SILENT cooling!?! Radiator alternatives...

[Silence_Quest]

NOISE!!!! Don't you just hate it??? I'm running a Thermosconic Thermoengine, PS fan, and thats IT!!! I get the feeling unplugging all my fans could have been a bad idea.

I've been looking at water cooling for a few weeks now, yet have read many a article saying that (understandably) the 120 mm fan(s) (even panaflos at 7v) on the radiator are not any quiter then air cooling. So, are there any alternatives to a radiator??? I know I could have a real huge reservoir, but I'd like it to be contained in my case (Chieftec/Amatex rip off of Antec).

Also, I'm still not sure what to get. QUIET and CHEAP are first and foremost. Performance would be nice too :D. I'll make my own resovoir out of an electrial box (looks good, at least), pump at Petsmart/ebay, tubeing etc at HD, radiator(if at all) at the junkyard/AutoZone, but:

Which waterblock? Danger Dens are nice (and $30) but as are Swiftecs.

HD cooler? Chipset cooler? GF4 cooler?

THANK YOU so much in advance for any advice/thought/experences/anything!!!!!

Lex.

[Player0]

It all depends what type of noise you are looking to erradicate. Using a 120mm fan on your radiator versus a 60mm CPU fan will be MUCH quieter. The difference comes from the actual pitch of the white noise. The sound of a 120mm is much easier to deal with.

If you absolutely cant tolerate any fan noise, get a Via C3 processor or a Celeron. Use a heatsink without a fan, and get a low noise PSU for it.

Otherwise, your going to have noise. You could do a large resevoir for water cooling, but not if you want a portable system.

I recommend going to dangerden, getting the small eheim pump, the maze3 and a blackice radiator. Then buy the quietest 120mm fan you can buy. Hook it all together making sure to use rubber grommets to elimiate vibration noise from the pump and radiator, use some of that anti-noise matting you can glue to the inside of your case, and again, use a very low noise PSU. Get thermaltake heat spreaders for your ram. Get hard drive heatsinks (you can disable the fans on these), and mount the drives in the 5-1/2" bay. Use rounded cables to promote whatever air circulation you can, besure to tie everything up nice and tight and neat with wireties. Make sure to keep the computer on the floor to help reduce the noise you hear.

Youll probably want to not overclock anything. Or even underclock things to help keep them cool. Depending on your video card, you may want to change out the heatsink fan with a larger heatsink, and no fan. If you have an older vid card or somethign like an mx200, dont bother.

[kms]

not everyone use fans either, many just use big heater cores

[lechumbl]

Hi Silence_Quest,

First let me :D :D WELCOME :D :D you to Liquid Ninjas.

Secondly, I have a 120 mm fan on my radiator, and it is not very noticible to me. Maybe I am deaf..........Huh?

I seriously don't know if I am used to the noise, or it is low noise.

My W/C is fully contained in my case, and with the sides on the case, I really have a very low noise level.

Hope this helps.

Take care.......

[kms]

& welcome to the board :)

p.s. hard drives are normally the loudest part of a w/c system

[Farabomb]

:beerm8s: Welcome Silence_quest:beerm8s:

I also going the way of the water and I was thinking about what Player0 was saying about HS for the hard drives. I was wondering if a aluminum case would be better than a steel case. I figure If you're going for silent cooling every little bit helps. I can't honestly say that a Al case cools better but I've seen writeups saying that.

I'd say you need some airflow through the case to disipate the heat from the memory/vid card/everything else. I have the enermax 80mm adjustible fans in my box and at low speed you can't hear them. Then again I have a Antec TruePower 430 that will control the fan speed of any fan connected to the special molex connectors but I don't use the option.

Good luck on your quest of silence. :D

[dicki]

welcome to the boards :)

i'm really just going to ditto what people have allready said.

120mm panaflos are a compleatly different type of noise and running at 7v you'd hardly notice them.

the loudest thing in my system by far is the harddrive so make sure you get one of the new silent drives i think seagate or samsung make them

you can also get fanless psu's i believe. i think zalman make / redistribute them

if you use a huge radiator you could probably get away without a fan... but you'd need one hell of a pump

pump wise... eheims are the best... absolutly silent, powerfull and reliable. mount them on rubber gromits to eliminate vibration and it will be perfect

dicki

[Silence_Quest]

Thanks so much everyone for the advice (and the welcome!). Must admit, having a 120 Panaflo running at 7v would be a different kind of noise then I'm used to (and much more plesant), but I'm interested in these heater cores.

Now, I won't pertend to know what a heater core is (like a radiator?), but does anyone know if it's nessiary to use a fan with smaller ones of these? Chevy S-10 looks nice, as does this beretta, but would it work as well as, say, a Black Ice?

I also have a question about the ram HS: This would help keep the ram cool without having any case fans? I've got pretty quiet HDs: I never hear these WDs (although if anyones looking for a cheap alternative, one of my machines has a liquid bearing Maxtor which is dead silent)

I looked into the fanless PSUs, but found nothing about it at Sharka (bought Zalman). Quick note, when I put together my Ma's machine during christmas, I used the one of Zalman's noiseless Flower HS, but was generally unimpressed. Quiet, but not more so then a normal HS with a 60 panaflo, and 104F idle.

Thanks again to everyone for the great help!!!

[Player0]

Yes the low power panaflow 120mm fans are way quiet. I was using this on my radiators. Im no longer using them because I needed a little more cooling power, but they work pretty good for most people.

