Water Cooling Project - The Parts We Used (Continued): page 2
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Manufacturer: | N/A |
| Product: | Various |
Price: | Varies |
Availability: | NOW |
Reviewed By: | Jim "Justi" Miller |
Review Date: | August 2003 |
Step by Step Water Cooling Project
The Parts We Used (Continued):
Water Block - For the water block we wanted to use something that would provide the best cooling efficiency that at the same time offered an easy mounting system. After considering several options we decided to go with the Typhoon 478 block from Xtreme Tek Werks that comes with the heavy duty retention bracket featuring 1/2" barbed fittings. Coming in at just under USD$60 it wasn't the cheapest out there, but with it's solid copper base and a flow channel that maximized surface area while offering little resistance to water flow, it was a choice we were more than pleased with..
I included the image with the warning sticker for good reason, as a reminder to take it off! No lie, I have a buddy that coudn't figure out why his PC (AMD T-bird 1.4GHz) kept overheating. After he brought it over to my place in desperation I found that he never took off the TIM protective paper cover. After scraping it off (it had melted) and applying some heat sink grease, his problems went away! :)
The mounting system of this block is as simple as pie. It goes into the stock P4 bracket that comes on every Socket478 motherboard and clips on VERY easily with two metal clips. Without exaggeration I can say that it is actually easier to install this block than it is to install a retail P4 heat sink.
The base of the block is a very shiny well finished chunk of solid copper. You can see slight machining channels but we didn't worry about it and achieved stellar results. If you were Uber motivated you could lap the base with excessively fine sandpaper, but generally speaking that is not necessary on this unit.
Radiator - For the radiator in this system we wanted to find something that would offer good water cooling performance, yet offer a small enough footprint to be placed inside the case, avoiding the need to route water lines outside the case. After searching thru several models available, we decided to use one that we had handy that is made my MaxXxpert. It's a 120mm radiator with the thin fin design which allows air to flow smoothly across it without requiring a boatload of CFM's. Here's a quote directly from their site which reiterates exactly what we've found to be the case..
"Our small sized radiator MXL-MONO enabled us to install the full kit of water cooling solution inside the PC. Its size is in accordance with 120 mm fan and can be installed inside most PCs.
Despite its small size, high efficiency is obatained by the structure of 3 array copper pipe and radiating pins that are densely planted by 2mm. Furthermore, by employing 120mm fan which provides with affluent wind volume with low RPM, you can enjoy quiet and pleasant atmosphere"
By modifying our case (will go into detail later) we were able to set this in the front of our PC case, we were pretty pleased with the results as you'll see. This radiator was originally part of water cooling kit that we received from IceePC.com and definitely suited the job perfectly.
Pump - For a pump we decided to go with a name that we've grown to trust over the years as a quality water cooling component maker, Swiftech. We got with our friends over at SidewinderComputers.com and sure enough, Gary over there was more than willing to hook us up with one of the quality Swiftech MCP300 pumps.
Other than for brand name purposes, we went with this pump because it's feature list far outweighed it's price tag, and let's be honest, that's what we're all looking for. With it's flow rate checking in at a variable 100-340 gallons per hour (usually right around 300) and a max head of 86 inches, this pump stacks up with pretty much any pump out there. Another attractive feature is the way it's mounted. You can either mount it with it's build in suction cup feet or with it's mountable strap system to place it out of the way. Personally I like the pump to be removable rather quickly incase you need to work on your loop, and the suction cups did just the truck for us.
This pump comes with a 1/2" outside diamater fitting so to use it required a necking device, but they are readily available at Sidewinder and a number of other places, we used Cooltechnica.com to get ours. It's simply a hard plastic piece that slides into the 1/2" OD hole and changes it to a barbed 1/2" ID (inside diamater) fitting.
While anytime your using a flow channel changer there is concern about possible flow rate interruption, we found that using this did not hinder our performance and were able to still achieve stellar cooling results. The cap slides right into the Swiftech quick connects and worked out quite well.
Reservoir /Fill Fitting - This was a tough decision for us, we had three choices really. We could go with a reservoir, a bleeding system, or something really ghetto, we chose to go ghetto! We decided against a reservoir because of space and the increased air in the water loop. We chose against a dual valve bleeding system because of the space that it takes up and the relative little use it gets. That left us with ghetto! We used a plastic 1/2" insider diameter T-fitting, and a brass cap to seal it. The best way to explain it is to simply show you, so here it is..
I TOLD you it was ghetto! While this gives you access to the water loop, it is more than a little bit of a pain in the arse to fill and bleed with this. Basically it took a lot of patience, a longer tube for the actual filling and bleeding, and a lot of twisting and turning of the case during the process to get all of the air out of the line. Hey, it's small and it's functional (pretty much! :) ) so we went with it!
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