Biting water cooling bullet?

Birdseye · Post by **Birdseye** » Tue Jan 27, 2004 12:18 am

OK, I have gone completely psychotic and am considering water cooling, mainly due to noise. I want a computer that produces almost zero noise. I make a lot of music and a noisey computer at this point is unacceptable and bothersome for proper mixing.

Anyway, I probably will grab something new off ebay... I have an XP 2600+ and a gigabyte gat7v600
512mb DDR pc3200 w/ heat spreader

Will I be able to get rid of my case fan blowing air out?
My northbridge just has a heatsink, so no fan there.

How difficult is installation? How often do you have to change the water?
How much of an overclock do you think I could get with my setup?

Vindicator · Post by **Vindicator** » Tue Jan 27, 2004 2:07 am

As luck would have it, I'm getting ready to sell my Koolance Exos with CPU-200 waterblock and video card cooler. If youre interested let me know.

To cool my system when the Exos was installed, I had a low-speed fan in the rear blowing air over my northbridge (passively cooled). I also had a low-speed fan in the front blowing over my hard drive. Other than the PSU fan, thats it. The major heat sources were taken care of by the Koolance, so all that was left was taken care of by super quiet fans.

Note that the Exos isnt completely silent, but it is quieter than just about anything out there. With the video cooler, you can also get rid of your noisy video card heatsink/fan.

Koolance recommends changing the water after 6 months of use. All that entailed was unhooking the water lines running to the Exos, draining the water line into a bucket, and emptying and refilling the reservior. Took me about 30 minutes start to finish.

Installation isnt that tricky, you just have to be careful to make sure the hose clamps are tight and that you test it for a day or so with the motherboard unplugged before connecting power to your computer.

As for overclocking, lets just say that cooling wont be an issue

I had my XP1700 running at 1.85 volts for a while (at 2300mhz), and the highest it got was 34 degrees C.

edit: Is <a href=http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDe ... =1>this</a> your motherboard? If so, it looks like the CPU waterblock may not fit...

Birdseye · Post by **Birdseye** » Tue Jan 27, 2004 3:05 am

yep... so far nothing anyone on this board people reccomended will fit it =(

STRESSTEST · Post by **STRESSTEST** » Tue Jan 27, 2004 10:23 pm

It'll fit

Birdseye · Post by **Birdseye** » Tue Jan 27, 2004 11:49 pm

So how much for it?
How loud is it? I looked at it online and it looks like it has 3 fans? I dunno, I really wanted the water cooling mainly for absolute noise supression.

Stress, do you know of a good kit that isn't too expensive and isn't noisey?
One good point on that unit you are selling is the video card cooler. I forgot mine has a fan on it (geforce 5200fx)

Krom · Post by **Krom** » Wed Jan 28, 2004 12:33 am

I have a water cooler and I am quite happy with it, however the 120MM sunon fan on the radiator does make some noise, its not loud like a delta fan or anything but it is a noticible hum. You can get 120MM fans that are pretty much silent I think, you WILL need a cooling fan for the radiator, there really is no other effective way to cool a CPU watercooling or otherwise (unless you use tons of water massive passive).

-Krom

Vindicator · Post by **Vindicator** » Wed Jan 28, 2004 1:25 am

I'm thinkin around $200 for the Exos and 2 waterblocks + accessories (manuals, GF4 adapter). Its 9 months old and in excellent condition (the CPU block has minor cosmetic wear on it) and I just ordered new hose clamps, tubing, and a fresh bag of coolant.

The fans are really quiet on mode 1 since they run at 45% power, but like I said you can hear it. If youre feeling adventurous you can open it up and disconnect one or two of the fans and see how that affects cooling.

The CPU block is roughly 3.25 inches wide (1.7" from the edge to the middle of the center clip), so taking measurements wouldnt hurt. It attaches to the socket with a 3-prong ratcheting clip. You can see it in action on my old system <a href=http://pushrod.home.mchsi.com/mybox/cas ... PG>here</a>. You'll need a free PCI slot to attach the bracket for the water hoses and power (in that pic you can see i just put it above the vid card).

The vid card cooler was more than enough for my 9700 pro so no worries there.

Vindicator · Post by **Vindicator** » Wed Jan 28, 2004 2:03 am

Something else you could try would be to go to places like xoxide.com, frozencpu.com, and others and build your own watercooling rig. That way, you could specify the radiator/fan setup you wanted to use (some radiators can accept 2-120mm fans, ergo you can use lower-speed fans), the number of pumps, the size of the waterblocks, etc.

Or if the computer isnt going to be moved much, you can just fill up a big bucket and use that as the radiator/reservior. Ghetto, but fanless.

STRESSTEST · Post by **STRESSTEST** » Wed Jan 28, 2004 2:51 am

Brian, the 3 fans have 3 setting for 2 basic speeds, I run all my koolance products on setting one, with leaves the fans making no noise over ambiant in my house. However, if you are in a recording enviroment, I suspect it will be quieter then my house

Either way it is very low.

Otherwise you'll spend more then that for a setup with a 120mm fan. To be honest the quietest water rig I ever had was that quietpower Swiftech case I sold xciter. It used 4 120mm fans and they were very low RPM Mechatronics. That case was as near silent as you will ever hope to get.

The only other option for zero noise is to get into a 1200 $+ Zalman heatpipe-heatsink case and a passive cooled 350 watt (Large heatsink on back) for about another 150.