Watercooling - not impressed so far!

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web-blade

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OK I want to overclock my PC to I decided to watercool it for better temps. I went and bought the best of gear.

Swiftech MCP 655 pump
Thermochill 120.3 Radiator wit 3 120mm Akasa ultra quiet fans
EK Supreme Universal CPU Waterblock
Swiftech MCW30 Universal Northbridge Waterblock
Thermaltake CL-W0031 AquaBay M3 Reservoir

There was no room in my case so I bought a barebone and installed the pump and res in it and rad on top of it. It sits on a shelve up over my PC and the loop runs from it to my PC waterblocks and back to the barebone. Fans are at full speed and pump also. Im using Primochill PC ICE coolant in the loop. So far my best temps have been 10c lower than my air cooled setup but when the room is hotter I only get about 4 - 6c lower. I need better themps for what I paid for this setup. I do recognise 2 things which may be degrading my setup. 1 is the thermaltake aquabay. The inlet and outlet on this res is only 1/4" ID while the rest of my loop is 3/8" ID. What do you think? Is it slowing down my flow and performance. I think it may and would rather a T loop instead but am unsure about how complicated they are. 2 is the quick connect couplings I have on the loop between the PC and Barebone to seperate the two. Again only 1/4" ID as thay are all I could find online. Are these affecting my loop? Any suggestions please are welcome and thanks.
 
If you had a REALLY GOOD aircooling system that sounds about right. The main advantage to watercooling is running silent while maintaining those temps.

Given you have a EK waterblock I would recommend getting rid of the aquabay as that block needs everything it can get to perform.
 
If you're pulling air from inside the case over the rads then you're pulling pre-warmed air over them, thus increasing the temperature of the coolant. Your temps would be (slightly) better if the rads could pull ambient air from somewhere.

Jeremy
 
I would invest in a Swiftech MicroRes, this reservoir is very small and comes with either 1/2" or 3/8" connectors and fittings. The price is only 20 bucks, believe me it won't slow down your loop.

I do think people get the wrong impression of watercooling. I have a Q6600 and an 8800 GTX in my loop, the pump is a Swiftech 350, and the Rad is a Swiftech dual 120mm with medium speed YateLoon fans.

My CPU rarely exceeds 40C and my GPU runs about 12-15 C below air cooled temps. The beauty of the water set up is quiet operation and the ability to cool the extra hardware while not heating my room to blazing temps. I replaced a Nautilus 500, which could handle the same components, but the temps were about 5C higher.
 
Try bringing the barebone case closer to the floor. The air down there is cooler. Remember, heat rises.
 
Stevennoland said:
Try bringing the barebone case closer to the floor. The air down there is cooler. Remember, heat rises.
Click to expand...
Yep,
Remember you can't go below ambient temperature... so if it is hot in your room WC or HSF will be hot.
 
magoo said:
........and the ability to cool the extra hardware while not heating my room to blazing temps.
Click to expand...

I hope you understand that the heat expelled into the room will be the same whether air cooled or watercooled.
 
JeremyCT said:
If you're pulling air from inside the case over the rads then you're pulling pre-warmed air over them, thus increasing the temperature of the coolant. Your temps would be (slightly) better if the rads could pull ambient air from somewhere.

Jeremy
Click to expand...

Hi, I'm not pulling air from inside the barebone because the rad is mounted on the outside top of the barebone with the fans on top of the rad. I have the fans blowing down through the rad but did have them pulling up through the rad and I think its much for much but its hard to judge because the room temps change so often here in Ireland I cant tell which way is better. Any comments on which way to face the fans? Blowing down or pulling up?
 
POLO said:
Yep,
Remember you can't go below ambient temperature... so if it is hot in your room WC or HSF will be hot.
Click to expand...

Im running temps of around 34c idle. The barebone has an ambient temp guage on it and showing 23c as room temp. Any comments please?
 
magoo said:
I would invest in a Swiftech MicroRes, this reservoir is very small and comes with either 1/2" or 3/8" connectors and fittings. The price is only 20 bucks, believe me it won't slow down your loop.

I do think people get the wrong impression of watercooling. I have a Q6600 and an 8800 GTX in my loop, the pump is a Swiftech 350, and the Rad is a Swiftech dual 120mm with medium speed YateLoon fans.

My CPU rarely exceeds 40C and my GPU runs about 12-15 C below air cooled temps. The beauty of the water set up is quiet operation and the ability to cool the extra hardware while not heating my room to blazing temps. I replaced a Nautilus 500, which could handle the same components, but the temps were about 5C higher.
Click to expand...

Thanks man I will have a look at this res right away because I do think the thermaltake is a problem. Cheers!
 
Your ambient room air is always the coolest air in your room. But as you said, your radiator isnt in your computer, so you aren't pulling warm air from it. Your fans are probably fine. Alot of people report poor performance with the quick-disconnect couplings, so that might be it too. Do you really need them? You also might have too much tubing and your pump is struggling to push the system. How many feet of tubing total do you think you have in there?

edit, sp fix
 
astyler said:
You ambient room air is always the coolest air in your room. But as you said, your radiator isnt in your computer, so you aren't pull warm air from it. Your fans are probably fine. Alot of people report poor performance with the quick-disconnect couplings, so that might be it too. Do you really need them? You also might have too much tubing and your pump is struggling to push the system. How many feet of tubing total do you think you have in there?
Click to expand...

