We need more watercooling stickies!

The alternative to direct air cooling

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maxxy
Posts: 22
Joined: Sun Jan 04, 2004 2:59 am

We need more watercooling stickies!

Post by maxxy » Sun Oct 24, 2004 2:30 pm

Hey guys,

As a W/C total ubernoob and as a silentpc enthusiast I find no solutions on this website! Time to change some things around here and several people can contribute to the cause...

Quiet Pumps?
Low flow blocks to go with those pumps?
Cheap places to buy pumps and other silent w/c gear?
Best fans and places to buy them at?
Decent radiators/heatcores for watercooling?

Please help!

ferdb
Posts: 124
Joined: Fri Sep 10, 2004 1:13 pm
Location: austin, TX

Re: We need more watercooling stickies!

Post by ferdb » Thu Nov 11, 2004 7:57 pm

maxxy wrote:Hey guys,

As a W/C total ubernoob and as a silentpc enthusiast I find no solutions on this website! Time to change some things around here and several people can contribute to the cause...

Quiet Pumps?
Low flow blocks to go with those pumps?
Cheap places to buy pumps and other silent w/c gear?
Best fans and places to buy them at?
Decent radiators/heatcores for watercooling?

Please help!
pumps
I believe the quietest pump with a reliable track record is the Eheim 1048. The downside is that it's 120Vac so you need a pump relay. It's also a relatively weak pump if you lean more to the performance side. You can put 2 in series to remedy that weakness if you are so driven.
The CSP750 is a 12Vdc pump that's very quiet but it's only recently released and doesn't have a proven track record. You cannot put 2 in series because of the shaft seals.
The Laing DDC 12Vdc pump looks promising if it ever gets on the open market. It's currently only used in the Apple G5 2500 dual Mac.
Note that you don't need a strong pump for a low noise application since almost all your thermal bottle neck will be in the airflow through the radiator.

Water Blocks
CPU block
This one is easy, the Swiftech MCW6000 is the block of choice. Excellent performance even at low flow rates, and it's reasonably priced.
Video block

The Swiftech MCW50 works well on the 6800gt, there are other options also like the Danger Den Maze4, Danger Den also has a 6800GT specific WB but it's $100 and pretty heavy for a video card. There are other options as well.

Northbridge block
You can use Danger Den Maze4 or the Swiftech chipset block (although it doesn't fit on the MSI Neo boards because it hits the video card). However many people just put a good extra big Chipset passive heatsink on it and don't water cool it. This probably makes the most sense as it's cheaper, water cooling the NB is not needed, and the heat from it won't raise your CPU/GPU temps.

Use 3/8" ID x 1/2" OD tubing. In a quiet setup using larger tubing will have negligible impact on performance and the smaller tubing is much easier to route and you can get quick connect fittings for it readily.

Best Fans - It's assumed these will be undervolted to speed control them.
I'll only list the 120mm fans since this is what you typically put on radiators. For other fans consult the Fan forum.
1) Quietest 120mmx25 12Vdc is the Nexus fan. Especially when undervolted. It has the best airflow to noise ratio of any 120mm DC fan so combined with a speed controller like a Fanmate it is the best solution. If you need more airflow than the Nexus provides you can go with
2) Globe fan S1202512L has bit more bearing noise, a bit more motor noise, and a bit more air noise than the Nexus at a given flow rate. It's cheaper and at 12V it pushes a lot more air than the Nexus at 12V but it's also much noiser at that point too.
3) The Silenx/Adda are about equivalent to the Globe but much more expensive and with a bit of motor tick to them.

Most other 120mm fans are nowhere near as quiet as the ones I've listed.

4) There are no really quiet 120x38mm DC fans. The Panaflo, Papst, and Sunons have too much motor noise that you just can't get rid of at any speed. You also don't want Ball bearings in a fan as they make too much bearing noise. Which brings us to the only quiet 120x38mm fan, the Sunon 2123XST 230Vac fan ($9) running on 120Vac (there is a 1000 ohm 3W pot for $5 you can use to speed control it, see the fan forum). This is quieter than even the Nexus and does better against backpressure such as a radiator because it's thicker. The down side is that it's 120Vac. But if you are looking for the ultimate, it's your huckleberry. It does need anti-vibration mounts to get rid of the vibration.
For details on fans check the fan forum.

Radiators
For quiet systems you want a thin radiator with a large surface area. The 120mm X 2 Black Ice Pro is good. The Black Ice extreme version is thicker but restricts airflow more than the thinner pro. Since the air coming out of the pro version is almost at the same temperature as the coolant in a quiet low airflow setup, using the thicker Extreme won't help heat transfer. It actually restricts your airflow and makes things worse, To take advantage of the Extreme radiator you need some howling fans on it.
There are also automobile heater core and transmission coolers you can buy and make your own radiator out of. For more info on performance water cooling check http://forums.procooling.com/vbb/forumdisplay.php?f=9
To reduce noise you want more radiator frontal area, that means less backpressure, lower fan rpm, less noise. so a Dual 120mm radiator is much better than a single. You can also put two singles (or more) in series in the coolant path if you can't fit a single double sized radiator in your case. Note - Do not have the air from one radiator flowing into the other radiator or you defeat the purpose of adding a second radiator. Have cool air flowing into both radiators.
There are other radiator options available besides the BI pros.

The key for a quiet water cooling system is getting a good flow of cool air through the radiator with the least amount of fan noise. You want to make sure the airflow isn't blocked or restricted somewhere. Personally I use a pair of nibblers to cut out the fan holes in the case so they are unrestricted and then put finger guards on the fans. You want cool air entering the radiator. Don't forget to keep some air flowing past your hard drives.

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