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Note: This is a duplicate of the worklog originally shown in the Crystalfontz LCD forum.
The "Need" to Water Cool
Over the past few months, I have been seriously contemplating the purchase of a water cooled CPU/GPU cooling setup for my computer. The desire to do this upgrade is two-fold.
After much consideration, I decided to purchase a Swiftech H20-220 APEX ULTRA kit. I chose this kit simply because I did not want to piece together the components. With this kit, you get everything you need to install a water cooled setup. As I upgrade my aging system components, the "universal" mounting accessories will make it easy to install on a new processor. And finally, it is also one of the better kits out there. I also purchased a Swiftech MCW55 GPU waterblock.
One of the things that I wanted to incorporate into my water cooling setup is a Crystalfontz LCD/SCAB fan controller. I have used this fan controller on my computer for over a year and it has done a fantastic job of automatically balancing cooling needs to fan noise control.
I decided to divide up fan controlling duties between 2 separate controllers. My case fans would be controlled by a SCAB controller connected a CFA-631. 1 front, 2 rear, and 1 top case fans. These fans will be controlled by temp sensors mounted on my 2 SATA harddisks, an ambient case sensor and a sensor mounted on my Northbridge heatsink.
The water loop components will be controlled by a SCAB controller connected to a CFA-635. The components I will be controlling will be the radiator fans and water pump. Temp sensors will be connected to the CPU and GPU blocks. I will also be putting temp sensors in the water loop, just before and after the radiator. I will use these sensors to balance the radiator fan speeds and pump speed. Basically, the question I have here is whether increasing pump speed (quieter?) vs. fan speed (louder?) will provide a better cooling solution.
The SCAB controllers and LCDs have been provided courtesy of Crystalfontz America Inc.
I have also obtained a Swissflow SF800 flow meter, courtesy of Swissflow BV. This device would appear to have been designed for the computer water cooling market. A compact design in a 3/8" BSP in-line housing offers the kind of construction a serious water-cooler would need. Just hook it up to a SCAB fan header to provide the needed power and obtain a nice calibrated output, which can be easily interpreted by the CrystalControl2 software as liters or gallons per minute. Other than the perceived novelty of having a flow meter in the system, I felt a real need to have this nifty little item. One of the things that the CrystalControl2 software can do is enable alarms and shut down the computer in case water flow drops below a certain point.
Obviously, if I have a coolant leak and flow drops to nothing, I dont need a flow sensor to tell me that I have destroyed my computer. However, if the pump fails for any reason, the computer will shut down long before the CPU and GPU sees any damaging temperatures. Just simply good insurance.
The Components
Pictured below is the Swiftech CPU kit packaging. Big and heavy.
The following picture shows the nice packaging of the kit components.
And finally, all laid out.
Theres a lot of stuff there! This is my first water cooling adventure and after looking over all this stuff, it seems a might bit overwhelming.
And for the record, pictured below is the GPU block.
The remaining components of the water loop, the Crystalfontz temp sensors and Swissflow SF800 flow sensor, are shown below.
Crystalfontz WRDOWY17 DS18B20 based temperature sensor for the CFA-633 and the CFA-631,CFA-635 SCAB
Swissflow SF800 Flow Sensor components
Swissflow SF800 Flow Sensor components assembled
The connector that came installed on the flow meter was not the same type that used in fan headers. No problem though. I simply broke off the locking tab on the connector and it fits perfectly into the male half of a fan connector. The only other modification I needed to make was to switch 2 wires so they installed in the correct manner to the fan header, as can be seen below.
Temp Sensor Construction
In deciding how to incorporate Crystalfontz temperature sensors into the water loop, I went thru 2 design ideas before settling on a 3rd alternative. The 1st idea consisted of 3/8" nickel plated brass NPT tee and plug, and a SS tubing insert. I liked the concept, but quickly decided that the finished product would simply be too heavy to incorporate into the setup. From experiences with my fish tank plumbing, I did not like NPT threads, either.
My next idea was inspired by anonymous_putterer in this thread: http://www.crystalfontz.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=2142, I rejected this idea simply because it seemed difficult to locate and properly seal the sensor without covering the head and, in general, making a mess of the assembly. After all, I am a mechanical design engineer. I, like many typical engineers, are great at designing and terrible at building.
My final idea I felt would be really slick. I purchased a ½" Quick Connect Tee (from Menards), some Swiftech ½" tube to ½" barb adapters and ½" tube to 3/8" barb adapters. I cut the 3/8" barb off the end of the Swiftech adapter, inserted the temp sensor thru the ½" tube side, and epoxied in the sensor. I also obtained the epoxy from Menards. The following pictures show the unassembled components and finished sensor assembly.
