Waterchilling and insulation

I'm planning to switch around to a chilled water cooling setup with my next case. I've got most of it figured out, except for one little thing.

I know that i'm going to need to insulate the tubes. I know i'm going to have to insulate the CPU socket with dielectric grease, neoprene, etc.

But how am I supposed to stop condensation from forming on the top of the block?

The block used would preferably be a Cascade or RBX (for asthetics and cooling power), but both of these blocks, with the triple-barb design (especially the RBX), seem to be rather difficult to insulate the top of. Would the CPU (P4 2.4c @ 3.5ghz++) be generating enough heating to make this a non-issue, or am I going to have to whip out some oddly shaped neoprene, an exacto knife, and make a big 'ole neoprene enclosure?


Feel free to suggest other waterblocks, parts, and methods for getting the CPU temperature down as well. Except for TEC/Peltier units. Don't have enough current through this dorm room to run those

This whole thing is by no means set in stone, so any help is greatly appreciated.

OperativeSix said:

I'm planning to switch around to a chilled water cooling setup with my next case. I've got most of it figured out, except for one little thing.

I know that i'm going to need to insulate the tubes. I know i'm going to have to insulate the CPU socket with dielectric grease, neoprene, etc.

But how am I supposed to stop condensation from forming on the top of the block?

The block used would preferably be a Cascade or RBX (for asthetics and cooling power), but both of these blocks, with the triple-barb design (especially the RBX), seem to be rather difficult to insulate the top of. Would the CPU (P4 2.4c @ 3.5ghz++) be generating enough heating to make this a non-issue, or am I going to have to whip out some oddly shaped neoprene, an exacto knife, and make a big 'ole neoprene enclosure?


Feel free to suggest other waterblocks, parts, and methods for getting the CPU temperature down as well. Except for TEC/Peltier units. Don't have enough current through this dorm room to run those

This whole thing is by no means set in stone, so any help is greatly appreciated.

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while an ally (whitewater - i presume that's what you mean as the cascade has a 2 barb design...) or brass (rbx) would have a cold top, surely the poly top would be a pretty good insulator in itself? (though the barbs'd need insulation..)

I glued neoprene to the top of my block with silicone sealant so the block was entirely encased in it- never had condensation issues.

pauldenton, you can get the cascade with 3 barbs.

necromanx13x said:

pauldenton, you can get the cascade with 3 barbs.

Click to expand...

iirc a couple of people got 3 barb cascades as "specials" but the standard is/was 2 (cheaper + no loss of performance)

Shrug... you can't 'get' the cascade at all, let alone 3 barbs =p

So i'm most likely going to wind up adding neoprene over the waterblock's top then?

And given that i'm going to be using chilled water, do the new jet impingement blocks still have the same advantages over "traditional" maze-style blocks? If they don't, I might just get a cheapo swiftech block, as they look REDICULOUSLY easy to condensation-proof.