Let's Watercool a PC!
Yes, as Tron correctly predicted, the "coming soon" project was my very first foray in to the murky, dark, depths of watercooling.
I had it all planned for Saturday just gone. I read, and read and read some more on lots of not very friendly forums (the world of PC watercooling is filled with very snobby people!), and I eventually ordered the following kit:
Zalman Reserator XT - This is an all-in-one external single box solution. See, it turns out to watercool a PC, you need a reservoir (for the water), a radiator (or rad), and a pump to circulate everything. You also need lots of room to shove all that in your PC. The Reserator XT is an external box (about as big as the good old mini-towers we all loved/hated back in the 90s!) that contains all 3 elements.
The kit also includes a CPU waterblock, and I purchased a NorthBridge one. My NorthBridge runs at 50-60 degrees (nothing dramatic, within normal), because I've overclocked the CPU to 4.2ghz by increasing the BCLK to 200 and multiplying that by 21.
EK HD5870 Waterblocks: These are used to cool the VGAs. Installing them involves disassembling the factory fan/heatsinks, and replacing them with the blocks. It's scary!
But, I couldn't carry on doing anything on Saturday! See, in my ignorance, I failed to order some VERY basic couplings which didn't come as standard with my VGA blocks, hence I had to delay everything. I placed another order for everything (I hope!) and that should arrive tomorrow!
SO - why all this? See, my HD5870s are both 2 slot cards. When sat together in the motherboard, their fans have virtually no room for airflow. This leads to the cards getting stupidly hot when active (90 degrees), which in turn makes the fans loud. More importantly, when the cards reach these temperatures they throttle their performance, leading to a palpable dip in performance.
Keep your eyes fixed on the blog tomorrow, hopefully I'll manage to get everything installed, and most importantly, NOT LEAKING!
6 comments:
Well then i should count myself out of the "Something entirely new" as i have done this a long time ago starting from the Thermaltake first ever water solution kit back when it was really a big hassle to install/uninstall everything.
Performance wasnt really a MAJOR improve back then but it was something for the eyes more than it is for the case itself.
Anyway, way to go man, because there are some really wicked-looking kits out there and especially the Zalman Reserator, it looks like a missile :).
Waitin for da pics amigo.
Yo boss,
Are you still watercooling then? I'm sure we were talking about you getting the NOCTUA fan a while ago? Have you got any tips/advice?
I wasn't sure if anyone of my friends had done it before (hence I said "and I presume most of you")
The Reserator XT isn't the missile one LOL, it's the one that looks like a small case. The Reserator1 is the passive only cooler, which is big and looks like a missile lol
Yeah i mistook that for the missile one.
No im not watercooling now and yes i was looking at the Noctua fan but you stirred the beast (small dooda actually) inside me about that topic that i was researching yesterday for the newest technologies. I found out that Coolermaster has a small CPU cooler that is an all-in-one watercooling system that doesnt need water filling or high maintenance. as i recall its called the H50. Also BFG has a couple of nVidia cards that also use the same method of dedicated watercooling without the need of a watercooling system. But i dont know if they're gonna make any ATI products because all they have are the nVidias.
I hope nVidia releases something that will kill the 5970 otherwise im switching because i saw these monsters in crossfire action and they're a BITCH !!I dont want to sacrifice the Physx Technology man. unless you know something that i dont :)
ALLAH! The dooda! THE DOODA!
Impossible to resist, as you know!
I haven't heard of the standalone things you're telling me about, they sound cool!
I'm only WCing for the VGAs, the Noctua is a FANTASTIC fan, silent and cools my CPU really well!
Also, Powercolor are producing ATI 5870s that have a waterblock installed already. In fact, it has the same EK block I'm putting on my cards (which are Powercolor too!)
And yes, in crossfire, the 5870s are fantastic. Better still, ATI crossfire is really stable. No stability issues like I had with SLI.
You really should consider a go with ATI - their current hardware is awesome!
I was referring to the 5970's in crossfire.. have you seen these in action ??? OMG. the FPS are fucking hilarious..
Tell me something, is it possible to do the following setups in crossfire ?
1) 3 x 5870
2) 3 x 5970
and what board does accept them ?? any 3-way SLI/Crossfire board ?
Also, is powercool a goodbrand ?
Im really aiming for a switch, but i gotta be fair and give nVidia a chance with their G300 chipsets when they come out.
you can't do 3x5970, you can do 3x5870 or 1x5970 and 1x5870
remember though, you really should be watercooling if you're gonna do stuff like that - the airflow will just obstruct
Post a Comment