View Full Version : Watercooling Article Featuring PolarFLO
I've finished my water cooling article which features a pump and water blocks from PolarFLO (http://www.polarflo.com) and 3DCOOL.COM (http://www.3dcool.com). It was my first experience with water cooling but I learned a heck of a lot along the way. I hope that it proves as helpful to you as it was enjoyable for me to put together.
http://www.nvnews.net/reviews/watercooling_polarflo/
http://www.nvnews.net/reviews/watercooling_polarflo/images/polarflologo.jpg (http://www.nvnews.net/reviews/watercooling_polarflo/)
nice artical clay.... i do have one question .. has anyone ever seen waterblocks for memory?
GlowStick
05-03-05, 05:55 PM
Great review, very nice install guide showing how diffuicult the tubieng situation is.
retsam, DangerDen and Innvotek have 6800 ultra blocks that cool the ram, however honestly its unnessisary.
Thanks guys. retsam you must be a speed reader. :D
@GlowStick: The tubing situation can be difficult but that basically is due to inexperience. I was getting frustrated with it at times but like anything new you just need patience. Once you get the hang of it it's not a big deal.
johnharrisnz
05-03-05, 06:22 PM
Nice article - appreciate the water mix advice as getting it right extends the life of the gear.
You mentioned a noisy pump - I have one of these http://www.overclockers.co.nz/product/watercool/WT-Pump.jpg and it solves that problem.
Cheers JH :afro:
Thanks John, I appreciate the feedback...this was the most involved and time-consuming review I've done to date. What is that pump enclosure called and where can they be purchased? Looks nice, thanks for the tip! :)
Nice Job, Clay :) I'm still thinking about water-cooling one of my rigs.
Thanks Mike. I'll talk you into it eventually. :angel:
-=Gib-McFragger=-
05-04-05, 01:03 AM
Hey, I have seen that article somewhere before............who did your editing? He did a fine job, I can't see any mistakes. :p
heheheh As I already said man, excellent article. I enjoyed reading it, and I lurned sumfin too. :retard:
Hey, I have seen that article somewhere before............who did your editing? He did a fine job, I can't see any mistakes. :p
heheheh As I already said man, excellent article. I enjoyed reading it, and I lurned sumfin too. :retard:
Heheh yeah yeah. :D Thanks again for proofreading it. :thumbsup: Glad you liked it, I appreciate the feedback. After spending close to 100 hours on an article like this it makes it more worthwhile to know that people liked it, found it helpful, etc.
Thanks to jAkUp as well for answering some of my initial questions and pointing me in the right direction regarding a good radiator to buy, etc. :thumbsup:
hazindu
05-04-05, 01:57 PM
wow!! you got some great writing skills. overall good job. but there are some suggestions I'd like to make.
edit: ignore 1,
1. my bad :o .... or uh....maybe different color water would be cooler?jk
2. I like the way you covered the hose clamps, however bottom line: fitting make the seal, clamps merely hold it together. still, zip ties work just fine for that.
3. I'll prolly get the flames of hell for saying this, but I think clearflex is a better choise than tygon. It seems stronger and its cheaper.
4. In a case that big, why not use a cheaper and overall better 77 Bonneville heater core. they cool better and don't hurt the flow rates as much as compact pc radiators do.
Overall, I love your work!!!
btw, I have also had experience with both a noisy d4 pump, and getting a polarflo block on a 6800(gt in my case). I got lower tempuratures after changing it out for a swiftec gpu block which actually fit the mounting structure correctly. As far as the pump, mine sounded like a western digital harddrive, and I eventually replaced it with a laing delphi http://www.dangerdenstore.com/product.php?productid=135&cat=23&page=1 (only available in 3\8 fittings) The reduced flow did not hurt my performance,
just for brags, I put all mine together in a super lan boy case.
