External watercooling rads/pumps?

d_brennen · 4 Sep 2010 at 10:54

I remember a few years ago seeing a product (not sure if it was a prototype/concept/one off project) which was an external radiator with intergrated pump. Does anyone know what I'm on about?

It was about 1 1/2 - 2ft tall, cylindrical tower (bit phallus like :eek:

) made from fins which were passively cooled. The pump was in the base of the unit and the pipes (in/out) ran from the base into the PC. Seemed like a good idea, just wondering if there is anything like that about?

Failing that, is there any external pump/rad cooling kits out there?

Theophany · 4 Sep 2010 at 10:56

Zalman Reserator 1?

CustomPC Mag used to rave about it.

d_brennen · 4 Sep 2010 at 11:03

Yes! That or very similar

is it any good in the context of today's hardware?

Theophany · 4 Sep 2010 at 11:08

d_brennen said:
Yes! That or very similar is it any good in the context of today's hardware?

I really couldn't tell you mate, but on the basis it was around and respected when the Prescott P4s were commonplace, I'd say it could probably still hold its own against today's hardware

Frozennova · 4 Sep 2010 at 11:19

shadowscotland is the man to ask but IIRC its perfectly fine for upto 100TDP, above that your probably asking for trouble

JeffyB · 4 Sep 2010 at 11:40

Swiftech Drive, rad,pump and res in one.

buttkinz · 4 Sep 2010 at 11:40

Yup, suppsed to be fine with a stock clocked processor but any overclocking would very quickly overwhelm it. They're made for silence, not performance.

Edit: that swiftech rad looks awesome for a no hassle setup!

d_brennen · 4 Sep 2010 at 13:31

Are those swiftechs for external mounting? Looks good. Would one of those be able to deal with a CPU like a Q6600 or i7) and a mildly overclocked 5850?

MikeTimbers · 4 Sep 2010 at 13:33

Yes and yes. The radiators are top quality, use Laing pumps and have a top-mounted fill hole. Check Swiftech's site for certified mounting orientations.

HW91 · 4 Sep 2010 at 13:38

you'll want some fans to go with though

Squakingcow · 4 Sep 2010 at 15:23

Swiftech just announced this as well, which is a big improvement over the old pump/res/rad combo posted earlier.

d_brennen · 4 Sep 2010 at 16:01

Thanks for the input guys, this is why this is the best harware forum on the net

The Swiftech stuff looks the job I think. Going to have a look about for CPU/GPU blocks now

Stupid question alert: Do the "full cover" 5850 blocks cover all the hot bits, like memory and power regulators etc? The last couple of air coolers I've used (inc. AC Twin Turbo) have left it up the user to adequately cool these bits...

Squakingcow · 4 Sep 2010 at 16:08

The full cover ones should, it's core only blocks which don't.

dfour · 4 Sep 2010 at 16:15

I have a 5850 EK full cover block and they cover the gpu, ram and the Power regulators.

JeffyB · 4 Sep 2010 at 16:18

Check on the manufacturers site but full cover usually means it'll cover the core, ram and vrm's.
The new swiftech edge kits look pretty good.

MikeTimbers · 4 Sep 2010 at 17:18

All Swiftech kit (with the notable exception of the badly-anodized GTX) has been good. I've used a lot of it over the years going back to some of their oldest heatsinks and have only ever had the one problem.