Hi there,

I thnk I'm ready to actually try watercooling now. I dabbled with the idea before but ran out of money. This is the setup I'm looking to cool:

A8N Sli Deluxe Motherboard
Athlon64 XP 4000
Nvidia 9600GT
2GB Corsair RAM
WD 320Gb HDD
Enermax 525w Mod82+ PSU
1x 120mm Nexus Rear case fan
Thermalright HR-05-SLI Chipset Cooler

I wanted to put the CPU, GPU and Northbridge in the loop. Do you think the Reserator 2 will deal with this alright? If i added another 9600GT in SLI would it still be able to cope?

Furthermore, If I upgraded to an dual/quad core system further down the line would it still manage?

Finally, do Zalman make any blocks that fit 9600GT cards? Or would I need something else?

Thanks in advance,
Graeme

I'm no watercooling expert, so I probably shouldn't say anything, but I'll give it a shot since nobody else would.

First, note that the weakest point with the Reserator 2 is possibly its pump. It should do okay with 3 components in the loop (you don't need flow that high for adequate cooling), but I don't know about 4 (if you do SLI). You can always add another pump to the loop (but it probably won't be as quiet).

The passive radiator is also not terribly effective, and it probably won't allow any serious overclocking. If you remain with stock settings, I'd only worry if you use a quad-core CPU and 2 x 9600GT (and it just might work even then) - with less than that you should be fine.

I don't recall seeing anyone recommend Zalman waterblocks - you will probably do better with something like Swiftech or Danger Den.

Keeping in mind the cost of the Reserator 2, the bottom line is - unless you can find no way to get adequate silent air cooling (which I doubt), or only want it to get your feet wet (pun intended) in preparation for a more serious WC system, this is hardly worth the trouble.

I don't think water cooling is necessary in your system. I'd go with water cooling if you're using high end components and overclocking. If you are concerned about noise, air cooling is sufficient to make your system inaudible. I currently have a 12cm slipstream running at 700rpm on a TRUE on an athlon x2 6400+ and it's completely inaudible with or without the case doors closed. It stays quite cool at 30C too. Your 9600GT could probably go fanless with an accelero. Seeing how your northbridge needs cooling, your HR05 should already handle it quite well. You might even be able to get away with fanless components and perhaps 1 or 2 slow spinning case fans. If you do upgrade in the future, slapping on a couple good fans back onto your components should suffice.

Without a doubt it could handle it

i dont think anyone is used to working with a water system as massive as the reserators. having working with them, one can cool overclocked 3870 card and 2.2ghz chip upped to 3.0 (amd) fine and dandy, and this is a reserator1 setup.

res 2 has just about 2x the heat capacity.

read my article on water wetter 3-4% and pure steam distilled bottled water vs other things and that huge amount of water in the system will absorb anything you might be concerned about.

9600gt's arent that hot, cpu's make miniscule amounts of heat. I think it would be fine and dandy.

your cpu is choking you!!! dang! isnt that like 5-6 years old? could buy a bottom barrel 775 chips or am2 amd chip and feel like your floating.

www.sharkacomputers.com has most any zalman part. they are good to ask or call zalmanusa directly.

Hey, thanks for everyones replies.

I'll check out those posts you mentioned as well El Jefe. I am looking to upgrade at some point soon as well.

Thanks!