Radiator, Reservoir, and Pump

Cerulean

[H]F Junkie
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Jul 27, 2006
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Ok, I need to upgrade my water cooling setup. My CPU is getting temperatures in 50-61C when doing encoding.

1) My current radiator -- I think -- is too small, and thus I need a larger and better one.

2) I seriously need a reservoir. Any big ones out there? Recommendations?

3) I think my pump is partly struggling to push all the water through my current setup. Maybe I should put my machine on its side to make it easier? That, or I need a really good, new pump. Any recommendations? :)

Reason I care is because twice or three times now already my computer has frozen on me (or at least apparently -- I am using remote desktop/VNC to operate my machine), and I am inclined to believe it has to do with the temperatures. My room is a little below "room temperature."
 
1. what kind of rad do you have? if your cooling everything in your sig then i would recommend a mcr320 with some med speed late yoons or something

2. get the microres v2, you dont need a big one

3. if its a closed loop then being upright or on its side doesnt really matter, only static pressure matters, what kind of pump do you have? you can get a mcp655 or something

now at 50-61C its not really that hot, i wouldnt worry about temps with that, i would try putting in a different hard drive and loading up windows xp on it and installing prime 95 and seeing if it crashes then, if it doesnt then your operating system has some instability, i see your overclocked, did you make sure that the overclock was 100% stable?

other then all that when was the last time you changed your fluids?
 
If it is running warm you might want to check a couple of things first, 1st make sure the circuit is bleed, if you have air in it, it won't cool aswell as it should, make sure it is topped off....pure distilled water works best btw, 5% glycol and a biocide.....screw dyes and exspensive snake oil "special" coolants, they end up gumming a cooling system up with crap most of the time.
 
Ok, after I disassembled everything except for the water circuit itself, here is the lowdown of the situation:

1) My signature is inaccurate. I am running at 3.6GHz, bottlenecked by my RAM (see my thread at http://www.overclock.net/intel-cpus/573620-overclocking-questions.html).

2) The Swifttech Northbridge Waterblock is the source of the leak. It is either of two reasons: (1) Swifttech is a piece of birdpoop, or (2) due to the tightness+angling and arrangement of tubing, the tube sockets may have unscrewed just enough to allow for a leak. (Will test this out once I empty and disassemble my circuit.) OR it's leaking through the heatsink or something, because...

There was a puddle of water around the NB core (but did not touch the core). It was leaking out from there and very slowly traveling down the board, thus resulting in my crashes.

3) I may or may not replace my NB waterblock, depending on how it fares in my leak test after emptying and disassembling my circuit.

4) I need to buy the following:
* Pump
* Reservoir
* Radiator
* Plenty of tubing, distilled water, and clamps (will do that at Home Depot/Lowes/grocery store)

I do not know what the ratio of distilled water to coolant in my system is, as I inherited the whole system and over time revised the circuit layout and added a waterblock or two. I have always filtered emptied liquid before putting it back into a circuit again. Whenever more liquid was needed, I would be adding distilled water only (so over time the ratio of distilled water to coolant increases).
 
the block usually don't leak unless the oring seal is bad, but then you can put some grease and see usually helps unless the block is defective by itself.

It looks like you are using plastic fittings with metal worm clamps and you the plastic could develop fatigue and start to fail. I'd change all the plastic fittings with metal barbs or compression fittings.

The reservoir only makes the filling and bleeding easier is not like your system is consuming water. But looks good and is also another good source of leaks.
 
Ok, reservoir won't be necessary than...radiators could make up for the water storage. :p

This is the NB water block that was leaking around the plastic fittings/rubber ring area.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835108079

When I examined it, neither were screwed in 100%. I think when I originally put the tubes on I had twisted them -- which caused it to unscrew a little bit. It worked fine up until now.


Currently planning to get the following:
* [Pump] Swiftech MCP655 12 VDC ($74.99)
* [Reservoir] Swiftech MCR320-QP Stackable 3X120mm ($69.95) (x2)
* [Fans] YATE LOON 120mm D12SL-12 ($3.20) (x5)
* 20ft threaded hose (3/4"?)
* 15 hose clamps
* Possibly one or two of those "T" branch things
* 1gal distilled water



How do you measure tubes/hoses? This has always been something that confuses me.
tubemeasurement.png



Today has been a very retarded day. Thanks for the help guys!
 
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If you are using plain barbs you just need to look for the ID or "internal diameter" OD means Outer Diameter that is for compression fittings which requires both the ID and the OD to match for them to work.

In your case you only need 1/2" ID the thicker the walls of the tube the more bendable is the tubing without kinking.

Also you could consider rotary fittings which will help you reduce the stress from all the turning but they are very expensive.

Everything you have looks good as long as you don't stack any radiators or sandwich them with fans that is not a good idea. Just run them separate.
 
Everything you have looks good as long as you don't stack any radiators or sandwich them with fans that is not a good idea. Just run them separate.
Hmm, and why might this be a problem? :?

If the idea should be to not stack them, the regular QP model (non-stackable) is actually cheaper than the stackable version by about $20 I think.
 
Hmm, and why might this be a problem? :?

If the idea should be to not stack them, the regular QP model (non-stackable) is actually cheaper than the stackable version by about $20 I think.

Skinnee tested with three fans sandwiched inside the stack and got basically no performance increase versus one radiator. If you put three in the middle and three pulling out the top, you might get different results. Please tell us if you do :)
 
Questions:
what are you cooling???
where is the radiator going??? in or out??

I think your pump selection will be fine. http://www.sidewindercomputers.com/swmc12vdcpu.html
You may and probably can get by with a Swiftech 120.3 Radiator with Reservoir: http://www.sidewindercomputers.com/swmcqupo3xbl1.html
Fittings are your choice, I prefer compressions but they are expensive. Barb fittings:http://www.sidewindercomputers.com/big1sishfifo1.html
Fans, I like Sythe Slipstream fans, same price as Yates but much quieter. http://www.sidewindercomputers.com/sc12slsy68cf.html
Coolant: I use plain distilled water and silver coils. No coolant or additives needed. Silver is an excellent algacide, which is all you need.
Tubing is your choice, The larger the diameter, the more bend/kink resistance. I use 3/8by1/2 inch, many use 1/2 by 7/16.
Considering a reservoir??? if so: http://www.sidewindercomputers.com/swmcmire2re.html

As far as an excellent vendor, I'd recommend Sidewindercomputers.com. The guy has very low prices and very cheap shipping.
 
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vasoline works great for seating o rings btw or lithium grease...won't screw up your pump
 
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