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Please help me setup a WC system

R

rbf351

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jan 29, 2004
Messages
187
my computer seems to be over heating, and the fans are doing nothing besides making a ton of noise

i'm not really looking to overclock my machine, just keep it cool and quiet. what is a cheap but good water to watercool?

i have a Zalman CPU fan/heatsink, and 5 case fans

below is my current machine
DSC00601.jpg

DSC00602.jpg
 
Well since you seem to like Zalman already how about a Zalman Reserator 2?
 
Perhaps you might find it beneficial to remember that you want to suck in cool air at the bottom and exhaust it through the top. Seems like you got a lot of fans moving air in all kinds of different ways! How about a more powerful blowhole fan?
 
looks like you need a bigger case with a lot more breathing room. your loading that little plastic one to the max with 3 roms and hd's. also plastic has been known to run a little hotter than an all alum case.
 
Top Nurse said:
Perhaps you might find it beneficial to remember that you want to suck in cool air at the bottom and exhaust it through the top. Seems like you got a lot of fans moving air in all kinds of different ways! How about a more powerful blowhole fan?
Click to expand...

i need to check that when i get home from work, i think i have the front, side and top fans blowing in, and the power supply and rear fan blowing out
 
I can tell you right now the side fans are blowing out, as is the rear fan and it almost looks like the top fan is too.

Here's what you need to do, turn the side fans around, make sure the top fan's blowing out and see how your temps look after that, make sure the front fan is intake and the top is exhaust, you don't want the top blowhole sucking air in since you'll just end up with too much airflow in and not enough out. As it stands now you've got the potential for 70-80CFM exhaust and maybe 18-20CFM intake which would account for your temps being way too high.

I suspect those fans are rated for roughly 30CFM each but I'm deducting 30%+ for the restrictive slot style grills in the case.
 
Too much airflow in (positive pressure) is still better than a higher negative pressure (too much exhaust). The grills on your case look to be pretty restrictive, so maybe try completely cutting them out, or cut out half of them to reduce noise from turbulence & increase airflow. For your high temperatures, are you sure your Zalman is mounted with AS5 correctly applied?

Try to make some airflow mods and see if they make things any cooler/quieter if you undervolt some of your fans, then start looking at quiet WC setups.
 
ikellensbro said:
Too much airflow in (positive pressure) is still better than a higher negative pressure (too much exhaust). The grills on your case look to be pretty restrictive, so maybe try completely cutting them out, or cut out half of them to reduce noise from turbulence & increase airflow. For your high temperatures, are you sure your Zalman is mounted with AS5 correctly applied?

Try to make some airflow mods and see if they make things any cooler/quieter if you undervolt some of your fans, then start looking at quiet WC setups.
Click to expand...

In this case he's got a big negative pressure situation...
 
changing the fans around didn't help with noise, even if iu shut down all the fans but 2 it's still pretty noisy, i just think the fans need to be replaced with ones that are quieter

my temp sensor isn't hooked up, but it feels a bit cooler inside the case
 
rbf351 said:
changing the fans around didn't help with noise, even if iu shut down all the fans but 2 it's still pretty noisy, i just think the fans need to be replaced with ones that are quieter. my temp sensor isn't hooked up, but it feels a bit cooler inside the case
Click to expand...

Well 80mm fans aren't particulary noted for low noise. However, if you go to PC Power & Cooling they have some fairly quiet fans, but they are only two wire. Also Sharka has some fans they carry called AcoustiFan that are extremely quiet and move quite a bit of air when undervolted. Others have found YateLoon fans to also be in this subset as well, but seem harder to find.

BTW, what are those fans doing that you got aimed at your cards? Maybe if you took some of those fans out and just brought cool air in from the front bottom and exhaust it out through the PSU and blow hole you might have a more efficient air path? Now if you just want to WC for the asthetics or skip all the happy horseshit thern let us know and we will proceed to present to you all our little ideas. But for starters how about what I originally recommended: Zalman Reserator 1 Plus as it is quiet and some think it looks kind of cool.
 
