Critique my ideas on a watercooling setup

OKO · Post by **OKO** » Sun Oct 31, 2004 1:43 pm

Hello SPCR!

This might be the wrong forum (could be that it should be in the advice section?) but instead of crossposting I decided to ask the questions here. This will quite a long post so bare with me please! (Also, I'm a watercooling newbie but not a newbie modder.)

I'm in the process of configuring (dreaming) of my next system. I know so far what case I want and basically what other parts I want. As this (dream)machine is going to be quite expensive I would like to get a second opinion on my thoughts. The problem is that I don't really know if this system could be made in reality regarding noise (ofcourse) and heat.

Case:
I'm thinking of getting the Antec 3700 BQE for several reasons.
1. It is somewhat cheap and has a door over the 5.25" bays
2. It is tall enough for the InnovaKonvekt MAXI.
3. I like the look...

CPU:
AMD64 socket 939. Don't exactly know what speed yet. Depends on price at the time of purchase.

MB:
I'm certain I want an Nforce4 board with PCI Express SLI capabilities.

Graphics:
Down the line I will install two Nvidia 6800 (Plain/GT/Ultra, I don't know) for that SLI goodness.

Drives:
I would love to have two 74Gig SATA Raptors in a RAID config. I do realize that these are close to impossible to quiet down but using Ron's Water Cooled HDD Silencing Enclosure found here at SPCR might do the trick if done properly.

Here is what I propose to do:

I want to watercool almost everything... CPU, graphics and drives. Perhaps even the NB but I'm not sure it needs to be cooled by water?

First I figured I could get two InnovaKonvekt MAXI radiators and stick them on each side of the case. Then I figured that it would be kind of hard to open the case with one radiator attached to the "opening" side. Second, I have no idea what kind of performance I could get from those... I have been searching for relevant reviews of those radiators but have yet to see one... (The ones I do find are all in german anyways and my german isn't that great. Even with googletranslator I get confused. Besides, I don't trust any review I find on the net that aren't SPCR).

Then I thought that it might be a good idea to use a dual 120mm fan radiator as a backup to one InnovaKonvekt MAXI radiator. This second radiator would be cooled with a temperature controlled 120mm fan (or fans, prefarably one). If you use a fancy gadget I came across here (the innovatek Fan-O-Matic MICRO) I figured that I could set it up so that the fan is off most of the time. During hard gaming sessions it could ramp up but that doesn't bother me since I usually have headphones on when gaming

I was thinking that this dual fan radiator could be attached inside the case in such a manner that it would benefit (a little) from natural convection. The best place would then be at the top I suppose? Perhaps at the bottom with its own intake and outlet? (So excess heat doesn't enter the case) If connected to the one 120mm fan in the back by some creative duct work I would only have the PSU as exhaust. Is this enough? I'm guessing that I still need to exhaust some heat from the case in some way. That is why I chose not to watercool the PSU.

What do you experts out there think? Is this a viable solution or am I just going to waste my money?

Interitus · Post by **Interitus** » Mon Nov 01, 2004 1:42 am

I think a dual 120mm rad/heatercore is more than enough unless you plan to overclock to hell and back. Northbridge isn't normally a problem, but I've heard lots of people complain about A64 boards getting really hot on the NB sink. Maybe the nforce4 will be better. You'll have to wait and see with that but I don't think water is necessary for the NB. My NF7-S 2.0 runs a Mobile 35w @ 2.2ghz and is just fine on passive cooling.

As for the drives, quieting the 2 Raptors would definitely be a tedious task, the mentioned watercooled enclosure looks like it would work, but you'd have to cut out the sleds from the BQE since that area isn't removable like normal cages.

I think the biggest problem you're going to run into is space. By the time you seat a radiator, wc'd hard drive box and all the tubing along with optical drives and a floppy if you need it, the BQE is gonna be hella packed full. I'd reccomend using a server size case like the Antec SX#### series. No they're not as quiet as the BQE, but modding it will be alot easier for silent operation. Keep in mind that while you watercool all the components, you're still going to need at least a little airflow in the case so an exhaust is probably still in order. With the Antec SX series, removing the purple plastic fan cages and mounting 2 Panaflo 80mm L1A's and undervolting them provides a good enough quiet exhaust for this.

