My Reserator 1+ experience

The alternative to direct air cooling

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olyar15
Posts: 19
Joined: Wed Jun 04, 2003 4:44 pm
Location: Vancouver, BC

My Reserator 1+ experience

Post by olyar15 » Fri Sep 02, 2005 9:31 pm

Well, this new computer has pretty much been the upgrade from hell. First the specs:

Antec P180 black
Athlon 64x2 4800+
Asus A8N SLI deluxe
1 gig OCZ gold RAM
pair of 6800GT in SLI
pair of 74Gb Raptor in RAID 0
Plextor DVD writer
Seasonic 600W S12
Audigy 2ZS
Dell 2001FP

I wanted to watercool this system to try to get it quiet. I saw the Koolance Aquian, and thought that was a neat idea. Unfortunately, it doesn't fit the case and allow using the topmost PICe slot at the same time. So I tried taking apart the Aquian to see if I can fit the components separately. For such a large case, there is a surprising lack of space inside. No go, so I ended up ordering the Reserator 1Plus. I was curious to see if it could cool the CPU, 2 video cards, and a northbridge.

Well, it can't quite do it. Idle temps are fine, CPU ~36C, video cards around 50C at idle. "System" temp is constant at 44C. This is with an external pump (Eheim 1046, which I purchased a while ago in an attempt to watercool my HTPC). With the stock pump, forget it.

However, when playing games (Far Cry) for about an hour, CPU rose to 70C, but video cards hovered around 60-65C. The CPU block was almost too hot to touch. The water was warm. The tower was warm. So I don't think it really has the capacity to cool a really high-end system. But boy is it quiet. Even with the external pump, it is silent. The only noise comes from my case fans (3, but I will remove 1 or 2) and the hard drive seeking noise.

One thing I did was to split the water tubing so the CPU and northbridge gets cooled by one loop, and the 2 video cards get cooled by another loop.

Image

Here is the system in my room. Yes, it is very messy.
Image

One thing I am going to try is to hook up another radiator to the back of the case, behind the rear fan. That should help keep it cooler than what I am getting.

Happy Hopping
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Joined: Wed Jun 08, 2005 4:38 am

Post by Happy Hopping » Fri Sep 02, 2005 11:56 pm

did you use distill water or just the coolant?

when you said 2 loops, you mean you set up the zalman in parallel instead of 1 serial loop?

Why don't you set up the zalman w/

- 1046 to CPU
- CPU to NB
- NB to video card 1
- video card 1 to video card 2
- video card 2 back to the zalman

olyar15
Posts: 19
Joined: Wed Jun 04, 2003 4:44 pm
Location: Vancouver, BC

Post by olyar15 » Sat Sep 03, 2005 12:46 am

Happy Hopping wrote:did you use distill water or just the coolant?

when you said 2 loops, you mean you set up the zalman in parallel instead of 1 serial loop?

Why don't you set up the zalman w/

- 1046 to CPU
- CPU to NB
- NB to video card 1
- video card 1 to video card 2
- video card 2 back to the zalman
I am using Fluid XP+.

By 2 loops, I mean that I split the incoming hose with a Y adapter. One branch cools the Northbridge and CPU, the other cools the 2 video cards. The returns then join together with another Y-adapter before exiting the computer and back to the Reserator. My concern with having everything in serial was that the last item wouldn't be cooled properly.

Happy Hopping
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Joined: Wed Jun 08, 2005 4:38 am

Post by Happy Hopping » Sat Sep 03, 2005 1:02 am

No wonder. Zalman wasn't designed for that purpose. If you read the manual, they want you to hook up the tubes in series.

Make the last item the NB since it doesn't run that hot anyway.

scorp
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Location: Romania

Post by scorp » Sat Sep 03, 2005 2:20 am

Happy Hopping wrote:No wonder. Zalman wasn't designed for that purpose. If you read the manual, they want you to hook up the tubes in series.

Make the last item the NB since it doesn't run that hot anyway.
The order in which you put the blocks doesn't matter. You can put the NB the first one and it will be cooled just as well as it would be the last one. I think that you simply put too many blocks in your loop for such a low-head pump and the water flow is so diminished that it simply stops working like it should. The actual blocks should never get too hot to touch. They shouldn't even get hot. Try removing the NB block. Cooling the NB by water is not such a great idea at all. You do get lower temperatures for the NB, but you also lose pressure in the loop, gain some heat in the loop and you make the tubing longer. And buy an Eheim 1048. It's silent and it has a better head than the 1046.

