My 1st attempt at water cooling (with pics)

Hesky82 · 11 Aug 2006 at 00:12

Hi all, been a while since I posted on this board. Just thought I'd share a few pictures of my newly watercooled rigs.

I'll start off with my main gaming rig....

Pretty simple set-up really, real chunky half inch clearflex pipe, dd d5 pump, dd floppy bay res, alphacool nexxxos pro cpu bloc and dual 120mm rad with quiet 12v fans flat out. Main aim of this set-up was to give maximum cpu cooling over quiet running. Works a treat, and allows my 170 opty to clock to 3ghz primex2 stable.

the clearflex tubing is so thick I had to mod the cpu waterblocs mount to clear the tiny 8mm gap. Using the oversized dd perfectseal barbs didn’t help matter either.

Even at 12volts the 2 120mm silverstone fans are remarkably quiet, worth noting that the d5 pump is a wickedly quiet pump.

The case, a Lian Li V1000 plus.

Floppy driver cover removed and used as a viewing window to keep an eye on the res level.

Hesky82 · 11 Aug 2006 at 00:14

Later on I decided to watercool my HTPC and this is how it turned out……

Pretty crammed set-up but its pretty effective at cooling, about on par with a decent air set-up, which you would never get in this silverstone case and in its location. Pretty much silent cooling but allows me to overclock well.
The mCubed T-Balancer MiniNG fan controller also control the ddc pump thanks to its powerful pwm output. Simply undervolts the pump and rad fan when temps are low. No res, just a simple T-line setup.

Another improvisation, this waterbloc was meant to cool an nf4 chipset but I found out it fitted my 6600gt gfx card perfectly, and cleared the dvb card.

Cheap version of the nexxxos pro waterbloc, still a great bloc. Note the temp sensors comiming off the copper face.

Externally mounted 120mm rad.

Up and running in my av table

Creidiki · 11 Aug 2006 at 00:22

Not a bad couple of setups, though I presonally abhor all AC blocks apart from the nexxxos xps...

and though I have a TBan BigNG I wouldnt have bothered undervolting the pump... if I had a pump that runs @ 12v, and that wouldnt blow up the TBan (RD-30 is rated for 3.5A @ 24v) :rolleyes:

*eyes double rad speculatively*... im stumped, what is it?

Minstadave · 11 Aug 2006 at 01:06

Creidiki said:
*eyes double rad speculatively*... im stumped, what is it?

Looks life the Swiftech 120.2 maybe?

Creidiki · 11 Aug 2006 at 01:29

Mmmm, cant be sure without a better view of the tanks tho.

TELL ME! TELL ME NOW!

Hesky82 · 11 Aug 2006 at 18:48

Hi, rad is an Alphacool NexXxoS Xtreme II.

The little MiniNG seems to cope fine powering the ddc pump, gives the pump a kick-start at start-up and then runs it around 8volts (equates to 2900rpm) which is pretty much silent running at that speed. at 12volts the pump can be easily heard over the hard drives and gains an annoying whining sound.

Creidiki · 11 Aug 2006 at 18:57

Bad choice of rad for low-cfm fans...

weescott · 11 Aug 2006 at 19:27

Why can't all first time watercooling look as nice as that? Well done

.

Hesky82 · 11 Aug 2006 at 23:21

Creidiki said:
Bad choice of rad for low-cfm fans...

yeah there pretty slow running fans, but tbh I'm not to bothered they only cost 4 bux each and my 170 runs no more than 36c dual prime at 1.375v. with the summer soon over it will only help temps. my aim was to make 200mhz and reach 3ghz stable and ive managed it without taking off the ihs, so im happy.
what 120mm fan would you go for on this rad then?

Hesky82 · 11 Aug 2006 at 23:23

weescott said:
Why can't all first time watercooling look as nice as that? Well done .

thanks man

Creidiki · 12 Aug 2006 at 00:27

Well... NexXxoS rads being (poor) copies of HWLabs rads, its optimized for 100CFM+ stuff, like the Black Ice Extreme.

Ice Tea · 12 Aug 2006 at 01:02

Thats a first somebody saying a DDC whines but a D5 is quiet

Creidiki · 12 Aug 2006 at 02:00

Air in the pump or something, Ultras are quieter than D5s @#3. Maybe its not well insulated from the case.

slap ed · 12 Aug 2006 at 07:13

ahhh the more i see water cooling the more i want to try it
ps nice set up

w3bbo · 12 Aug 2006 at 09:11

Creidiki said:
Well... NexXxoS rads being (poor) copies of HWLabs rads, its optimized for 100CFM+ stuff, like the Black Ice Extreme.

Not all nexxos rads are. The extreme range that hesky has require high flow fans but the nexxos pro range don't.

Nice setup Hesky, what additive/coolant have you added?

Jleo · 12 Aug 2006 at 13:35

Nice Setup's

HTC is sweet, easy on the eye, saving entire thread for future reference

Creidiki · 12 Aug 2006 at 14:07

w3bbo said:
Not all nexxos rads are. The extreme range that hesky has require high flow fans but the nexxos pro range don't.

Yes, I am aware of this, but seeing as its an Extreme it didnt seem relevant.

w3bbo · 12 Aug 2006 at 18:25

Point taken. Just defending my nexxos pro 120.3 rad from sweeping statements m8

The Asgard · 12 Aug 2006 at 19:02

Nice job m8. Do you have the pump at Max? I run mine about 75% seems to run a lot quieter. It is a D5?

Hesky82 · 12 Aug 2006 at 20:23

w3bbo said:
what additive/coolant have you added?

In both rigs I used valvoline zerex which I got from the states, the rest went in my cars coolant system for cool summer running

The Asgard said:
Nice job m8. Do you have the pump at Max? I run mine
about 75% seems to run a lot quieter. It is a D5?

I have it set at full, #5 setting. My ddc isnt necessarily louder it just has a certain pitch at full speed I just don’t like. could be the case or the fact any noise in my htpc is unwelcome lol.

I think I should look into getting some higher flow fans then, any suggestions?

was lookin at the Delta 120mm TFB1212GHE fans, 220 CFM sounds preety good for a 120mm, 65 dB doesnt though, I might have to shout for people to hear over that fan lol.