Just my 2 cents.

OKO · Post by **OKO** » Tue Nov 02, 2004 10:57 am

Thank you for your input Interitus!

Well, I won't be doing any overclocking since I figure this is going to be a rather fast system to begin with. Besides, I've had some bad experiences with OC'ing before...

About the case. Yes, I thought that it might be a bit cramped with all that in there but I think I might be able to pull it off with some sweat and a dremel...

I had a look at the Antec SX series and from what I could see by looking at pictures and reading the specs it is only about 5-7 cm taller and most of that space is above the PSU... Doesn't strike me as I get much more leeway with the SX. Anyhow, my last comp. is kind of cramped so I'm used to working in small cases. You can see my last build
here.

But, if you think that a dual 120mm rad/heatercore could do the trick on its own then I think that it wouldn't hurt to have a InnovaKonvekt MAXI in series aswell. I'll go ahaead and order the behemoth right now.

OKO · Post by **OKO** » Wed Nov 03, 2004 2:48 pm

70+ views and no more inputs? What do you think? Will this work or is it just a waste of money? Should I just stick to aircooling or what?

Tell me what you think! I'm open for any and all suggestions!
/OKO

scotty6435 · Post by **scotty6435** » Wed Nov 03, 2004 3:05 pm

Yeah, definately go for that setup. A top mounted dual rad with a convekt-o-matik should give you top cooling. Goin for similar myself except i'll have a triple rad and twin WACC 550mm passive reservoirs

The benefits of a server case

ascii · Post by **ascii** » Thu Nov 04, 2004 3:59 am

This is a pretty good german test of the standard and MAXI Konvektomatic. According to that site, a 100W heat source will cause the Konektomatic MAXI to reach a stable state with the CPU temperature about 13 K above ambient temperature, using an Eheim 1046 pump.

I use a Reserator to cool of an A64 3000+, a GeForce 4200 GPU, the NB of my mobo, a Seagate 160 GB 7200.7 and a Silverstone Fanless PSU in a completely fanless case. CPU temperature at the moment is 23 K above ambient at idle. At full load overnight, CPU temperature is about 32K above ambient. According to a test at Toms hardware, the Reserator is slightly better than the Konvektomatic tower, which ought to be somewhere in between the regular and MAXI Konvektomatic. If we assume that my PSU cooling will cancel out the additional heat from faster CPU, GPU and HDDs, you should be fine with a single Konvektomatic MAXI for all your cooling needs.

OKO · Post by **OKO** » Fri Nov 05, 2004 9:22 am

Ahh, great! I followed the link you gave me and read the test(s) there. Seems that it might work after all. If it doesn't... well... I guess I'm one experience richer.

Scotty6435: What's a twin WACC? Haven't seen those before?

Thanks all for your input!

Regards
/OKO

scotty6435 · Post by **scotty6435** » Fri Nov 05, 2004 11:19 am

Hi mate,

They're WACC passive cooling reservoirs available from http://www.wetandchillychips.co.uk/

They come in 300mm, 350mm , 450mm, 550mm and 1m (!) flavours and combined with even a double rad can passive cool systems. They're pretty pricey but they're definately worth it.

Hoping to run a heavily overclocked system with all components cooled with a low speed system fan and intermittantly running 3 low speed papsts on the rad.

OKO · Post by **OKO** » Fri Nov 05, 2004 12:33 pm

Holy Toledo Batman! We have a winner!

Actually been thinking about that recently, why not have the res double as a cooling device. Kind of taking the Reserator without the pump and using it as a reservoir...

Since I don't have the skills to try and build one I going try to get me one of those as well. Hopefully they ship to Sweden...

Thanks for the tip Scotty!