Water Cooling Studio PC
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Posted on Sep 23, 2005 09:56 pm
Pete
Member Since: Sep 02, 2005
I don't think I can listen to this CPU fan much longer. It's one of those Intel socket 775 jobs and it sounds like aircraft when it really gets going. Has anyone out there tried using some of these fancy water cooling systems?
Zalman reserator looks pretty cool, supposed to be pretty quiet as well. This studio is going to put me the poor house pretty soon.
Any feed back would be appreciated.
Pete
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Sep 24, 2005 09:04 am I had watercooling on my last PC. it was great, but if you regulalry upgrade or switch things out, it becomes a pain in the ***. you have to drain and disassemble it when you need to move stuff around. other than that, it's pretty quiet, but it't not silent. wastercooling systems have fans too.
Noize2uCzar of MidiAdministrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002
Sep 24, 2005 01:44 pm As Andy said, before you jump into a water cooled system look at all the pro's and con's. I know dB has installed his main studio rig in a rack type unit. And I can tell ya from seeing it it is super quiet. My main PC in the studio is pretty quiet as well even though it does run with one extra case fan on the side and a very large CPU as well as video cooler with fans.
One thing I would recomend is looking at a case made by Antec www.antec.com I forget the name but it is a very quiet case and can be had for under $100.00 I believe.
Other solutions would be to do as I did with my main case and by an isolation kit that essentially is just a gasket set using silicon rubber gaskets premade for the case fans, the PSU, and wahtever else can vibrate in your case. It helps considerably and isnt expensive either.
Sep 28, 2005 09:09 am You can get completely fanless and pumpless cooling systems now days. They're generally called 'passive' and are designed for silence, as apposed to increasing PC performance like most fanned active systems.
You'll be worrying about your HDD being the loudest component in your box after one of these...
Look out though, they's big and heavy!!
W.
Sep 28, 2005 09:11 am ...and expensive if I recall...
Sep 28, 2005 09:15 am Not too bad, some can get scary... Couple hundred US will get you an entry level setup.
W.
PeteMember
Since: Sep 02, 2005
Oct 01, 2005 07:59 pm Well guys, I bit the bullet and bought a Zalman Reserator 1 Plus. I must say this is one very slick unit. It is quite large in size and a real pain in the apple to hook up but it's worth it. This thing is super quiet and super big as well, Oh! and expensive as hell! It's nice see that they have solved the leaking problem when disconnecting the unit. You simply unplug the supply lines and your good to go.
I'm also going to be installing a Coolmax power supply just to quiet things a little more. We are winning on the noise front, but it ain't cheap.
Pete
Oct 02, 2005 04:37 pm Looked at that unit in a review, but they left out the price... Do you mind if I ask what that bugger ran ya?
W.
Noize2uCzar of MidiAdministrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002
Oct 04, 2005 09:57 pm Its about $270.00 depending were you look.
PeteMember
Since: Sep 02, 2005
Oct 08, 2005 01:49 pm Yeah. It depends on what version you purchase. Your looking at about 300 cnd. Take my advice though I learn't this the hard way. If you use their coolant supplied it is imperitive that you use distilled water. If you do not you will not be able to get within 10 ft. of this thing. The chemicals in our tap water will cause all kinds of things to come out of solution and start to corrode the hell out of everything, and yup that means big stink. Other than that nice set up cools real well.
Pete
Oct 08, 2005 02:00 pm hmmm, interesting, thanks for the tip.
Noize2uCzar of MidiAdministrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002
Oct 13, 2005 09:58 pm Nice to know the things they dont tell you before you buy it. Although distilled water is easy to get, I bet there are lots of peeps who dont use it and then regret it.
Oct 18, 2005 03:07 pm For reference, I replaced my CPU fan with a "quiet" thermaltake Tr2-m3, and replaced two of my case fans with "quiet" vantec models. All the fans were supposed to be 20db or quieter. However, my power supply has dual fans on it and they drown out the quiet ones anyways.
