It's Big, it's black, it's W/C'ed

[Acid_death69]

Hey all i am bk with new bits and bobs and yes i have finally w/c'ed my pc:) it's looking fairly cool (excuse the pun).

So yer i have changed the PSU to a corsair 620W, the mobo from that shit box win fast to a Asus crosshair 590 gaming mobo and i got my zalman res1 v2!!!!

Anyways took all the bits out of my pc n that and scrapped everything i could of my old mobo which was only the ram and the CPU.

I do apologise for the shacky pics i should of used i house mates camera but really couldn't be assed going upstaris to get it. anyways the mobo:D

http://img150.imageshack.us/img150/4276/dsc00660ru7.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

the PSU looking very sexy:)

http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/3018/dsc00655kw3.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

the very black and suprising big water tower, it's nearlly two foot tall!!!

http://img150.imageshack.us/img150/6457/dsc00659hk0.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

and the bits and bobs that came with it:)

http://img150.imageshack.us/img150/7100/dsc00658sg1.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

i also bought some new water coolant as i didnt want blue in my case again so i decided to go with green and get some nice UV cathodes in there:)

The water cooling kit was stupidly easy to set up, the only problems that i had is that the hose it self aint the standard 3/8 or 1/2, so i couldnt get any clips for it. Luckily the seals are tight and zalman give you some metal clips which fit pretty snuggly.

Ive shot the tower right next to my window, thought it would be a good place to get decent temps and i was very much right!!! cores were floating around 22C bearing in mind that was idle. Ive also got the GPU hooked up aswell and that's floating around 34C last time i checked so that pretty decent:)

Here are some shots ive just done now, but it looks so good when it's in the dark:D

http://img502.imageshack.us/img502/8904/dsc00663xp0.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

http://img337.imageshack.us/img337/6241/dsc00664eb3.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

i still need to sort out some of the hosing like and also i need to stress test the CPU so i know what kind of cooling i really have:) i'll take some more pics tonight when it's dark and i'll take the side of the case off:)

The cable management i still need to sort out but having a modular PSU makes life so much easier:yup:

anyway let me know what ya think.

[clocker]

As I've said previously, I'm intrigued by this setup and very interested in your results.
I assume you're using the Zalman blocks on the C/GPU?

How are you monitoring the temps?

[Acid_death69]

yerr i have the zalman blocks on atm, though im a lil peaved at that i dont have the gold block on my CPU one, it was a bog standard one as far as i could make out. Im monitoring the temps through everest if i want i can put lil thermistors in or on the tank. atm it's pretty warm cos the sun is shinning on the tank. But this morning temps were floating around 24-25c

[Detale]

What CPU/speed is it running at? Looks good so far

[Acid_death69]

the cpu is a AMD athlon 64 3.2Ghz 6400+ BE, tis a canny lil cpu like does the job:)
The temps atm are 24 and 25 and gpu is 33. Here's a couple of pics of it in the dark, i think it really comes into it's element, flash http://img205.imageshack.us/img205/1971/dsc00665zw4.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
without flash
http://img242.imageshack.us/img242/8540/dsc00667ak8.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[Detale]

Lookin great man. The Antec 900 looks good WCled. Sorry I haven't had ANY time to work on mine maybe this weekend.

[Acid_death69]

aye it does the only problem im having atm is trying to keep the tank outta sunlight butat the same time keep it in a cool place.

[Detale]

Where is it being kept now/permanently? Where did you find the room to put everything in there?

[Acid_death69]

atm it's still on the window ledge, figured that glass is always cold so i put it next to it. Erm the modular PSU freed up alot of room so i could stuff in. I still need to a lil bit more cable managment and also some modification to the mobo tray so i can get5 more wires behind it.
It's working out really well:)

[clocker]

Although your window location may not be ideal during summer months- a lot depends on how much direct sunlight it gets- it should be great during the winter.

[Acid_death69]

aye that's the plan, it does get hot during the day, it got up to 50C yesterday:s, suppose it does'nt help giving that the tank is black. ive got a fan that sits on top of the tank and it'll suck air in from the open window above, so that should keep it a certain temps when it's hot.

[clocker]

Given that you have quite a large water mass, enclosed in a large metal mass, your temps should move pretty slowly.

It would be interesting to graph the temps over several 24 hour periods and average them out.

[Acid_death69]

i'll do that tomorrow cos than i can have a start finish time, think there is an option to do that in everest or something

[Detale]

I know this is the pot calling the kettle black but more PICS man!!!

[tesco]

I know this is the pot calling the kettle black but more PICS man!!!
And a little bit bigger.:pinch:

[Acid_death69]

lol kk will post some more pics tomorrow, is there anything specific you wanna see?

[Detale]

Sure the inside mostly and the rad placement. thanks

Edit: how did I miss this pic
http://img502.imageshack.us/img502/8904/dsc00663xp0.jpg

GOD DAMN that thing is gigantic man
http://imageshack.us/

[Acid_death69]

lol it is like, it's nearlly two foot tall! Was really taken away when i got it in the box. When i saw it on the web i was like that looks pretty cool, cos the case it was next to seemed pretty small. Then i got it i was like wtf! still yet to recieve the fan that goes on top of it. Will get hold of my mates camera when she gets bk from uni and take some good pics:)

[clocker]

still yet to recieve the fan that goes on top of it.
If you're talking about the Zalman "booster fan", I wouldn't get my hopes up too high, I don't think it works very well and it completely violates the "no fans, totally silent" concept that made the Reserator unique.
As soon as you slap fans on it, you essentially have a really crappy radiator.