Temp sensor components
Finished temp sensor
The business end.
I filled the complete tube insert with epoxy.
The completed temperature probe assembly.
If you look closely, you can just see the head of the probe. In the water flow path, but not obstructing it.
According to Crystalfontz, the epoxy should cover the probe just beyond the sensor seam, as illustrated above.
Once I had the sensor assemblies completed, I thought it might be nice to do a little "technical" verification. I dont have calibrated test equipment here in my home, but I wanted to make sure that I didnt do anything bad to the sensors during the assembly process. I took the 2 probes along with my digital fish tank probe (Sorry, no high-tech calibrated probe to test against) and tested them under the following 3 conditions:
Ice water: I stuck them in a glass of ice water for approximately 10 minutes. The results are illustrated below:
Ambient room temperature: I simply let them warm up on my desk for about 15 minutes. The results are illustrated below:
Hot Water: I heated some water in a microwave for 1 minute. I stuck the probes in the glass for approximately 5 minutes. The results are illustrated below:
The results appeared adequate to me except at the 60+ temperature point. Due to my lack of foresight, however, I did not have an extra fitting to manufacture a new probe. Oh, well. When I get a chance, I will replace the offending probe with another, hopefully more accurate, probe.
Water Cooling Assembly
Once I got all the components on hand and, more importantly, found enough uninterrupted time to do this, it was time to blow the dust out my computer, remove the MB, install the water cooling components, and improve my horrid wire management!
BWC (Before Water-Cooling):
Two cases were required to house and test all the LCDs. It was time to semi-retire 2 of them and get rid of that ugly (and noisy) Xaser III case.
I think I mentioned horrible wire management earlier. Now do you believe me?
* Radiator installation and holes for tubing.
Installing the radiator was unbelievably simple. The Armor case has holes on the back face that the Swiftech radbox bolted to perfectly. Attach the radiator and I was all done. It took less than 10 minutes to complete the radiator installation. The use of the radbox simplifies radiator installation greatly! Swiftech also ships the radiator with the hose barbs installed. Nice!
The following pictures are just some shots of the installed radiator.
The picture above shows the tubing knockouts that are part of the Armor case. While they are not designed for large diameter tubing, I found that they were perfect for the tubing supplied with the Swiftech kit. I simply lined the hole with some electrical tape and shoved the tubing thru.
* Reservoir installation
I was quite unsure how I was going to mount the reservoir. Then I remembered that worthless extra harddisk cage that ships with the Thermaltake Armor case. Worthless in that it was not designed for use with power supplies like my Seasonic S12 series. It completely blocks off all air flow to that nice big and silent 120mm intake fan. I already had 3 harddrives in the front, and had never used this cage. It would be a perfect place to mount the reservoir if I could just get airflow to the power supply.
So out came my dremel and about 3 or 4 broken cutoff disks later, I had taken care of the problem. Original cage showing the blockage.
The cage after I had removed the offending slide brackets.
Much better airflow for my power supply intake fan!
I drilled a hole thru a bracket on the opposite side and mounted the reservoir
Another view of the assembled reservoir. Note how the fill port protrudes a little past the cage.
The cage and reservoir in place. Sweet!
Now this is what I liked most about this whole idea. I can mount the reservoir in place, and when I originally fill the loop or need to top it off, I can simply slide the cage out part way and I have very good access to the fill port.
* Waterblock assembly
I was now ready to take apart the computer and install the guts of the watercooling kit: the waterblocks. The Apogee CPU block requires removal of the motherboard, so out it came. I removed the all the components, the old Zalman heatsink, the CPU, and the Intel heatsink bracket.
Motherboard with heatsink bracket still installed.
I installed the mounting hardware, cleaned the processor thoroughly with acetone, and reinstalled the processor.
As you can see above, the waterblock looks huge! I test fit the block into position, so that I could get a good idea on where I could mount a Crystalfontz temperature sensor. After careful examination of the underside, which was not easy, I was able to mount a sensor on the block without interfering with the ZIF socket. Once I had it located, I carefully fit the block back on, just to make sure it did not interfere with the ZIF socket. Very close, but it fit perfectly! I was so happy at this point, I applied the Artic Silver Ceramique and mounted the waterblock. In my haste, I completely forgot to get a picture of the mounted sensor!
Just a word of caution at this point is needed. It is a very tight fit sliding the block down on the mounting hardware. There is literally no slop between the bolts and the mounting holes on the block! Take it slow, and bit by bit, you can get it to slide down to the CPU. After you have it down, take a flashlight and look all around to make sure it is down all the way! It is difficult to see around all the capacitors and other components, but the time it takes to make sure it fits properly will save you big headaches later on, if it is not seated properly.
