• Some users have recently had their accounts hijacked. It seems that the now defunct EVGA forums might have compromised your password there and seems many are using the same PW here. We would suggest you UPDATE YOUR PASSWORD and TURN ON 2FA for your account here to further secure it. None of the compromised accounts had 2FA turned on.
    Once you have enabled 2FA, your account will be updated soon to show a badge, letting other members know that you use 2FA to protect your account. This should be beneficial for everyone that uses FSFT.

watercooling heat problem

A

amdownzintel

Limp Gawd
Joined
Oct 24, 2004
Messages
201
Ok I bought the Thermaltake BigWater setup not too long ago when I saw it on HotDeals. Anyway it's been setup for awhile now and it doesn't seem to do all that well. I know it's not the most expensive or best thing out there, but I still think it should be able to do better.
I installed the radiator ontop by cutting out a 120 MM fan hole and then just putting it under that and putting a grill ontop. So it's still inside the case, incase that was a little hard to understand hehe.
Then for the routing I went pump, radiator, CPU, GPU, and back to the pump again. Is there something I'm doing wrong? Or is there a simple solution to help the cooling process? I'd be willing to spend another hundred or so to say get a better pump or something, I did find out though that the tubing is very small it's not even 3/8" (actual size is 3'16" I believe) that a big problem? System Specs are below.

Amd Athlon XP 2500 OC'd to 3200 (Idle temps ~42C Load temps ~52C)
Asus A7N8X-E Motherboard
768 DDR PC2700 RAM
Geforce FX 5900 Flashed to 5950 Ultra
Aspire(Turbo Case) Full Size Tower X-Alien Case (total of 6 fans)
500 watt PSU

Update = Images

http://img267.echo.cx/my.php?image=im0006642jz.jpg
http://img147.echo.cx/my.php?image=im0006626iv.jpg
http://img101.echo.cx/my.php?image=im0006662xe.jpg
http://img259.echo.cx/my.php?image=im0006650td.jpg
 
Well.....how about you take it out and put it up for sale on E-Bay and hope you can recover some of your money?

The block isn't to bad but the pump sucks and the radiator probably as well. But, if you want you can get a new Eheim 1048 pump for about $55-65 + new 3/8 ID tubing for $6 + another $45-65 for a decent BI Pro 120mm radiator.

Let this be a lesson for those who think the BigWater is anything but a BigRipoff :eek:
 
Reverse the fan on the rad to pull cool air in through the rad instead of blowing warm case air out through it, if that doesn't make a big improvement in your temps them get a better pump and either a "T" line fillport or a res and replace your water block and rad fittings with the 3/8" fittings and run bigger tubing.

The pump that Tt supplies with that kit is an embarassment in that it's barely capable of moving water let alone moving it efficiently and with your rad all the way at the top of your case I'm afraid the rise that you're asking it to overcome has your flow at a pretty low level.

I'm not going to tell you to bag your whole setup and go buy a bunch of crap you honestly don't need but I do feel you'd be better served by replacing that pump with a CSP750 or something along those lines and pulling cool air through the rad instead of warm air will help a bunch too.
 
madmat said:
The pump that Tt supplies with that kit is an embarassment in that it's barely capable of moving water let alone moving it efficiently and with your rad all the way at the top of your case I'm afraid the rise that you're asking it to overcome has your flow at a pretty low level.
Click to expand...

Why is it that people still dont realize that it doesn't matter how tall your loop is when it is a CLOSED LOOP? The height is a non-factor here and doesn't effect the flow rate much at all (only a little bit because of friction between the walls of the tubing and the water which is so incredibly low you can ignore it). Any effort the pump uses to push the water up, is given back by gravity when the water comes back down....so basically the pump is only pushing against the restriction of the loop. If you were to lay your case on its side that would not increase the flow.

HEIGHT DOES NOT MATTER IN A CLOSED LOOP!


</rant>
 
The Tt setup isn't a closed loop system it has air in the res and if using the supplied overflow res even allows for airflow into the loop (the little bottle looking thing has a hole in it to allow the water to flow into the pump res) which means it's not a closed loop and as such has no pressure feeding the water back into the pump.
 
ok I'll try doing that fan thing, then say I do get that pump or just even a different pump and bigger tubing, do you know if my radiator can support it? Sorry for all the "noob" questions it's just that this is my first watercooling setup.

MadMat do you think you could give me links to what you think I should buy? (Or anyone I guess) If I have to sell this watercooling setup I will. I really don't want to be spending too much because mostly this setup was for a learning experience.

~Thanks for all your help
 
Even for how far away your rad & pump are, you have way too much excess tubing in your loop. Try rerouting your loop for pump>cpu/gpu blocks (gpu block before cpu block would reduce tubing length & reduce flow restriction)>rad>res>pump. Also, make sure that both blocks are mounted & have AS5 correctly applied, and that the pump outlet goes straighjt to your first blocks inlet, its kind hard to tell your tubing arrangement from the pictures. Finally, make sure your res is working properly & removing all airbubbles from your loop after tilting your case around & running the loop for a few minutes.
 
If your setup came with the fittings for 3/8" tubing it should support that pump just fine...the pump is 12v and runs $45.99+ shipping. Order it with 3/8" fittings and about 7 feet of 3/8" tubing along with a res if you want one or get a tee and a fillport. You can also find that same pump at Dangerden but it runs $4 more.
 
By the time you get done modding this sytem to health you will have spent the amount of money to put together a decent kit. That is why I suggested trying to sell the unit as is for like 75% of what it cost you on E-Bay. Then you can start over with a good system and be only out maybe $25-35 for the experience. :)
 
Well, those temps don't sound too bad for a Bigwater with a gpu block. As was mentioned before, reversing the fan may help a bit, but other than that, time to hock that thing and get a nice DIY system.
 
Alright I reversed the fan and the temps went down a little bit. My idle is now at about ~40C and my load doesn't seem to go over 50C. I think I"ll be saving up some money then sell this watercooling kit and get myself a new one. If nothing else I learned a lot on this kit and how to actually setup watercooling. Thanks for all your time and help. Just one last question, If I were to get a whole new setup how much do you think it would cost me? It doesn't have to be super leet, just something that keeps my temps down pretty well.
 
175$ - 200$ is a safe bet for a good performing watercooling setup, you can go cheaper and not lose performance but it requires more DIY work or looking around for good deals on used items.
 
Ok now let's just say you guys wanted a brand new watercooling setup for 200 dollars and you wanted to post links on this thread just incase you forgot about them and wanted to come back to them, what items would you buy? :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top