make sure you're working on a flat surface again and repeat the process with 400 grit.

If you have contaminated the finer paper with heavier grit you'll see stray deeper scratches on the block (or heatsink if you are doing a HSF) which means you need to wash your paper, hands and block and start over with that grade if you want to get rid of the scratches.

It'll look pretty rough until you get past 600, once you get to 1000 it will start looking pretty good. For chipset blocks/HSes 1000 is probably more than fine, but I'm a freak so I polish them anyways, it only takes me another 10 minutes of work.

Cleanliness is definitely next to godliness with this stuff, if you contaminate the next finer paper with any coarser grit you will have scratches. If you suspect you have contaminated your wetting solution then toss it and make fresh.

With small aluminum blocks like these it takes me less than 30 minutes to get a mirror finish, with a large aluminum HS it would probably take me a little longer. If you want to polish it then most metal polishes will work, I used Silvo, but Brasso or Gorham Silver polish and others will work well. Don't use car wax, we don't want wax on it. Some folks like to use finely abrasive tooth polish/paste or jewelers rouge, I am happy with the finish I get from Silvo.

When you are all done with lapping wash the block thoroughly inside and out. If you put grit through your pump(s) they'll wear out fast. I clean the mating surfaces with acetone which might be overkill, but even though it has a mirror finish there are still microscopic pits and I don't want anything but silver in those when it is installed.

Here's a shot of how unflat the motherboard chipset blocks are as delivered from Koolance after a quick scuff with 220:

[Boilerhead]

Here's a shot of what it should look like when it is ready for 400 grit:

[seven-eleven]

thanks man......it looks very great !!

[seven-eleven]

Are u considering changing those fans operating on top of the heat exchanger ?? I've been thinking to use Panaflo 80mm fans, high speed model, since they provide great CFM air flow with quietless

[Boilerhead]

Absolutely thinking of changing those fans as a relatively low buck performance mod.

I don't think noise is a huge concern for me as I am used to being in an equipment room full of fans (that's all you hear is fans, you can barely hear anything on a phone) and the fans will only be running full tilt under load.

I'll be able to make a better guess at the fan needs once I get the system up for burn in tests with the 1.4 tbird, probably Monday evening.

This afternoon I'm lapping the CPU block, tonight I'll plumb the system and after basic leak testing I'll leave it pumping overnight to proof the plumbing. Seeing as I have to wait until Monday for the KR7A-R mobo (in transit from my office in Buffalo) I'll probably spend tomorrow making a plexi side panel for the case.

Tuesday I'll probably pop in the 1900+ just make sure that it works before I lap that. I have to make some styrene spacers out of my modeling supply to keep the lap from rocking and epoxy a little knob onto the little glass lap I'm going to cut for it.

The one good thing about waiting for parts is that it slows down the prepping process. When you get all the pieces at once enthusiasm can get the better of you in the rush to get it all together and it's too easy to skip some details. With me, every little step completed brings me satisfaction and keeps my interest level high. I never have been very good at plodding through long term projects where you gather pieces bit by bit over the course of months, some else always catches my interest and off I go on a tangent!

I'll post up some pics of the CPU block when I am done lapping that, it shouldn't take much time as it is copper which is softer than aluminum.

Henry

[Patrick G]

I'll second the "too small" comment. Yes, it's a mid-size case, but it should be able to support one of the most popular mobo's on the market -- the Iwill XP333. I have this board and it will NOT fit in this case unless you have the optional deep front bezel, or you aren't using any of the 5.25" bays.

[SEALen]

You shouldn't lap the blocks to much though... I've read that if you make it to flat the preformance will acctualy drop. Can't remeber where I read it though but I'm pretty shure it was here on overclokers or it might have been a link from here.

And as a answer to JzAr:

There are several reviews out there.
www.koolance.com have links to reviews (one of them at www.overclockers.com even)

[Boilerhead]

SEALen,

I have never seen anything about the mating surface on waterblocks being _too_ flat.

The only worry I know about with waterblocks is on the _inside_ where some roughness is desireable to increase the contact surface area between the liquid coolant and heat transfer material.

I'm far from an expert, but to me it seems that you want the absolute maximum contact area possible between mating surfaces for direct heat transfer between the two sides. Any scratches or voids require thermal compound to make up the difference which is a less efficent heat transfer medium, but still far more efficient than plain old air.

I'd appreciate any links to documentation stating that anything other than perfect mating surfaces is desired for any kind of heat sink. I'd sure hate to waste effort on an unwanted end result, but I would have to see some hard evidence before I'd change my mind on this one.