Unless you are interested in an absolutely silent system, dont get the reserator, they are highly overpriced for the performance they give. The only saving grace of the reserator is that it was designed to be passive and therefore is great for people who demand the most in silence.

EDIT : Rereading the post I see that you wanted a cheap and easy watercooling solution. Unfortunately it looks like that case doesn't have much room, and all the fans are 80mm, so you either need to do some modding or make an external enclosure. I would say get a used Exos-Al or Exos original if you want cheap and easy. You could also try a swiftech setup mounting the rad using the Rad Box.
 
i re did the cables inside the machine, not sure if that helped any, but i now have the temp sensor hooked up and it's a constant 28.5 degrees Celcuis inside the case

i did notice that my hard drives are blocking the intake fan on the front of the machine, which i'm sure it what cause the heat inside
 
rbf351 said:
i re did the cables inside the machine, not sure if that helped any, but i now have the temp sensor hooked up and it's a constant 28.5 degrees Celcuis inside the case

i did notice that my hard drives are blocking the intake fan on the front of the machine, which i'm sure it what cause the heat inside
Click to expand...

What do you mean by blocking? As long as the HD's are away from the fan's about a 1/2" of so it should be okay assuming there is space inbetween the HD's for air to pass by. If they really are blocking then I would slide your HD's back a little bit. :)
 
Top Nurse said:
What do you mean by blocking? As long as the HD's are away from the fan's about a 1/2" of so it should be okay assuming there is space inbetween the HD's for air to pass by. If they really are blocking then I would slide your HD's back a little bit. :)
Click to expand...

not sure if you can tell from the first pic, but they are pretty close the the edge of the fan, the other problem is that i now have 4 hard drives, and not 2. so the space between the drives is very very small
 
Can you feel air with your fingers between the drives and the MB? If so that should be enough air movement to suck cool air in from the front of the case. Did you get rid of any othoise other fans that were pushing air in the wrong way, like the top fan?
 
Top Nurse said:
Can you feel air with your fingers between the drives and the MB? If so that should be enough air movement to suck cool air in from the front of the case. Did you get rid of any othoise other fans that were pushing air in the wrong way, like the top fan?
Click to expand...

i changed the direction of those fans, the top one now sucks out air instead of blowing air in
 
i went and cut the fan holes out completly

besides being down to 24.3 degrees there is almost no more noise, i guess the slots were causing the fans to make the noise
 
You might think about a fan to suck air through the shelf (cabinet) where your tower sits. Being inside a desk setup like that can seriously affect airflow.
 
BillR said:
You might think about a fan to suck air through the shelf (cabinet) where your tower sits. Being inside a desk setup like that can seriously affect airflow.
Click to expand...

Excellent point! I made a box up for my brother who wanted it put in a similar setup, but he also wanted to close the cabinet door :eek: I finally got it to work but had to put in an exit fan at the top of the back compartment and I also drilled three intake holes to suck cool air in from the floor at the front of the compartment. I hooked the exhaust fan to one of the MB fan headers so that it turned on whenever the computer was turned on. :D
 
i agree with billr. a friend of mine has a similar desk, and it ups his temps by several degrees as compared to running the computer just sitting in the middle of the floor.

however, if what you have already done has quieted things down enough, and you consider your temps to be acceptable, then just leave it and be happy. :)

edit: TN, i agree wtih you as well, however your post wasn't up before i started typing.
 
i did have the door closed up until yesterday when i removed it, only reason for closing the door was because of the noise, but at long as my 3 yr old doesn't push the power or reset button i will contiune to just keep the door off.
 
rbf351 said:
i did have the door closed up until yesterday when i removed it, only reason for closing the door was because of the noise, but at long as my 3 yr old doesn't push the power or reset button i will contiune to just keep the door off.
Click to expand...

My brother wanted his closed for looks and to get rid of the noise. He wasn't hot on the idea of watercooling so I got stuck with doing the exhaust fan, but it did work well. However, I never would have OC that box as it was always running on the ragged side of almost too much heat.
 
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