qpack watercooling woes

[cieje]

so after having my qpack aircooled for over a month now... I've decided to finally mod the case a little and put in the evercool wc202 watercooling kit...

everything really went in just fine - I made a temp .5" shroud that connects the 12cm radiator with the exhaust fan of the qpack (till I find a better solution) - and I drilled holes and opened up some space in the front of the case, through the aluminum and plastic to allow air intake for the 8cm radiator + fan.

I have a SEVERE problem though... apparently the included bracket for my x2 doesn't fit it!! There is an included bracket, for opterons and k8s - but it simply will not fit. I'm thinking it's my board... The pictures in the manual for the wc-202 shows the top bracket pre-secured onto the board

Here's a picture... I took the top bracket off thinking that I could use the included screws or even the old msi screws to attach it to the board, but it doesn't appear so...

the actual metal "screwin" part of the underbracket is recessed about 1/8th"... that's really the problem -if the teeth were even with the board then the evercool bracket would fit fine with the msi top bracket.

::sigh::

 

[MassiveOverkill]

You can modify a stock socket 939 hold down bracket to fit:

Actually, modify is the wrong term to use.........there's no modification necessary, just clip the sucker on. You won't be able to clamp down the latch, but there's sufficient tension in the 'loose' position to keep it secure.

 

[MassiveOverkill]

Oh yeah, change that crappy silicon tubing out for clear vinyl 3/16" tubing. Looks better and you won't have to fill up as much as vinyl tubing isn't as permeable to water vapor as the silicon tubing is.

 

[Steeeeve]

I gotta be honest...that looks like hell

I am being to think watercooling an SFF is too much trouble and not much gain. Perhaps you should stick to the air

 

[w00ty]

so are there 2 radiators?

wheres the reservoir / pump?

 

[cieje]

it looks like hell because it's not cleaned up or anything haha. I'll take more pictures when I'm done. I'll try that mod. Or maybe I'll use the included k7 bracket that came with it - it almost fits... just have to clip off some metal =)

This is my first watercooling, and my first modded case, so I'm expecting this to be slightly hellish looking :-/

I didn't measure out the lengths for the tubing too great... I kind of left one of the tubes way longer than it needs to be just in case I ever make a GPU loop.

and yea, there's a 12cm radiator on the back fan, and a 8cm radiator on the front of the case as an intake fan. The pump is submerged in a reservoir in a preconstructed 5.25" slot device - which comes in handy to hide all these cables etc.

 

[sleepeeg3]

I am being to think watercooling an SFF is too much trouble and not much gain. Perhaps you should stick to the air

I keep looking at it, because the flexibility of placement is actually better than the big air coolers, but overall it does sound like a big pain.

Things you don't hear about watercooling...
-Having to flush the whole system every few months with vinegar/etc.
-Having to add anti-freeze to the deionized water to prevent growth?! (the only thing I want growing in my rig is dust furbies)
-Noise of pump is worse than quiet air!
-Block/pump starts to rust out after awhile (~1 year) and has to be thoroughly cleaned or new components purchased?!

Things you do hear about watercooling...
-Slight performance improvement
-Risk of springing a leak and losing your entire rig
-$150-200 for a good kit
-Don't buy a kit! ...but do spend hours looking for the perfect components.

The dealbreakers for me were the maintenance and the noise. Memories of a noisy fishtank pump, spring to mind...

 

[Firelord]

Things you don't hear about watercooling...
-Having to flush the whole system every few months with vinegar/etc.
-Having to add anti-freeze to the deionized water to prevent growth?! (the only thing I want growing in my rig is dust furbies)
-Noise of pump is worse than quiet air!
-Block/pump starts to rust out after awhile (~1 year) and has to be thoroughly cleaned

You obviously have never watercooled and have not done anywhere enough reading around the subject. You obviously have been very misinformed!

 

[sleepeeg3]

So you are saying you don't have to maintain it?

I pulled my noise figures from FrostyTech's table of the Aquagate Mini and it's tiny pump vs multiple other aircoolers: http://www.frostytech.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=1924&page=4
Also asked guys point blank about this for their subjective opinion and they conceded about the pump noise.

There are drawbacks to watercooling, other than what you hear. It's not all glamorous.

I like the look of your rig though, cieje, except for the pink tubing.

 

[Firelord]

Yes you do have to do maintanence but no more than air cooling i.e. de-dusting your Rad as you would sink but yearly a waterchange might be good. Sealed systems don't have problems with algae growth unless left in direct sunlight or has a air leak somewhere. As long as you don't mix copper and alu your fine for your blocks and no rust. I had watercooling and enjoed it and yes there are a few drawbacks but overall its good Pump noise is well subjective like fans and modern pumps like the Laing D5 or the DDCs are very quiet

 

[cieje]

well, use the bracket from the amd hsf worked like a charm. fits nice and snug. On my first tests that I'm now doing by running torture prime95 tests on each core and paying attention to temps... the temps are a little higher than my system was on air- however as I push the FSB up... the temps are staying the same, which is way different than when I was on air.

right now I'm running 2300 Mhz at 49c at full cpu load for 15min. This is with both the exhaust and the intake fans running full speed which is definatelly more noise than I was on air. However, my hope is to run the intake fan at about 1/2 speed once I find my cpu's happy speed =)

 

[cieje]

so after some more playing... here's what seems to be my cpu's top numbers...

this passes 30min prime95 torture tests; I'll have to leave it overnite or something though. It's at 234 FSB, 166 DDR locked - all the mem settings are auto.

When I go to 240 the system doesn't boot. It's not from heat... I'm at ~36c idle and under 50c after 30min prime95 tests on both cores...