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Loading ...The Ups and Downs of Water Cooling
mick64
After reading the feature on water cooling in the June issue of CPC, I decided it was time to take the ‘plunge’ and water-cool my rig. My case is an Antec P182, a recent buy that I was not willing to replace. I have limited space for my rig so I wanted to keep the cooling loop, including rads, within the case. Initially, I didn’t want to do much in the way of case modding (this was a mistake) and worked out that I could mount two single rads within the case, one at the front and one at the back. I thought that this would be adequate for cooling my over-clocked Q6600. Rather than going for a kit, I decided to purchase the parts individually. 2x XSPC RS120 rads, an XSPC bay reservoir, a Laing DDC pump, 1/2 “ tubing, Feser One fluid and an Aquacomputer Cuplex XT di CPU Waterblock. The Cuplex waterblock was not tested in the CPC feature but I carried out some research on waterblocks and had discovered that this was one of the best on the market. Once I had all the kit in my possession it didn’t take me long to fit. A minor case mod was required to mount the pump but that was all. Filling the loop was a doddle with the bay reservoir and my rig was soon back up and running. Before installing the loop, my CPU was cooled by a Titan Amanda TEC cooler. This cooler is extremely efficient and I was able to over-clock my Q6600 to 3.6 GHz. Of course, I was expecting to be able increase my over-clock after installing the loop and was exited to see what sort of temperature my CPU was now running at. My initial excitement soon turned to disappointment because the idle temperature was actually higher than with the Amanda and when I stress tested it, the temperature was about the same as with the Amanda. After checking the loop several times, ensuring the waterblock was mounted OK and trying various fan configurations and speeds, I came to the conclusion that it was an air-flow problem. The two rads were not able remove the heat from the water effectively in their present positions. To put it mildly, I was gutted! After a lot of thought and several ideas later, I came up with a plan. I still wanted to keep the loop within the case. So to improve the air-flow I would have to carry out some drastic case modding! I had noted that the CPC feature on water cooling had stated that one of the best cases for water cooling was the SilverStone TJ07B. This was because of the section at the bottom of the case where you could mount a large rad and have clear air-flow across the case. This was my plan; the Antec P182 has a bottom section, similar to the TJ07B that contains a hard drive bay but is big enough to fit a double 120mm rad. I would move the hard drives to the top section, mount a double rad in the bottom section with push-pull fans and cut a hole in both side panels to allow clear air-flow across the case. To cut a long story short, I carried out this plan and my temperatures are now lower than with the Amanda, although I have only been able to increase my overclock to 3.656 GHz (8×457FSB) without it becoming unstable. Although I am still a little disappointed that I haven’t been able to increase my overclock, I am extremely proud of my installation and case mods and there is one good thing; a lot less noise! Please take a look at the pictures below which show my original Amanda cooled rig, my first cooling loop and my rig as it is now…..
Titan Amanda
First Cooling Loop
My Custom Water Cooled Rig
Gunmetal Antec P182 : Antec Quattro 850 PSU : Asus P5K Premium/WiFi-AP : Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 @ 3656 MHz (8 x 457) : 2Gb 1100 OCZ Gold XTC : nVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT with DuOrb Cooler (GPU: 700MHz, Shader: 1750MHz, Memory: 1000MHz) : 3x Sharkoon Eagle 2000’s : 4x Sharkoon Eagle 1000 LED’s : Akasa Fan Control Pro : Aquacomputer Cuplex XT di CPu Waterblock : 1x single 120mm rad : 1x double 120mm rad : 2x 80Gb WD Raptors in raid 0 : 2x 500Gb Samsung Spinpoints in raid 0
Very nice and very neat - good work, like the radiator vent a lot.
I used to use a water+274 watt peltier setup on my old P4 Prescott. My CPU temps were -7c idle and 15c full load with cpu OC’d to 3.6ghz. These days I just use water on my E6300 which is OC’d 93% (1.86ghz default with an OC to 3.6ghz). My water setup is very unconventional. The problem with a standard setup is that the radiator is fed warm air from inside the PC case. At the very best, the rad is fed air from the room the computer is in. Both arrangements are far from ideal.
My setup extends the radiator away from the PC and next to an open window. A 120 x 3 rad with 3 x fans sucking in cool air from outside.
This arrangement is better than I could have imagined. My room no longer gets heated by the computer, and when the CPU + GPU are busy, the water is no longer heated. A conventional water setup is constantly recycling heated air from the computer so the room gets progressively warmer.
