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dtek Bay-Res reservoir mini-review

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method().man

Member
Joined
Dec 4, 2002
Location
Hell's Kitchen
*edit* Credit to this product must also be given to http://www.case-mod.com :D

http://dtekcustoms.safeshopper.com/20/167.htm?956


Considering the growing popularity of water-cooling setups, it seems somewhat surprising that there is a relative dearth of good reservoirs for such systems. After the poor reservoir showing offered at http://www.dangerden.com, it's good to see that dtek--another popular watercooling company--has decided to take a shot at this thinly represented segment of the watercooling market. Dtek started out with a pretty elegant idea: to place a reservoir in a location where space is likely available in most people's cases and to ease the difficulties inherent in bleeding/filling a wc system.

Initial thoughts and installation:
This reservoir is very well made. Constructed of 1/4" thick acrylic, the Bay-Res is nicely fitted together and exhibits no tendencies of leakage. Although the acrylic is somewhat scratch prone, it should be able to survive relatively intact and unscathed under normal usage. It comes with either 3/8" or 1/2" inner diameter, plastic elbow (or straight) barbs which have shown no leakage after about a month of use. Overall, the quality is what people have come to expect from dtek. Installation is very straight forward and hassle free. The kit includes everything you need to get going. The only problem I ran into was trying to fit a drive directly under the Bay-Res. Because I had purchased it with the elbow barbs, I found that hooking up a molex and IDE cable would cause my hoses to kink pretty badly since they connected right next to where the connections were on the drive.

Performance:
Ok, here's where I ran into some problems. Because the Bay-Res holds a relatively low volume of water, and the fact that the water level is pretty shallow, unless you fill the reservoir to near the top, you'll end up with a LOT of bubbles in your wc loop--especially if you have a powerful pump. The water really moves around a lot in the res and thus tends to mix it up with any air you may have in your system. The air bubbles get worse when you mix it with water additives since they tend to bubble up when agitated. That being said, it takes a few tries of pumping your system; turning it off and refilling; and waiting for bubbles to dissipate before you can have a bubble-free loop. I ended up having to tip my entire case in order to help facilitate the removal of bubbles. Now, this problem isn't as bad as it is with the DangerDen res (aka the Bubble Machine), but it is a concern at least with the initial filling. After you have your system sufficiently filled and primed though, the loop performs fairly hassle free. I think if Dtek had made the Bay-Res take up two 5 1/4 slots instead of just one, filling it would have been much easier.

After getting all the bubles out, I must admit, it does look pretty cool with the all the water moving around in the acrylic. If you add a little UV dye and install some cathodes, it could look very nice.

Pros:

-Well made. Definately looks like a professional product and not some DIY job done in some Shmoe's garage.
-Reduces clutter in a WC system since it precludes the need for a t-line.
-Fairly priced.
-Looks schweet :D.

Cons:

-Somewhat difficult to bleed--especially with a high powered pump.
-Fill hole is small so care needs to be taken when filling it up.
 
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Interesting lil read there. Wish they would have done something to the inside of it since its just a blah plexi case its kinda boring if yea ask me.
I would have added a fan or something in the front of it to add in some effects or something..... lol
Thanks though, deff some ideas to work with.
 
I thought that the concept was great, but that it still needed some refinement.

Otherwise, it should be excellent at removing air within a loop.

Maybe it just needs to be followed up with a mod guide, like "add a fill/drain point", "optimize air removal",...

:confused:
 
Hey, I was just getting ready to build one of these, I have an old cnc routing machine and lots of acrylic laying around here.. I was going to build mine 2 bays high any suggestions ??
 
yea i was just thinkin it would be better 2 bays high....im thinkin of gettin a new case to put my wcing system in but thats another story....How would i go about making this?...aka how were you planning on making it?...i have a cnc milling machine too...but how would that come to be that useful with this type of project?
 
i have a cnc milling machine too...but how would that come to be that useful with this type of project?

