Reserator vs Koolance EXOS

[Tiamat]

I was wondering if anybody knows how the koolance EXOS compares to the Zalman Reserator in cooling performance. Also, has anybody tried to exchange the 80mm fans in the koolance with quieter fans/ lower voltage fans? Is this possible to do?

Hopefully, ill be moving to water cooling this summer sometime...

any other h20 cooling suggestions are welcome.

Thx

 

[Ackmed]

Im fairly sure the Exos will perform a lot better. The Reserator doesnt have active cooling, just passive, and not very good at that. The Exos performs pretty well, as long as you dont have the CPU, NB, GPU, HD, etc in the same loop. There just isnt enough flow and heat dissipation to keep everything really cool.

You can change the fans, but you will need to cut and splice the wires. There is no "plug" from what I remember. I had a friend who had one, and changed the default fans to blue LED fans, and he told me he had to cut, splice, and solder the new fans on there. Looked pretty good too.

 

[LostInSpace927]

As far as the reserator goes, it cools about the same as high end Air cooling. Not much difference. The exos will cool a lot better, especially if you are going to OC. As I would not try to cool more than cpu and NB with it. Link
Try this option first, they have many different setups available for special needs.

 

[Tiamat]

Anybody know how loud the fans are on the koolance exos? I only am trying to cool my cpu. Right now i have SLK 947U and am considering water cooling as a upgrade. I know almost nothing about water cooling, and am trying to find a good soln that is not very difficult to set up. So far, it seems the Reserator, the Koolance EXOS, are among the similar to set up...

thx.

 

[Nebor]

The Reserator is a silent part though. You can add a fan if you need to. You can even change the pump if you need to. But you compromise silence to do so.

I plan on running a Reserator w/ my CPU, GPU and PSU in the loop.

 

[Tiamat]

So far, I have found the Reserator for 250$ at microcenter, and Koolance EXOS for 189$ + ~60$ CPU block at siliconvalleycomputing. So... they are somewhat the same price, and similar so-called ease of use.

The reserator is the almost silent part, which interests me quite a bit.

Supposedly, changing the pump to a much larger one doesnt do very much... Is replacing the CPU block a problem when using the reserator, or would that not even matter much (for performance) either?

Also, i was wondering if somebody had a link to a review of the koolance that had the noise specs. If the koolance is "very quiet most of the time" ( < 22 db at 1 foot distance), then perhaps this would be a possibility as well.


Sorry for my ignorance in this arena

BTW it would be cooling:
1800+ tbred @ 2.1ghz
NB will be cooled by that blue zalaman heatsink.
Not sure what i am going to do with my old Radeon 8500 with its very very noisy fan... I dont think it is worth h20 cooling, so i might buy a new gpu

 

[Nebor]

Changing the pump won't make a big difference because your radiator is still passive. If you use a fan on the radiator, you will see increased performance along with increased noise.

Yes, you can change water blocks with the Reserator if you so choose, but from what I understand, Zalman's is pretty nice.

 

[Tiamat]

Originally posted by: Nebor
Changing the pump won't make a big difference because your radiator is still passive. If you use a fan on the radiator, you will see increased performance along with increased noise.

Yes, you can change water blocks with the Reserator if you so choose, but from what I understand, Zalman's is pretty nice.

Cool, thanks for the tip! I was intending to place a 120mm fan below the reserator pointing up, and a 120mm fan above the reserator pushing air up and out. Probabably, Ill experiment with several transparant materials (transparency paper, sandwidch wrap) to "seal" around the fins.

Ill have to do a heat balance to see how the natural convection vs. radiation heat lost from the reserator goes. In my experience, under low delta T conditions, the natural convection will be negligable to the radiation thus rendering any "neat air flow around the fins setup" a waste of time.

Anybody have the reserator and experiment with putting the reserator on its side? This would allow for a greater amount of surface area that will be subject to natural convection...

 

[Nebor]

Do not put the Reserator on it's side, it won't work, Zalman advises against doing so.

