I'd like to know, what are your recommended mods for the reserator? I have heard that probably the first thing to do is replace the pump. 2ndly is probably the hosing/removing the flow indicator. Can I get anyone's 2nd opinion/advice on this? I am a little disappointed at the 45/40 C CPU/Case temps, which were basically the same as my air cooled solution, just a lot quieter.

the limitation of the reserator is the reserator itself. it simply does not radiate heat away from the system efficiently enough.

i recall another SPCR member upgrading his reserator system with an eheim 1048 pump and a silverprop cyclone se waterblock with minimal performance gains.

perhaps you can direct a box fan towards the reserator?

Actually I was considering the following -

Using a vertical cylinder to enclose the reserator, and then mounting a 120mm fan at the top, with slits near the bottom to bring in cool air, and then teh top 120mm fan sucking it out. The problem is I don't know what material the cylinder should be, regular paper, construction paper, posterboard, cardboard... etc. Metals are out of the question, as I have no access to something like that. It seems sensible...

----------
120mm fan
-------------
| | R | |
| | E | |
| | S | |
| | E | |
| | R | |
| | A | |
| | T | |
| | O | |
| | R | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
SLIT SLIT
| ----------- | <-- metal steel stand of the reserator
what do you think?

good thinking. sounds like a winner to me

i'd just make it out of cardboard. or you could possibly use wrapping paper so you can go around and around the reserator until you cover most of it. as long as you construct the top properly (some masking tape will do the job) to prevent air seeping in at the top of the cylinder, i don't see why it wouldn't work.

you can call it a shroud i guess

ahh ok.. it would improve it yes.. but why noit just get a heatercore

I agree with chylld, the Reserator itself will limit your performance regardless of which mods you try.

There's no reason why you couldn't lower your load temps by a good 5C with more expensive tubing, a stronger pump and a better waterblock though.
I guess the question is how much time & money you're willing to spend on the job and weather 5Cish lower will really be enough for you (probably not if you want to overclock).

Pointing a 120mm fan at the Reserator will be about as effective as all the other mods combined as far as temps go, but then you'll no longer be running a passive system.

i am sort of wondering how better tubing would result in better temperatures, if the ID and OD were both the same. I mean... it's the same size... nothing different...

By "better" I'm assuming he means bigger. And it'll make very little difference in temps. There are already restrictions built into the system at the WB and the Res, changing the tubing diameter will have only a small effect on the flow rate.

I've already experimented with a shroud like you've described, and it does work quite well, lowering temps by 5°'s or so. I used aluminum foil as the material, and a 5v 120mm L1A.

But in reality, why do you need to mod it? Right out of the box it will cool 150W's+ worth of CPU and VGA adequately. Are you running more than that?

If you're at the same temps as your aircooled system, yet nearly zero noise...I'd say that you're in good shape.

I guess you both have a point there. Same performance as fan-cooled, except silent. I dont have my 9800 XT hooked up to it, as i'd rather wait til teh X800XT. So we'll see how that turns out.

I've heard that better quality tubing can slightly increase your flow rate because the coolant won't "stick" to the sides as much. Or there's less friction, or something like that
See-through tubing also allows you to get rid of the Flow Indicator which hampers your flow rate beyond any doubt, and of course higher flow = lower temps or so the story goes.

Replacing the 3/8" blue silicon tubing with 1/2" stuff will of course help, but I wouldn't recommend it unless you replace the rather whimpy built-in pump with something stronger.. unless you're bored and want something to tinker with!

Well the only thing that worries me is that my CPU temp is 46 C on IDLE. Haven't tried load yet. Perhaps it's because I'm in super sunny south california, where it's HOT. =[

sure? keep in mind you're running a P4, whilst I'm on an Athlon. But then again, yours is overclocked...and WAY overclocked, if I must add ^.^

70 under load on an amd is generally acceptable, but temperatures only tell part of the story.

one of the best ways to test stability is to run the prime95 torture test for 24 hours straight. if it can cope with that, you don't need to worry about temperature at all.

I have a DFI LanParty Ultra II B, as seen in my sig ^.^

What settings should I run Prime95 under?

hehehe i often find that when my computer's under heavy load, it's nuder load for 24hrs+ at a time (i work with video editing/compositing as well as 3d rendering)

From my testing of the Reserator you need about 12 hours of constant load/idle time to get the temps to stabilize.

But if you've got a system like this, that is as silent at load as it is at idle..... Why isn't it Folding for SPCR?

Why, you say? Because I get BSODs and STOP errors every once in a while, I have no idea why. If any of you guys can help me, i'd greatly appreciate it. I thought it was my RAM, which wasn't supported, evidently (mushkin), so i got a supported brand (Corsair XMS XL Pro). That helped somewhat, but it still happens every now and then. My temperatures are fine, and it only happens when I run bittorrent. No matter what client i use, it happens when I run a lot of torrents.

i leave it on auto. For 2-2-2-5, the RAM supposedly boots automatically to 2.75V. I haven't checked recently to see if that is true.

ok. I'll try that. Quick question - How does increasing voltage help ? o.0

Try using an enclosuse to the reserator and leave it open at the bottom and top. You'll have a relativelly high column of hot air rising, so air flow must be reasonable. Post results if you try it

actually that aint a bad idea... I will once I find some flexible posterboard or cardboard...

why do you hate your 7200.7 ? I have a 160 and a 200 ... I can understand if u got the 160, but the 200's pretty nice