You should also try to make the tubing as short as possible. I see that you have quite a lot of tubing that's going to the Reserator rad./res.

Anyways, I don't think that the Reserator was deisgned at all to cool such a system. It's probably more than it's passive radiator can handle.

nutball
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Re: My Reserator 1+ experience

Post by nutball » Sat Sep 03, 2005 4:01 am

olyar15 wrote:However, when playing games (Far Cry) for about an hour, CPU rose to 70C, but video cards hovered around 60-65C. The CPU block was almost too hot to touch. The water was warm. The tower was warm.
I think that this should be setting off alarm bells that the issue is the flow in your loop to the CPU rather than the capacity of the Res to radiate the heat. The cards will be pumping out at least as much as the CPU, so ask yourself why the Res can keep the GPUs cool but not the CPU? If your CPU block is too hot to touch, your water should be hot, not warm, and likewise the tower. Put it this way, when my CPU reaches even 65C (which is rare, only happens in summer) I can't keep my finger in the water 'cos it's so hot.

If I were you I'd take the NB out of the loop and cool the two video cards + CPU in whatever order gives you a loop with the least kinks.

olyar15
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Re: My Reserator 1+ experience

Post by olyar15 » Sat Sep 03, 2005 9:28 am

nutball wrote:I think that this should be setting off alarm bells that the issue is the flow in your loop to the CPU rather than the capacity of the Res to radiate the heat. The cards will be pumping out at least as much as the CPU, so ask yourself why the Res can keep the GPUs cool but not the CPU? If your CPU block is too hot to touch, your water should be hot, not warm, and likewise the tower. Put it this way, when my CPU reaches even 65C (which is rare, only happens in summer) I can't keep my finger in the water 'cos it's so hot.

If I were you I'd take the NB out of the loop and cool the two video cards + CPU in whatever order gives you a loop with the least kinks.
Yup. After bleeding some more, the CPU temps seem to be much better, and the CPU block is no longer hot to the touch. Damn air bubbles. Now, temps seem to stabilize around 60C for the CPU and video cards under load, which isn't bad. Not great, but livable. Actually, I am impressed that the Reserator is even able to keep this system as cool as it is (albeit with an external pump).

Oh, and the NB cooler was used to replace that damn HSF. I figured that there won't be much airflow within the case now, so I was worried that a passive heatsink on the NB would not be able to cool it sufficiently. And before anyone asks, I know I should have gotten the Premium version of the motherboard, but when I ordered this board (in late May), the Premium wasn't available in Canada. Of course, a few days after I got my board, the Premium became available :(

Einllel
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Location: Valencia, Spain

Re: My Reserator 1+ experience

Post by Einllel » Sat Sep 03, 2005 12:01 pm

olyar15 wrote:
nutball wrote:I think that this should be setting off alarm bells that the issue is the flow in your loop to the CPU rather than the capacity of the Res to radiate the heat. The cards will be pumping out at least as much as the CPU, so ask yourself why the Res can keep the GPUs cool but not the CPU? If your CPU block is too hot to touch, your water should be hot, not warm, and likewise the tower. Put it this way, when my CPU reaches even 65C (which is rare, only happens in summer) I can't keep my finger in the water 'cos it's so hot.

If I were you I'd take the NB out of the loop and cool the two video cards + CPU in whatever order gives you a loop with the least kinks.
Yup. After bleeding some more, the CPU temps seem to be much better, and the CPU block is no longer hot to the touch. Damn air bubbles. Now, temps seem to stabilize around 60C for the CPU and video cards under load, which isn't bad. Not great, but livable. Actually, I am impressed that the Reserator is even able to keep this system as cool as it is (albeit with an external pump).

Oh, and the NB cooler was used to replace that damn HSF. I figured that there won't be much airflow within the case now, so I was worried that a passive heatsink on the NB would not be able to cool it sufficiently. And before anyone asks, I know I should have gotten the Premium version of the motherboard, but when I ordered this board (in late May), the Premium wasn't available in Canada. Of course, a few days after I got my board, the Premium became available :(
Hi Olyar15, I was trying to imagine why you choose the Deluxe over the Premium till you explained it of course.

