Wasmachineman's Water Cooling Adventures

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Wasmachineman_NL

Wittgenstein the Supercomputer FTW!
Aug 7, 2019
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Which I just did. Nuked something on the PCB by accident but it doesn't matter as the fan still works.

Now I have a Reserator XT with a D5, Arctic P12 and Koolance QD3 QDCs, and it's quiet to boot.
 

Wasmachineman_NL

Wittgenstein the Supercomputer FTW!
Aug 7, 2019
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For ****s sake Highflow, I ordered EKWB 45-degree fittings and I get sent Alphacool ones with as excuse "these are EOL so we sent these" without even notifying me beforehand.

Ended up buying two pairs of EKWB fittings on PerformancePCs in the USA of all things instead. Not cheap in the end but that's the price to pay if you're (literally) autistic and want to keep everything the same.

Anyway:

Actual childhood dream achieved: water cooling in my first computer.
 

Wasmachineman_NL

Wittgenstein the Supercomputer FTW!
Aug 7, 2019
1,872
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Found a rather cheap E0 stepping Pentium 4 3.2 in Spain, ordered. Wonder if it'll do 16x266 stable?

Now if only I could find a E0 or G1 stepping 3.4E...
 
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Wasmachineman_NL

Wittgenstein the Supercomputer FTW!
Aug 7, 2019
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Define 7 XL acquired. Seller is going to drop it off at my home later today. Need to find me some not too expensive HWL GTS or GTX 420 rads now. Also bought a Aquacomputer cuplex XT DI for my S478 rig which should I receive later this week.

Oh, and the 3.2 GHz P4 overclocks like absolute garbage :( can't even do 16x250!
 

Wasmachineman_NL

Wittgenstein the Supercomputer FTW!
Aug 7, 2019
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Cuplex XT Di came in the mail. Wow, installing it was far from easy. I had to slightly bend the screws to slide it onto them correctly. Performance seems about the same as my Zalman WB4 though.

I also might have found a used HWL GTS 420 radiator. Would be nice as that saves me considerable amounts of money compared to a new one, even though I still need a X-Flow GTS 420 and the one I found is the U-Flow/normal one.
 

Wasmachineman_NL

Wittgenstein the Supercomputer FTW!
Aug 7, 2019
1,872
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Seller never replied to my questions regarding the radiator :(

Welp, there goes €260 for two new rads plus ancillary stuff like hoses and extra fittings because i'd rather keep the old loop somewhat intact for a future build. Speaking of fittings: Highflow has EK-STC Classic fittings in stock again, the last ones!
 

Wasmachineman_NL

Wittgenstein the Supercomputer FTW!
Aug 7, 2019
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this is so jank holy shit



Backstory: I nuked the fan transistor on the mobo of this Reserator XT and decided to gut it entirely and make it work better. Ditched the stupidly designed res and this is the result.

Still to do: acquire a Aquacomputer Aquaero 5 LT and a Aquatube res so I can replace that SUPER jank Alphacool Eisstation/D5 Ultitop mashup, buy more 13/10 fittings and reattach a molex connector on the D5 pump.
 
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Wasmachineman_NL

Wittgenstein the Supercomputer FTW!
Aug 7, 2019
1,872
617
113
Aquatube acquired. Found someone selling a 6 pack of EKWB Quantum Torque 13/10mm fittings which are cheaper than buying 4 new STC Classic ones from HF lol
 

Wasmachineman_NL

Wittgenstein the Supercomputer FTW!
Aug 7, 2019
1,872
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€240 for two rads jesus christ man, copper prices: fun if you collect scrap metal, not fun if you need anything made of it.
 

Wasmachineman_NL

Wittgenstein the Supercomputer FTW!
Aug 7, 2019
1,872
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A entire day cursing at my computer, my parents, and myself later I got a Define 7 XL with my hardware in it.

Things I learnt: Define 7/XL and 420mm X-Flow rads are NOT a good combo and much more stuff I cba to write down right now.
 

Wasmachineman_NL

Wittgenstein the Supercomputer FTW!
Aug 7, 2019
1,872
617
113
Received my solid D7XL side panel. Can't really make up my mind between TG or solid. Glass looks awesome, but solid is dampened and makes this already whisper quiet computer even quieter.
 

Wasmachineman_NL

Wittgenstein the Supercomputer FTW!
Aug 7, 2019
1,872
617
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Reserator decided to leak and I ****ing had it with that thing, so I did this:


Stole the baseplate of the RXT, a GTS 240 rad out of my Define R4 and did this. Ordered some more QDC3s and soon my Pentium 4 rig will have a proper external water cooler.
 

Wasmachineman_NL

Wittgenstein the Supercomputer FTW!
Aug 7, 2019
1,872
617
113
Acquired a rather cheap Heatkiller Tube complete with fan mounts+multiport tube which will be replacing the AC Aquatube. This setup is both too noisy and causes air bubbles to keep forming in the res.

That being said though, this setup has been a success. Water cooled, my Pentium 4 rig doesn't go above 51C at 4.05 GHz.
 
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Wasmachineman_NL

Wittgenstein the Supercomputer FTW!
Aug 7, 2019
1,872
617
113
Found someone selling a AC Ultitube with a D5 Next, politely asked him if he wants to sell the D5N on it's own and he wanted to.

€85 later and my old rig will have temperature controlled fans lol
 

Wasmachineman_NL

Wittgenstein the Supercomputer FTW!
Aug 7, 2019
1,872
617
113
Pretty garbage pic since I took it last night for someone in buildzoid's Twitch chat, but here's the finished external water cooler:


Zalman Reserator XT baseplate with RXT rubber feet, Heatkiller Tube 150 D5 reservoir with Aquacomputer D5 vario pump, EK ZMT tubing with Koolance QD3 QDCs and EK STC Classic fittings, Hardware Labs GTS 240 radiator, Arctic P12 fans, Fleetguard Compleat EG coolant and all this is powered by a AC to Molex power brick originally included with a USB-SATA adapter of all things lol

Expensive as hell and I should have just bought a used MoRA3 instead but that would be massive overkill for a Pentium 4 rig. Hell, this 240mm rad on it's own is already overkill, I could have easily gone away with a 140mm GTS.
 

Wasmachineman_NL

Wittgenstein the Supercomputer FTW!
Aug 7, 2019
1,872
617
113
God ****ING DAMN IT


So this ended up being the D5 Next I bought last week, both the impeller and the pump housing are completely ****ED.
 

Wasmachineman_NL

Wittgenstein the Supercomputer FTW!
Aug 7, 2019
1,872
617
113
It seems the ceramic ball the impeller rides on has worn unevenly somehow. Bizarre. Something tells me the seller knew about this and willingly sold me a broken pump.
 

Wasmachineman_NL

Wittgenstein the Supercomputer FTW!
Aug 7, 2019
1,872
617
113
Done some more diagnosis: the impeller itself is worn out. I stole the one from my old EKWB pump and said D5N is now in my old system running just fine.

let's see if the seller wants to give me a partial refund of €50 so I can buy a new impeller on Aliexpress of all things, sell the old pump, and hopefully be done for now.