wow!! you got some great writing skills. overall good job. but there are some issues.Thanks, I really appreciate you taking the time to offer feedback. :)
1. unless polarflo made some major mods to the laing d4, you got your flow backwords. With inline pumps, the top off centered barb is almost always the output. Luckily you are not using a flow impingment based waterblock.Maybe I'm not understanding you correctly, but my pump's top off-centered barb is in fact the output. Did one of my early pump orientation images confuse things? This image below shows how I ultimately oriented everything and you can see that the pump's top barb is the output.
http://www.nvnews.net/reviews/watercooling_polarflo/images/fill01.jpg
2. I like the way you covered the hose clamps, however bottom line: fitting make the seal, clamps merely hold it together. still, zip ties work just fine for that.Yes, good point. I found that the softer tubing didn't make the seal nearly as well (too much play) as the stiffer tubing did.
3. I'll prolly get the flames of hell for saying this, but I think clearflex is a better choise than tygon. It seems stronger and its cheaper.I hadn't looked into clearflex, I'll have to check it out. :)
4. In a case that big, why not use a cheaper and overall better 77 Boniville heater core. they cool better and don't hurt the flow rates as much as compact pc radiators do.Interesting, I wasn't aware that the PC radiators hurt flow rates. I do know that heater cores out of some 70 model vehicles worked well but due to time constraints I wanted to go with a PC radiator so that there would be no doubt that it would work. I might have to try that in the future though, sounds like a neat little mod. :)
Overall, I love your work!!!
btw, I have also had experience with both a noisy d4 pump, and getting a polarflo block on a 6800(gt in my case). I got lower tempuratures after changing it out for a swiftec gpu block which actually fit the mounting structure correctly. As far as the pump, mine sounded like a western digital harddrive, and I eventually replaced it with a laing delphi(only available in 3\8 fittings) The reduced flow did not hurt my performance,
just for brags, I put all mine together in a super lan boy case.Cool, good to know. Was all that "within" your Super LAN Boy case? No external radiator, etc? Wow, that's impressive. :)
Thanks again for the feedback and I'm glad you liked the article.
hazindu
05-04-05, 02:22 PM
Maybe I'm not understanding you correctly, but my pump's top off-centered barb is in fact the output. Did one of my early pump orientation images confuse things? This image below shows how I ultimately oriented everything and you can see that the pump's top barb is the output.
my bad. Yeah, those diagrams through me off, sorry.
and uh, no my radiator is attached to the back of the case riding piggyback on the exhaust fan. :o
my bad. Yeah, those diagrams through me off, sorry.
and uh, no my radiator is attached to the back of the case riding piggyback on the exhaust fan. :o
No problem. :cool:
Heh heh, ok. Still though, that's cool to be able to fit most everything within that case. :)
Vishruth
05-09-05, 07:57 AM
Have you guys considered using Zalman Reserator 1? Apparently, Zalman Reserator 1 Plus is currently in development and will be released sometime this year. I'll see if I can get that when it comes out. I'm a silent PC freak, and I'd buy a watercooling setup just for the sake of silence alone.
EDIT: fixed some typos. :o
Have you guys considered using Zalman Reserator 1? Apparently, Zalman Reserator 1 Plus is currently in development and will be released sometime this year. I'll if I can get that when it comes out. I'm a silent PC freak, and I buy a watercooling setup just for the sake of silence alone.
It does look very interesting, let us know how you like it if you get one. :cool:
Vishruth
05-10-05, 04:10 PM
It does look very interesting, let us know how you like it if you get one. :cool:
Sure. I hope the Reserator 1 Plus will hit store shelves soon so that I can use it with the A64 4000+ (San Diego core) system I'm planning to put together...
This might sound a n00bish question about water-cooling for the GPU.
Did you Clay use any heatsinks for the memory modules on the 6800U ?? if not this will lead me to my main question which is : how do you manage the memory chips cooling when using a water-cooling block ?? do you leave then just like that or they should be covered with heatsinks ?