If you plan on strapping 2 120mm fans to it, then just get a different water cooling system, the Zalman isn't for you. There are better performing fanned water cooling systems out there.

 

[echow87]

I think you are better off with a custom reserator I might try and make one. Just need to work on designs. My max spending on the custom reservator is $40. Heheheh

 

[Tiamat]

Originally posted by: echow87
I think you are better off with a custom reserator I might try and make one. Just need to work on designs. My max spending on the custom reservator is $40. Heheheh

I think a rod of aluminum that is 6" in diameter costs well over 200$. I was thinking of boring a rod of aluminum out and milling thinner fins, but this would take me well over 3 months to do, and i lack that much patience. Although, it doesnt really seem too difficult for a skilled person to create...

 

[NokiaDude]

The problem with the reserator is that the reservoir doesn't move the water around that much to help it cool the water. If you're going to build a custom Reserator, make the reservoir create turbulence in the water to make it more effective.

 

[Nebor]

Originally posted by: NokiaDude
The problem with the reserator is that the reservoir doesn't move the water around that much to help it cool the water. If you're going to build a custom Reserator, make the reservoir create turbulence in the water to make it more effective.

Turbulence = Noise in most cases.

 

[Tiamat]

Originally posted by: Nebor

Originally posted by: NokiaDude
The problem with the reserator is that the reservoir doesn't move the water around that much to help it cool the water. If you're going to build a custom Reserator, make the reservoir create turbulence in the water to make it more effective.

Turbulence = Noise in most cases.

that is absolutely correct - in fact, it leads more more noise in all cases. Thats why the reserator is a nice 2' long, in order to make up for not having baffles

Unfortunately, money just became an issue for me as my landlord decided to up the rent for this upcoming year so... no reserator for me... yet... Maybe there will be a reserator 2 or something.

 

[NokiaDude]

Well if you fill up the reservior 99.9%, the only soung you should hear is the sound of rushing water, but quieter.

 

[Ackmed]

I REALLY doubt the pump is powerful enough to make any "rushing water" noise.

 

[HardWarrior]

My understanding is that there are two ways to tell if the res 1 is on. The inline flowmeter and actually touhing the unit at the base and feeling for the vibration of the pump. In stock configuration, the res 1 is a silent solution.

 

[whoiswes]

one thing about the reserator i don't like is that the interior of the reservoir is smooth.

think about this - there would be MUCH better transfer of heat from the water to aluminum if the inside of the reservoir was finned just like the outside...i always wondered why zalman didn't spend a little bit extra to do this...

 

[Tiamat]

Originally posted by: whoiswes
one thing about the reserator i don't like is that the interior of the reservoir is smooth.

think about this - there would be MUCH better transfer of heat from the water to aluminum if the inside of the reservoir was finned just like the outside...i always wondered why zalman didn't spend a little bit extra to do this...

Its really really hard to wield fins on the inside of a tube. It may be even impossible. THe arc Wield doesnt even fit into the cylinder. If the hole was like 1 ft in diameter, you MIGHT have a chance in having an inside and outside finned surface. If it were possible, it would cost sooo much money.

 

[akira34]

Originally posted by: Tiamat

Originally posted by: whoiswes
one thing about the reserator i don't like is that the interior of the reservoir is smooth.

think about this - there would be MUCH better transfer of heat from the water to aluminum if the inside of the reservoir was finned just like the outside...i always wondered why zalman didn't spend a little bit extra to do this...

Its really really hard to wield fins on the inside of a tube. It may be even impossible. THe arc Wield doesnt even fit into the cylinder. If the hole was like 1 ft in diameter, you MIGHT have a chance in having an inside and outside finned surface. If it were possible, it would cost sooo much money.

BUT, they could have made an insert that has fins on it, or a spiral pattern to move the water around. Make it out of aluminum as well, connected to the outside, and you have even more surface area to assist with the heat transfer. With the low speed pump it would still be just as silent (maybe 1db louder, bfg) but improve the heat transfer to the outside.

