It's so quiet now a.k.a Water Cooling rocks

[Hussein]

I have a fanless watercooling system.

I built a heat exchanger from an old radiator and it keeps my temps below 40 at all times with no fans humming.

Talk about quiet.. the power supply (its a silent model with noisekiller fans) is the loudest part of my system now.

I almost get scared when the cd-rom revs up when I use it.. too noisy

[Chairboy]

I watercooled my Athlon XP 2200 this last weekend.  I was methodical:  
Every step, I did outside the computer first.  I hooked up the system to the waterblock and ran it for hours to look for leaks before installing it.  Before I took it apart, I purged it w/ air so it wouldn't drip when I was running the tubes.

I install it, then do an air test to check for leaks.

Then I add water and run it without power to the CPU for an hour, no leaks.

I take it apart to add some different fittings that will have better flow, and I'm proud that the whole time there wasn't even a drop on the case.

So I have the system out on my kitchen table while I check and re-check connections and fittings to ensure there isn't a leak.  My wife is watering the plants behind me.  

She turns around, swinging the watering can in front of her, and neatly deposits about a pint of water + miracle grow right in the middle of my RAM, on my CPU, and in PCI slots.



After a day of soaking up water and using air dusters to blow water out of nooks and crannies, I finally have my system up again and running.  No permanent damage, but my system re-flashed its BIOS* because of a checksum error when it first started.  Since then, everything has been fine.

(* My mobo (GA-7XVRP) has a normal BIOS, then a non-flashable copy hardwired in that will automatically restore when there's a critical problem with the BIOS itself.  Neat!  I don't have to worry about a bad BIOS flash knocking me out of action.)

[Chairboy]

BTW, I'm using a MAZE3 from Dangerden.com, 1/2" fittings & tube, and a fountain pump from Home Depot I got for $24.  The pump is cheap enough that if it fails, I can go out and spend the $80+ for the fancy inline pumps other people are using, but if it doesn't, I've saved a bundle.

No radiator yet, using just just a gallon resevoir for heatsink makes my temperature stabilize at 40C, not great for water, but much better then the 60C I had before with air.

[steely07]

She turns around, swinging the watering can in front of her, and neatly deposits about a pint of water + miracle grow right in the middle of my RAM, on my CPU, and in PCI slots.

Ouch!!