I have a cnc router so routing the material to size is really helpfull .. Nice clean edges, I was going to tongue and groove the acrylic and glue it with plastic adhesive.. Gettin jazzed just thinkin about it :D
 
I think the single bay res would do much better if there was a piece running the whole length in the middle, with holes along the bottom of it. This would allow the bubbles to stay on the intake/fill-hole side of it. And with many holes along the base of the divider, there shouldn't be enough suction on any given hole to suck bubbles down and through. Maybe one of you guys who are gonna make a res can test this theory out 8)

peace.
unloaded
 
Yeah you guys remember when I did this about 6 months back? Works out nice! My res was placed on the lowest bay om my PC65 so I stole a little more space, but not quite 2 drive bays. I had 2 more of these made for the lians. I am currently building 3 H2O systems in those Kingwin cases so I ordered 3 of the D-teks this week. I orderded an extra so I can observe any design advantages over the unit I have had made. I can hardly wait to see how well they work. If no pics are posted I'll see to it that a few get up, should have em by tomorrow or Monday at the latest. CYA!
 
what u could do is mod the fill just seal it up, drill another hole in between then input and output of it and the atatch a line to it with a cap it would basicly make a big tline but u could even add another line for air out while u dumped the water in...
 
Design changes? Refinement?

People Please if you have idea's, email: [email protected]

I'm not kidding, you'll be surprised how quick idea's can be incorporated.

New projects that the bay res will undertake VERY soon:

LED holes/clip in the back of the unit (3mm).
Injection Molded Design (Will provide 100% leak free solution)
Different Color (the Next color to come out will be a 'smoked black' color to match black cases).


A few comments on the 'cons':

Filling with a large pump is hard with any res. The Water just moves too much, but like you said once you get the bubbles out and 'cap' the bay-res it should all be fine

Building a 2 bay Bay-Res - Only problem is many cases have a small bar that goes in between each slot, this would cause havoc on a lot of users plans.

Fill Hole: the idea behind the fill hole was to allow easy access to filling the system. What I would recommend doing is actually screwing in a barb and connect some tubing to it and use a funnel to fill. Works like a Charm.

Well I'm glad someone seems to like it =), makes me feel all special inside.

BTW it is in MaximumPC

PS: It wasn't fully *developed* by Dtek, but Danny's a nice guy! (=.

-JokerF15
 
Hey Joker, nice job on it, I still think some type of baffle system is the way to go. I'm curious about the injection molding part too. What material would you use? Would it still be acrylic or polycarb? The Iceberg kits are molded although not one piece, they are brittle pieces of crap though, hehe. Speaking of crappy, here's a pic I threw together showing what I mean by a baffle:
baffle.gif


peace.
unloaded
 
For a 2-bay job, wouldn't it be possible to get two of these mini-resovoirs (whats the plural of 'res' btw? reses?) and connect them in series (Water into top one => Out of top one => Lower one => Around your system)

With a little dab of glue in the bleed hole of the lower one, should work.
 
"For a 2-bay job, wouldn't it be possible to get two of these mini-resovoirs (whats the plural of 'res' btw? reses?) and connect them in series (Water into top one => Out of top one => Lower one => Around your system)"


Should work.. in through the top out through the bottom.. this would cure bubbles too!
 
Coog said:
"For a 2-bay job, wouldn't it be possible to get two of these mini-resovoirs (whats the plural of 'res' btw? reses?) and connect them in series (Water into top one => Out of top one => Lower one => Around your system)"


Should work.. in through the top out through the bottom.. this would cure bubbles too!


Hey! one of my ideas worked!

BTW, you can use the
quote.gif
button to quote someone like I just did... makes reading the forum easier :D

I'm soooo lazy.
 
iamthegreatest said:
For a 2-bay job, wouldn't it be possible to get two of these mini-resovoirs (whats the plural of 'res' btw? reses?) and connect them in series (Water into top one => Out of top one => Lower one => Around your system)

With a little dab of glue in the bleed hole of the lower one, should work.

Connecting them in series wouldn't really help becuase you're still gonna run into the same fundamental problem which is that the Bay-Res maintains a low water level. The only difference is that you'll have to deal with bleeding two reservoirs instead of one. So in actuality, it'll probably make the problem worse.
 
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