This might sound a n00bish question about water-cooling for the GPU.
Did you Clay use any heatsinks for the memory modules on the 6800U ?? if not this will lead me to my main question which is : how do you manage the memory chips cooling when using a water-cooling block ?? do you leave then just like that or they should be covered with heatsinks ?
Yes, I used some copper Vantec heatsinks. I mentioned it at the top of this page (http://www.nvnews.net/reviews/watercooling_polarflo/page2.shtml) but I should've taken a picture after I'd put them on.
I would suggest adding heatsinks to the memory for peace of mind and the cooling that they offer. I did have one module that was so close in proximity to the waterblock on the GPU that there just wasn't room for the heat sink to fit. So, I have one module that is bare...this hasn't had any negative effects though.
Yes, I used some copper Vantec heatsinks. I mentioned it at the top of this page (http://www.nvnews.net/reviews/watercooling_polarflo/page2.shtml) but I should've taken a picture after I'd put them on.
Ah yes i was looking to the pics & didnt pay much attention to that particular paragraph in the article.
thanks for the info :)
Great article! Hell, my brain hurts just from reading it! :D I can't imagine all the work that must have went into that review, I'm impressed. I'm also a bit intimidated (sp) about water cooling my system (some day). Whew! Keep up the good work on the reviews fellas! :thumbsup:
Thanks GRUNT. A lot of work. Close to 100 hours. Thanks for noticing :) I don't want them to be too long of a read, hard to find a balance because some people like reviews like mine that tend to go into a lot of detail/explanation/etc. While some of the other reviewers here do that as well, others go for a more concise/lighter approach. Many people like that too because it's a quicker read, etc. I think it makes for a good balance overall.
If I were you and not quite sure about how confidently you could do watercooling...I would go with a kit first. That way you would know that you'd have everything you needed in one box. Then, if you like the experience after that you could always start tweaking/upgrading your watercooling components.
I'm tempted to go watercooling after reading all these great articles & esp for my current SLI system which is suffering high temps.
i've been told that i'm going to need 2 water blocks for the 2 GPUs which means an extra radiator which makes the job a little harder for a start & increase the price needed for the whole upgrade.
i'm giving it a thought , but i might not go ahead & do it now .. maybe in the summer ? ;)
Thanks GRUNT. A lot of work. Close to 100 hours. Thanks for noticing :) I don't want them to be too long of a read, hard to find a balance because some people like reviews like mine that tend to go into a lot of detail/explanation/etc. While some of the other reviewers here do that as well, others go for a more concise/lighter approach. Many people like that too because it's a quicker read, etc. I think it makes for a good balance overall.
If I were you and not quite sure about how confidently you could do watercooling...I would go with a kit first. That way you would know that you'd have everything you needed in one box. Then, if you like the experience after that you could always start tweaking/upgrading your watercooling components.
I agree, I'm looking into the TT BigWater kit.
I'm tempted to go watercooling after reading all these great articles & esp for my current SLI system which is suffering high temps.
i've been told that i'm going to need 2 water blocks for the 2 GPUs which means an extra radiator which makes the job a little harder for a start & increase the price needed for the whole upgrade.
i'm giving it a thought , but i might not go ahead & do it now .. maybe in the summer ? ;)
In my opinion...don't you hate it when something starts that way? :D
Whoever told you that you would need two waterblocks and an extra radiator might know what they're talking about. I disagree though.
Think about it this way. Many people have a setup similar to mine (with one radiator) but additionally cool their Northbridge chipset with a chipset waterblock. You could add a second GPU waterblock in your circuit instead of a chipset waterblock and still just have three waterblocks total in your circuit. A single radiator would have no problem cooling that. Take a look at the PolarFLO TT Series Pro System for example (http://polarflo.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=63&HS=1) (a single radiator is all that is mentioned).
Sure, a second radiator might help to cool things a bit more but the difference would likely be just a few degrees cooler at most.
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