Reserator 1 plus questions

[markintosh13]

Hi,

I know very little about watercooling, read a few reviews.

Considering watercooling to quiet my OC'd gear (in sig) - full size case with Zalman 9500 (on low) and five antec tri-led 80mm fans (volted down to 7V) + stock Leadtek 7900GS cooler = loud.

Reserator 1 Plus kit looks good (Corsair Nautilus + gpu block also looks good but apparently fairly loud). Not really up to complete DIY project I don't think. Had a couple of questions though.

Would putting another small rad inbetween the cpu and gpu help, and would it work easily? Figure I still need a couple of case fans for chipset cooling, so maybe a small swifteck rad with an existing 80mm blowing through it?

And in the event that the built in Zalman pump borks, does fluid continue to travel through the loop - ie could another pump be spliced into the system after disconnecting the Reserator pump?

Would another small pump in the loop help right from the start for both additional flow and as a failover?

 

[rincewind]

If you're going to add in another radiator and/or pump into the loop, you will already be at the 'DIY' stage and may as well start from the ground up. The reserator is fine for slower processors, but even then a good aircooler is just as effective. Cooling the GPU as well is added stress for it, although you can get an add-on fan to blow over the outside fins (doubt it makes a huge difference though as it only has a few fins). The small tubing and weak pump don't lend well to expansion, and the costs of what you propose will be far higher than starting from scratch. Sorry to sound negative, but the Nautilus is a far better option although I can't comment on noise (I imagine the fan is controllable though). The Koolance Exos is also decent and easy to setup - noise isn't an issue with it with the fans on low or even medium settings. The Swiftech APEX is a good DIY kit, but mounting the radiator can be a problem depending on your case.

 

[redbull555i]

I've had a Reserator 1 Plus for about a year now and I love it. If you're looking for quiet this is it. My A64 4800+ 939 @ 1.42V hovers around 42-44C using the stock pump and waterblocks. I recently added the VGA waterblock to my 7800 GTX (overclocked) and GPU temps are 54C after a few hours of full load.

The stock pump on this system is extremely weak. Its rated at ~60 GPH I believe? Other than being whisper quiet, the pump is horrible. The waterblocks aren't really made for performance. They're used in accordance with the pump to have very low restriction flow. If you're thinking about adding in a radiator I'm not sure if that stock pump will be strong enough to handle it. You can take out the stock pump and throw in an inline though.

Instead of adding in another radiator or purchasing a stronger pump I would suggest just using a very quiet house fan against the massive radiator. It dropped my full load temps down 3-5C at a level which I can't hear from 3 feet away.

The reserator is not really made for performance or huge temperature drops. It will cool better than most air cooling at whisper quiet noise, which is what it was made for. If you're looking for performance I would just put together a custom kit.

 

[markintosh13]

Thanks redbull, that's the kind of validation I was looking for.

Quiet, and I'm pretty sure that your gear is reasonable performance - I can't imagine your gear is much cooler than my gear. I had read that putting the tower behind the fans of the computer helped drop the temps significantly.

I tend to game for a few hours at a time, in my living room, as I don't have the kind of enthusiasm for some television shows (like American Idol) that my wife seems to have -- so I'd rather be wearing headphones and playing CSS. Otherwise for the most part the computer is turned off or hibernating.

I've heard the concerns about the pump - that's why I was asking about putting a second into the loop, and about the performance (though your temps sound okay, and most of the reviews seem okay) - which is why I was thinking about adding a second small rad before the gpu if needed. Your temps seem to be similar to what I'm getting now with alot of noisy fans.

I'd build my own, except that the kit does seem to be a reasonable value. Nobody makes a standalone passive rad for less than this kit.

I'm thinking that it might make a good starting point.

 

[Chas_The_Man]

I have the reserator II and its weakest point is the waterblocks. The rad is fine. My issue is that the thing is alluminum and you cant (shouldn't) try not to? - Mix metals in a loop. Im thinking of building my own copper reserator so I can use copper blocks without galvanic corosion.