Henry

[SEALen]

Ok, remeber I said "not to much" as in a little is good to much is bad... Gonna try finding that article from that guy who did loads of test for his company.
It would be good to know exectly how much is god and when it starts getting bad... He had the answers.... why oh why didn't I bookmark it...
:)

[SEALen]

I found it!

Read all about it here:
http://www.overclockers.com/tips458

It was on overclockers I had read it after all :)

[Boilerhead]

Ahh, I see the logic, but we're not dealing with hard quartz here and there's the variable of the amount of compound applied, with which I believe less is more.

I imagine if that did hold true for CPUs and HSes, we would see that different HS materials would like different levels of lapping.

I suppose it's worth experimenting to find out. Our P4 is long overdue for a lapping, maybe I'll try it on that as it runs pretty hot now with the stocker intel deal.

Henry

[seven-eleven]

can't wait to see Boilerhead's work on Koolance case....

[Boilerhead]

Well, it hasn't been an easy build on this Koolance II box.

I had to hack the rad fan tray to route the ATX power and everything installed is a very tight fit.

The cooling IMO is poor. It's a big disappointment, 5 degrees C worse than I had hoped would be the worst performance under load, 50C under Torture Test, CPU block only and all fans going full blast running a TBird 1.4 @ 1.6 200FSB. Mobo thermistor says 29C under load with ambient being 20C. Rad tray air temp would hover around 29C, Northbridge heatsink at 34C, HD top at 34 to 35C, ATI TNT Pro 64 GPU heatsink at 59C (no fan!)

Depending on the speed it idles between 40 and 43C.

I am planning on doing a home brew WC tower with lots of GPH and heat exchanger area and nice stout waterblock. The Koolance just doesn't cut it for what I want to do, but it is an interesting experiment just the same.

I toasted my GF3 Ti 500 at 5am this morning so I am without vid (the ATI is in Tam's P4) until the replacement arrives tomorrow.

As I am still in the configuration and testing phase the machine is a mess of cables and drives and sensors so nice detail pics are a ways off still.

Here's what it looks like at this minute, a mess as I have been ripping my hair out trying to find out what happened to GF3.

Henry

[Patrick G]

Boilerhead, did you use a dye in the water, and if so, what kind and how much?

[Boilerhead]

No dye in the water yet, that's the color of the Koolance juice which came with the case.

I'd like to eventually try some UV tracer dye maybe with a black light in the case. If I ever get to the point of cosmetics...

Henry

[livan]

Dude you are doing something wrong man. I ahve my cased CLOSED , inside a cabinet adn My full load at 1470mhz is about 41

[Silvel2edge]

I have 3 temps that are getting measured, and i'm not sure what is what. My koolance case reads about 25c when just surfing, i have another probe connected to the back of my Video card, just on the other side of the chip and there is a Mobo probe directly underneath the processor, atleast i think that's what it is. I have 2 temperature readings that were reading 44c and 30c. Can any of you tell me what is what? My roomate said the 25c measured by the koolance case itself is the little black wire that runs all the way down to the bottom side of the water block itself... how accurate is that to measure the temp of the processor?

[livan]

In my opinion is teh best measure of the CPU. Just ask yourself, you got anything else closer to the processor then that probe?

[Boilerhead]

At this point I seem to be running 36 to 39c at idle and 41 to 43c under load depending on ambient which ranges from 21 to 25c.

Mobo sensor (near the bottom PCI slot corner) runs between 23 and 26c at idle and never tops 29c.

The Northbridge heat sink stays around 34 to 35c.

GF3 ram at the heat sink stays between 28 and 31c even at 273/604 in 3dmark 2k1.

The radiator core hangs between 26 and 28c most of the time.

Temps are from MBM and DigiDoc5, case is open and I have 1 120mm fan, 1 90mm fan, 8 80mm fans, 1 50mm fan and 7 40mm fans, 18 total, arranged at strategic locations throughout the case. 5 80's service the radiator, 2 80's on the PSU, 1 80 rear case, 4 40's in the 5-1/4 bays, 1 120 and 1 80 on the open side, a 40 on the NB, a 50 on the GPU and 2 40's on the GF3 ram. yeah it's pretty loud and I don't mind :P

I'm experimenting to see how much of a difference "brute force" air cooling can make in conjunction with the Koolance only servicing the CPU. I wish I had my 9 120's from my USR TC fan tray here...

Hey, it is working for me for what I want to do atm. I'm constantly running this thing on the edge of stability so if I can get another 1% worth of tolerance from blowing the hell out of it then why not :)

Henry