I have between 8 and 9ft of hose. I really need something to separate the PC and Barebone when I need to work inside one of them but I think the couplings have to go. I'm looking at 3/8" straight hose nylon connectors here http://specialtech.co.uk/spshop/customer/product.php?productid=4078&cat=562&page=1 which I can use between the systems and will not create the restriction that the couplings do. It will involve having to clamp the hoses when separating the systems but that's no big deal. The res is gonna go too, I have ordered a T piece and plug which I'm gonna use as a fill port instead of a res. Less restriction again. One thing interesting happened lastnight though! Before I put this watercooling system in I run OCCT stress test program on my PC and only lasted 5mins before OCCT ended the test as my CPU got too hot at 70c. I run it lastnight and it run for the full 1hr and CPU temps didn't rise above 43c. When this happened I have to tell you I was impresses. It seems to be keeping me very cool under heavy load and that's the main thing. With these results I think I can shoot for a bit of OC on this PC and ill start later today. I still will loose the couplings and res in a few days because I think the loop will benefit but scratch my heading because Watercooling - I am impressed!
 
The lower the radiator is, the colder the air entering it will be.

Mount the fans a little distance away from the radiator and seal the air route.
Turbulence from a fan disrupts forward airflow and wastes a fans power.
The further away the fan is from the radiator, the more the turbulence dissipates.
It also reduces noise a lot.
 
If the water has to travel up several feet to the radiator, you're really killing the flow. Most watercoolers have their rads in the case or at the case. This may not be possible for you, but it explains why you're getting mediocre performance.
 
mwarps said:
If the water has to travel up several feet to the radiator, you're really killing the flow. Most watercoolers have their rads in the case or at the case. This may not be possible for you, but it explains why you're getting mediocre performance.
Click to expand...

The pump is also in the barebone and the water only travels about 1ft to the rad. The highest it has to travel in the loop is from the block back to the res which is about 3ft.
 
Gravity makes no difference in a closed loop so water travelling up to a rad makes no difference.

And if you're going for maximum efficiency, T-line is the simplest and best. It's disadvantage is that it is not as convenient as a res and takes more time to bleed. Some say it doesn't look as nice. But it is highly efficient. Here is an example:

IMGP0594.jpg
 
Magoo, I hate to break it to you, but your watercooling is actually making your room ever so slightly hotter than an air cooling setup. You still have exactly the same amount of heat from the computer being dumped into the room, also you have the heat from the pump on top of that.
 
Erasmus354 said:
Magoo, I hate to break it to you, but your watercooling is actually making your room ever so slightly hotter than an air cooling setup. You still have exactly the same amount of heat from the computer being dumped into the room, also you have the heat from the pump on top of that.
Click to expand...

Ahhhhhh, I'm always cold,anyway.;)

Maybe it just doesn't heat up as fast......just never feels as warm as when all of my 8800GTXs were dumping heat out the back of the case.
 
echn111 said:
Gravity makes no difference in a closed loop so water travelling up to a rad makes no difference.

And if you're going for maximum efficiency, T-line is the simplest and best. It's disadvantage is that it is not as convenient as a res and takes more time to bleed. Some say it doesn't look as nice. But it is highly efficient. Here is an example:

IMGP0594.jpg
Click to expand...

Fantastic example thanks. I dont care how it looks realy once the performance is there. Thats a nice setup you have there. I'm curious as to what you have on the top of that fill tube as I may do the same with my rig.
 
web-blade said:
-2c temp drops with water compared to PC ICE. The margin is small considering PC ICE can save you from frying your system components.
Click to expand...

Those special wc fluids are generally a scam/rip-off unless you need a specific color or have some other special need (preventing corrosion for mixed-metal loops). Distilled water cools a little better,and with a little anti-freeze as a biocide won't grow algae either. It's generally non-conductive if you keep your loop clean. I've been running water for about a year and have never lost a part.
 
web-blade said:
Fantastic example thanks. I dont care how it looks realy once the performance is there. Thats a nice setup you have there. I'm curious as to what you have on the top of that fill tube as I may do the same with my rig.
Click to expand...

I used a Danger Den fillport, but any fillport that can easily be opened and closed will do. It's held up there against the case by a plastic tube holder attached to the case using double sided tape. (I have no idea what the original purpose of the plastic tube holder was - think it was part of a cable tidy kit.)
 
web-blade said:
Any comments on which way to face the fans? Blowing down or pulling up?
Click to expand...

The best way I've found to mount fans is in a pulling position. Or if you want to get really crazy you can mount fans on both sides of the rad, one set pulling the other pushing both sets moving air in the same direction. Works well for me.
 
You got a very restrictive waterblock so it need a lot of pressure to get the best out of the block. Your setup is killing a lot of pressure (long tubing, I know gravity doesn't matter but the length does due to friction losses, bad reservoir, couplings and NB block).

Another way is to replace it with a D-Tek Fuzion block.

 
echn111 said:
I used a Danger Den fillport, but any fillport that can easily be opened and closed will do. It's held up there against the case by a plastic tube holder attached to the case using double sided tape. (I have no idea what the original purpose of the plastic tube holder was - think it was part of a cable tidy kit.)
Click to expand...

Thanks, I actually thought that might be what you were using and ordered one lastnight. ;)
 
Xilikon said:
You got a very restrictive waterblock so it need a lot of pressure to get the best out of the block. Your setup is killing a lot of pressure (long tubing, I know gravity doesn't matter but the length does due to friction losses, bad reservoir, couplings and NB block).

Another way is to replace it with a D-Tek Fuzion block.

Click to expand...

Thanks, I will loose the res for a T loop instead and the couplings will be taken off the loop aswell and i'll see how it goes from there.
 
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