Zalman Reserator1 v2 Fanless Water Cooling System

D1ngd0ng · 9 Sep 2009 at 22:51

I noticed that this is part of a 'This Week Only Offer' this week

Any thoughts on the Reserator from the forum (ok there are plenty when you search

) I want to change over to water at some point down the round(cannot stop modding now I have started

), but having invested in an Antec1200 and a Noctua NH-U12P to keep my 920 cool in March I am reluctant to go and buy a TJ07, Lian Li or mountain modsv (I WILL own one of these one day) just to fit in a quad rad.

Originally I was thinking about buying a single rad and just cooling my 4870 as it is by far the loudest, most annoying high freq noise component when under load and it should be relatively easy to swap & mod the bottom HD tray for a rad. But I am tempted to invest if the has Reserator is a positive as the costs are not going to be that much different (presume I should ignore the provided blocks and invest in something like the EK HD 4870)

All opinions provided are appreciated

dr4g0nf1y · 9 Sep 2009 at 22:56

considering this product was in the offer two weeks ago I'd probably be the best to let you know but I'm still waiting for my replacement block

D1ngd0ng · 9 Sep 2009 at 23:12

still waiting for my replacement block

That's a good start, guess these are not hot sellers and OCUK trying to clear some space

shadowscotland · 10 Sep 2009 at 10:34

D1ngd0ng said:
That's a good start, guess these are not hot sellers and OCUK trying to clear some space

The don't sell well new as you can get them second hand for 50-80inc
And 200inc is enought for a new konnect-o-matic system that is better.

Spending £150 to cool your 4870 is extreme - an Accelero S1 Rev. 2 will do that for 15% of the cost.

The Res1 is excelent system - but unless you have air con, it's not man enought of cool your whole system (removing all the fans) as designed.

Passive watercooling is great - the near silence is a joy, but you do need to spend around 200+ for new kit or get luck with old Res1 becoming available.

WJA96 · 10 Sep 2009 at 15:56

It is possible to cool performance parts passively, but you need BIG radiators.

The picture below shows a passively equipped Lian Li S80B with a pair of Konvekt-o-Matiks deployed 'pannier-style' and Mark 1 and 2 Reserators alongside for scale.

One of those side-pods will very happily cool an i920 at 4GHz and the other one will happily cool a GTX295. It's very quiet indeed.

The Konvekt-o-Matiks are widely recognized as the best passive coolers available (unless like ShadowScotland and I, you use house radiators) and at almost £200 a pop, coupled with the bulkiness, you can see why they're not more popular.

shadowscotland · 10 Sep 2009 at 17:01

*closes mouth* nice image WJA96.
I think that the first time i've ever seen four different passive rads next to each other.
Very jealous, and I like the patio too

But what happened to the S80's door?

Your missing a trick with the Konvekt-O-Matic Ultra Plus - as half the radient panels are heating your case.
not a problem with the pro, maxi or standard ultra as they are all convective, so ideal for panniers.
But the ultra plus is quite different - especially if you think about the S80's air path along the inside of the side panels.

PermaBanned · 10 Sep 2009 at 17:09

Silence is a nice ideal, but it's not really worth the effort at the minute. It costs so much more for some fairly unsatisfactory results. Especially when you can get some specialized components and some sub 10dB fans and it's pretty much the same but much cheaper, with better results and with low enough noise for almost any situation, not to mention the space saved.

shadowscotland · 10 Sep 2009 at 17:41

I almost agree - but a twin res1 system with an quiet external pump will cost around £150 second hand.
A set of quiet fans and PA120.3/Rx360, plus pump and top, blocks, tubes, clips, barbs etc. will be the same if not lots more.

If just using quiet air cooling you not oc a quad AND high end gpu.
duel core and single card yes - quad and multi-gpu, no
But I fully accept that if you live in a town or city 30db is inaubable so stick with air.

As to space save - mine is all wall mounted inc the screen - so it's desk 'footprint' is a keyboard and G7

Edit: we are going off topic - I'd still advise a Accelero S1 Rev. 2 at £20 - unless the OP want so join the silent pc club and likes a bay bargin hunt
A quiet pc is always worth it - a silent (or near silent) usually isn't - it's an enthusiast market, just like high end gameing is or extreme OCing is.

WJA96 · 10 Sep 2009 at 17:49

shadowscotland said:
But what happened to the S80's door?

I took it off - it's only 4 screws.

shadowscotland said:
Your missing a trick with the Konvekt-O-Matic Ultra Plus - as half the radient panels are heating your case.
not a problem with the pro, maxi or standard ultra as they are all convective, so ideal for panniers.
But the ultra plus is quiet different - especially is you think about the S80's air path along the inside of the side panels.

Ah, the air inlets aren't covered and the use of the case as an adjunct to the Ultra-plus was suggested by one of the guys at Innovatek. The entire case does heat up, but I don't see that as a bad thing. I've had it on the feet and on the case and it works slightly better on the case, but there is soooo much capacity there it really doesn't matter.

