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Watercooling Question.

B

Balthazar

Golden Member
Ok, I have a Exos2 which is 3/8" ID and the 300-V10 (3/'8") waterblock, I'm going to be adding the northbridge cooler here around weeks end and I was wondering how I would best go about doing this.

Their manual primarily suggests putting the coolers in series, however wont putting a 1/4" waterblock after a 3/8" waterblock negate some/most of the benefits of having a 3/8" system in the first place? Wouldnt I be better off to run 3/8 from the cooler into the case, a 3/8->3/8 F splitter run one line to the cpu then use 3/9 -> 1/4 hose adapters to run to the northbridge, then run the cpu to another F splitter and the NB to a 1/4 -> 3/8 hose adapter and into the F and back into the cooler?

Now down the line I will probably get one of the 6800 coolers so at that point I could see running a line to the cpu and coming off that, split with a 3/8 -> 1/4 splitter then through the video card/nb blocks then back into a 3/8 line and back into the cooler.

Reason being obviously I will have TWO 1/4 lines running after the 3/8 cooler instead of just one.

I haven't yet read up on the best way to do this so this is just me taking my best guess, but I figured someone here might have a better idea than me.

TIA
 
Originally posted by: Balthazar
Ok, I have a Exos2 which is 3/8" ID and the 300-V10 (3/'8") waterblock, I'm going to be adding the northbridge cooler here around weeks end and I was wondering how I would best go about doing this.

Their manual primarily suggests putting the coolers in series, however wont putting a 1/4" waterblock after a 3/8" waterblock negate some/most of the benefits of having a 3/8" system in the first place? Wouldnt I be better off to run 3/8 from the cooler into the case, a 3/8->3/8 F splitter run one line to the cpu then use 3/9 -> 1/4 hose adapters to run to the northbridge, then run the cpu to another F splitter and the NB to a 1/4 -> 3/8 hose adapter and into the F and back into the cooler?

Now down the line I will probably get one of the 6800 coolers so at that point I could see running a line to the cpu and coming off that, split with a 3/8 -> 1/4 splitter then through the video card/nb blocks then back into a 3/8 line and back into the cooler.

Reason being obviously I will have TWO 1/4 lines running after the 3/8 cooler instead of just one.

I haven't yet read up on the best way to do this so this is just me taking my best guess, but I figured someone here might have a better idea than me.

TIA
Click to expand...


Downsizing tubing will definetely have an effect, a negative one, on flow. Can u find a 3/8" northbridge cooling block?

I saw a good article on overclockers.com that talked about parallel vs. series. Do some research there, and I'm sure you'll find the article. It was very informative.

My rule of thumb: Less tubing w/ bigger diameter and less turns/junctions = better cooling. For my comp, my hardrives get really hot, vs. the motherboard and graphics card, so that is where my extra cooling needs are. You might see if the trouble of cooling GPU and Northbridge are really worth it.

Cheers🙂
 
One of the big reasons I opted for that Exos 2 over the regular exos was because of the improvements they made. In the previous exos anything more than a CPU waterblock and you would see notable decreases in your cpu cooling performance. With the newer ones, from the people I know who have bought them (which granted is only two people) this isnt the case, and adding extra blocks isn't a problem.

Plus from a sound standpoint getting rid of all the fans in my PC sans the PSU and a couple ultra quiet 80mm fans it should be worth it.

I'm pretty sold on adding the blocks, I'm just not entirely certain which configuration is the best. I'm thinking paralell for the reasons I stated above, but I will see if I can find that article.

Thanks.
 
The loop with the most resistance will get little flow.

Parallel setups are pretty high end and require temp monitoring etc. to ensure adequate flows (ie. typically not done with an EXOS).

My main question is why bother to watercool the NB before you get a GPU block? I would put NB cooling WAY down on my list of priorities.

Most NB can make due witha zalman passive cooler and, if need be, a quite fan on top.

I am in the build stage of WC setup with a Thermochill 120.2 (which I ordered before finding out about an excellent custom heater core by Weapon at XtremeSystems
🙁 ) DD 12V, DTEK white water CPU block, PolarFlo TT GPU block.
 
Well, the 6800 cooler from koolance is about $80 vs. $20 that I paid for the NB cooler.
So I could buy a $15 air/passive cooler for the NB ($10 if I found a deal) or $20 and water cool it.
Another reason I would want to water cool it is in order to overclock at ALL on this board the first thing I have to do is make sure the NB is affected as little as possible, I don't know if its just my board or what but the ram OC's fine, the cpu Oc's fine, but much increase at all and the NB heats WAY up.