Completed installation of the waterblock
It was now time to install the MCW55 VGA waterblock. Removal of the stock heatsink/fan from my ATI X850Pro was quite simple. Quite frankly, I was happy to see it go. Pretty worthless item in my opinion.
The waterblock looks quite small in comparison to the stock heatsink/fan. As with the CPU, I cleaned the VPU with acetone. Nice and shiny processor. The one bummer that I had already figured out was the VPU has the extra 4 pipelines laser cut, so I am most definitely unable to have the card modded to a X850 XT. Oh, well. Its fast enough for me with 12 pipes.
I wanted to install a temp sensor on this block also. I had to mount it on the side of the block, as shown below, as there is insufficient room to mount it under the block.
For both waterblocks, I used Artic Silver Alumina adhesive to secure the temperature probes. Easy to use and sets quickly.
I installed the block, as shown below.
Making sure that the block was properly seated was much easier than the CPU block. Making sure it properly installed was not as simple. The method used to install the CPU block is simple and ensures that you can not over tighten the hardware. Not so with the VGA block. Once I had the block installed, I took a look at the card edge and noticed that it was nicely bent. Not too much, but it was noticeable. So I simply loosened the hardware until the card looked nice and straight again.
In addition to the MCW55, I also installed a set of Swiftech MC14 ramsinks. This is where I actually encountered a minor problem with the Swiftech components.
Once I started installing the tubing, I found that 1 ramsink interfered with the tubing. I had to remove it and use my Dremel to cut it down a bit in order to clear the tubing, as shown in the picture above.
I was now done with waterblock installation. So, back into the case goes the motherboard and VGA card. It was now time to install the tubing.
The "Need" to Water Cool
Over the past few months, I have been seriously contemplating the purchase of a water cooled CPU/GPU cooling setup for my computer. The desire to do this upgrade is two-fold.
- I felt the "need" to lower my system temperatures.
- I want quiet and more quiet.
- CPU: 38°C
- MB: 32°C
- GPU: 47°C
- GPU PCB: 39°C
- CPU: 48°C
- MB: 34°C
- GPU: 71°C
- GPU PCB: 50°C
- Thermaltake Armor aluminum case
- Asus P4C800-E Deluxe motherboard
- Intel P4 3000 MHz Northwood processor, slightly overclocked to 3300MHz
- 1 Gigabyte Twin Corsair XMS 3700 memory modules
- Seasonic S12 600 Watt Power Supply
- ATI X850Pro video card
- Zalman 7000 Cu heat sink/fan
- (2) Hitachi 80 gig HDs in Raid 0
- WD 120 Gig HD
- NEC DVD-DL optical drive
- Memorex DVD RW optical drive
- Crystalfontz CFA-631 LCD w/SCAB
- Crystalfontz CFA-635 LCD w/SCAB
- Crystalfontz CFA-632 LCD
- (2) Crystalfontz CFA-633 LCD
- Crystalfontz CFA-634 LCD
- Floppy
- Creative Audigy 2 Zs
After much consideration, I decided to purchase a Swiftech H20-220 APEX ULTRA kit. I chose this kit simply because I did not want to piece together the components. With this kit, you get everything you need to install a water cooled setup. As I upgrade my aging system components, the "universal" mounting accessories will make it easy to install on a new processor. And finally, it is also one of the better kits out there. I also purchased a Swiftech MCW55 GPU waterblock.
One of the things that I wanted to incorporate into my water cooling setup is a Crystalfontz LCD/SCAB fan controller. I have used this fan controller on my computer for over a year and it has done a fantastic job of automatically balancing cooling needs to fan noise control.
I decided to divide up fan controlling duties between 2 separate controllers. My case fans would be controlled by a SCAB controller connected a CFA-631. 1 front, 2 rear, and 1 top case fans. These fans will be controlled by temp sensors mounted on my 2 SATA harddisks, an ambient case sensor and a sensor mounted on my Northbridge heatsink.
The water loop components will be controlled by a SCAB controller connected to a CFA-635. The components I will be controlling will be the radiator fans and water pump. Temp sensors will be connected to the CPU and GPU blocks. I will also be putting temp sensors in the water loop, just before and after the radiator. I will use these sensors to balance the radiator fan speeds and pump speed. Basically, the question I have here is whether increasing pump speed (quieter?) vs. fan speed (louder?) will provide a better cooling solution.
The SCAB controllers and LCDs have been provided courtesy of Crystalfontz America Inc.