AndyOcUK · 10 Sep 2009 at 17:54

WJA96 said:
It is possible to cool performance parts passively, but you need BIG radiators.......

Totally agree. The Reserators are excellent for keeping a media centre PC quiet but not upto the job of an OC'd CPU and a graphics card in your performance bracket. Had a res1 a few years ago and it was great with my Athlon XP2500+. Think it might struggle with my current set up

Jokester · 10 Sep 2009 at 17:54

I've got a bunch of Cape Coras side mounted and they easily coped with cooling a 4GHz quad, SLI 280GTX and chipset/regs.

Massively heavy though is the only issue, even though they're made from aluminium I think.

WJA96 · 10 Sep 2009 at 17:58

Superewza said:
Silence is a nice ideal, but it's not really worth the effort at the minute. It costs so much more for some fairly unsatisfactory results.

Well, just one of those big passive radiators is equivalent to a PA120.3, so the results are anything but unsatisfactory. They are expensive though.

Superewza said:
Especially when you can get some specialized components and some sub 10dB fans and it's pretty much the same but much cheaper, with better results and with low enough noise for almost any situation, not to mention the space saved.

Well, we could get REALLY off topic and argue about whether a 10dBA@1m fan actually exists or not, especially one with enough static pressure to force a reasonable airflow through a 60mm radiator, but as the topic is about the Res 1 V2 then all I'll say is that they are a miracle of physics and they work far better than they ought to.

The system in that black case has no fans at all. The motherboard, GPU and CPU are all water-cooled through the two big rads. The little cage at the top at the front is the 4x 2.5" SATA backplane with 4 128Gb Samsung SSDs in it in RAID 0 and the DVD-ROM has had it's firmware adjusted so it runs at 4x only and it's also silent.

Is it silence turned up to 11 on a very Ferrari-like "No budget"? Definitely!

WJA96 · 10 Sep 2009 at 18:03

Jokester said:
Massively heavy though is the only issue, even though they're made from aluminium I think.

Yes, that's why I have one on each side - they balance each other out (really!) and I have to be really careful taking a side panel off one at a time as it will topple over.

And you have to be a bit careful of the aluminium (I do run VW coolant fluid).

Jokester · 10 Sep 2009 at 18:10

As long as it's kept away from any dis-similar metals it should be ok, at least I've not had any corrosion issues yet and I've been running them for about a year I guess.

shadowscotland · 10 Sep 2009 at 18:11

WJA96 said:
Yes, that's why I have one on each side - they balance each other out (really!) and I have to be really careful taking a side panel off one at a time as it will topple over.

Qc's and wall mount solved that problem - did consider mounting my Res2 to my case but I tweek my system to oftern.
There are copper options aswell - more on that soon if I ever get some time - but Rad company has gone under now

so I'm no way of getting any more

WJA96 · 10 Sep 2009 at 19:14

shadowscotland said:
.
There are copper options aswell - more on that soon if I ever get some time - but Rad company has gone under now

CARP! I was going to get some of that too. Perhaps we ought to go on Dragon's Den and make PC cases with passive rads built into the side panels?

It's a thought. I have a man in Suffolk who can do daft stuff like that. I might pop down on Monday and have a chat with him.

D1ngd0ng · 10 Sep 2009 at 20:02

So anyway - thanks for all the replies, there are some valued opinions here. For recent future, I am just looking to quieten down the gfx card (ideally I want a 4890 atomic but am not buying whilst costs remain extortionate compared to factory spec 4890) and I also plan to watercool my next build but that will not be for a good while yet.

So I figure this provides an excellent opportunity (imo) to kill 2 birds with 1 stone (try water and see if I like it and have the discipline to keep it in good nick, whilst silencing loudest component in an otherwise quiet build) I admit that the Zalman is expensive overkill but I haven't yet accrued enough posts to see the 2nd hand member sales for parts and don't fancy trusting to ebay for something like this. I also admit that I have seen a Zalman setup in the old OCUK shop and I like it.

Staying with water but if skipping the zalman I was thinking of a single rad, 5.25 bay radiator/pump combination and a vga water block. I would post my own suggestions but will likely get shot down in flames so throw down the gaunlet to the forum to provide suggested components.

Remember that I am only looking to GPU cool on a single rad.

shadowscotland · 10 Sep 2009 at 20:54

If a quite setup is your aim - the bay res's are not that good.
DDC pro with res top or D5 with whatever res you want or DB-1

I did a test on them for sound a while back here
First two are ideal for building up a larger loop - the DB-1 is fine if your going to stop at two blocks

quality rad is a must XSPC RX range or thermochill PA's or Feser - all excerlent with quiet fans at lower rpm.
A single rad give limited upgrade potential - if I had to use one it would be the PA140 (as good as most doubles) and high resale value.

Blocks - all the top ones are with 2c of each other so get one your like or just get the current best (heatkiller3)