NEW - Self contained CPU Water Cooler - NO HOSES

[mrfin]

I'd like to see that one Wiggo.

[Wiggo]

Me too but maybe next summer a the rate things are goin' atm but if anyone sees any flaws in this theory then let me know. ;)
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[mrfin]

Maybe you could draw up some rough plans and post them for us to look at.

[Wiggo]

Draw? :confused:

Just picture me in my "Garden Shed" bein' cooled by the evaporative aircooler (do you guys over there have these things?) as the liquidcooled radiator is bein' done as well while the PC and me are are several feet away. :D

Only shed air contacts the chilled water and transfers that to the radiator so hopely if any condensation occurs then it should be on the outside of the radiator if anywhere several feet from the PC itself seein' as I'm not directly chillin' the PC's liquid. :devil win
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[mrfin]

Today I received my unit for testing. I'm at work so my first test is to let it run for a few hours until I leave. It's been running for 3 hours now and it seems to run great. The coolant inside flows very well. I was suprised at that. Before I fired it up I felt the surface which will be in contact with the CPU to see how warm or cold it was. After running the hsf for an hour, I felt it again and it had become a lot cooler. I will be installing this unit in my system later tonight when I get home. I will run the usuall tests and benchmarks and I will post more as I get the results. I will also include pics before, during, and after setup.

[MTGctsGTA]

SWEET sounds like its a good buy sp far. Can't wait for the rest of the info and pics. This thing might avtually be worthwhile me thinks...... Im too cheap for regular water cooling

[mrfin]

Sorry for the delay. Here goes..After running the hsf by itself for about 4 hours with no noticeable problems, I decided it was time to install it. Installation couldn't have been easier. The kit comes with all mounting hardware needed. I supplied the AS3. The instructions say to remove the bottom half of the stock mounting from the motherboard, but after looking closer at the included kit, I noticed that I could use my existing one. This hsf uses four spring loaded clips to mount it to the existing lower half mounting. There are two 3-pin connectors, one for the fan and one for the pump. I plugged the fan into my motherboard and the pump into the psu using a 3 to 4 pin adapter. I have had this water hsf running for 1 1/2 days now and here are my results:

CPU at stock speed of 2533 with vcore at 1.5
Idle temps:

Volcano 7+ = 33c
Water-X HSF = 33c

Running SETI 30 minutes:

Volcano 7+ = 47c - 48c
Water-X HSF = 45c - 47c

Running Sandra burn-in 15 minutes:

Volcano 7+ = 48c - 51c
Water-X HSF = 47c - 49c
__________________________________________________ __
CPU OC'd from 2533 to 3004 with vcore at 1.625
Idle:
Volcano 7+ = 45c
Water-X HSF = PC wouldn't run at this speed - too hot

Running SETI 15 minutes:

Volcano 7+ = 57c
Water-X HSF = N/A

Running Sandra Burn-in 10 minutes:

Volcano 7+ = 57c
Water-X HSF = N/A


Overall the Water-X performed well at first, slightly beating out the Volcano 7+, but I was not able to OC the CPU nearly as high as with the Volcano 7+. And for $35 more than the V7+ it just isn't worth it. BTW, the fan on the Water-X is running 6300 - 6400rpm's which makes for a lot of noise. I also think the fan cools the aluminum heatsink more than the coolant does. I am not impressed at all. Oh, well, I'll just put my V7+ back on and be happy again.

[Wiggo]

Somehow I figured that was goin' to happen. : peace2:

I'll stick with my 7+'s still. :D

[MTGctsGTA]

grrrr gotta stick with regular cooling.....

anyway why are you guys running volcano 7+'s? Aren't the volcano 9's or even higher ones (if there are) better?
Oh and another quick question is the volcano 7 loud?

sorry about the off topic questions but only one more. I see that your power supply has a fan blowing down into the case right by the processor.... Doesn't that give the processor a lot more heat? Ive been wondering that since ive goten my new 500 watt and i was a little worried that it might get to hot for the processor.

[Wiggo]

This is a Volcano 7 which as ya see is an aluminium/copper HSF with a very difficult 2 point clip due to the 80mm fan on it. Now the Volcano 9 is an update to the 7 with a change of colour, equally difficult 6 point clip and a screamin' SMART CASE FAN II on top. The Volcano 7+ is all copper so it can dissapate heat much quicker than the previous alloy/Cu hybrid but the Volcano 11 is the update to the 7+ but out of all 4 the 7+ is the easiest on the ears IMO. :devil win
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[mrfin]

The fan you see on my PSU in sucking air in and there's one exhaust fan on the rear of the PSU. This helps suck air away from the CPU. I agree with Wiggo, the Volcano 7+ is the best all around air cooled solution at the moment. Also, with the fan on low speed, it's very quiet. I think now I will mod my case for some better air flow.

[mrfin]

Well, I jumped the gun a little bit. I overlooked one thing that I often tell people. Artic Silver 3 takes a few weeks to set into the heatsink. It's been a few more days since I posted the review of the WaterX. I decided to leave it in for a while instead of putting my V7+ back in. My temps are still dropping. Now my idle temp with the WaterX is 30c. Last night I OC'd my 2533 up to 2849 which I couldn't do a couple of days ago with the WaterX. Now it seems as though this HSF is starting to work better. I will continue to use this HSF and post more stats over the next few weeks. I am really kinda starting to like this thing.

[maximus7001]

What about the heat not leaving the case before it goes through the rad like it does on a more traditional liquid cooled setup with an external rad? I cant see it being very efficient with it all in one spot, not to mention the weight on the board. And its not expandable.

[mrfin]

Well, the water pump failed. I just got done sending it back. This thing looks pretty cool and has a great idea to it, but it needs to go back to the drawing board. After roughly 2 weeks of running the WaterX, I found that my CPU temp did drop down to 32c, but that's the temp that my Volcano 7+ was when idle. This is nothing more than a fancy HSF with a $60 price tag. So I started to modify my Volcano 7+ for better cooling and I ended up making it worse. No big deal, I just installed my old TT P4 Dragon and my temps are the same, 32c at idle. I can't get it to go lower without opening my window and letting the cold air in. So, I will leave this thread saying, I'm sticking with ThermalTake cooling.