• Welcome to Overclockers Forums! Join us to reply in threads, receive reduced ads, and to customize your site experience!

Passively cooled XP @ 2.4Ghz

Overclockers is supported by our readers. When you click a link to make a purchase, we may earn a commission. Learn More.

5.4Mustang

Registered
Joined
Nov 6, 2004
First post!

I've been reading Overclockers.com since practically day one, but never felt I had anything impressive enough to post to the forums before. I've been watercooled since 1999 and making slow tweaks to the system since then.

Up until yesterday, the system was an Eheim 1046, DangerDen Maze1 (same block I've been using since '99) modded for 1/2" ID inlet/outlet, and a heater core from my old '88 Mustang LX 5.0L as the radiator, with two 120mm Muffin DC fans pulling through undervolted to 5v. The pump was submerged in a 3/4 gallon homemade resorvoir.

Idle temps were around 110f, full load was about 125f. I could live with that. Unfortunately all the fans, though pretty quiet, were getting on my nerves. So, for my birthday I got a new DangerDen TDX copper block, a Dangerden Maze4 GPU block and an Eheim 1250. I also had a whole radiator from my current car, a 1996 Mustang GT (4.6L) sitting around that had sprung a leak at the gasket.

So, the NEW system is as follows: the 4.6L radiator is in a custom box made of MDF board placed in front of the A/C intake for my house, so that all A/C air is pulled through the radiator, thus cooling the system whenever the A/C fan runs. The radiator is about 30 feet from the actual computer, and they're connected by 1/2 soldered copper pipe that runs through two walls. About halfway between the computer itself and the radiator is a storage closet that the pipe runs through. That's where I located the water pump, submerged in a 2.5 gallon utility bucket. I left the old heater core in the circuit too, though I'm sure it's totally unnecessary, but it was easier that way - less re-soldering of pipe etc.

I booted and had idle temps of 96f with the 2.4Ghz overclock (11.5 * 210 from a 2600+ Barton that started at 1.91Ghz - stock voltage). At full load using Folding@home for eight consecutive hours, the temps stabilized at 113f with no fans running - the A/C was turned off entirely to ensure the system would be stable when I'm away from home during the day and the A/C is off. If I manually turn on the A/C fan, the total system temp drops to 106f full load within a minute or two. The responsiveness of the huge radiator is really impressive.

Total system capacity is in the neighborhood of about four gallons including the sixty or so total feet of 1/2" tubing plus the 2.5 gallon resorvoir, volume of the large radiator, and volume of the small radiator.

I don't have any image hosting but I'll email the pics to someone if they'll host 'em for me.

Needless to say, the system is now completely noiseless - I have an Antec Trupower 550 that's barely ticking over with the current setup - the fans are barely running and inaudible unless you stick your head in the case. The video card has a Zalman heatsink on it with an old AMD stock fan undervolted to 5v just to be on the safe side. Northbridge fan will be getting dumped shortly because I'd rather it just be passively cooled, and you can *just* hear it if the room's quiet.

Now I'm bothered by the noise of my refrigerator compressor running instead of the noise of my computer running (it's on 24/7).
 
Glad to hear things worked good especially for not using a fan. For cooling the nb you might want to look into a passive zalman. Theyre cheap and work pretty good.
 
Yeah, I keep going back and forth between watercooling the thing and doing some huge passive heatsink. I've got tons of old CPU heatsinks sitting around and I'll probably just end up mounting one of those to it. The additional anguish of routing more 1/2" tubing and vinyl hose around inside there, not to mention the clutter, will probably keep me from watercooling the northbridge.

Now if i could just get the friggin' Zalman thing pried off of my video card so I can install the GPU block I got, I'll be in good shape.

I think before I add the GPU block I'll have to remove the old heater core from the cooling loop, though - it seems to be seriously reducing the total system flow. It's also possible that the restriction is just the inlet/outlet size on the waterblock - I ordered the largest inlet/outlets they had available, but that's still only 1/2 OD, maybe 3/8 ID which is a lot smaller than the rest of my system.

Anyway, in the next couple of days I'll probably start tweaking around on the CPU and see what I can get out of it. This is by no means the max overclock - I did no tweaking at all to get this speed, just stuck the new CPU in the socket and turned up the FSB. I'm sure there's another couple hundred Mhz in there with a voltage tweak and maybe playing with the memory timings.
 
For getting it off your video card...im guessing it feels like its stuck on there with glue or something? See if you can wiggle it side to side very lightly and if itll move around alittle bit just keep on and sooner or later the tape will weaken and it will come off. If it doesnt wiggle around its because its the epoxy not tape. In which case get a big ziplock and throw the card in it. Then stick it in the freezer for maybe 30 min or so sooner or later the epoxy will get weak and break its bond because of the low temp.
 