I have also obtained a Swissflow SF800 flow meter, courtesy of Swissflow BV. This device would appear to have been designed for the computer water cooling market. A compact design in a 3/8" BSP in-line housing offers the kind of construction a serious water-cooler would need. Just hook it up to a SCAB fan header to provide the needed power and obtain a nice calibrated output, which can be easily interpreted by the CrystalControl2 software as liters or gallons per minute. Other than the perceived novelty of having a flow meter in the system, I felt a real need to have this nifty little item. One of the things that the CrystalControl2 software can do is enable alarms and shut down the computer in case water flow drops below a certain point.
Obviously, if I have a coolant leak and flow drops to nothing, I dont need a flow sensor to tell me that I have destroyed my computer. However, if the pump fails for any reason, the computer will shut down long before the CPU and GPU sees any damaging temperatures. Just simply good insurance.
The Components
Pictured below is the Swiftech CPU kit packaging. Big and heavy.
The following picture shows the nice packaging of the kit components.
And finally, all laid out.
Theres a lot of stuff there! This is my first water cooling adventure and after looking over all this stuff, it seems a might bit overwhelming.
And for the record, pictured below is the GPU block.
The remaining components of the water loop, the Crystalfontz temp sensors and Swissflow SF800 flow sensor, are shown below.
Crystalfontz WRDOWY17 DS18B20 based temperature sensor for the CFA-633 and the CFA-631,CFA-635 SCAB
Swissflow SF800 Flow Sensor components
Swissflow SF800 Flow Sensor components assembled
The connector that came installed on the flow meter was not the same type that used in fan headers. No problem though. I simply broke off the locking tab on the connector and it fits perfectly into the male half of a fan connector. The only other modification I needed to make was to switch 2 wires so they installed in the correct manner to the fan header, as can be seen below.
Temp Sensor Construction
In deciding how to incorporate Crystalfontz temperature sensors into the water loop, I went thru 2 design ideas before settling on a 3rd alternative. The 1st idea consisted of 3/8" nickel plated brass NPT tee and plug, and a SS tubing insert. I liked the concept, but quickly decided that the finished product would simply be too heavy to incorporate into the setup. From experiences with my fish tank plumbing, I did not like NPT threads, either.
My next idea was inspired by anonymous_putterer in this thread: http://www.crystalfontz.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=2142, I rejected this idea simply because it seemed difficult to locate and properly seal the sensor without covering the head and, in general, making a mess of the assembly. After all, I am a mechanical design engineer. I, like many typical engineers, are great at designing and terrible at building.
My final idea I felt would be really slick. I purchased a ½" Quick Connect Tee (from Menards), some Swiftech ½" tube to ½" barb adapters and ½" tube to 3/8" barb adapters. I cut the 3/8" barb off the end of the Swiftech adapter, inserted the temp sensor thru the ½" tube side, and epoxied in the sensor. I also obtained the epoxy from Menards. The following pictures show the unassembled components and finished sensor assembly.
Temp sensor components
Finished temp sensor
The business end.
I filled the complete tube insert with epoxy.
The completed temperature probe assembly.
If you look closely, you can just see the head of the probe. In the water flow path, but not obstructing it.
According to Crystalfontz, the epoxy should cover the probe just beyond the sensor seam, as illustrated above.
Once I had the sensor assemblies completed, I thought it might be nice to do a little "technical" verification. I dont have calibrated test equipment here in my home, but I wanted to make sure that I didnt do anything bad to the sensors during the assembly process. I took the 2 probes along with my digital fish tank probe (Sorry, no high-tech calibrated probe to test against) and tested them under the following 3 conditions:
Ice water: I stuck them in a glass of ice water for approximately 10 minutes. The results are illustrated below:
Ambient room temperature: I simply let them warm up on my desk for about 15 minutes. The results are illustrated below:
Hot Water: I heated some water in a microwave for 1 minute. I stuck the probes in the glass for approximately 5 minutes. The results are illustrated below:
The results appeared adequate to me except at the 60+ temperature point. Due to my lack of foresight, however, I did not have an extra fitting to manufacture a new probe. Oh, well. When I get a chance, I will replace the offending probe with another, hopefully more accurate, probe.
Water Cooling Assembly
Once I got all the components on hand and, more importantly, found enough uninterrupted time to do this, it was time to blow the dust out my computer, remove the MB, install the water cooling components, and improve my horrid wire management!
BWC (Before Water-Cooling):
Two cases were required to house and test all the LCDs. It was time to semi-retire 2 of them and get rid of that ugly (and noisy) Xaser III case.
I think I mentioned horrible wire management earlier. Now do you believe me?
* Radiator installation and holes for tubing.
