Loop setup & water advice required

[Greeny]

Hi folks,

I got my high end 240 kit and NB block today. Impressed by how compact the kit looks IRL. Finish on the blocks is reasonable though I suspect a bit of hand lapping would finish them off nicely. Finish on the steel parts is passable, but I've seen better, I may polish them later but I've got the urge to get it all up and running ATM. Which brings me to the questions....

What would you suggest the optimum setup is for the cooling loop? I had in mind: Rez->Pump->CPU Block->NB Block->Rad->Rez; would this be correct?

For the water I was thinking of using tap water filtered through the reverse osmosis unit my dad has for filling his fish tank, going by a recent article I read about de-mineralised/ionised/filtered water it would seem that quite a lot of the stuff you buy is filtered using this process anyway. Anyone think this is a particularly bad idea?

Also any tips you have about additional additives/coolant mix would be appreciated otherwise I'll just throw in the stuff that came with the kit and add some UV dye later. ;)

TIA

Greeny :D

[Edd]

My loop goes:

Res -> Pump -> Radeon Block -> CPU Block -> Radiator -> Res

I get good temps (currently idle at 30C, with a 1700+ OC'd to 1.92Ghz) with that setup so you can't go wrong!

Mind you I think my temps would be a bit higher if I cooled my Northbridge as well, those chips on the A7N8X boards certainly do get toasty!!

[Greeny]

Ahh I was beginning to wonder if the forums were going to come back. :D

Thanks for the reply. :)

I've fitted the kit allready, went with: rez->pump->CPU->NB->rad->rez. Wasn't really too hard to fit etc. but I had to buy a bigger case for that radiator to fit properly as I hadn't accounted for the fittings jutting out of the rad.

I may have put in too much of the algae control additive but other than that it's fitted, leak tested and functional. Took me a few minutes to suss out that the jumper on the pump control seems to control a sort of "filling mode" where the pump cycles on and off. German instructions weren't much help. :p

Will have to order some more odds and sods for the case and do some more work to it before I fit the system components in. Impressed by the slience of the kit so far though.

Heat output from the CPU shouldn't be a problem as it's a Barton Mobile, get's very low temperatures at 2.4GHz with air cooling (<40 load), going to try for higher though as I don't think it's topped out yet considering I'm still on low vcore.

Cheers,

Greeny

[Pug]

Hi Greeny. Welcome back.

Well, if you'd only waited... ;)
...You'd have found an extra sheet of paper in your box with the following -

WizD translation of Aqua Computer documentation supplied with AquaStream.

Installation - and assembly instruction for the Aquastream pump

Dear valued customer, thank you for your purchase of one Aquastream pump.
Supplied with this pump is an extremely high-quality and lengthy life span Pump controller for your Watercooling.
The aquastream pump was developed in co-operation with Eheim and is specifically developed for application in PC watercooling. All electronic construction units are laid out and each building group are tested in-house individually with extreme power reserves before distribution. Likewise each pump is submitted to a test run, therefore there may be traces of moisture in the pump you receive.

Technical data:
Input Voltage 5.0/12.0 V DC +/- 10%
Wattage 5.5 W
Flowrate 300 l/h
Maximum Head 1.2 m
Dimensions 145x75x105mm

Assembly instructions:

Firstly, attach the connection adaptors to the aquastream. The adapters can generally be screwed in by hand.
The black O-ring should disappear from view, indicating that the seal is made inside the pump housing.
If you plan to use a plug-on primer tank with the pump (e.g. aquainject), then you must remove the silver grit-screen and install the reservoir directly on the aquastream intake. In this case, no intake connection adaptor is used.


If the pump is to be equipped with a decoupling set, then first remove the pump mounting plate and fasten the rubber/metal buffers with the enclosed nuts/washers in the long slots of the mounting plate.
The aquastream pump can now be installed in the FMJ EMI shield, this housing alternatively shields the electromagnetic fields of the pump motor effectively and prevents the common occurence of "monitor shake" from your computer's interference. (Note: *The FMJ pump shield can be installed only in connection with the decoupling stand-offs!*)

To be able to fill your system, after priming with pump installed, you must now operate either the PSU using the enclosed jumper lead to allow it to start (following the directions below) or connect the pump to a second PC power supply.

Isolate your PSU from any external power source, by removing the mains cable if no switch is present on the rear of the PSU. Remove all PSU connections (e.g. at HDDs or internal components).
Connect the Aquastream pump controller to a free power connector (4-pin Molex) lead from your PSU and connect the pump lead to its corresponding socket (on the Aquastream Controller).
For starting the PSU independantly of the motherboard, disconnect the ATX plug from your motherboard socket. Insert one end of the enclosed jumper lead into the socket of the green cable and the other end into the socket of any black earth cable. After you make this connection, the PSU can be operated. At the Aquastream Controller, the green Status LED should now flash. The aquastream pump is now in a special priming mode, with which you can fill the system more easily.
After the filling of the system, remove the Jumper from the rear of the Aquastream Controller. The green status LED will glow continuously now.
In order to monitor the pump, you can send a Tachosignal to the motherboard, using the enclosed cable and connect this to a fan header of the motherboard as well as to the 3-pin connection on the rear of the Aquastream Controller. Depending upon BIOS version of your motherboard you should, with correct installation, receive a signal of approx.. 2500rpm. You may be able to configure your BIOS to shut down the computer if this speed falls below an acceptable range.