In winter, my water temps drop to 9c or lower, in fact, even with the window closed, my temps are low, simply because the rad is near the window (coldest part of the room).
Having used this arrangement for some time, I will never go back to using a conventional setup where the rad is fed recycled air from the computer.
I will add a peltier to the cpu+water again this summer and can expect great chilling performance due to the unconventional radiator setup.
Nice pics btw.
Thanx for the info Feathers. I’ve been thinking about using a peltier myself. Could you give me some information about your installation? How do you guard against condensation? what voltage do you run it at? Do you use a cold plate? Do you think that the 40mm peltier on the Amanda would be worth using?
Hi,
My insulation was pretty standard at the time. Layers of 3mm neoprene around cpu socket and then several thick 9mm layers to insulate around the waterblock. Also dielectric grease was applied over the cpu socket holes (back in socket 478 days) and on the back of the cpu itself where the caps are. Also a piece of neoprene behind mobo around cpu area.
I have done a lot of experimentation over the years and I even tried a non-insulated subzero setup where a neoprene drip sheet collected any water generated by the peltier.
As far as I’m concerned neoprene is far from ideal as an insulator and when I add a peltier again, I want to mould expanding foam (the type you get in a spray can). It will be a much better insulator.
Also I can tell you that despite all of the scare stories, if your insulation has a leak and you get condensation… it doesn’t burn out a cpu or motherboard (well it might with AMD) but for intel systems it just causes a reset and you can then take steps to rectify it.
What I plan to use for insulation is expanding foam to form the insulation and silicon seal rubber to form the seal. I will place a sheet of clingfilm over motherboard parts around cpu socket. Then apply a layer of silicon sealant (I place it on the clingfilm because I want it to be removable).
I then mould the expanding foam around the socket area and waterblock. Again it has to be done in such a way that it’s removable.
It sounds like a lot of trouble but in reality it’s not so bad. I don’t think I will bother applying grease over cpu socket pins, not necessary if the insulation is good.
Re: your amanda question…
It uses a 50watt peltier or thereabouts I believe. It’s much better to just buy a brand new peltier on ebay for £5 or less. I bought a 40mm 160 watt peltier a few months ago.
Generally a coldplate is used but part of the reason people use them is because many peltiers used for cpu cooling typically were much bigger than the cpu and so a percentage of that peltier would be wasted. A coldplate at least can cover all of the peltier area even if the coldplate is bigger than the cpu, it still passes all of the cooling down to the cpu core.
If the peltier is roughly the same size as the cpu core then it’s not strictly necessary.
I can also tell you that a coldplate doesn’t have to be very thick and heavy either. Many years ago I approached a metal company and got them to cut lots of blocks of copper, which I polished as coldplates. These days if I used a coldplate, I would use a much thinner plate (4mm for example).
P. S.
I used a manually controlled variable voltage power supply. It could supply from 3 to 15 volts at up to 40 amps. The nice thing about it was that it showed the current consumption of the peltier!
If your ATX psu has sufficient power on the 12v rail then it would be possible to run it from there.
Thanx again Feathers for the info. Sounds like you’re a seasoned overclocker…..
Your Q6600 overclock is good. I don’t know if that’s typical for watercooling though? I do know that the Asus P5K is a little less stable than the Abit IP35 Pro for big overclocks. Two of my friends had P5K’s until recently. One board died during bios update and the other died for reasons unknown. One of the dudes has replaced the P5K premium with an abit IP35 Pro and he has OC’d his Q6600 more easily and with greater stability on abit.
Having said that, he is afraid to push his watercooled cpu even to 3.6ghz!
ja i is afriad 3.6 it may go pop ja
feather likes custard
Yes, you know Mr Bean, there was a case recently where a man pushed his Q6600 to 3.599mhz and there was a very loud bang and lots of smoke.
It wasn’t the cpu though, it was something he had left in his microwave, still cooking.
Feathers, can you help? I’ve been looking around for a peltier approx 250w and I can’t seem to find one available in this country. There are some peltiers for sale on ebay but they are either too small (170w) or too big (400w). Do you know of any suppliers where I can get what I’m looking for? Also, I’m having doubts as to whether my cooling loop will be sufficient for a peltier install. Do you think I will have to improve it if I decide to go ahead?
Where’d you get the shroud/cover for the fans on the side?