Zalman Reserator 1 Upgrade

Prime · 13 May 2009 at 00:00

Chaps time to upgrade the Reserator 1 (not plus/ v2 just bog standard) i have which comes with stock waterblocks, i believe the WB2 and GWB1 (or worse!). Looking for recommendations on replacement CPU and VGA waterblocks and possible the northbridge as well, though the later is not as essential.

Tempted to go for stock Zalman replacements in the WB5/plus and the GWB3 but open to other alternates provided they won't cause problems (flow/corrosion) with the Reserator 1. Couple of mentions for the the D-Tek Fusion as a possible route for both CPU and GPU, any others? No problems with Reserator 1.

Little dated system that was recently upgraded and it looks like the VGA waterblock isn't coping.... Soem red sparklies appearing, the VGA block it doesn't really fit in any case

, so needs to be changed at the very least but the CPU block could do with going as well even if the Opteron is running fine.

Edit - is it worth Changing the pump for something with a little more oomph than the stock one?

system specs:
Opteron 165
7900GT
DFI Lanparty UT
Seasonic 430w
2gb (4x512 stick)

JTrickle · 13 May 2009 at 09:51

What temperature does your graphics card reach vs its expected max with its stock cooler? Are you really sure temperature is the cause of these sparkles? I would have thought spending money on a replacement gpu block would be counter productive vs just using the money on a better card (than the 7900 in your sig).

That said I will be most interested in your results if you do upgrade. I'd be also interested to know if the V1's GPU blocks really are poor verses the V2's. I've been that happy with my V2 I've been close to buying a second V1 on the bay. The v1's come up quite frequently, and at half the cost of a new Reserator.

I wouldnt bother upgrading the CPU block until you are moving to a new socket format. I dont yet know if the 1366 socket coolers will be compatible with the upcoming I5 mobos.

shadowscotland · 13 May 2009 at 10:28

I have the Reserator2 that I've upgraded more than once. (link)

The blocks are the primary upgrade for the Reserator (all models)
XSPC edge is best, then the Fusion V1 then the new Zalman block.
The edge is best for flow (but only available secondhand)
The Fusion V1 is nearly as good but has additional corrision protection.
The Zalman is ok and fully protected.

Edit: The newer ZM-GWB3 vga block is reasonable and the rotating barbs are an excelent feature - I use a Maze4 or silverprop now (but the bare copper is not ideal)
Full cover blocks are a major no-no - very restrictive.

Next easiest is the tubing - swap the 10/8 for 3/8 - gave me a 2c drop at load for a few quid and you can still use your zalman blocks.

Removing the flow guage or swapping it for a rotating one will also give you a 1c drop.
the Reserator 1 version was know to leak.

The final simple upgrade is the Quick connectors - the zalman ones are very restrictive.
Either just use stright barbs or get some koolance VL3 and use 1/2 tube and barbs throughout. 2-4c idle, and maybe 8-10c load drop with a single block and hot chip.

I have the 'extreme flow' VL4 and they are overkill but I want ever last drop of flow from my passive loop.

Oh snorkel mod and using an external pump are other options.

The first vga block was truely rubish - good flow rate but that's because it's just a aluminum pipe - reuse on your HHD

Prime · 13 May 2009 at 12:01

Thanks for the replies. Since i picked it up from the MM over 3 years ago it's more or less served me well, albeit relatively low spec pc. In the last month or so the CPU and the GFX have been upgraded and performance has been just about par, just the GFX causing some slight problems. It's primarily a WoW box which if it's running on anything other than low settings will set of the red sparkles after a random amount of time, more noticeable yesterday as the ambient room temperature was higher. Now it could be the GFX itself, or possibly the ram (VGA sinks on there), but as the card can and has run fine at mid to high levels it leads me to think otherwise. The fact that i don't have proper fittings for the VGA block probably isn't helping either so at a bare minimum that has to go.

There seems to be a chap on the MM with a D-Tek Fusion v1 VGA block which could fit the bill but just a tad concerned about the pure copper base. I confess i'm not up to speed on galvanic corrosion aspect other than basics, case of peace of mind in the Zalman vs performance of the D-Tek unless convinced otherwise! Also it seems the D-Tek uses 1/2 barbs which would probably lead to a replacement in the stock blue tubing i'm using.

The CPU, which has been overclocked to 2.5ghz, is running fine however i've seen the WB5 on sale at half price now (£15) so the thought is i might as well, it's a fairly low cost upgrade. Not currently interested in i7 mounts and if there is going to be a socket change then paying the premium for the 5 plus currently is a unnecessary.

Low cost/low maintenance is all i'm really after with the added benefit of virtually silent system.

shadowscotland · 13 May 2009 at 12:13

The fuzion can use 3/8 barbs (but has a performance drop)
and the copper is coated. Still need to use addatives.

But at £15 the zalman is a steal

and no bare copper.

On the mixed metal issue - addeing a small about of copper (no direct contact) to a large surface area aluminum loop is ok (but not ideal) adding a small amount of aluminum to a copper loop loop is a major no-no.

JTrickle · 13 May 2009 at 12:32

Prime said:
Now it could be the GFX itself, or possibly the ram (VGA sinks on there), but as the card can and has run fine at mid to high levels it leads me to think otherwise. The fact that i don't have proper fittings for the VGA block probably isn't helping either so at a bare minimum that has to go.

What do you mean, 'proper fittings'?

What temp does the GPU reach?

I dont know much about Nvidia cards. Do they have any mosfets to cool? In this picture, you can see I forgot to cool one of mine at first - the fifth one at the bottom centre of the picture. I only ran it a couple of times before I realised and hacksawed a custom heatsink for it, but I did see stability issues - which caused me to check!

Prime · 13 May 2009 at 13:04

JTrickle - Temps last time i checked were about 54c on the GFX, which doesn't seem high. However as i'm not the main user and my attempts to get a temperature reading seems to fall on deaf ears. By proper fittings i mean the screws are not sitting perpendicular to the board, i've had to jam it in at an angle as the fitting wouldn't quite reach. So vga block isn't quite flush. However having just checked the GWB1 and it looks like i've been using the small block instead of the big one. It's been 3 years since i played around the kit and i didn't even think i had a big one. Tad embarrassing there!

As for mosfets not quite sure on this card, the HSF was a rather small number that didn't even have ramsinks which were being aircooled so i doubt there is anything else to cool. It's either the GFX card itself (MM job) or the GPU core not behaving as expected. Having run 3DMark a number of times there are no sparkles, that only comes if the card is overclocked.

Will run this large waterblock first to see if it's that solves anything, but the GWB1 are really bog standard blocks as shadowscotland states. http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/coolers/display/zalman-reserator_4.html#sect0