What do you guys think about watercooled PC's. I want to dramatically reduce the noise from my pc starting with my PSU (any recommendations?). I read 2 reviews about the Zalman Reserator (cant find anymore...) Any opinions on this. + this has to be plugged directly into the mains, what can i set-up incase i forget to turn it on before i turn my PC on?
Id recommend a CWT450w/550w psu if its just the psu making niose.
If you want to reduce niose you need decent parts. www.over-clock.co.uk and www.coolercases.co.uk sell good kits but the rest I would aviod.
Its big, its bl00, and its shiny........so its good!!
A lot of people on another forum are giving it negative vibes because they are comparing the cooling power of it to other normal HSFs and watercooling setups, and I think this is the wrong approach to take for it.
Its meant to work passively with minimal noise, and TBH from the reviews I read, it does the job it intends to do. OK, some might argue that its a bit pricey for a piece of passively cooling kit.....BUT ITS BIG, ITS BL00 AND ITS SHINY!!!!
can you give me a link to a review of it please?
There is no reson a passively cooled w/c (the pump being a non-passive component) cant match or beat air cooling and watercooling.
Watercooling is just a heat pump, it moves the heat from the waterblock to the radiator. most decent pumps are silent, my ehiem 1250 is anyway (mounted on foam, no cavitation).
The radiator is where the heat is disipated and to work passivly needs to be big with lots of copper fins, much like a car heatercore but without the ristriction to the air (as the passive air will get trapped and wont move, and not cool it).
I wouldnt but any zalman stuff, it is below standard and relies on marketing hype to sell (I dont remmebr seeing this w/c kit from them, maybe its acctually good, doubt it...)
I suggest mounting heatercores outside in the cold and plumming copper pipe going to and from, that way you get very low water temps as well as the niose being where you cant hear it... I plan to do this in a few months.
Link is same as above. I also read it in CustomPC getting 86%. Apparently it keeps the water around 10 degrees (am i not right in saying that some water coolers chill the water to -30?).
Why do you regard Zalman as a bad company, they seem to be very popular for thier quality and silent approach.
Something that does concern me is the pump (300L/Hour compared to some pumps at 700L/Hour). I may also want to buy a GPU and NorthBridge cooler - will this be a problem for the pump and to match it to the Reserator kit?
Is this a good investment compared to other coolers? Are other water coolers realy that much louder with thier fan(s)?
What can i do to make sure i don't forget to turn the Reserator on before the PC as it is run off the mains?
10 degrees is a joke, unless you're pumping in cooled water, there's no way you are gonna get that low a temp. Stand a bucket of water in a room, thats approx. the target temp you're aiming at. -30 you'll need phase-change cooling like a Prommie or VapoChill. Watercooling might get you temps in the low 20s (if you're lucky), but more around 30C.
I rate Zalman more for their passive cooling products, like the ones done for GFX cards. I got one on my 9700pro, and it works a treat.
It would be possible to add additional waterblocks (GPU and/or NB), but I doubt the Reserator pump would be able to get enough water flow, and that their would be too much heat for the system to cope. The Reserator just about keeps the CPU cool.
Other WC kits can be much more powerful and run virtually silent, but you're gonna have to invest on a large amount of money and research to get it.
I am running a passive (no fans) water cooling system on a Athlon Xp 2500 and it usually stays around 5 deg above room temp. This means Cpu temps always under 28 deg even under load. This is using a large (bigger and much uglier than the zalman thingy) industrial copper and aluminium heat exchanger and a Hydor L20 pump (max 700l/h). As long as you have a large enough radiator then there is no reason why a watercooled system with no fans should not work.
As Proplus mentioned any temperatures are dependant on the room temp and you are not going to be able to get below room temp using simple watercooling fans or no fans.
lol thats crap. The waterblock is crap. The rad is crap. The pump is crap. The mounting method is CRAP. I did type out many resons why its crap but instead I deleted it becuase after readng that review you will know how crap it is and you wont need to read this post BECAUSE ITS CRAP!
1. Even if the components are crap, it still does its job of cooling a CPU PASSIVELY.
2. Its big
3. Its bl00
4. Its shiny
5. Its good
SilentDeath, are you reading the same review as the one above? Cos that rates it quite highly......
maybe you should bother reading all the way to the conclusion next time, and not make up your own assumptions beforehand.
