Liquid cooling advice needed...

[unlockthesource]

pelikan and anyone else who cares...
my rig is about an hour into a 12 hour test period right now.

Some hi-res pics are here and here.

There will be a box for the external stuff. Either wood or plexi. I have already wired a relay into my PSU that turns the pump on and off with the computer. I cut the molex connector off the pump because i want to run as little off my PSU as possible. I'm also going to run a cable from the Panaflo fan on the rad into my case and hook it up as the CPU fan. This way i can adjust it from windows when i need performance, or let ASUS keep it as quiet as possible.
Finally, I'm going to try to create an emergency shutoff mechanism from the articles on overclockers.com. It will involve putting a relay on the green "PW-ON" cable going form PSU to Mobo. This wont get done for a while though.

 

[lobadobadingdong]

nice , what about the battery though? are you planning on getting it hooked up to a permanant power source? and how about your temps?

 

[pelikan]

Looks good. I'd be interested to see pics of the external box when you get that done.
What will power the pump?
I don't know what motherboard you have, but many newer ones will reliably shut down if temps get too high. You have to set them to do this in bios. My NF7-S shut my system down once when I turned it on without turning on the pump (before I put in a relay).

 

[unlockthesource]

lobadobadingdong,
Before i went to bed i switched over to a 120VAC transformer hooked into an Altronix 12VDC converter board. I had both of those (and the battery) lying around so it wasnt a problem. The converter put out ~13.5v and 2.16A according to my meter. If anything its a bit overvolted.
Anyway the negative line on that will run through a set of connectors i put on the outside of my PSU.

Pelikan,
I actually never considered the BIOS failsafe. I guess I will use that for now, but it wont have my full confidence until i see it in action... which should never happen
I have an Asus A7N8X-Deluxe. It does have overheat protection via the CPU's integrated thermometer.

 

[pelikan]

Yeah, its tough to have total confidence in any failsafe. Even though my motherboard successfully shut my system down once I wouldn't try it again just for fun.

 

[ROJAS]

I have 2 Koolance water-cooled pcs running almost all day. My old one is PC2-600 and my latest is PC2-650blk. Both are Pentinum 4's and my latest is Prescott 3.2E o/c to 3.9Ghz.

Water is the only way to go. I used to gut out all my cases, run 2 big 120mm Panaflos (old aluminum ones) and additional ones too keep heat away during o/c. I spent alot of money expirementing with many expensive cpu fans. Then I spent some money and tried water. The purists out there pick other companies other than Koolance. They think the larger the water tube the better it is. Well I usually run 31-34 degrees celsuis according to the Koolance case LED. It stays like this all the time.

Try water, no matter what company you select, you will have fun.

ROJAS

 

[unlockthesource]

So whats a good temp delta between ambient and CPU?

My ambient temp is 24.5°C (avereaged from two thermometers).
The CPU temp is 37°C (Athlon on-die) and the Mainboard temp is 34°C (asus onboard thermometer... mobo is passively cooled)

That gives a delta of about 12.5°C between the processor and air. Hows that performance measure up?

 

[pelikan]

That's a great delta!
Got pics?

 

[unlockthesource]

Okay the final stats and pictures are in.

Stats:
Temperature differential: 11-12°C
Temp. Difference from passively cooled southbridge: 1-2°C
Noise pollution: same as hard drives (2x7200rpm)
Max distance between chassis and cooler: ~3.5 ft

Pics:
*Note that i have not yet settled on a box. Im looking at wood or metal right now.
The Pictures [sorry directory listing only for now]

Interesting pics:
Monster Panaflo scarred my finger!!
McMaster.com provides temp box
Cool Resevoir Wave effects
Theres almost a gallon on water in my computer!

 

[pelikan]

That's great. I love the ghetto external box.
Your temps are very good. If you ever want to lower them further you could make an airtight box with the heatercore on one end and two panaflos on the other end. Have the fans set to exhaust the air. That way the box acts like a big shroud and you get even air flow pulled through the entire heatercore.

 

[unlockthesource]

Well, its been almost a month, but the project is complete.

It was a week before i made the box, another week before all the parts were installed properly and yet another week before i found a sufficiant grill. All in all its been operational for a month now!

I had alot trouble getting the gallery to work properly on my website, but all the bugs seem to be fixed now. I also redesigned my website, although this has nothing to do with the project.

see the pics in the gallery at Adkapx.net

 

[pelikan]

Good job.

 

[HardWarrior]

Originally posted by: unlockthesourceThe DD D4 is NOT ANYWHERE NEAR 35 dB![/b][/u]<BR><BR>In detail, the D4 generates absolutely no low or midrange sound. However, it DOES generate considerable high freuqency sound.

Like a quiet electric razor is the best way to describe it, and I wouldn't call it considerable be any means. The D4 actually gets quieter over time. Perhaps because its single impeller bearing gets smoother or the stater wears in.

 

[0roo0roo]

Originally posted by: pelikan
I don't think he realizes that the rad is a dual 120mm. Its enough rad to cool two overclocked cpu's quietly.

well it only has so much surface area no matter the passes though. if he wants uber quiet, the more surface area the better. otherwise whats the point of those really big 3x 120mm radiators if 1 120mm can beat em all in both silence and performance?

 

[pelikan]

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo

Originally posted by: pelikan
I don't think he realizes that the rad is a dual 120mm. Its enough rad to cool two overclocked cpu's quietly.

well it only has so much surface area no matter the passes though. if he wants uber quiet, the more surface area the better. otherwise whats the point of those really big 3x 120mm radiators if 1 120mm can beat em all in both silence and performance?

I'm not sure if we're communicating here. The rad he went with is the Fedco 2-342. Its about the size of two 120mm fans. Its a single-pass. There is no rad of similar or smaller size that can beat its performance, for either silence or temps.

 

[unlockthesource]

Originally posted by: HardWarrior

Originally posted by: unlockthesourceThe DD D4 is NOT ANYWHERE NEAR 35 dB![/b][/u]<BR><BR>In detail, the D4 generates absolutely no low or midrange sound. However, it DOES generate considerable high freuqency sound.

Like a quiet electric razor is the best way to describe it, and I wouldn't call it considerable be any means. The D4 actually gets quieter over time. Perhaps because its single impeller bearing gets smoother or the stater wears in.

It is true that the DD4 has gotten quieter since I made that post. The high-pitch noise has decreased so much that its difficult to distinguish the DD4 noise from my hard drives/psu at 5 feet. That single bearing definitely got worn in.