I know it's epoxy - that's the only mounting system available for this particular Zalman unit. I'll probably be more interested in futzing with the video card once I've got the northbridge quieted down. Also, I don't believe I've got any more headroom on this GPU, so I may just save the GPU block until I upgrade video cards in a few months - I'm still running a Ti4200 @ 300/550 so no matter how good the cooling gets, it's not going to get much faster short of refrigeration. Since it's "good enough" for now I'll probably leave it alone.


I've just now noticed I can upload images to the site but I'll have to crop 'em all down to fit within the size restrictions, and I'm the worlds' most incompetent Photoshopper, so gimme, I dunno, a couple years, and I'll have a few pics cut down to size.
 
Well, here goes nothing:
 

Attachments

  • fixedradiator.jpg
    fixedradiator.jpg
    98.1 KB · Views: 247
  • fixed radiator1.jpg
    fixed radiator1.jpg
    41.9 KB · Views: 208
Here's the rest.



Gotta go for now.
 

Attachments

  • radiator enclosure.jpg
    radiator enclosure.jpg
    50 KB · Views: 217
  • resorvoir.jpg
    resorvoir.jpg
    55.6 KB · Views: 202
  • fixed interior.jpg
    fixed interior.jpg
    101.6 KB · Views: 220
That is a VERY nice job! Does the temp cool off even more if you leave the AC on for a while?
 
56k Friendly!

I took the liberty of editting those edits a little further to make the pictures load faster for those of us who are less fortunate. :)

I must say that I think your approach is very cool. However, I would suggest considering modifying the tubing... If you would use a pair of 45 degree sweeps instead of each of those 90 degree sweeps to redirect the tubing, you might get moderately noticeable improvements in flow - 90 degree sweeps aren't too bad for flow compared to a mitre bend, but with the length of travel with that copper I would reduce restrictions whereever possible... And judging from those pictures, you have plenty of 90 degree bends in that system... You might make really considerable improvements with 45 degree sweeps instead.

This article will explain why I suggest that, especially these excerpts:

pH said:
K is the resistance coefficient, which is defined as the number of velocity heads lost due to the valve or fitting. If desired, one can relate this resistance coefficient to equivalent pipe length by using the Darcy equation:

K = f(L/D)

where f is the friction factor and L and D are the length and diameter of the pipe, in feet.

90 degree Sweep - 30f
45 degree Sweep - 10f

You will need to read the whole article or atleast skim it for the parts that apply to you, if you are going to get the full effect. It is a very good article.

WELCOME TO THE FORUMS! Thanks for posting up finally. :)

56K versions:
 

Attachments

  • fixedradiator56k.jpg
    fixedradiator56k.jpg
    22.6 KB · Views: 151
  • fixedradiator56k1.jpg
    fixedradiator56k1.jpg
    8.2 KB · Views: 135
  • Enclosure56k.jpg
    Enclosure56k.jpg
    9.2 KB · Views: 119
  • resevoir56k.jpg
    resevoir56k.jpg
    11.3 KB · Views: 127
  • Interior56k.jpg
    Interior56k.jpg
    27.4 KB · Views: 128
Last edited:
Yeah, I know I could definitely optimize the tubing, but the primary restriction is the second radiator. Before I had that spliced in I did some flow tests and the dang tube shot water about three feet past the bucket I had set up to catch it - FAR surpassing my expectations. After I had everything connected up, the flow rate was much reduced. I do believe the PRIMARY reduction is the waterblock itself, as the reduction from 1/2" ID to 3/8" ID (or less) combined with the impingement design of the block is a massive restriction.

My priorities are as follows:

1. Get rid of the northbridge cooler and put something quiet on there.

2. Add GPU block.

3. If needed to maintain decent temps, re-engineer the flow system and possibly remove the second radiator to improve flow now that I've got two blocks in the system.

Thanks for fixing up the pics.

JDXNC: I haven't let the fan run for more than a few minutes so far. I would anticipate that the lowest full load temp I'm likely to see is about 102 with the fan on, since that's what the temp was when I first started F@H on the system when all the coolant was room-temperature. The lowest idle temp I expect would be about 95f, for the same reason. When I first started the system, before starting F@H, the temp was in this range.
 
Uh... Sorry, I'm going to have to guess at what you mean. If you're referring to the hoses and stuff being in the way, they're not. Everything comes in/out very nicely - that's why I have that "L" shaped extension that the outlet from the waterblock goes to, instead of having it go straight down. With the "L" there it allows me easy access to the PCI slots and the AGP slot. There is also exactly enough room between the vertical riser that exits the case and the edge of the case to allow me to fit a screwdriver between the two to tighten/loosen the screws holding PCI/AGP cards in place.
 
Update. The full load temps actually go down to 99F with the A/C on for a while. This surprised me. The ambient temp is about 72F with the A/C steadily on.

This afternoon it got up to 79f in my apartment with the A/C not running. The system never went over 116f passively cooled. W00t!
 
Back