Hell, even putting a divider splitting the cylinder in half, with the hot/cold feeds being on either side, would help. Put fins on that to allow for more water movement, and you'd actually increase the efficiency of the cooler more than a bit. We're talking about a <$10 item even with machining here. Plus, with the warm liquid moving up one side, by the time it reaches the bottom on the other, it will have had more time to cool down, and could do a lot for reducing the temp of whatever is connected to it.

 

[Tiamat]

Originally posted by: akira34

Originally posted by: Tiamat

Originally posted by: whoiswes
one thing about the reserator i don't like is that the interior of the reservoir is smooth.

think about this - there would be MUCH better transfer of heat from the water to aluminum if the inside of the reservoir was finned just like the outside...i always wondered why zalman didn't spend a little bit extra to do this...

Its really really hard to wield fins on the inside of a tube. It may be even impossible. THe arc Wield doesnt even fit into the cylinder. If the hole was like 1 ft in diameter, you MIGHT have a chance in having an inside and outside finned surface. If it were possible, it would cost sooo much money.

BUT, they could have made an insert that has fins on it, or a spiral pattern to move the water around. Make it out of aluminum as well, connected to the outside, and you have even more surface area to assist with the heat transfer. With the low speed pump it would still be just as silent (maybe 1db louder, bfg) but improve the heat transfer to the outside.

Hell, even putting a divider splitting the cylinder in half, with the hot/cold feeds being on either side, would help. Put fins on that to allow for more water movement, and you'd actually increase the efficiency of the cooler more than a bit. We're talking about a <$10 item even with machining here. Plus, with the warm liquid moving up one side, by the time it reaches the bottom on the other, it will have had more time to cool down, and could do a lot for reducing the temp of whatever is connected to it.

Im not trying to argue or be a prick or anything (i dont really know much actually), but i would think that putting an insert in would not work because it would be impossible to have perfect contact between the insert and the cylinder. If there is a little bit of air inbetween, it would act like an insulator.

As for your other ideas, thats why there is a "1" after Reserator. That means they are planning to come out with improvements. If they wanted an end all solution, they would have left out the "1"

Cheers

 

[akira34]

Actually, they could weld the divider into the cylinder before it gets annodized and have a damned near perfect fit. The only gap might be down where it rests against the pump. Even there, they could put a gaskit and make it tight. Put the feed for the warm/hot liquid above an inch or three up from the bottom (short tube) and you eliminate most chances for cross-over of the warm to the cold sides before it makes it's way to the top and down again.

As for air, that's why you need to beed enclosed systems like this, to remove all the air. Otherwise you risk vapor lock in the tube which will kill your processor (by preventing the liquid from moving through the tube).

Look at the insert this way... It effectively doubles the amount of distance the liquid has to travel before going back out to the processor. It gets to stay inside the tower (the cooling tower) longer, which will allow it to cool down more. If they REALLY wanted to get agressive, they'd make the fins inside the tube make the water twist it's way up and down again. The more surface it contacts the more heat it will exchange and thus get cooler. That's pretty much the basic working of a heat exchanger/liquid cooling system. That's how IC engines cool down (those with radiators, air cooled just have a lot of fins on the outside with a lot of air moving over them at all times).

 

[HardWarrior]

There's this from Innovatek. I haven't been able to find a review in English though. At 90w's it isn't for overclockers, but it'll get the job done for the average Joe.

 

[Nebor]

Originally posted by: HardWarrior
There's this from Innovatek. I haven't been able to find a review in English though. At 90w's it isn't for overclockers, but it'll get the job done for the average Joe.

$329? This is you.

 

[HardWarrior]

Since the link is broken I'll just assume that this was some lame picture of a giant sucker or something.

You seem to have a short memory Nebor. I was laboring under the assumption that you and I had an understanding.

The HTCS is a viable PASSIVE solution for those who don't startle at what is, for some of us at least, a fairly small amount of money.