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I'm sure some of you are familar with the Coolermaster Aquagate system which was on newegg for 60 bucks a month back. I've made it my mission to squeeze every last drop of performance out of the kit, so I'd like to post up some progress.
The kit itself uses AC power, and of course an AC pump... which has it's advantages. The pump is nothing spectacular, but it is impressive for the price of the kit. In stock form, with 1/4" tubing the coolermaster kit flows roughly 60lph. With extensive modification I've reached 320lph.
Mods so far:
Conversion of heat unit over to 3/8" tubing - The unit itself is designed for 3/8" tubing... but I think whenever the truck showed up with 1/4" quick disconnects, coolermaster just said "screw it" and fired it out as a 1/4" setup. All you have to do is remove the case from the unit, remove the 1/4" quick disconnect bulkheads, and install 3/8" tubing over the exit and inlet - the internal transfer piping is already 3/8" and then put some grommets in to prevent chaffing.
Rear fan - On the back of the head unit there is a 60mm fan mount with grill - but no fan! The fan has 3 settings against the rad - the first is about the only one reasonable to maintain the benefit of water cooling quiet. When you install a 60mm fan to the rear, you're able to get the cooling of level 2, with only running level 1 speeds.
Waterblock - Here is where I spent my time. The regular stock waterblock is designed for 1/4" tubing.
Now, as I had said earlier - the pump is not the restriction in the system, it is the components. This waterblock is the biggest bottleneck in the whole system... so how did I go from 60lph to 320lph?!
Firstly, I converted over to 3/8" barbs - Having to drill the stock 1/4" holes out to 7/16" and then 1/4" NPT18 tap some threads in. You can see I also added a center (or third) inlet to further increase flow. This was almost a requirement since I was working with a relatively small waterblock, and flow is the goal.
3 barb 3/8" modified block hood.
Here you can see a new problem... the barbs rest directly against the sink.
This actually turned out to be a big problem... with the new center barb introduced, water was being forced into only 3 vanes on the sink. The sink is not just submerged in water... it rests directly against the acrylic hood.. sealing the tops of the sink against the hood, and making it impossible for water to travel over them... so effectively wasting 58% of the flow (from my calculations). Special thanks for Raven_766 from the coolermaster forum for the original 2 pics and the initial 3 barb design.
Now, from here I branched off and started additional development to improve flow. The problem was clear, the block itself had to be modified to accomidate more than 5 times the flow.
The center of the sink has been marked and ready to be modified.
After about 4 hours with my mill, various tools and some time thinking out my game plan here is the final product:
As you can see, I removed a 3/4" circle from the heatsink. I then cut a star pattern into the grid to maximize flow across all the vanes. Finally, I added 5 dimples to increase turbulence and hopefully provide better heat scavenging.
Here is the block assembled, everything lined up to the micron.. very pleased. The flow increase is amazing... I will test it's thermal effectiveness this evening if all goes right. Stay tuned!
The kit itself uses AC power, and of course an AC pump... which has it's advantages. The pump is nothing spectacular, but it is impressive for the price of the kit. In stock form, with 1/4" tubing the coolermaster kit flows roughly 60lph. With extensive modification I've reached 320lph.
Mods so far:
Conversion of heat unit over to 3/8" tubing - The unit itself is designed for 3/8" tubing... but I think whenever the truck showed up with 1/4" quick disconnects, coolermaster just said "screw it" and fired it out as a 1/4" setup. All you have to do is remove the case from the unit, remove the 1/4" quick disconnect bulkheads, and install 3/8" tubing over the exit and inlet - the internal transfer piping is already 3/8" and then put some grommets in to prevent chaffing.
Rear fan - On the back of the head unit there is a 60mm fan mount with grill - but no fan! The fan has 3 settings against the rad - the first is about the only one reasonable to maintain the benefit of water cooling quiet. When you install a 60mm fan to the rear, you're able to get the cooling of level 2, with only running level 1 speeds.
Waterblock - Here is where I spent my time. The regular stock waterblock is designed for 1/4" tubing.
Now, as I had said earlier - the pump is not the restriction in the system, it is the components. This waterblock is the biggest bottleneck in the whole system... so how did I go from 60lph to 320lph?!
Firstly, I converted over to 3/8" barbs - Having to drill the stock 1/4" holes out to 7/16" and then 1/4" NPT18 tap some threads in. You can see I also added a center (or third) inlet to further increase flow. This was almost a requirement since I was working with a relatively small waterblock, and flow is the goal.
3 barb 3/8" modified block hood.
Here you can see a new problem... the barbs rest directly against the sink.
This actually turned out to be a big problem... with the new center barb introduced, water was being forced into only 3 vanes on the sink. The sink is not just submerged in water... it rests directly against the acrylic hood.. sealing the tops of the sink against the hood, and making it impossible for water to travel over them... so effectively wasting 58% of the flow (from my calculations). Special thanks for Raven_766 from the coolermaster forum for the original 2 pics and the initial 3 barb design.
Now, from here I branched off and started additional development to improve flow. The problem was clear, the block itself had to be modified to accomidate more than 5 times the flow.
The center of the sink has been marked and ready to be modified.
After about 4 hours with my mill, various tools and some time thinking out my game plan here is the final product:
As you can see, I removed a 3/4" circle from the heatsink. I then cut a star pattern into the grid to maximize flow across all the vanes. Finally, I added 5 dimples to increase turbulence and hopefully provide better heat scavenging.
Here is the block assembled, everything lined up to the micron.. very pleased. The flow increase is amazing... I will test it's thermal effectiveness this evening if all goes right. Stay tuned!
