Passive Water-cooled PC (Almost Silent)
Posted: Sat Jan 08, 2005 6:53 am
Hi guys, I have finally managed to get my PC to near noiselessness by running a totally passive (heat transfer) water-cooling system. Currently the only audible components are the PSU (to be swapped out when cash is available) and the CDRW/DVDRW drives (only when in use so not really considered an issue!). I think the pump (CSP750) may become audible once the PSU is silenced but right now I can't hear it unless I put my ear right beside it
due to the reported pump failures I shall be swapping this out once the watercooling shop has the DCC in stock, hopefully later this month
The loop runs as follows:
Rad >> CSP750 (pump) >> Maze4 CPU >> SilentStar (HDD) >> Maze4 (Northbridge) >> Maze4 (GPU) >> Rad
I use a T-line so which fits just before the pump intake
The hard drive
I am using a customized SilentStar Dual HDD Cooler to keep my drive both cool and quiet:
full project log showing work done
The system is very quiet with the HDD only audible when running a defrag and then only very slightly with my head inches from the casing! This is on an old 80GB WB 8MB Cache drive which is very loud indeed! I can not hear the drive spinning up at all and am thinking of adding some extra foam in the front slots to silence it completely!
The tests
The system itself runs cool for general 'everyday' use, seeming to stabilise in the high 30s low 40s (degrees C) on the CPU after extended use of around 3 to 4 hours.
When run under Prime95 torture test the results where fairly impressive and on-par if not better than my previous air-cooled set-up (Zalman CNPS7000B-AlCu, Zalman ZM80A-HP, Noiseblocker 80mm, Passive NB), for graphic (gaming) performance the new set-up is much better as the passive Zalman cooler added a large amount of heat to the system.
Test results for Prime95 run with a room temperature of approximately 18C (start) to 20C (end):
The system
The system itself is built to the following specifications:
AXP2500+ @ 2253MHz
Asus nForce2 Deluxe
512MB XMS3200 Corsair
MSI GeForce4 Ti4600
Pioneer 16x DVD-RW
Liteon 40x16x48x CD-RW
WD Caviar 80Gb SE
Antec TruePower 430W
Hercules Game Theatre XP
CoolerMaster 'BlackWidow'
Samsung 193P
And here it is ...
Close up of the radiator which is made from two 10meter coils of 10mm copper microbore pipe which gives approximately 3.14 square meters of surface area, over twice that of the Zalman Reserator.
The radiator isn't the best looking bit of kit but I have plans to revise or hide it in the near future. Here's how it sits tucked away in the corner of my room for the time being.
The system itself with what was to start with a massive mess of tubing now refined to a clean and tight loop sitting happy in my room.
For more pictures, test results and a log of the work done please visit my full project log here, cheers.
due to the reported pump failures I shall be swapping this out once the watercooling shop has the DCC in stock, hopefully later this month
The loop runs as follows:
Rad >> CSP750 (pump) >> Maze4 CPU >> SilentStar (HDD) >> Maze4 (Northbridge) >> Maze4 (GPU) >> Rad
I use a T-line so which fits just before the pump intake
The hard drive
I am using a customized SilentStar Dual HDD Cooler to keep my drive both cool and quiet:
full project log showing work done
The system is very quiet with the HDD only audible when running a defrag and then only very slightly with my head inches from the casing! This is on an old 80GB WB 8MB Cache drive which is very loud indeed! I can not hear the drive spinning up at all and am thinking of adding some extra foam in the front slots to silence it completely!
The tests
The system itself runs cool for general 'everyday' use, seeming to stabilise in the high 30s low 40s (degrees C) on the CPU after extended use of around 3 to 4 hours.
When run under Prime95 torture test the results where fairly impressive and on-par if not better than my previous air-cooled set-up (Zalman CNPS7000B-AlCu, Zalman ZM80A-HP, Noiseblocker 80mm, Passive NB), for graphic (gaming) performance the new set-up is much better as the passive Zalman cooler added a large amount of heat to the system.
Test results for Prime95 run with a room temperature of approximately 18C (start) to 20C (end):
The system
The system itself is built to the following specifications:
AXP2500+ @ 2253MHz
Asus nForce2 Deluxe
512MB XMS3200 Corsair
MSI GeForce4 Ti4600
Pioneer 16x DVD-RW
Liteon 40x16x48x CD-RW
WD Caviar 80Gb SE
Antec TruePower 430W
Hercules Game Theatre XP
CoolerMaster 'BlackWidow'
Samsung 193P
And here it is ...
Close up of the radiator which is made from two 10meter coils of 10mm copper microbore pipe which gives approximately 3.14 square meters of surface area, over twice that of the Zalman Reserator.
The radiator isn't the best looking bit of kit but I have plans to revise or hide it in the near future. Here's how it sits tucked away in the corner of my room for the time being.
The system itself with what was to start with a massive mess of tubing now refined to a clean and tight loop sitting happy in my room.
For more pictures, test results and a log of the work done please visit my full project log here, cheers.