What factor is supposed to trigger the alarm? Temperature of water, CPU or low flow?
Is it a false alarm, or is it sensible?

/Olle

AFAIK the alarm only triggers when the sensor no longer detects the indicator spinning.
I've had the system on much higher temperatures than today, yet it always worked fine. Reserator itself has no connection to the CPU temp. The CPU shuts itself down when it reaches 80 degrees celsius. I know that since it happened during the last air buildup.

The alarm is IMO completely false. Right now I disconnected the Reserator both from 12V and 22V supply. The only thing pushing the water around is the Laing seondary pump. Still, the indicator spins quite fast. My repairs obviously work fine, it's just that now even the sensor seems to have died

Turning Reserator on (resetting it) makes no change in the spin speed of the indicator. Maybe the integrated pump finally gave up the ghost, but I don't think this can be a cause for alarms. The indicator spun just as fast yesterday, when there were no alarms.

Zalman told me that the only good product they have is the Reserator 1 v1 and v2.

that is from the engineering department. They told me to keep it and that it can cool a LOT more than they ever claimed. They said it is such a basic, solid design that you should just maintain it and it should last 3-4 between maintence or replacement parts. They arent making XT and Res2 anymore. I just wish they would make a 260 waterblock or 4850 waterblock. I am having a hard time figuring out how I will upgrade my video card from a 3870. (i use that block currently, card runs cold)

Velis, perhaps your fix of the indicator impeller caused it to move away slightly from the magnetic sensor, causing this alarm?

That's the most probable cause I can think of.

Cheers
Olle

Well, on their web site, Reserator 1 v2 and Reserator XT are still being showcased. To be honest, I always thought that if I ever needed to move, I'd move to XT, certainly not to 1. The XT on the other hand has a pretty inefficient design. No natural convection, everything has to be done by that fan. I like the gauges though

I agree Olle P, I may have done something wrong, though I can't imagine what. The only plastic that was cut from the indicator was the melted casing for the metal weights. Maybe I painted the iron weight too thick and now it isn't detected by the sensor any more. I can say that the indicator has some 1mm of room inside the clear plastic casing. That much it can move away from the sensor. But my guess is that the hydrodynamics of the indicator itself automatically push it against the outside plastic. That is to the maximum possible distance away from the sensor. Since I haven't painted that side of the indicator, I also don't see how that would be farther than before.

But I still don't see how the Res worked for two weeks than suddenly just stopped. My bet is on failed sensor. I did no irreversible repairs on the unit. Everything that was done can be undone at any time. Well, except for the protective paint on the indicator.

Perhaps it's now the time to actually pick up the phone and call the Korean office for some support. I'd send a mail, but they don't ever reply.
By support I mean telling my supplier to replace this unit with something that would actually work, even if it means a Res 1 unit.

Too bad only Zalman uses aluminum in their water cooling stuff. Pretty much everyting else is copper, at least the stuff I can get in Slovenia. This limits options quite a lot.

There's one option you seem to overlook: There are plenty of convectors intended for heating rooms that are made of aluminium. They're not only fairly large and built for natural convection, but also very simple to mount on the nearest wall.

That's what I'd pick if I were to use water cooling. (But I'd probably settle with a convector made of steel, to reduce the cost.)

Cheers
Olle

How bad would it be to mix the aluminium Zalman Resorator and Zalman aluminium cpu block with a different type of block ? E.g. what would happen if I would add a copper GPU block ?

I've seen the results of corrorion once, last fall. I had a copper 8800gtx block added in my Zalman system. Worked fine. I don't think I saw corrosion. Then a little plastic part inside the Resorator that keeps the pump in place, broke off. I replaced it with a metal part (I thought it was galvanized, I might have been wrong). A few months later the rust particles from the small metal part had cluttered my waterblock, blocking all flow. 8800gtx went to 110C and died.

So I am very careful now. I run air-cooled atm (with a new 260gtx). But I'd like to get back to water-cooling. Unfortunately there are no aluminium blocks for the 260gtx. And I don't know if I can or should mix in a copper block. Anyone who tested that setup ?

I currently have a copper radiator in my loop.

I managed to convince the retailer that there's something really wrong with my Res and they had it for more than a month now. I had to have some kind of a replacement setup in between.
It's funny how Zalman sent them replacement parts they requested, but they didn't reply when they forwarded my angry mail in which I demanded that the Res 2 be replaced by anything they have, as long as it works.

Turns out that the pump was completely loose. The man said it was even dislocated so much that it couldn't pump any water any more. Seems that's the reason there wasn't much change in the water flow when I activated the poor thing...
Makes me sorry that I never touched the pump itself...

Anyway:
In this month I noticed no ill effects and I'm also keeping the radiator (copper one) even after I re-insert the Res 2 unit into the loop. A bit more cooling never hurts.