Upgrade to Peltier Cooling - Upgrade to Peltier Cooling
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Upgrade to Peltier Cooling
Criticool Water Plant
Top quality clear cast acrylic water reservoir.
Can be mounted horizontally or vertically.
Comes with (4) - 1/2" tube inlet connections, for a variety of flow configurations.
Comes standard with brass fittings rather that plastic. Brass fittings offer high esthetics and durability.
That covers the major parts of the setup. There will be additional components needed such as high quality tubing (ClearFlex 1/2" ID, thick wall, or Tygon 1/2" ID), Tubing clamps to ensure no leaks, Some kind of Di-electric grease (Lubrex is sold, but most any auto parts will have it), DISTILLED water, some type of cooling additive (Zerex, Water Wetter, etc.) and a lot of patience.
Installation
The installation of the components is pretty straight forward if you have spent time water cooling. The major difference is prepping the motherboard and/or graphics card to prevent condensation. The system should be setup outside the case first for leak testing.
While the system is running the leak test, its time to turn our attention to prepping the motherboard and graphics card. With the motherboard out of the case, install the mounting hardware for the block (detailed instructions are provided from Swiftech). Then the socket needs to be filled with the Di-electric grease, as well as the pin holes. There is no real method to it, just squeeze the grease into the socket, and smooth it with your finger until it is level with the pin holes. Once it is level, grease must also be applied to the pin holes them selves. Again, just squeeze some on, and 'push' it into the pin holes. Once the pin holes are filled, open and close the socket lever to work the grease in, and flush out any air. The grease will not harm any components on the board, so if any additional gets on the board, you can just wipe it up with some alcohol and a lint free rag.
With the front of the board taken care of, its time to flip it over, and mount the included gasket to the rear of the board to prevent condensation on the back of the board. I picked up a great tip from Michael D Zavislak over at LiquidNinjas, for total condensation proofing. Run to your local hardware store, and look for liquid electrical tape to seal the components, then mount the gaskets over the tape.
Flipping the board back over, drop the CPU into the socket, it will be a tight fit, just use firm, even pressure to insert the CPU, and lock down the lever. Once the CPU is mounted, you can apply the socket gasket around the socket, and make sure to apply pressure all the way around the socket to ensure good contact is made.
The pictures show a 1600+ Palomino, as I didn't want to fry my 2500+ Barton on initial boot incase any condensation formed :). One thing to point out, the Swiftech gaskets are excellent quality, and fit very well, so after working with the setup for a while, all apprehensions were gone.
OK, we have the motherboard taken care of, check the leak testing to make sure everything is hunky-dory, and next we'll move on to the graphics card. Again, with the card out of the system, the GPU must be condensation proofed. On the ATI 9700, di-electric grease is applied AROUNDthe core to fill in the area between the shim and core. This is a little tricky as you do not want to get any grease on the core itself.
Turning over the card, the back gets the same treatment as the motherboard. A gasket is included for the back of the graphics card to prevent condensation from forming.
With all the condensation proofing taken care of, now you can pick appropriate spots in your case to mount and install the radiator, relay kit, reservoir, external power supply, and take care of routing the tubing in your case. With my setup, I found it easiest to mount the radiator on top, the relay switch for the MeanWell above the ATX power supply, the reservoir at the rear of the case, and the external power supply on the right hand side of the case. One other thing I did, which started when I moved to watercooling, is cut out the portion of the motherboard tray so if the need arises to remove/swap out the motherboard pelt block, it can be done without having to remove the whole system.
With all the planning done, and the case modded to accommodate the components, and the pelt system tested for leaks, its time to start assembling the rig. As this is really targeted towards the advanced user, I will not go into re-assembling the rig in detail aside from the pelt system. Basically, get the motherboard mounted, install the pelt components (radiator, pump, reservoir, power supply, relay) in the spots you picked out, re-measure and cut the tubing to length, and mount the blocks. Spread thermal compound on the core of the CPU. The MCW462-UHT uses the 4 holes around the socket for mounting, and the mounting hardware is already in the motherboard. To ease mounting the block, it's best to take two of the screws and remove the springs to partially mount the block. The springs need a bit of pressure to be compressed, so if the block is held in place with the 'springless' screws, there is less of a chance of any 'accidents' happening when applying pressure to mount the block.
The GPU block for the ATI side is rather easy. Spread thermal compound on the GPU core. Thread the two bolts through the mounting holes on the card, flip it over, drop the spacers on, then the springs, and secure with the nylon nuts.
The GPU Block for nVidia is a little harder. It uses the 4 holes around the GPU, so like the CPU block, insert two screws without springs to line up the holes, and it makes it easier to to get the block mounted. Stick on the gasket to the back of the card, and you're ready to go.
Once the blocks are mounted it's time to run power to the MeanWell power supply, and wire up the blocks, relays and delay timer. Starting with the MeanWell power supply, you need to wire it for power. Take a psu mains cord, and strip back the black sheath, and strip the green, black and white wires. They get connected to the power supply as pictured below.
(Image courtesy of CoolTechnica.com)
With the power supply hooked up, we need to connect it to the relay. I have the MeanWell connected to the Swiftech Relay Kit. The kit comes with a connection diagram, and is very simple to follow. The white and green get connected the the A/C socket, and the black goes to to relay switch. Then the relay switch connects to the A/C socket to feed power when the system is turned on. The relay has a molex connector coming off that gets connected to the power supply and activates the relay when the system is turned on.
The CritiCool PowerPlant is going to be used for the pump. While the first revision of the card is a definite shock hazard if you are in your case as much as I am, CritiCool will be releasing the second revision that takes care of the issue. Overall, it is a nice alternative to modding your case. Hook up is simple as well. Cut the pump power cable to length, and strip back the cables. For the US, connect the green wire to terminal 1, the black wire to terminal 2, and the white wire to terminal 3. Put the card in an available PCI slot, and hook up the power cable to the PowerPlant. Like I stated, the exposed contacts on the card are a shock hazard, and with the amount of time I spend in my case, I really didn't like the idea of lighting up like a Christmas tree. So, the liquid electrical tape takes care of the exposed contacts, and makes things a little safer.
TheCoolTechnica Delay Timer Kit (DTK) is possibly the coolest component in the pelt system. It allows the computer to be started, but delays the CPU start up process to allow the peltiers to cool down the chips for those insane overlclocks. You can set the delay from 1 second to 60 minutes. Installation is straight forward, and CoolTechnica included very detailed instructions as well. The DTK hooks up to the reset switch, and the power supply. Just plug the molex connector into an available psu molex, and connect the reset wires to the terminals on the DTK, and back to the reset pins on your mother board. The instruction manual details all the settings needed to delay the startup.
The Swiftech blocks need to be powered as well. The MCW462-UHT has bare leads coming off it that, in most cases, need to be lengthened. THIS CANNOT BE TWISTED AND TAPED!! The wires coming off the peltier are carrying a lot of current. The safest way to lengthen the wires is by soldering 12 or 14 gauge wiring, and use heat shrink wrap to insulate the joints. The MCW50-T just gets connected to an available molex connector on your ATX power supply. That pretty much takes care of the install of the peltier system. Just make sure to double check all of your wiring work. Again, once the system is installed, it is recommended to run another leak test overnight to make sure all connections are good.
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