I did read the whole review before posting.
This w/c is just cheap for them to make like this and it is clear that they made it to compeat in the low performance w/c market.
There is NO reson why passive w/c should be any less good than normal w/c if done properly. Also I see no reson to have compleatly passive cooling as fans can be easly made silent.
If you get a decent fan, this for example.
You can easly run silent and good performance. This fan has a good static pressure so atm I am using it like this at 8v instead of 24v which it is rated upto.
The review's test was done with a FAN blowing on the rad, this making it not passive. The reviewer didnt think it was good enough to run passivly and cool his cpu.
If you get this you wont be able to upgrade it.
the copper in the w/b is gold plated for two resons, to prevent corrosion with the alu aswell as because most people would assume it has good heat transfer capability. The reviewer said they should have silver plated it, there would be no point, leaving it ass copper would have been better than plating it. The blocks would neeed to be redisigned compleatly to make them better. The pump is crap and any decent blocks you add to it will give very low flow rates. The rad is not capable of disapating much heat becuase of its poor design. The flow indicator broke, thats enough reson not to buy it.
Also with watercooling already, it is not expensive to add a waterchiller which could run passivly and replace a rad. Note the condensors used in most in freezers are passive.
Also the passive graphics cooling is not good. It bearly manages to beat the stock cooler. The stock cooler is just a thin peice of alu with a fan, while the zalman one is a massive slab of alu and a heatpipe leading to another massive slab of alu. It is good at storing heat - alu also has a high specific heat, but not acctually good at disapating it.
Last edited by SilentDeath; 29-03-2004 at 03:38 PM.
Ah jeez....here we go again: DO NOT THINK OF THIS PRODUCT AS A WATERCOOLING KIT, BUT A PASSIVE CPU COOLER!!!! So there is no need to compare it to other WC products.
As for the GFX card coolers, the stock one has a fan = noise. The Zalman don't = no noise. Massive slab or not, and disregarding what material it is made from....IT GETS THE JOB DONE! No-one says the Zalman cools a GFX card better than a stock HSF, it just gets the same amount of work done with NO NOISE!
Why shouldnt I think of it as a w/c kit, thats exactly what it is, and I expect it will cost about the same if not more, so its far from a air cooler comparinson. The only difference between it and a normal w/c is the fact the rad is passive and has no fan, that does not make it any less than a w/c kit.
It needs to be comapred to a w/c kit because it costs about the same.
For the same price I could easly make (I have access to a CNC mill etc..) a better w/c kit incuding passive rad that performs the same as a good w/c kit. If you would like me to just to prove that this is rubbishrubbishrubbishrubbishe then I will, give me two weeks and I will design something better with a lower cost. Are any retailers selling this zalman thing yet as I will need to know the cost before I start. Once I have deisnged it I will consider making a one-off.
Again For quater of the price of the zalman passive gfx cooler I could make a better one.
I am thinking of starting a business making and selling w/c stuff and I have already made a few things and I have done a lot of research into what makes things good.
If I did this I would not sacrifice looks for performance. It would look just as good if not better.
I hate marketing bs but you apparently love it. Why?
Last edited by SilentDeath; 29-03-2004 at 06:02 PM.
K thx, some mixed reactions there then. So maybe i should buy a normal water cooling 'kit' as i am concerned about the pump?
What could you reccommend - i have much experience in computing and thus dont want a standard kit which will give me ok results. I want seperate parts which will give me the BEST results (price = £200).
I want to do alot of overclocking, so im guessing the Reserator aint a brilliant idea for this as my computer will still be hotter compared to 'normal' watercooling...or am i wrong?
What is the average temperature of cpu's which are not overclocked using watercooling?
Depends but I would guess mine would be within 5c of ambient from the in socket thermistor using the rubbish waterblock I bought ages ago.
Another option is using an evaporative cooling tower to cool the water. This needs very low rpm fan so almost silent but has the problem of being open and the water will slowley evaporate so will need toping up every so often. Also this method is a health risk becuase of water being open to the air but noone that has tryed it so far that I know of has became ill.
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Posting Permissions
LinkBack URL
About LinkBacks
Reply With Quote