Zalman Reserator 1 Installation (pics)

I installed a Zalman Reserator 1 over the weekend and have finally gotten around to posting the pics I took during the proccess. Enjoy!

These are sized pics. If you want to see the full size 1024x768 pics, click here.


My homemade woody before:



Inside the case. Nice spaghetti, eh?



Removing cables prior to motherboard removal.



Another inside shot.



After removing the stock OEM heatsink.



The naked processor after cleaning off the old thermal grease with alcohol and installing the standoffs for the waterblock retention mechanism.



The waterblock.



The waterblock with retention mechanism. Originally, the tension bar didn't hold the waterblock firmly in place, so I had to add a small nut as a spacer on the bolt to supply more tension.



The motherboard back in the case with the waterblock mounted.



My 9800 Pro with stock heatsink.



The 9800 Pro with the heatsink removed and GPU exposed.



With the GPU waterblock and ram heatsinks installed.



The vid card installed back in the case.



Threading the tubing from the GPU block to the PCI slot bolt-thingy.



Another shot of the GPU block, tubing and the PCI slot tibe interface things.



External shot of the PCI slot and the tube bolts.



Tube goodness.



The tubes with the flow meter installed.



My case and the cooling tower.



My home recording setup.





Overall I'm very pleased with this thing. It was easy as anything to setup and the pump is silent. Plus, after running at 100% for 48 hours, my system is 4C cooler than it was with the stock heatsink, running at a cool and comfy 37C at 100% load.

The new one came out all these time (Res 1 Plus) and you bought the old model instead? Why?

How are the noise levels? I"m interested how the reserator will perform when its outside in -30*C weather.

Nice pictures.

Happy Hopping said:

The new one came out all these time (Res 1 Plus) and you bought the old model instead? Why?

Click to expand...

I bought it for $150 from a friend who had purchased it a while back but never used it.

A word of warning from a Reserator owner:

The housing of the flow indicator is very very delicate. Over a matter of less then 4 months mine cracked and I unknowingly allowed my system to for an undetermined amount of days before noticing the smell of coolant in the air.

I still do not know if this was caused by poorly selected materials, shotty craftsmenship or over tightening of the pressure fittings on my part. But either way I would keep an eye on that thing...and unless you absolutly need it...I would remove it altogether.

On a lighter note, other then the flow indicator issue I am very pleased with the performance of the Reserator for what it is.

Claxon said:

and I unknowingly allowed my system to for an undetermined amount of days before noticing the smell of coolant in the air.
.

Click to expand...

Okay, you allowed your system to do what exactly? I don't understand.

agrikk said:

I bought it for $150 from a friend who had purchased it a while back but never used it.

Click to expand...

Wow...almost half price, great deal. What is the power requirement of this unit? Is it 5W? I can't find it on the manual.

No kidding. That's why I went for it.

The only bummer about the unit is that the pump requires it's own power connection and has its own on/off switch. I turn it off when the computer is off and on when it's on.

I avoid forgetting about turning the pump on by having motherboard monitor nag me with an alarm if the CPU temps start to rise. I tested it with the pump off and it still took a while for the temps to get up there (fortunately), giving me time to remember to turn the unit on before I have a meltdown.

Is that software that comes with the Motherboard or third party software?

mickey987 said:

How are the noise levels? I"m interested how the reserator will perform when its outside in -30*C weather.

Click to expand...

Great so long as you use anti-freeze.

Anyone remember what additive that guy used in the reserator that ate away at the thing and had all that nasty (yet cool looking) blue goop gunking up his loop? Whatever it was I suggest you dont put a single drop into your system.

Happy Hopping said:

Is that software that comes with the Motherboard or third party software?

Click to expand...

Motherboard Monitor has to be some of the best hardware monitoring software for the personal computer out there. It's freeware, updated by the creator out of his passion for this kind of stuff. I load it on my home server and it goes so far as to monitor the temps of all six of my SCSI drives. It's sweet stuff, without all the graphical gewgaws that ASUS and others bundle with their stuff. It's a simple, streamlined, no-nonsense monitoring tool.

I highly recommend it.


And to Erasmus354: I managed to avoid using any kind of additive that turned my water into "blue goop". I've been using regular antifreeze mixed with distilled water for years now with no particulate condensate whatsoever. I figure that if it can work in a car at temps a hundred degrees hotter than what my processor can generate for hours or days at a time with no ill effects, it's good enough for my cooling loop.

Erasmus354 said:

Anyone remember what additive that guy used in the reserator that ate away at the thing and had all that nasty (yet cool looking) blue goop gunking up his loop? Whatever it was I suggest you dont put a single drop into your system.

Click to expand...

IIRC it was Hydrx. Could be wrong though, been a while...

nice mod and woody, what are you before and after temps like?

Thank you. I'm actually going to be building a new woody for this rig, as my skills in woodworking have improved to the point where I want to make a nicer case for it.


My temps improved by about 4-5C in both idle and under 100% load for 48 hours.

They're now 26C at Idle and 37 under load for 48 hours. It takes about 30 hours or so for the temperature to finally stop climbing and level out at 37, because there's a ton of material to heat up and reach equilibrium.

wow nice temps for a passive cooling kit

No kidding right? I was pretty shocked and impressed myself by the sweet temps. Of course the rig /is/ in my basement which has a nice cool ambient temp that rarely fluctuates from 21C, summer or winter.