Installing the radiator was unbelievably simple. The Armor case has holes on the back face that the Swiftech radbox bolted to perfectly. Attach the radiator and I was all done. It took less than 10 minutes to complete the radiator installation. The use of the radbox simplifies radiator installation greatly! Swiftech also ships the radiator with the hose barbs installed. Nice!
The following pictures are just some shots of the installed radiator.
The picture above shows the tubing knockouts that are part of the Armor case. While they are not designed for large diameter tubing, I found that they were perfect for the tubing supplied with the Swiftech kit. I simply lined the hole with some electrical tape and shoved the tubing thru.
* Reservoir installation
I was quite unsure how I was going to mount the reservoir. Then I remembered that worthless extra harddisk cage that ships with the Thermaltake Armor case. Worthless in that it was not designed for use with power supplies like my Seasonic S12 series. It completely blocks off all air flow to that nice big and silent 120mm intake fan. I already had 3 harddrives in the front, and had never used this cage. It would be a perfect place to mount the reservoir if I could just get airflow to the power supply.
So out came my dremel and about 3 or 4 broken cutoff disks later, I had taken care of the problem. Original cage showing the blockage.
The cage after I had removed the offending slide brackets.
Much better airflow for my power supply intake fan!
I drilled a hole thru a bracket on the opposite side and mounted the reservoir
Another view of the assembled reservoir. Note how the fill port protrudes a little past the cage.
The cage and reservoir in place. Sweet!
Now this is what I liked most about this whole idea. I can mount the reservoir in place, and when I originally fill the loop or need to top it off, I can simply slide the cage out part way and I have very good access to the fill port.
* Waterblock assembly
I was now ready to take apart the computer and install the guts of the watercooling kit: the waterblocks. The Apogee CPU block requires removal of the motherboard, so out it came. I removed the all the components, the old Zalman heatsink, the CPU, and the Intel heatsink bracket.
Motherboard with heatsink bracket still installed.
I installed the mounting hardware, cleaned the processor thoroughly with acetone, and reinstalled the processor.
As you can see above, the waterblock looks huge! I test fit the block into position, so that I could get a good idea on where I could mount a Crystalfontz temperature sensor. After careful examination of the underside, which was not easy, I was able to mount a sensor on the block without interfering with the ZIF socket. Once I had it located, I carefully fit the block back on, just to make sure it did not interfere with the ZIF socket. Very close, but it fit perfectly! I was so happy at this point, I applied the Artic Silver Ceramique and mounted the waterblock. In my haste, I completely forgot to get a picture of the mounted sensor!
Just a word of caution at this point is needed. It is a very tight fit sliding the block down on the mounting hardware. There is literally no slop between the bolts and the mounting holes on the block! Take it slow, and bit by bit, you can get it to slide down to the CPU. After you have it down, take a flashlight and look all around to make sure it is down all the way! It is difficult to see around all the capacitors and other components, but the time it takes to make sure it fits properly will save you big headaches later on, if it is not seated properly.
Completed installation of the waterblock
It was now time to install the MCW55 VGA waterblock. Removal of the stock heatsink/fan from my ATI X850Pro was quite simple. Quite frankly, I was happy to see it go. Pretty worthless item in my opinion.
The waterblock looks quite small in comparison to the stock heatsink/fan. As with the CPU, I cleaned the VPU with acetone. Nice and shiny processor. The one bummer that I had already figured out was the VPU has the extra 4 pipelines laser cut, so I am most definitely unable to have the card modded to a X850 XT. Oh, well. Its fast enough for me with 12 pipes.
I wanted to install a temp sensor on this block also. I had to mount it on the side of the block, as shown below, as there is insufficient room to mount it under the block.
For both waterblocks, I used Artic Silver Alumina adhesive to secure the temperature probes. Easy to use and sets quickly.
I installed the block, as shown below.
Making sure that the block was properly seated was much easier than the CPU block. Making sure it properly installed was not as simple. The method used to install the CPU block is simple and ensures that you can not over tighten the hardware. Not so with the VGA block. Once I had the block installed, I took a look at the card edge and noticed that it was nicely bent. Not too much, but it was noticeable. So I simply loosened the hardware until the card looked nice and straight again.
In addition to the MCW55, I also installed a set of Swiftech MC14 ramsinks. This is where I actually encountered a minor problem with the Swiftech components.
Once I started installing the tubing, I found that 1 ramsink interfered with the tubing. I had to remove it and use my Dremel to cut it down a bit in order to clear the tubing, as shown in the picture above.
I was now done with waterblock installation. So, back into the case goes the motherboard and VGA card. It was now time to install the tubing.
