Looking for simplicity. Reserator 2?

[thenickmix]

I'm going to be pulling the trigger on my new gaming system soon (C2D E6600, 2GB DDR2, Raptor, SLI or Crossfire solution). I was originally going to go with a Zalman 9500 for the CPU, and whatever stock coolers on the video cards. I've decided I'd really like to go silent though. Does anyone know if Zalman's new Reserator 2 will give me cooling at least equivalent to stock? Also, I'm a newb at watercooling (another reason the Reserator would be a good break-in), would I be able to cool the CPU, Northbridge, GPU1 core, GPU1 mem, GPU2 core, and GPU2 mem all on one loop with the reserator 2?

Thanks for the help.

 

[Arcygenical]

The reserator will not handle the load you're trying to put on it... Not 2 gpu cards, their ram, your NB and your processor. Not to mention the system would cost like 800$ lol.

 

[topcat989]

if you want a commercial turn key unit, koolance is probably it. But, if you would take some time, and research some, you could put together your own system cheaper, and as reliable (or very nearly so). Take time to lurk, post, and ask questions. you'll learn a lot.

 

[Tanquen]

I was told that the newer GPU ram did not need much cooling hence the simple little stick on fins that come with the GPU water blocks. I’ve been running a FX-60 clocked to 2.8Ghz and two x1900. I’ve over clocked the GPUs but it doesn’t seem to make much difference so I put them back. I think the RAM water blocks will just be adding unwanted heat to the loop. I would not recommend over clocking as I have to put the FX-60 back down to 2.6GHz on a few hot days this summer. That was only with Titian Quest for some reason. The GPUs would get up to 90°C. I may try the fan Zalman has for the tower at some point but I like having no fans. The GPU fans are the worst.

 

[danks]

I was told that new the newer GPU ram did not need much cooling hence the simple little stick on fins that come with the GPU water blocks. I’ve been running a FX-60 clocked to 2.8Ghz and two x1900. I’ve over clocked the GPUs but it doesn’t seem to make much difference so I put them back. I think the RAM water blocks will just be adding unwanted heat to the loop. I would not recommend over clocking as I have to put the FX-60 back down to 2.6GHz on a few hot days this summer. That was only with Titian Quest for some reason. The GPUs would get up to 90°C. I may try the fan Zalman has for the tower at some point but I like having no fans. The GPU fans are the worst.

Yeah, all you really need on the gpu ram is ramsinks. Full coverage blocks have a high pressure drop, give no overclocking improvement, and are a waste of money.

 

[Josh_Norem]

I ran a reserator on a CPU and two GPUs for quite awhile. It ran totally silent and very cool. It can easily handle that load.

 

[Mize]

I don't know.
I just installed a reserator 2 on my cpu and one gpu (x1800xt) and it's cooling them well but the flow is quite low. The integral pump had a maximum head of only 0.5 meters. I'm considering adding an external pump (that little quiet DD pump would do fine at 2.5 meters max head).

As is the Zalman R2 dropped my cpu and gpu temps abotu 10 degrees each when compared to an XP120 + panaflow HSF (on a 4400+ x2) and stock on the gpu. Not bad, only now my PSU and hard drives seem louder

 

[Josh_Norem]

Get a quiet PSU and silicon grommets for the hard drive, problem solved.

As for the low flow, that's just for quiet. You will find that in 90% of situations, it will be more than sufficient.

 

[Tanquen]

Get a quiet PSU and silicon grommets...

Do the silicon grommets on hard drives and power supplies really help? I’ve had a hard drive running in mid air by the data cables (TiVo upgrade) and you could still hear it chatter away. In fact the brackets in the TiVo have rubber grommets for the hard drives and I can still hear them from across the room from time to time.

 

[dekard]

Yeah, all you really need on the gpu ram is ramsinks. Full coverage blocks have a high pressure drop, give no overclocking improvement, and are a waste of money.

If you are using ram sinks though you need a decent amount of air flow. Some of the ram chips will run rather hot and ram sinks alone weren't enough. I'm thinking of my 680 ultra which i had wc'd just the gpu and not the ram. I had to add a fan to cool the ram chips which rather took away the affect i wanted.

I picked up the Koolance unit that did the ram and the cpu and my oc's increased greatly. I'm quite happy with the unit and I find the flow is rather good.

 

[dekard]

I suggest the Koolance systems if you want simplicity. Excellent performance and very easy install. I've done complete installs including wc'ing the cpu, gpu and northbridge in around 2 hours most times. Very simple and excellent quality cases. You can see one install at http://www.overclockingwiki.org/index.php?title=Water_cooling. Both of those pics are my case and system.

You can find temp results here for the system: http://www.overclockingwiki.org/index.php?title=Core_2_Duo

Look under water cooling results for the e6400. I've ordered a e6600 and I'll update that page when I've got more results.

 

[danks]

If you are using ram sinks though you need a decent amount of air flow. Some of the ram chips will run rather hot and ram sinks alone weren't enough. I'm thinking of my 680 ultra which i had wc'd just the gpu and not the ram. I had to add a fan to cool the ram chips which rather took away the affect i wanted.

I picked up the Koolance unit that did the ram and the cpu and my oc's increased greatly. I'm quite happy with the unit and I find the flow is rather good.

Thats interesting... I had a bfg 6800 ultra and the ram sinks were more than sufficient with the small amount of airflow my case had. I later volt modded the card and this was the only time I found w/cing the ram a good idea. Plus G70 based cards dont run as hot...

The koolance systems offer less install work in the sense that you really only have to mount the blocks and cut your tubing. I don't think they are horrible but the price just doesnt justify the performance. For example if you had an sli system and got the pc4-1036 with their cpu block and vid card blocks your coming close to $1k. Factoring out the lian li case your still spending roughly $600 on the w/cing components. With that budget you can put together a loop that will easily have better performance than the koolance offerings.

 

[dekard]

Thats interesting... I had a bfg 6800 ultra and the ram sinks were more than sufficient with the small amount of airflow my case had. I later volt modded the card and this was the only time I found w/cing the ram a good idea. Plus G70 based cards dont run as hot...

The koolance systems offer less install work in the sense that you really only have to mount the blocks and cut your tubing. I don't think they are horrible but the price just doesnt justify the performance. For example if you had an sli system and got the pc4-1036 with their cpu block and vid card blocks your coming close to $1k. Factoring out the lian li case your still spending roughly $600 on the w/cing components. With that budget you can put together a loop that will easily have better performance than the koolance offerings.

I agree with everything you said, but I think you are forgetting one factor: time.

the work koolance does engineering and integrating would chew up and spit out any savings. unless you don't have job and lots of time. then there is the risk of screwing up due to noobness or quality problems.