I have a setup close to yours (with only one 6800GT and 200MHz less in CPU of course). I have in the loop the 6800 GT and the 4400+ (I got the Premium so no need for the NB) and I have not repleaced the original pump. At full load this summer the max CPU Temperature I have watched is 51ºC and my GPU hasn't reach 70ºC still. Have you tryed only one loop all in serial. I think when you split the tubing the flow is reduced at least in half, this could explain the bad results you were obtaining. And correct me if I'm wrong, but for what I can see in your pictures seems like the IN from your pump to the system is the left tube (looking to the back of the case from inside the case) so the order in the loop seems to be (correct me if I'm wrong please) first the NB and then CPU (I think in this situation the flow is reduced because the water has to climb through the NB block which has more restriction to flow than the simply tube, so I think it's better idea to make "the water fall", that is, connect always the IN to the highest point to cool and make it back to the reserator from the lowest). The same for the GPU's. But in anyway I will split the loop in two, at least with only one Reserator (It would be a bit overkill but the idea of two Reserators is tempting) without testing before all in serial. Just my 2 cents.
Last edited by Einllel on Sat Sep 03, 2005 8:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Etacovda
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Joined: Tue Mar 15, 2005 3:57 am

Post by Etacovda » Sat Sep 03, 2005 1:26 pm

Try plumbing in series - dont worry too much about the order of the loop. Much easier to deal with serial plumbing, too, rather than having Y's all over the show :)

edit: lol, registered in march but this is my first post, go figure

~El~Jefe~
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Post by ~El~Jefe~ » Sat Sep 03, 2005 8:07 pm

hm, it should cool down this system. I would have a 2 nexus 120's in this case on like 10 volts though, one in front and one in rear, just to dissipate excess heat.

series is the way with short tubing that has nice circles to its curves.

zoom!

i use distilled poland spring water and water wetter though. stinks sometimes but it works AMAZINGLY well.

reserator1 with stock pump.

olyar15
Posts: 19
Joined: Wed Jun 04, 2003 4:44 pm
Location: Vancouver, BC

Post by olyar15 » Sat Sep 03, 2005 10:51 pm

Update: Well, temps get better and better. Either these waterblocks are much more difficult to burp, or I forgot how much effort was needed to get the air out of my last watercooling attempt a couple of years ago. Shaking and turning the computer for all its worth seems to have dislodged whatever air remained. Now CPU temps remain below 50C at load, and video cards hover around 70C at load, which is quite fine by me. Especially considering that the stock coolers could barely keep the video cards below 90C.

All in all, I am pleasantly surprised that a passive radiator can keep such a system with 4 waterblocks reasonably cool. I am almost tempted to try the stock pump again. Almost.

Happy Hopping
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Joined: Wed Jun 08, 2005 4:38 am

Post by Happy Hopping » Sat Sep 03, 2005 10:54 pm

Also, why is the tube from the zalman so long when it goes to the back of the computer? It should be much shorter, w/ the Zalman as close as the comptuer as possible.

coldmist
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Another option

Post by coldmist » Sun Sep 04, 2005 1:54 am

I saw this posted on another thread: The ThermalTake Symphony

Do a search, it will com up. Basically, the Reserator idea, but with 5 120mm fans spinning at 1500rpm. It will definately have a lot more cooling power than the Reserator.

scorp
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Location: Romania

Re: Another option

Post by scorp » Sun Sep 04, 2005 6:57 am

coldmist wrote:I saw this posted on another thread: The ThermalTake Symphony

Do a search, it will com up. Basically, the Reserator idea, but with 5 120mm fans spinning at 1500rpm. It will definately have a lot more cooling power than the Reserator.
The radiator will cool better than the Reserator, but at the cost of noise. 5 120mm fans at 1500RPM are way too loud for me. And the ThermalTake Symphony performance will depend upon the pump that TT decided to use for it and on the WBs they use. Usually I'm not a very big fan of TT solutions.

Happy Hopping
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Joined: Wed Jun 08, 2005 4:38 am

Post by Happy Hopping » Sun Sep 04, 2005 9:09 pm

it's 1.4K rpm. Buy only 90 L/hr. Zalman is 300 L/hr. And the price of the symphony is $100 higher.

Admiral Ackbar
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Post by Admiral Ackbar » Fri Oct 14, 2005 8:21 am

Happy Hopping wrote:it's 1.4K rpm. Buy only 90 L/hr. Zalman is 300 L/hr. And the price of the symphony is $100 higher.
Not to resurect a dead thread, but I have seen a little misinformation about the symphony (something I am looking into). It actually has two of those 90 L/hr pumps. The word on the street is that those fans are quiet (I don't know, I haven't tried it).

Happy Hopping
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Post by Happy Hopping » Sat Oct 15, 2005 12:26 am

For 1.4K rpm, they better be quiet.

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