Evercool WC202, Water Cooling for Anyone - Installing the Water Cooler
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When attaching the water block to my Radeon 9600XT video card I noted that it sits a bit crooked.
I thought this a bit odd, though upon looking in the manual that accompanies the kit it states that "no particular angle for installing the heatsink is required." This is true for the most part, so long as the entirety of the GPU is covered and the water block is basically centered. Being seated at an angle will have no ill effects. The small screw on top of the water block fits into the bracket with the black nut holding them together, so the water block will not slide out.
As I followed the installation manual, everything went fairly smooth. First, I cut the tubes to the approximate lengths I would need. Following the steps in the manual, I then added the included 50cc of antifreeze and plugged in the system, allowing it to run. After a few moments, I needed to tip the unit on its side and pinch the tubing to get rid of bubbles. Using the water filler that the antifreeze came in, I filled the unit again. I let it run, tipped it on its side, and got rid of air bubbles. Finally I topped it off with water to bring it to the full line and seal it up.
One thing that the manual leaves out here is that you should always leave your fully assembled H20 system running for a minimum of 6hrs, and to be really safe 12 or more. This is arguably the most important step when installing a water cooling system. This is a precaution so that a very slow leak that might not reveal itself immediately isn't later discovered when everything is installed inside your computer, because by then it will have dripped on your expensive video card (or something else) which would no doubt be completely fried.
After allowing the system to run for a while, the next step is to actually put it in the computer. With this kit it is necessary to do so by putting everything through two open drive bays. In my case, and I'm guessing most others, this was a very tight squeeze.
Being extremely careful not to pinch the tubing or nick it on any sharp corners that might be present in the case, I was able to slide it in just fine. If it gave me a lot of trouble, I could've opted to take out an additional drive to gain another inch or two of through space.
Once I had the drive in place and screwed in, I connected the external radiator to the back of the case, and then installed the CPU water block. I then ran tests to see the temps using only that water block. Since I don't overclock my CPU or video card, I was merely interested in overall temps when using one or both water blocks. After running those tests I installed the GPU water block and ran the same battery of tests again to see how big of a difference there was. (More about those tests and results on the next page)
With everything installed, the setup looks fairly smooth.
It's a bit hard to make out in this picture, but the middle of the tube running from the graphics card toward the top of the case is the flow indicator. It's in the position I thought would be easiest for quick viewing later on.
Next: Testing Temperatures with the Evercool Water Cooler >>
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