The Aquastream Controller's error LED signals potential errors by flashing codes. The CONTROLLER is, if possible, maintained despite arising errors the enterprise of the pump.

The codes have the following meaning:

Flashing errors
1x error in the Transistor bridge, Hardware defect.
2x Short circuit at pump or cable
3x pump does not take up current or is not attached
4x untypical power input signature
5x 12V-Spanning above the limit values
6x 12V-Spanning underneath the limit values

For future reference, the Aquastream Controller plate can also be installed in conjunction with the Aquaero Controller plate. For this, a corresponding mounting option is planned for the Aquaero Controller.
In this instance, Aquaero and Aquastream will be interconnected via a 10pin flat cable. The current feed for the Aquastream pump is also sent through this cable. All pump data is sent to the Aquaero to be monitored and displayed.

:p

----------

For your water question - the difference with what you're doing is that you are missing out the distillation stage that most de-ionised water you'll buy has also gone through.

Ideally, distilled might be a safe bet - does your dad's unit use resins? If not, run the distilled thru' it & you're covered both ways. You probably wouldn't need the algae control stuff then either (don't know what it does to your heat transfer, see?)
The ACFluid is great, compatible with the AC dyes (both BlueMotion & GlowMotion) and keeps your warranty gleaming too. :D

Component loop order sounds fine - I've set up many rigs that way.


Lookin' forward to da pics when it's done. :)

[Greeny]

The assmbly was all common sense, but thanks for the info anyways. ;)

The water is 2-stage filtered before it goes through the pressure filter, looks pretty clear to me I'll see how I get on with it. ACFluid is in, as I said, and I'm waiting on UV reactive green dye.

Would they have sent me UV reactive hose, cos it glows pretty nicely under blacklight?

Starting to wish I'd bought the UV LED thingumy for the rez.:blink:

It's very near completion, do you mind if I post some huge blurry tester pics in here or would you like to wait for me to get better pics?:p

[Knipex]

As for layout.


I would be inclined to go pump - rad - cpu - gpu - northbridge - hardrives - res - pump.

That way the hotest components get the coolest water.

[fillip]

As for layout.


I would be inclined to go pump - rad - gpu - northbridge - hardrives - res - pump.

That way the hotest components get the coolest water.
Is it just me or did you miss out a rather important component???....

[Knipex]

Just you I think :huh:

(ah the power of the edit button):)

[Greeny]

I was building the machine into it today, fitted the motherboard and hooked up the blocks. Only to find that the pipe I fitted between the CPU block and the NB bridge block kinks becasue the blocks are closer together than I had anticipated. I'm going to have to drain the system tommorow and replace the length of hose.
:rant:

Not a big problem, but it'll set me back a couple of days. :(

Probably lucky as when I removed the NB block I noticed that I had forgotten to take off the protective plastic on the bottom of it. :wacko:

[dutchcedar]

Probably lucky as when I removed the NB block I noticed that I had forgotten to take off the protective plastic on the bottom of it. :wacko:Aye, at least you're honest. ^_^

[Greeny]

Hehe. That I am. Everyone makes mistakes now and again.

It's all back together and leak testing atm while I'm at work, can't wait to get it fired up and crank the XP-M up some more.:)

[Starbuck3733T]

Reverse Osmossis water is probably 99.9% as good as Good Quality distilled water. Compared to the distilled stuff you buy at walmart, for instance, the RO water is probably better. The next time I change my coolant (it'll be a while) I'm going to use the RO from my buddies' tap)

[Greeny]

Thats good to know Starbuck thanks for your input.:)

Got the system up and running today, temperatures are allright, I suppose I was expecting a bit much thinking it would be a big improvement over top end air. I suppose the cooling will come into it's own as I get up into the bigger MHz and higher VCore since the system is capable of shifting a lot more heat.

CPU Settings:
FSB: 240MHz
Multiplier: 10x
VCore: 1.65V

Thermalright SK947U (lapped) with 92mm 70CFM~ish fan at full tilt:
Socket: 40*C load
Diode: 27*C~ish
System: 40*C
Room temp: 26*C

High End 240 Kit:
Socket: 37*C
Diode: 24*C~ish
System: 34*C
Room temp: 22*C

[Fibbles]

Would they have sent me UV reactive hose, cos it glows pretty nicely under blacklight?

Starting to wish I'd bought the UV LED thingumy for the rez.:blink:


I'm pretty sure the basic clear hose is UV reactive. I ordered clear and it has a nice glow under my UV cathode. I'm also going to order a UV LED for my Aqua Tube and possibly one or two for my Alphacool HDD3 (if I do decide to get it).

To make this really on topic, I go: Ressy...Pump...CPU...GPU...HDD (soon)...Ressy. I'm thinking of changing the order from CPU first to GPU first, since I tend to OC it up the wahzoo (tried spelling it wazzoo and wazoo, but neither looked good to me, so I added an h to wazoo).