Water Cooling

[Beethoven]

Has anyone tried using this SenFu water cooling kit? The pump seems weak and over priced, but the cooler and radiator don't look that bad.

...unless you guys have other ideas for these components.

 

[drees]

I'm thinking of getting the kit here for my Duron in a couple weeks:

AquaStealth from BE Cooling

For $130 it comes with almost everything you need. I'll probably get the Lexan tie-down and coolant to go with it.

 

[Plester]

the senfu kit uses an aluminium water block = not good, even the lamest copper block will out-perform an aluminium one. becooling seems to have a pretty good kit from the looks of it.

 

[jg45]

I just put together a water cooling system from BE cooling. I go their "Jagged Edge" water block and the dual fan radiator that they have on sale right now. I found a little better pump here. . It is a RIO 400 and was about the same price with shipping as BE's RIO 180. The system works great and the water block was mirror finished. Really nice work on their part and I got the order in 3 days.

 

[DeathFlame]

Not everyone has problem's with RIO pumps, but some people do. Noise, and/or catastrophic pump failure (ie, death of pump, death of chip and possibly any components under it, like your bran new geforce3 or something)

I'm not saying that getting a RIO is bad, but a lot of people recommend getting a higher quality pump such as an Ehiem. (I have the 1250) They can be found at PetWharehouse. You wanna make sure your pump isn't weak. It's easier to "tune" your flow to the right speed with a valve, if you have a higher place to start from.

 

[Beethoven]

Thanks for the info guys, BE Cooling looks like the place. I'll have to check out those pumps to when (or if) I start putting this thing together.

 

[Plester]

rio pupms are a gamble, plus very difficult to get all the air out of and hence NOISY if you can't. the enheims are allegedly the best. i have a maxijet and it is excellent and can be run inline as opposed to submerged. all the kits seem to have one shortcoming or another.

 

[joeyd]

okay i've been looking around trying to build the best cost performance ratio water cooler and i'm almost finished this is what i have so far

$19.99 dual radatior
$55.99 MAZE2-1
$05.00 water wetter 4 ounces
$05.00 tubing and clamps
$??.?? pump

as you can see i need a pump , dunno what to get , i'm trying to keep this as far under $150 as possible . so i don't want to spend more then like 45 on the pump with shipping or if there is a place i can get it from near my house (paramus, new jersey) i'm going to be cooling a high speed t-bird and am looking for better temps then the taisol copper bottom cooler about 10 degrees less hopefully, I'm also looking for a non copper spacer to protect my chip. I'm hopping that this radiator can handle anythign i can throw at it for awhile. like a chipset cooler and a mabye a large pelt later in the future.

 

[Beethoven]

Hmm....good info joeyd. What radiator were you looking at??

 

[joeyd]

i was looking at the one listed earlier in the thread , it seems pretty good to me , it handles two 120mm fans , its the pump i can't find and its driving me crazy and the fact of weather or not i should have a resevior or not

 

[Plester]

go to any fish store or big pet wharehouse type place for a pump. call first and see what they have. the maxi-jet 1200 is a 280+gph pump and can be submerged or run in-line w/out a res (you need to mod it a bit to do this). should run about $25. if you get a rio get a 200+ gph model. they should cost about the same as the maxi-jet, but are a significant step down in quality.

 

[jdm]

U really don't need to buy a real (and expensive) radiator. Just go to a hardware store and buy 20 feet of soft copper tubes for like $10 and use that as the radiator.

 

[joeyd]

thanks guys i've already been to the pet stores by me and all they have are air pumps , and i would like the whole set up in my pc since i have a full tower. I'm going to start ordering the parts monday and hopefully i can find the pump by then.

 

[joeyd]

bumpage

 

[jg45]

Check out for this place for pumps. They have most of the major brands at low prices and cheap shipping. I got my order in 3 days from them.

 

[joeyd]

jg you messed up on the link the right link you put two http's in there doh

 

[joeyd]

alright lets review what i've got so far and see how this goes.


19.95 maxijet pump
19.99 dual radiator
54.99 maze2-1 block from danger den
02.50 anti freeze
05.00 hose and clamps

total $103 with out shipping usa currency , all in all not bad , if anyone knows of a waterblock that is cheaper and has a good way of attaching to the cpu let me know , so far this is the best performance and all the best clip design i have seen... i hope this helps you all out and any feed back you guys can give me would help out alot.... lets see if we can't make the defacto watercooling thread for anandtech

 

[WarCon]

I think I would switch back to water wetter, I have used antifreeze and it decreases the cooling ability of your watercooler and the more you use the worse it gets. And if you go to your local huge auto store they sell water wetter for somewhere around 8 dollars for a large bottle that at 50:1 ratio (can't remember the site, but someone actually tested a bunch of ratios and the 50:1 ratio turned out to be the best) will last forever.

Maybe someone else can remember that link. But from personal experience antifreeze sucks.

 

[Beethoven]

joeyd: Do you know what kind of power source that pump runs off of? If it uses a 12v adapter, you should have no problems hooking that up to your computer PS at 20W (assuming you have a powerful enough PS). That way you wouldn't have to worry about accidentally leaving your pump off and frying the CPU.

Warcon: I agree with the antifreeze. It actually lowers the "cooling" properties of water....that's why its usualy mixed 50/50 in cars. Water wetter seems to be the way to go. I have heard that the wetter recommends 4oz per gallon, but optimum is half that at 2oz per gallon. (I think it was per gallon...)

 

[joeyd]

hmmm thats a good question on the pump..... anyone know ? cause i sure as heck don't

 

[cookj]

I bought a 12 v reed relay and put inline of my 110v pump and hooked to the 12v on the psu.Don`t have to worry about turning the pump on and off,it turns on and off with the computer.
Rat shack part #275-233 ,about $7

 

[DeathFlame]

The pump will be 120V AC. So you'll have to have to plug it in to turn it on, and unplug it to to turn it off, OR you can buy a relay from Radio Shack (couple dollars) and wire it so that your power supply turns on the pump too, however the pump will have to be plugged in for it to work still.

Go Here to see pictures of my setup. The blue thing in the back on the inside, is the relay, and you can see how the cord goes in, then out.

Find out more about how to set the relay up at Overclockers.com. It's somewhere there, perhaps in the Miscellaneous section.

 

[DeathFlame]

Damn cook, posted the same things at the same time. lol

 

[joeyd]

i just ordered my radiator , i will be picking up my water block on monday , and my pump today , i can't wait this is going to be so much fun .... all i need is to steal someones dermal..... hmmmmmm

 

[XXWoodmanXX]

<< hmmm thats a good question on the pump..... anyone know ? cause i sure as heck don't >>




Hey joey,

I just went ahead and used the BE Cooling's reservoir/pump that a friend-o-mine sold me.

Here is a pic of my CURRENT watercooling setup.

Out the back of my case is a 7&quot; x 12&quot; radiator w/ 2 120mm AC fans cooling it