Need a water cooling solution for a raid card

G

Gomjaba

Weaksauce
Joined
Aug 5, 2008
Messages
65
Yea sounds silly, but I have several raid cards and those Adaptec 5 series gets about 100 degrees which is apparently fine according to Adaptec but my sound cards doesn't appreciate the crispy winter tan ..

I am currently planning in building my first water cooling system and why not a raid card ey :)

Anyway, the card has two holes above and below the heatsink.

The holes are 4.5cm / 45mm / 1.773inch apart.

Can anyone / someone suggest a water cooling block which should fit on that ? I was thinking about a North Bridge cooling block but it appears the standard holes are a bit too far apart.

Any help is appreciated.

Here a few pictures from both sides

2iw6gsl.jpg


imjmvt.jpg
 
Good luck with horizontal nozzles in your slots. Why water it if Adaptec is fine with passive? Seems like a complete waste.
 
Does Adaptec still build the ASIC as a BGA (Ball Grid Array) part? If so, I'd be kinda worried about using a 2 hole waterblock solution. It would put uneven pressure on the ASIC and may crack the BGA solder underneath.
 
Gomjaba said:
Yea sounds silly, but I have several raid cards and those Adaptec 5 series gets about 100 degrees which is apparently fine according to Adaptec but my sound cards doesn't appreciate the crispy winter tan ..
Click to expand...

Why do you say this? Are you actually having a problem with your sound card or are you just trying to remedy a problem that doesn't actually exist?
 
krylon said:
Good luck with horizontal nozzles in your slots. Why water it if Adaptec is fine with passive? Seems like a complete waste.
Click to expand...

Adaptec only cares about their hardware but not about the hardware surrounding it.

Dan_D said:
Why do you say this? Are you actually having a problem with your sound card or are you just trying to remedy a problem that doesn't actually exist?
Click to expand...

Yes I do have a problem .. Because of the wide 8800 Ultra I am using I have only one PCIe slot for the raid card useable (basically the one which can be used for SLI).

The next available PCIx slot is used by the sound card so re-positioning is a no go. I just started to look into it because I had some weird sound issues ..

Crackling noise, not working at all etc. completely random. Then I installed the GUI for the raid card (ASM) to upgrade its bios and I saw the temperature warning.

I then checked the ambient temperature which was about 85 degrees between sound and raid card. I cannot find the maximum environment temperatures on the Creative site (Creative Soundblaster X-Fi), but when I removed the Raid card and swapped it with a 4 port 2405 (runs cooler) the problems disappeared ...
 
Gomjaba said:
Adaptec only cares about their hardware but not about the hardware surrounding it.



Yes I do have a problem .. Because of the wide 8800 Ultra I am using I have only one PCIe slot for the raid card useable (basically the one which can be used for SLI).

The next available PCIx slot is used by the sound card so re-positioning is a no go. I just started to look into it because I had some weird sound issues ..

Crackling noise, not working at all etc. completely random. Then I installed the GUI for the raid card (ASM) to upgrade its bios and I saw the temperature warning.

I then checked the ambient temperature which was about 85 degrees between sound and raid card. I cannot find the maximum environment temperatures on the Creative site (Creative Soundblaster X-Fi), but when I removed the Raid card and swapped it with a 4 port 2405 (runs cooler) the problems disappeared ...
Click to expand...

Those problems in regard to the sound issues may not be related to heat.
 
Though it is ...

I can replicate it 100% ...

Like I say - the ambient temperature is 85 degrees at the sound card .. even if it isn't the issue (which it is), on the long run it will still not like it ..

I mean granted .. those are server adaptec and a server still has a better airflow anyway - at least in our server ..

We have a close contact with Adaptec simply because we buy like 20 adaptec / week from them and they KNOW it runs quite hot .. like I say - watercooling it is rather my own silly idea ..
 
I would recommend trying an active air cooling solution first. Check out this popular evercool fan that is 45mm in diameter (with push pins in line with the diameter so it will work for your card) - http://www.petrastechshop.com/evvcvgcodnf4.html I kept the active air cooling on my raid card because I didn't have a way to incorporate it into my loop, you will probably have the same issue. I think if the heat from that heatsink is affecting the sound card, then the two cards are right on top of each other and you really don't have the space for a waterblock and tubing in there anyway.
 
arnemetis said:
I would recommend trying an active air cooling solution first. Check out this popular evercool fan that is 45mm in diameter (with push pins in line with the diameter so it will work for your card) - http://www.petrastechshop.com/evvcvgcodnf4.html I kept the active air cooling on my raid card because I didn't have a way to incorporate it into my loop, you will probably have the same issue. I think if the heat from that heatsink is affecting the sound card, then the two cards are right on top of each other and you really don't have the space for a waterblock and tubing in there anyway.
Click to expand...

Ordered .. :D:D

Cheap enough to try :)
 
Dan_D said:
Stop using Adaptec cards? That's the direction I'd go.
Click to expand...

We did extensive tests in our lab and Adaptec cards are simply the most stable ones. Granted, for home use Arecas would be fine too .. but I stick to what I know and use for years.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top