Waco Posted September 10, 2010 Posted September 10, 2010 (edited) A little over a month ago I entered a contest to win a CoolIt Eco A.L.C. liquid cooling system on Youtube. I won (and so did BluePanda) and that started something very bad. I wanted to mod the little self-contained cooling system. Normally this wouldn't be bad - you know - spend a few bucks, get a reservoir and some tubing, and I'd be done. Unfortunately for my wallet (and BluePanda's sanity) airman happened to have a Laing D5, a D-Tek Fuzion, and a HWLabs Black Ice Pro II on sale here on OCC. The monster awoke. I mean...I have this bigass HAF 932 case...why not fill it with something useful? My wallet started whimpering at this point. Here are a few pics of the build (my first watercooling setup ever): The D-Tek Fuzion block - I pulled it apart, lapped the base (and the gasket surface on the inside), and installed the quad-split nozzle for Core 2 Quads. The block installed and the radiator with the original fans I was planning to use...more on that in a minute. I filled the reservoir with a syringe. The coolant is distilled water with Primochill Liquid Utopia and their Blood Red dye bomb. After firing it up the first time (after leak testing of course) I noticed that the Coolermaster R4 fans I was using in a pulling config didn't seem to move much air AT ALL through the radiator. I scrounged about and found two of my old Nidec Beta V TA450DC triple-blade 100+ CFM 38mm thick monsters. I fashioned up a pair of shrouds from broken fans and tossed them in there...at 5 volts they won't even start but with a little kick they will run at that speed nice and quiet. At full blast they run a couple thousand RPM and will surely help keep temps down for bench runs - damn they are LOUD though. My Vantec Tornados don't have . on these things. Tornadoes will cut your finger - these will BREAK them. Temps are pretty good at idle - 38 C in this *very* warm room. Load temps are down a good 12-15 C from my Megahalems with IntelBurnTest...we'll see how long that holds up when I start cranking my CPU a bit higher. All the tubing is 1/2" ClearFlex from D-Tek. All the fittings are from D-Tek as well. My HAF 932 doesn't seem so big anymore with all this crap in it. Now I guess I'll be giving that ECO ALC away to a buddy who is in desperate need for a new CPU cooler. His 945 is sitting at the stock 3 GHz because his cooler sucks so much. Edited September 10, 2010 by Waco Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
dr_bowtie Posted September 10, 2010 Posted September 10, 2010 man you are gonna be sooooo hooked... and Panda's gonna wonder when her's is next? anyhow on a serious note...nice looking pics.... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
CowKing Posted September 11, 2010 Posted September 11, 2010 wouldn't you get better airflow if you put fans on each side of that radiator? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Waco Posted September 11, 2010 Posted September 11, 2010 wouldn't you get better airflow if you put fans on each side of that radiator? There's no room really - the radiator is barely not touching the board (I had to bend the CPU power cable as it is). The shrouds + the 38mm fans are pretty much all I can fit in there and they move MORE than enough air. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrewr05 Posted September 11, 2010 Posted September 11, 2010 Awesome, looks like you've got the WC fever now. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
hardnrg Posted September 11, 2010 Posted September 11, 2010 I filled the reservoir with a syringe. what? you filled your entire system with a syringe? how long did that take?! surely a funnel, or a barb + tube + funnel would have been a lot easier and faster? it would take me a whole day to fill my system with a syringe, lol Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Waco Posted September 11, 2010 Posted September 11, 2010 what? you filled your entire system with a syringe? It holds 2+ ounces lol...it only took a few minutes. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
hardnrg Posted September 11, 2010 Posted September 11, 2010 ah cool... I guess now you get to play with the dilemma of running a quieter system, or a faster system (even if it's louder) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Waco Posted September 11, 2010 Posted September 11, 2010 ah cool... I guess now you get to play with the dilemma of running a quieter system, or a faster system (even if it's louder) Isn't that always the dilemma? Even with air cooling you always have to balance noise versus performance. I'm in the process of seeing how far I can push my CPU though I'm pretty sure the maximum is pretty close to what I hit on air (which blows) but this new setup with the fans at 5 volts is FAR quieter even with the slight pump noise. I do find it odd that my 100+ CFM fans at full blast only change my load temps by about 3 degrees or so...that seems rather odd to me. Shouldn't they make a pretty big difference between ~30 CFM and well over 100 CFM each? I was under the impression that higher airflow through the radiator would translate pretty much directly into lower temps. The water doesn't ever seem to get all that warm though so maybe it's just that my block can't pull the heat out fast enough... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest clarknick67 Posted September 14, 2010 Posted September 14, 2010 Anyway, looks nice stuff. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Waco Posted September 21, 2010 Posted September 21, 2010 Updates (but no pics...too excited right now)!!! I bit the bullet and bought a couple new/extra parts. I swapped the radiator with a Swiftech MCR320, added in a Swiftech Caldera 4870X2 waterblock and full coverage heatsink, and installed SIX of the Nidec Beta V's in push/pull on the radiator. The fans are wired in series so I can vary the voltage from 6 volts (to start them) down to 2 volts (to turn them completely off). At the middle setting they run entirely silent and my temps are AWESOME. I used to see 100+ C core temps on the GPUs and 115+ C temps on the voltage regulators. I now see 42 C max on the GPUs (yes...42 degrees...holy crap) and about 60 C on the voltage regulators. My CPU temps are up by about 2 degrees at idle and full load temps are completely unaffected. Damn I love this. My computer no longer howls like a banshee when I load down my video card and I can actually overclock it now! I'm in the process of clocking up the card but my previous "lol let's make the card crash instantly" setting of 800 MHz on the cores runs Furmark/Kombuster perfectly with load temps barely breaking 43 C. :biggrin: Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
cjloki Posted September 21, 2010 Posted September 21, 2010 Updates (but no pics...too excited right now)!!! I bit the bullet and bought a couple new/extra parts. I swapped the radiator with a Swiftech MCR320, added in a Swiftech Caldera 4870X2 waterblock and full coverage heatsink, and installed SIX of the Nidec Beta V's in push/pull on the radiator. The fans are wired in series so I can vary the voltage from 6 volts (to start them) down to 2 volts (to turn them completely off). At the middle setting they run entirely silent and my temps are AWESOME. I used to see 100+ C core temps on the GPUs and 115+ C temps on the voltage regulators. I now see 42 C max on the GPUs (yes...42 degrees...holy crap) and about 60 C on the voltage regulators. My CPU temps are up by about 2 degrees at idle and full load temps are completely unaffected. Damn I love this. My computer no longer howls like a banshee when I load down my video card and I can actually overclock it now! I'm in the process of clocking up the card but my previous "lol let's make the card crash instantly" setting of 800 MHz on the cores runs Furmark/Kombuster perfectly with load temps barely breaking 43 C. :biggrin: yep, the water bug got ya waco...pretty soon you'll be as addicted as Lindsey Lohan...hehehe Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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