When the Reserator first came out I corresponded with a Finnish guy who was one of the few advocates for it on OC Forums. He did quite a bit of tinkering/testing and came up with a few mods that seemed to work. The main one was extending the inlet with a tube so that the pump couldn't suck the just returned (hot) water right back into the circuit. Zalman may have even incorporated this into the V2, I'm not sure.

Fans- even with a full length shroud, which the Zalman version doesn't have- were less effective than he'd hoped unless the shroud was ducted to outside air.

Ultimately, the final solution was the simplest and most obvious...he extended the tubing and wiring and ran the Reserator outside, buried in snow.
This was a kickass performer but required upgrading the pump as the original could not deal with the extra tubing and height disparity. Zalman upgraded the pump for the V2, so it may not be an issue with yours.

I think you'll find that the Zalman's construction is just not very receptive to forced air cooling...the metal mass is too great compared to the finning and heat exchange is relatively poor. I had always wondered why they didn't have fins on the inside as well as out , that would have made a difference but I guess that would have really complicated the extrusion process.

Your layout- desk right next to window- would make it pretty simple to hang the rez outside the building.

[Acid_death69]

i could put it outside the building but i think if i did that chances are it would get nicked. I dont live in the best of neighbour hoods. Anyway we'll see, not far off from winter, im sure that's when it'll come into it's own:)

[xantra]

That rad looks cool as.... any results? have you tried any other W/C setups? how does this compare?

[Acid_death69]

i haven't tried any other w/c kits on my pc, but i have meddled with another w/c setup off my mates pc. Yesterday i managed to get my temps down to 23-24C on idle and it wouldn't go over 34 on load so that's really good for me:) USed OCCT stress tester for an hour.

[clocker]

Given the giant water mass you have, I'm not sure an hour is long enough to get an accurate stress temp reading.

No matter though, after all this time I've finally realized that one of- if not the- greatest advantages to watercooling is the "set it, forget it" nature of the beast.
Even under worst case ambient conditions I've never come closer than 40° to the CPU's shutdown point, so I just stopped paying attention.

[Josh]

aw dan ya never said it was external tower

get it all internal like my plan when i have the cash like

looking good matey

[Acid_death69]

lol alright boyo, wondered when ya were coming bk on ere. Erm when im taking it about n that think i'll get a 120.1 rad with a mini res built in and just buy a pump. But atm i aint moving so i shall stick to this:D

@ clocker i'll do a 3 hour stress test see if that makes a difference:)

[Detale]

3 hour!? C'mon man grow a pair and do a 6 hour :P

[Josh]

Also dan does your processor have speedstep do amd's have it ?

[Acid_death69]

3 hour!? C'mon man grow a pair and do a 6 hour :P
lol cheers:P

@josh, i have no idea fella, i haven't looked into that, think that might be AMD's version of quick and quiet.

right did another stress test, i did 5 hours this time! lol needed to do some work on my pc tonight so couldnt have it go on for to long.
http://img133.imageshack.us/img133/9611/2008100821h37cpu1qa4.png (http://imageshack.us)

http://img133.imageshack.us/img133/7581/2008100821h37cpu2vm9.png (http://imageshack.us)

so make of them what you will:) the ambient room temp was 23C

[Acid_death69]

what do you think to that then clocker?

[Acid_death69]

well ive get rid of the fecker! couldn't stand having my pc water cooled any longer. i now have a Asus triton 88! tis a fecking beast of a thing like nearlly touches the case wall. i'll post pics later on but surfice to say that it's better than my w/c loop.

[clocker]

I'm confused.
Last we heard you were very happy and suddenly you can't stand the Zalman.
What happened?

[Acid_death69]

i was happy, but 7 months later the performance on the motor started to decline, and it took longer and longer for it to cool my CPU after heavy loads. i did try to replace the motor but trying to get the bottom of the tank off is near impossible. Also draining the loop is a pain, plus it ways a ton. im happy that itried water cooling but seen as i move my pc about every so often it becomes a major inconvenience. Have my new heat sink is easier. i may try water cooling again in the future hopefully when everything becomes better enclosed but for the moment in happy with air. howz your w/c looping going clocker?

[clocker]

Yeah, those things have a well-documented problem with the stock pumps.
Various fixes are available but require some work.

The external Zalman setup does tend to magnify the problems inherent with all water loops...portability being the main one.
That can be somewhat alleviated by using some quick connects in the water lines, but it'll always be an issue.

My loop is running just fine, thank you.
I just did a fresh install of Win7 and haven't even installed Everest to monitor temps.
Probably won't either.
It's been running fine for months and I'm trying to stop obsessing over my hardware.
Now that I have a car project to occupy me, Sprocket has been in "set it and forget it" mode.

Obviously, this could change at any time.

[Acid_death69]

lol yerr i know fine well you like to tinker with it every now and then i think were all like that. i should really relable this thread it's not big, it's not clever it's buggered.

[Detale]

Good to see you around again, sorry you gave up on the WC. Hopefully you come back one day.

[Acid_death69]

i will, i think, come back to w/c. when i do i think it'll be when i will never ever move my pc and the w/c loop will be an all in one piece of equipment. that way i won't have to drain i won't be concerned about draining or pressure or spilages on pieces of hardware.
But atm i more than happy with what ive got:) i'll wait till i'll run this into the ground beofre considering a new way to cool my pc.