A question or two about (external) watercooling..

The alternative to direct air cooling

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Fabool
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A question or two about (external) watercooling..

Post by Fabool » Fri Apr 09, 2004 2:07 pm

Ever since I saw the Zalman Reserator 1 I've been wanting to get one for my mATX desktop case but I'm a newbie with watercooling so I'd like to get some things right before I end up making a mistake.

As I said, I have a desktop mATX case, Coolermaster 620C to be specific, and inside, a fairly high powered system to tackle 3d modeling (P4 2,8Ghz, ATi 9800pro with VGA silencer and so on..). The case has pretty bad airflow in general and thus runs fairly hot (CPU temps still manage to stay a bit under 60C when really stressed).

Now if I were to use the Reserator to cool the CPU, am I correct in assuming that it takes the heat out of the case and doesn't leave it radiating inside? If yes, doesn't it mean that the system/motherboard temps should be better since one of the hottest components, the CPU, doesn't contribute to the temperature inside the case like in aircooling? This would really prove helpful because one of the two motherboard temperature diodes is reporting near 50C temperatures when the computer is under heavy load (The Intel motherboard manual reports the "operating temperature" as 0C to 55C, which is the reason why I'm a bit worried).
I'm not really interested in improving the CPU temperature since it's within tolerable limits but if it did improve I wouldn't mind. My primary goals would be to a) keep the rest of the system fairly cool b) eliminate the noise of the YS Tech 80mm fan@12v which is cooling the CPU and c) to slow down the accumulation of dust in the case by lowering the overall airflow inside.

Any insight into external watercooling is appreciated :)

Gooserider
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Post by Gooserider » Fri Apr 09, 2004 8:31 pm

It may just be personal predjudice on my part, as I haven't done any testing, but I have my suspicions that the reserator will not work as well as advertised. I also don't like their design of using a Cu/Al combination in the waterblock - to me this is asking for corrosion problems that can be greatly reduced by going with an all Al or (better) an All Cu / Brass system. The indications I've seen also suggest that the Reserator may be very overpriced for what you get.

I especially have doubts about the reserator being able to handle multiple heat source loads, and IMHO, if one is doing a WC setup on a system like yours I'd want to cool at least the CPU and GPU, and possibly other things.

My choice would be to build an external rad box setup with a good pump, a large single pass heater core type rad, moderate size res, etc. with a few slow 120 mm fans on the rad. The PC box should cool quite nicely with just the PSU fan or maybe one other so you'd end up with a net quiet gain at considerably lower cost than a reserator.

Gooserider

chylld
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Post by chylld » Fri Apr 09, 2004 10:18 pm

just like this one! heheh.

i agree with goose, products like the reserator are quite neat, but everyone knows they're almost too good to be true. the reserator is no exception. pump reliability and replacement is another issue.

Fabool
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Post by Fabool » Sun Apr 11, 2004 2:00 am

Well damn then :)
The problem with making my own radiator setup is that it would probably look horrible and wouldn't want something like that sitting on my desk (there isn't really space anywhere except ON the desk, heh), plus the fact that I'm not the most capable person with huge modifications.

There just doesn't seem to be a good cooling solution for this desktop case. The fans I have now produce a good amount of noise and I doubt changing slower fans would help since the heat would then be a problem. There isn't really a place for more fans and that would just accelerate the dust build up which seems to be a problem in my house (probably the sucky air conditioning..).

Perhaps I'll just have to wait for some more reviews of the Reserator, maybe, just maybe, it would turn out to be a good solution after all, even though it's a bit pricey.

Cheers for the advice.

herosformula
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Post by herosformula » Mon Apr 12, 2004 10:23 am

I use external radiators, all heat from the CPU and GPU is dissipated outside of the case. The only fan running in my system is a 80mm in the PSU. Over the weekend, it was fairly warm, 80 F. Temperature for CPU 36C, HD 37C, case 38C

I am still waiting for a really hot day to see how this system reacts, but so far everything has remained within tolerable levels.

correction: temperatures were record setting for this time of year 80 F

afrost
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Post by afrost » Mon Apr 26, 2004 1:40 pm

I don't know.....wait until the SPCR review comes out in a bit. Zalman is a good company and the Resirator should cool a non-overclocked system perfectly fine.

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