So for right now a moderate amount of flow if all I'm am truly concerned with.

I just want to ensure the NB cooler will cool well enough to at least meet a good air coolers temps. Once I have another $80 kicking around I will snag a NV2-L06 and runn the whole thing in parallel.

What I'm mainly shooting for here is, am I correct in thinking that running the outlet of the CPU waterblock which is 3/8" directly into a 1/4" adapter so I can put the NB cooler in series will be detrimental to the performance of the CPU cooler. AND, along those same lines, am I correct in thinking that once I get a GPU waterblock (also 1/4" ID) putting them both after the CPU waterblock will NOT be detrimental to the cooling.
 
Its all a circuit, it depends on the head on your pumps in the exos of which I know very little.

It probably also depends greatly on the CPU block whether it is resistive and will further impede flow and how much flow your particular CPU block will require to keep your temps reasonable.

I don't know enough about the EXOS2 to tell you for sure, but the reason I decided to not buy an EXOS, is flexibility to do all the things you are thinking of (except NB cooling) and not have to worry about it.

My MB is on the way and it is a DFI NF4 SLI DR so WC is out for me on the NB anyway (not enough clearance from the video card).
 
Originally posted by: racinjimy
The loop with the most resistance will get little flow.

Parallel setups are pretty high end and require temp monitoring etc. to ensure adequate flows (ie. typically not done with an EXOS).
Click to expand...
:thumbsup:

The problem with running things in parallel is that more flow will go through one split than the other unless you take some special measures. There are a few ways you could go about this and it depends on how you have everything arranged. You need to know that smaller diameter tubes have larger pressure drops (more resistance to flow), so less flow will tend to go through them.
 
I know the NB waterblock will innevitably be the weaker of the two paths, that would be true even if it was 3/8" ID like everything else, for right now without doing anything elaborate there isn't much I can do about that.

The whole point is that, if I put the NB waterblock in series with the CPU waterblock, I will be effectively capping the performance of that CPU waterblock correct?

If the answer is yes, and the cooling I am looking for on the NB is moderate and not 100% then running in parallel should provide me with the desired effect correct?

Right now there is only one waterblock besides the CPU waterblock, and its diamter is 1/4", in future I will be able to add another waterblock into the mix, and rather than make them all one series my theory is that if I run them both (GPU and NB, both 1/4") after the CPU (3/8") it wont place the bottleneck on the system that a single 1/4" after the CPU would, and might add no real bottleneck whatsoever.

So again, while not ideal, until I add another 1/4" cooler to the mix this will provide me with some semblance of the results I am looking for. However it will only do so provided the following are true.

1) Putting a 1/4" block in series after a 3/8" block will created a large bottleneck, thus negating a large portion of the benefit of having a 3/8" waterblock to begin with.
2) Putting a 1/4" in parallel with a 3/8" line will provide at least enough flow/pressure to cool competently, all be it not as well as would be typically expected from a water cooler.
3) Putting two 1/4" block paralell to each other, but in series after the CPU will not place an appreciable bottleneck on the system.

My main priorities are Cooling the CPU, Cooling the GPU (when that time comes), Cooling the NB. In that order.

The stock cooler on this board just doesn't cut it and it needs to be replace,s it cost me $5-$10 more than a non-water cooler, so as long as I get something close to what a good passive/moderate air cooler I am happy, the CPU/GPU are the only things I want to be REALLY cooled.

So if anybody knows whether or not questions 1,2 and 3 are true or false, let me know, otherwise I guess I'm just going to have to play around with it. 🙂
 
1 - If you have the NB block downstream of the CPU, then the CPU block is not capped.
2 - If the CPU is upstream of the NB, then you should still be able to get sufficient cooling. I'm guessing that the NB gives off less heat than the CPU, which I'm pretty sure is the case.
3 - Not sure what the third question was. 😛

Whether or not you can achieve this with your equipment I don't really know. It depends on the specifics of the hardware (pump output flowrate/pressure) and other factors that someone else can probably help you with better.
 
If you're going to go with 3/8 inch ID tubing, you need to stay there. Switching bore-size with reduce your overall flow greatly. Moreover, you'll loose the design benefit of having all 3/8 inch blocks. As mentioned, parallel plumbing of dissimilar blocks simply won't help in terms of flow or practical cooling.
 
