Asetek watercooling - just a few questions

[mogli1990(OcUK)]

i had an old asetek watercooling system which i used to use

consisted of the low-end asetek pump, normal waterchill cpu block and waterchill vga block, and the normal black-ice radiator (black, just over an inch thick) with the normal asetek push-on size tubing

over time, i upgraded the pump to the high-end asetek pump (for higher pressure) and upgraded the cpu block to the antarctica waterchill...

this really helped temperatures (i was running a 3700+ clawhammer on socket 754) and i was pleased with it, until one day, the pump gave bad noise... it worked fine, flow was nice... but it just had a horrible vibration... i even tried removing the feet, getting a big sponge (car-wash kinda sponge) gouging out a section from it and putting the pump in it, so that the vibrations wouldn't be so annoying, but it was still loud... in the end i got an arctic cooling freezer 64-pro fitted and removed the whole water system (and put my old gfx cooler back on)

a few years have passed... i still have those parts...

im thinking of using them on my new system (Q6600, 8800GT)... but I have a few questions

1) is that 120mm radiator enough for the CPU & GPU? or just the GPU? actually i want to put my northbridge on it too, which is a 650SLI that get burning hot under overclocked use... i'm planning on cleaning out the radiator according to the guide on here... never knew how to clean it out before... but that should help a lot

2) what should i do about the pump? i tried opening the pump up (you can do that quite easily on them) and changing the lubricant... it got better but then it came back again... should i just get a new pump? there's a new asetek one with a built in reservoir and software to control it and monitor flow etc etc... should i get that?

3) the waterblocks are relatively black inside (i.e. the copper has turned blackish)... i used to use normal tap water from up north where it's quite soft (ok i know i deserve a slap lol)... is it REALLY that important which water you use?

4) should i just stick with the arctic cooling freezer 7 pro and my stock graphics cooler and forget watercooling?

thanks guys

 

[Greebo]

1) is that 120mm radiator enough for the CPU & GPU? or just the GPU? actually i want to put my northbridge on it too, which is a 650SLI that get burning hot under overclocked use... i'm planning on cleaning out the radiator according to the guide on here... never knew how to clean it out before... but that should help a lot No, not really. It will do the cpu only, gpu and nb will be asking too much of it

2) what should i do about the pump? i tried opening the pump up (you can do that quite easily on them) and changing the lubricant... it got better but then it came back again... should i just get a new pump? there's a new asetek one with a built in reservoir and software to control it and monitor flow etc etc... should i get that? Give up on the old pump, get a new one. Can't pass comment on how good/bad the asetek one is as I have no experience of it

3) the waterblocks are relatively black inside (i.e. the copper has turned blackish)... i used to use normal tap water from up north where it's quite soft (ok i know i deserve a slap lol)... is it REALLY that important which water you use? Yes. Neat tap water damages watercooling components. That might be the reason your pump played up. Black means the waterblocks won't be cooling as affective as they should. White vinegar socking might get them clean again.

4) should i just stick with the arctic cooling freezer 7 pro and my stock graphics cooler and forget watercooling? Depends on what you want to spend. It's the cheapest option. However, for £70 - £90 you can get some decent complete kits 2nd hand from MM or the bay.

thanks guys

 

[robbiecfc]

Asetek have concentrated on the OEM market for the couple of years and has not really bothered about the retail market. Case in point would be the Antartica block which will not mount on a AM2 board. I had the same quandary as you in that I had the Asetek pump (Extreme model), rad, cpu block and vga block. I now have a EK Extreme block, Laing DDC2 18V pump with EK top and Asetek rad on 3/8' tubing.
You have a few questions that you need to ask yourself!
a: Do I want to keep the Antartica? That is locked to whatever tubing size you bought it in either 10/8mm or 1/2' I think... It is a good block that while outperformed by newer stuff like the latest Dteks and EKs can cool a 6600 fairly handily.
The Rad can have its barbs changed to whatever you wish as it uses the standard G1/4 fittings.
The VGA clock was fine in its time as Ram heat was not an issue as it is now but I think if you combined it with a newer card such as a clocked 8800GT and a 6600 on a single 120mm rad you would be getting warm pretty quickly.

Botom line?
Forget about the vga block, clean up the Antartica (Check carefully for cracks that should have appeared by now) for another seasons use, pick up something like the XSPC 200 Bay Reservoir / Pump and XSPC X2O chipset block, barb and tube to suit the block and rad and away you go. This is the best bang for pounds spent option however:

If you don't want to keep the Antartica, dump the lot and start again. Best of the stuff out there at the moment is a Thermalchill PA120.2 rad (Feser stuff is getting good reviews but you have to ask yourself the value for money question), D-Tek Fuzion or EK Supreme block, Laing DDC pump with an aftermarket top (XSPC tops seem to be winning this particular title.), Tygon tubing.

Regards and Good Luck

 

[mogli1990(OcUK)]

hey guys, thanks for the help

well i've thought up a plan to transform my case and make use of the parts I have (will probs purchase some new tubing though)... may or may not get time to start this project before I go abroad on the 17th... anyway I'll take pics etc and start a new thread on it, of course, that's if it doesn't go embarrassingly poor! lol

thanks again