I put a shroud on my radiator today, a simple thing, about 2 1/2 inches of cardboard lifting the fans up. This dropped my water temps 2 degrees C with my fans at full speed! So, I thought I'd give my full set up for those interested in watercooling.

First, I'm reading temps with a dual compu-nurse. they claim 1 degree celsius accuracy, and usually correlate with each other pretty well. It makes comparing coolant and air temps pretty easy. I'm currently watercooling my northbridge (nForce2 Epox 8rda+ default voltage, 200mhz FSB) and CPU (2100+ at 2.4 ghz, 1.85v) I'm using a Little Giant PCL-020, a 300 GPH pump with 12.2 foot shutoff head. The radiator, the part I'm worried here, is a Chevy Caprice heatercore. I don't remember the fedco number, but its a double length heatercore that is slightly larger than 2 120mm fans.

So anyways.... I started off with 2 120mm panaflo L1As basically tied to the heatercore. With both plugged into one Zalman fanmate at full voltage, I got 4C over ambient coolant temps. Turned down to just about stall speed, the coolant would rise 2 degrees to 6C over ambient. So now I've installed my shroud, which means the fans get the fin space outside of their frame and under the hub added. The result was a 2C drop at full speed and 3C at just above stall... not a bad increase. The important part here though is I'm getting 3C over ambient (I think it might be closer to 3.5C but its hard to tell that closely with the compu nurse) with 120mm panaflo L1As at the lowest speed possible.

Its hard to fit these larger radiators in cases, but I think they're essential for a good SPCR watercooling set up.

In other news, I'm going to get a flowmeter soon (I hope) and I plan on testing how much the 25 ft of tubing I'm ordering will reduce the flow, for anyone interesting in running a watercooler to a different room for silence.

I for one am very interested.

Good info Zhentar! I'm planning a W/C setup and I appreciate all the info I can get.

Are you really running that XP2100+ at a 200Mhz (aka 400MHz) FSB with a 12X multiplier for 2.4GHz clock rate or is it running at XP2400+ speeds?

Well, I'll add this to the thread... I ordered some more tubing on mcmaster (search for chemical tubing, the generic kind they have is clearflex) and ordered 25 ft of 1/2" ID 3/4" OD Clearflex for $0.65 a foot and 2 ft of the same in Tygon, for $3.42 a foot. The tygon is completely clear (unlike the clearflex blue tint) and so much more flexible its amazing. I'd recommend using all tygon in your system, except its 6 times more expensive... so I'd recommend you buy 2 or 5 feet of Tygon for tight turns like from your CPU block to the NB block, and use clearflex for the rest.

Braided Vinyl tubing available for about $0.30 a foot at home depot, but while it isn't too kinky to use, I beleive its too stiff for any use in a system.

And yes, its 200 FSB by 12 multiplier, for 2.4 Ghz, that would have a PR number somewhere in the mid 3 thousands I beleive.

over at hardforums tygon is the recommended tubing although it's expensive.

oh, well if they recommend it, forget about it, it sucks!

Its too expensive for use like I've got- random lengths of tubing between the components thanks to a rapidly and repeatedly changing caseless set up. Clearflex is great for most uses, but the tubing between the two waterblocks is a little deformed, on the verge of kinking, so in a couple days when I take apart my system I'll be putting in tygon there. Its the whole reason I bought 2 ft in the first place...

So buy a foot or two of tygon for tight turns between waterblocks, but for most situations clearflex is great.

I'd like to give some more advice on pumps... but I've never heard any other than my little giant. I'd like to hear a hydor L30 and eheim 1250 sometime, but I can't afford one

Zhentar, I have a 1250 . I haven't tried the Hydor ( probably my next purchase will be a Hydor L30 or Little Giant)
Anyways I can feel my box vibrate with the Eheim. I only have it sitting on velcro at the moment. I figured that would dampen it enough but that's not working.
From what I have read the Hydor's are quieter than the Eheim pumps.
I'm moving soon and my plan is too have the pump, rad etc in my garage and I don't think any of the pumps I've mentioned here will be up to snuff.
I may need to get a more powerful pump to cope.

well, I plan to test that with my flowmeter

It seems pumps are the opposite of fans for noise- turbulence of the water makes almost no noise, audible only at an inch or two in some spots, while motor noise is the main noise, but vibrations are huge; a lot of work for isolating the pump is neccesary.

Right now my pump is hanging from elastic thread to a crossbeam on my wooden loft. If I place my ear on that side of the loft, the pump's vibrations are clearly audible. I intend to buy some of that bungee cord aphonos mentions in his review to test; my elastic is nearly fully stretched by the pumps weight.

Oh and my little giant has the same GPH as the L30 and 1250, but double the head rating, depending on how far away your comp is it could probably handle garage cooling.

You can get Tygon pretty cheap from USplastics.com
Just down the road from me. $1.25/ft I think. That's cheap.

Hmm, I think I need to try that bungee thing with my pump. The best place I have found for various tensions, thickness etc is the local marine hardware shop.
I have been meaning to look into flowmeters also, can be expensive for a decent one AFAIK.

They do have tygon chemical tubing for $1.50 a foot there. Still; I'll go with 65 cents but that is a good option.

Got my flowmeter today, I'm about to start my testing/mods.


Today I noticed my foam for the pump looked like it was singed brown in a couple spots, so I stuck a temp probe on the side. 90C, thats suspended in open air, though at 47 watts my pump does have above average power consumption; something to watch out for in low airflow cases. Now, I've decided to look at watercooling the pump, since there's no way I'm wrapping that in sound absorbtion otherwise.

Borrowed a digi-cam and took some pics showing my fan shroud etc. I don't have any temps without shroud unfortunately so can't do a comparison.
Do you have a link for your flowmeter Zhentar?
Piccy here

Another here

http://www.kinginstrumentco.com/7510_75 ... _7511.html

Its the 2B-08.

Thats a nice looking setup, hopefully I can get mine looking good once I buy a YY cube.

i just reread your previous post about your pump temps..
90C.... S&*t.

Have you put the meter in your rig yet? Any interesting findings so far?
Those YY cubes look sweet, lots of modibility

http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewtopic.php?t=7001

Basically my northbridge block is too restrictive. The solution is to run it in parrallel with a GPU block, PSU, MOSFET cooler and hard drive cooler (I'll probably put the MOSFETs and hard drive in series so I don't lose too much flow down that branch)

Also note I edited my pump post- about average dissipation was a typo, I meant above average. An Iwaki MD-15Z only requires 31 watts for a similar PQ curve, though it costs twice as much, about $120. I beleive the MD-15Z uses a high quality motor that is very quiet, but I don't know. MikeC, could you call Iwaki and get me a 'review sample' ?