What he said. Also, I have yet to see a setup in which a watercooled northbridge does much good. The stock coolers generally get the job done just fine, and an aftermarket NB cooler like Swiftech's MCX159 will do even better. Certainly up to you, of course, especially if you have a deap-seated loathing of fans (I'm getting there myself), but if the choice is between an air-cooled northbridge and drastically reducing the overall efficiency of your loop, I know which I'd pick.

-HC-
 
Well, if there was some huge disparity between the costs I most likely would not have gotten the cooler, but, for $20 it cant be that bad, even so long as it cools just on par with a decent air cooler then I'm happy.

Really so far nobody seems to have an answer as to whether or not the performance of the nb waterblock will be on par with a air cooler or not, which is to be expected since the Exos2 is so new I dont expect to get alot of hands on advice from people.

Another reason I want to go the route of NB cooling is that if I cool the GPU later then I will have no choice but to go from 3/8" to 1/4", so my idea is that if putting a 1/4" tube after the cpu is going to negatively impact the performance of the CPU then maybe 2 1/4" blocks afterwards will alleviate some of that bottle neck. i'm sure it will still have an impact, but it will be better than a single 1/4" block after it.

Maybe it wont be OMG better or anything, but even if it makes a decent improvement then thats all the better.

Plus I get to avoid having a stupid fan on my NB.

Also keep inmind, my choice of an Exos 2 should be an indicator that I am NOT looking for balls to the wall insane performance here, I'm interested in getting a good overclock from a near silent system with some nice bells and whistles (temp monitor and fan controll stuff on the front of the unit).

NB isnt a MUST have, it would just be nice to cool it on par with a decent air cooler, without using an air cooler.
 
I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with NB water-cooling. You just have to take it into account BEFORE you whip out the credit card, and accept the fact that it isn't as simple as just buying a third block. 😉
 
Nothing wrong at all, a watercooled northbridge will run cooler than any aircooled one, and a typical chipset block of the same ID as the rest of your loop will add little heat or flow resistance. I was just pointing out that max FSBs can be hit even with stock air, so it might not be worth restricting the rest of your loop with a 1/4" block. Certainly up to you.

I don't get why Koolance ships 3/8" systems and then sells 1/4" accessories. Have you considered blocks from other companies?

-HC-
 
Thats why I am putting it in parallel rather than serial to the CPU. Because cooling it is not worth restricting flow/pressure to the CPU which is what I REALLY want to cool, and the cost was minimal compared to an air cooler and less noise.

IF koolance puts out a 3/8" 6800 waterblock by the time I am read to do that I imagine my setup wont change much other than to put the GPU after the CPU and leave the NB parallel.

Anyway, it appears there is only one way to see how well it will do, and thats to try it. Tubing is cheap.
 
Hell yeah, I like that approach. Incidentally, have you considered Danger Den's 6800 block? It's gorgeous, and takes either 3/8" or 1/2" tubing -- but of course, it's also stupid expensive.

-HC-
 
Originally posted by: HeaterCore
Hell yeah, I like that approach. Incidentally, have you considered Danger Den's 6800 block? It's gorgeous, and takes either 3/8" or 1/2" tubing -- but of course, it's also stupid expensive.

-HC-
Click to expand...

:Q

Holy....$124....and I thought the koolance one was expensive!
 
Originally posted by: HeaterCore
Hell yeah, I like that approach. Incidentally, have you considered Danger Den's 6800 block? It's gorgeous, and takes either 3/8" or 1/2" tubing -- but of course, it's also stupid expensive.

-HC-
Click to expand...

It's a great block, as long as you have enough surface area to dissipate the extra heat dumped by the RAM. I've been very pleased with it so far and frankly $124 was easy to justify considering its performance and low resistance.

 
Ok so got my chipset cooler in and installed, not TERRIBLY happy with the way it seats (I think it puts a smidge more pressure on one side than the other) but the answer to my question has made itself apparent.

Chipset normally ran 107f at idle with the passive stock cooler, with the waterblock it runs 83f idle.

The way I set it up is as I described abover. 3/8" line runs into the case, hits an F splitter, first line runs to cpu, second runs to about 4 inches of 3/8" tube and then into a 3/8->1/4 adapter, then into about 6 inches of 1/4" tubing to the NB, then reverse the process to get out of the case.

This doesnt seem to have made any appreciable difference in the level of cooling supplied to the CPU either.
 
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