Noob to watercooling

The alternative to direct air cooling

Moderators: NeilBlanchard, Ralf Hutter, sthayashi, Lawrence Lee

Post Reply
linsook
Posts: 9
Joined: Mon Jun 04, 2007 1:38 am

Noob to watercooling

Post by linsook » Wed Jun 06, 2007 11:35 pm

i'm a noob to watercooling and i want to get into it. i had a question, are there really big differences between different waterblock makers ie zalman vs swifttech?

i have an old system which i wanna test it out on

p4 2.4c
asus p4p800se
ati aiw 9800 pro

i'm mainly looking at zalman waterblocks.

ZM-GWB3 for the vga
ZM-WB3 for the cpu

thats as far as i got. any suggestions on other blocks? or are they all similar in performance?

sgksgk
Posts: 27
Joined: Mon Jul 12, 2004 1:14 am

Post by sgksgk » Fri Jun 08, 2007 7:24 pm

Your question can't really be answered in a few sentences. There are so many factors involved like how restrictive the waterblock is, tubing size, how big is the radiator, etc. You should find a more hardcore watercooling forum like http://www.hardforum.com/forumdisplay.php?f=91

But I know Zalman isn't that popular among enthusiast. The coupling can't be changed, so there is only one tube size you can use.

Currently I am using a Reserator1 with a ZM-WB2 cpu block, Swiftech MCW60 gpu block and a MCP655 pump on a C2D 6400 and 7900GT. (no rad)
Temperature is around 30-40, close to 50 if I game.

Marci
Posts: 68
Joined: Thu Oct 27, 2005 5:49 am
Location: West Yorkshire, UK
Contact:

Post by Marci » Fri Jun 15, 2007 4:35 am

any suggestions on other blocks? or are they all similar in performance?
The thing to bear in mind is it's the final combination that counts.

You can have the best blocks in the world, but partnered with a bad radiator or pump and you'll get sucky performance.

You can have the worst blocks in the world, but the best radiator and pump, and beat the hell out of a rig with the best blocks and the worst of everything else.

You can have the best of everything, but the worst fans possible, and be outperformed by a £50 taiwanese piece of junk...

A single item can let down the entire loop.

Don't think of a watersystem as individual items. You have to think about it as a whole and match up the right items around the loop for the best performance.

wussboy
Posts: 635
Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2002 12:34 pm
Location: Southampton, UK

Post by wussboy » Fri Jun 15, 2007 8:08 am

Another thing to keep in mind is what your ultimate goal is. There certainly may be a difference between Zalman and Swiftech waterblocks, but I'd bet it's not very much. If your computer needs to ride the bleeding edge you may want to look carefully at your parts, but if you just want to get the heat out of your case to a large radiator where you can passively dissipate it, you don't really need the most expensive zero-drag waterblock.

Unless, of course, you enjoy the research. In which case, go crazy! :)

~El~Jefe~
Friend of SPCR
Posts: 2887
Joined: Mon Feb 28, 2005 4:21 pm
Location: New York City zzzz
Contact:

Post by ~El~Jefe~ » Sat Jun 16, 2007 7:22 pm

your ultimate goal is the following:

to get the same metal on all of your parts that contact the water/coolant. Corrosion is icky. Zalman has anodized aluminum, all aluminum. Makes life simple. I use 5-7% Water Wetter and poland spring steam distilled water for 24/7 systems that I also do heavy gaming on. (2 years no corrosion, clear water, pink)

after that, it really doesnt matter as a bad water cooling setup works better than a really nice air cooling setup.

question is: why are you asking about zalman blocks but not about their radiator/pump? are you going to try and use one from one, another from another? Zalman1 heatsinks are heavier and are designed for low restriction/less turbulence. they require different radiators and pumpsetups. the new Res2 system (which I would love to get, yum) uses a very lightweight heatsink with turbulence in mind and more cooling at the radiator side. There are many people that know a lot more about watercooling than I do, but, they know nothing of what actual silent computing is. It is hard to find both.

Post Reply