A heater core is a radiator which is designed for heating car interiors. They are usually smaller, more compact in design, and are built for use with fans or air ducts. Most radiators sold for water cooling systems used to be automotive heater cores, but with the proper fittings and mounting holes already added.

Many people recommend using heater cores because you can generally buy them cheaper at automotive stores. Finding the right size for you (usally 6 inches or so) can be tricky, and be prepared to come up with some way of attatching mounting brackets, ducting, and the proper tube fittings yourself.

Personally, I prefer to spend the extra money and buy the prebuilt units, such as the BlackIce Xtreme from dangerden, or the AquaCoil from becooling. The performance will be the same as a heater core, but they come with the standard watercooling mounting and tube fittings already pre-attatched.

It is possible to not use a fan with your radiator. However, this doesn't work well. You need at least a LITTLE circulation thought the radiator. You could mount the radiator on the top of your case, laying flat. This would allow the natural convection air currents from inside your case to flow upwards and through your radiator. This will only work if the air around the top of the radiator is cooler than the air around the bottom, but it might work okay.

Yes, ram heatsinks will help keep the ram cool without a fan. This is because it increases the surface area of air that the ram comes in contact with, which makes it cooler. Keeping those cables away from your ram is definately important however. Again, use some rounded cables, they look great.

As some others have mentioned, the case itself can be important. The larger the case, the cooler it will usually stay. Aluminum cases can help reduce noise and keep things cooling, but are expensive.

[Silence_Quest]

$66 for the Black Ice Extream!?! That seems an awful lot to spend (or at least to me). I don't see the Aqua Coil at becooling; on Feb 20 they said it would be back in a week; do you think it's less?

RAM sinks look to be a fine idea, but I've got a Shuttle Ak31 with 4x256 PC2100 DDR, those huge sinks sticking off one side don't look like they'll fit! Or will they???

I don't know what to do in the way of the whole system. 3/8 or 1/2? I'm of the mind that the larger the hose, the less pressure, the less likely to leak?

The Danger Den Maze3 looks like the way to go, but what about a GF4 cooler? The black vidjacket for becooling, or (what looks like a better cooler to me) the Danger Den GF4 Block? I've seen some nice HD coolers, but are they worth it? I would like to have NO case fans (other then the Panaflo 120 & PS), so should I get a HD cooler?

One last thing: What do y'all think about copper tubeing? Could it work as a radiator? Or maybe a large piece as a resovoir? I don't know, I was jsut reading an artice off oc.com.

Thanks to everyone (espically player0!!!) for the fantastic help, What would I do without you?!?!


T h a n k s A g a i n ! ! !

[Player0]

SQ,

I dont think you necessarily need the BlackIce Extreme. The BlackIce Evo is at dangerden for $50. I think that would be okay for you.

The AquaCoil is probably going to run $50 or so as well. I like the BlackIce because they are smaller and quieter.

Use the ram heat spreaders, not the heat sinks. The spreaders are just the flat aluminum pieces (the spreaders and sinks come in the same kit, but you can use the heatsinks for something else, like your geforce ram or something).

The dangerden chipset waterblock works pretty good. Its a bit bulky and large, but definately okay. Mdzcpa will be doing a review on it soon I beleive.

If your building from scratch, I recommend 1/2" tubing. It performs better for most people than 3/8" ID. I dont think its any more or less likely to leak actually. Be sure to use springy clamps or zip ties to secure the tubing to your fittings. Dont buy the tubing online. You will get ripped off.

Copper tubing wont make a very good radiator by itself no. You could make a resevoir out of it I guess. I prefer plastic containers myself. Drill two holes, a little epoxy, and your done :) Ive seen people plumb their pc's with copper. It certainly makes things 'permanent'. I prefer soft tubing, I dont see any benefit to rigid tubing.

[lechumbl]

Hi Tom,

If you already said forgive me, but you just stated to use the spreaders and not the fins for the mem.
How much difference in temps, with spreaders and without.
I am VERY limited on space in my systems, and can not put on the fins.

Again sorry if you already said the diff, but did not see it.

Take care......

[Farabomb]

I had the same problem Lee. I used the fins on the outer sticks with the spreader on the inside. I don't think it made much difference and since then I just use the spreaders.

[Player0]

It dropped my ram temps down 5-8c degrees.

Newer DDR (Corsair, Mushkin), and RDRam come with the heat spreaders, so they must do something for the masses :)

[lechumbl]

Hi Tom,

Thanx.

A few days ago, I bought 6 sets of the ThermalTake spreaders and fins.

Can't use the fins, but will certainly use the spreaders on the RAM.

I know I will find a use for the fins.

Always stuff to put them on for cooling.........:D

Hell, I might put them on my wife, she is getting very hot at the money I have been spending lately on "toys" for my systems. :2guns:

Take care.........

[Player0]

LOL :)

Bachelorism forever :)

[speculative]

Originally posted by kms
& welcome to the board :)

p.s. hard drives are normally the loudest part of a w/c system

lol... I haven't heard my HD in a long time...

Lol@Lee - I think the best heatsinks for a wife would probably be diamond earrings, that should cool her right down. ;) But, just don't try watercooling her! :eek: :D :D

-speculative

[lechumbl]

Hi Spec,

That's a good one!! :D

Better do that right away..........na, need a new CPU.....

Take care..........

PS..Will use the fins on her. Will make earrings from them. I'll tell her it is the newest fad. She will believe me. Not!!