FTW: Aquaero vs T-Balancer

[Top Nurse]

Several of us have Aqua Computer Aquaero's on this forum. I also know that several people also have mCubed T-Balancer's as well. So how about a rip roaring good time to find out which of these units are the best? If someone can tell me why, I might even consider buying a T-Balancer.

I would especially like to see screen shots of software you are running. Don't have a program to do that? TechSmith's SnagIt works great and has a 30 day trial period.

 

[R1ckCa1n]

Yes, I would love to see some screenies of the T-balancer software as the hardware seems to scale much better than an aquaero.

 

[Ranker]

Haha, I'll post pics when I get my machine back up again. I think both are viable for what they do. At the time I was comparing the two as an upgrade from my 2 x sunbeam rheobuses, I saw that the Aquero came with an LCD. I've purchased LCD panels in the past but rarely saw a use for them as my computer usually stays beneath my desk.

My initial impressions at the time were:

Aquero: Most aesthetically pleasing design of the two. Modular design that snaps/bolts/connects to the main unit. Integration with AC products.

Mcubed: Modular, scalable, expandable design. I preferred the look of the Mcubed's software suite over the Aquero (my own personal preference). I've seen it used over a variety of different "types" of builds.

In the end, I went with the MCubed line and have been quite pleased. I admit its not as pretty as the design as the Aquero line, but I like how well it scales. I also like how the software can be configured in so many different ways. Ex: I can control a specific fan or a series of fans to react dynamically based upon almost any variable measured such as water temps, pump RPM, system temps, even CPU/memory load. It can interact with stuff read from Speedfan and has early beta support for Everest.

My current setup includes a BigNG, 2 MiniNG's, Sensor Bus, Digital Thermometer expansion pack, G1/4 water temp probes, and a bunch of fan attenuators.

The miniNG handles the pumps as well as the set of fans that correspond to the loop the pump is a part of. The BigNG handles all the fans as well as all of the digital thermometers, attached to all my waterblocks. My sensorbus handles all the flow meters/pump RPM monitoring, and my water temp probes. It's also connected to the ATX power switch to allow it to perform a "hard" shutdown.

I have a hard shutdown performed if temps break 70C on my CPU for longer than 15 seconds, if either of my 8800GTX' break 80C for longer than 30 seconds, if either chipset breaks 80C for 15 seconds, or if any of the pumps RPM's drops below 100rpms.

The software of course, tries to perform a standard windows shut down if similar thresholds are exceeded: CPU breaks 67C for 10 secs, etc etc.

I'll post pics when I can. It'd take a year to explain everything =)

 

[migueld]

I have the bigNG and it's been a good experience overrall. My main gripe these days is that temperatures are shown in 0.5C increments not 0.1 like the aquaero. So in that regard the Aquaero seems better even if it’s not accurate, at least it gives a better cue on what’s going on. From the little I’ve seen, the Aquaero has a nicer interface. The bigNG is very customizable and powerful but the interface isn’t that great.

The other bad thing about the bigNG is that it gets very hot if you don’t have good ventilation. This happens mainly when you try to undervolt a heavy device such as the DDC 18W or 3 fans on the same channel. This may be normal for these type of controllers, I don’t know. I’d like to know how the aquaero performs in this topic.

 

[migueld]

Here are a couple of shots:

Channel settings:

Sensor settings, calibration, etc:

Sensor overview (digital)

Overview curves for automatic channel (fans) voltage:

Sensor assignment matrix:

Options, misc:

 

[Top Nurse]

What is the software requirements? For the Aquaero you have to run the .Net Framework 2.0

Also is there an overview screen like this:

 

[migueld]

The bigNG doesn't require .net, it'll work in XP as well as Vista. TN can you post a screenshot of the curve settings (where fan speed changes automatically depending on CPU load) for the aquaero?

 

[Top Nurse]

The bigNG doesn't require .net, it'll work in XP as well as Vista. TN can you post a screenshot of the curve settings (where fan speed changes automatically depending on CPU load) for the aquaero?

It doesn't have that capability.

The thing I really find annoying is the USB problems with my Aquaero. Every couple of days the USB connection doesn't work. I finally found that in my Device Manager there was a listing that sometimes fails to work. It's a Human Interface Device => Hid-compliant device => USB Human Interface Device. When I see the yellow checkmark I have to uninstall the device and then search for new devices. Then it works for a while.

So can I run the Mcubed software without having the device installed to see what it can do? The Aquasuite won't run unless it senses the Aquaero hardware.

Edit:

You can DL the mCubed software here and it does run without the hardware installed.

One thing I have to say is that the mCubed people have a nice forum up for their products with a lot of good information on it. The AC Forum (English) is not as good for technical aspects of the Aquaero, though you can email Sebastian at AC and get good information back.

 

[Shoggy]

btw: nobody is forced to use the aquasuite because there are also alternative tools/plugins programmed by users. AC provides a SDK to program your own software or plugins.

 

[Top Nurse]

btw: nobody is forced to use the aquasuite because there are also alternative tools/plugins programmed by users. AC provides a SDK to program your own software or plugins.

Are there any tweaks to get rid of the USB problem Shoggy?

 

[headala]

IMR the typical USB problems were isolated to a couple of different mb models, right? Which ones were they?

Can the aquaero control the multiswitch according to temperatures, etc.? If so, that's a cool feature that the mcubed may not have. I was thinking about using that in my new rig to have an 'extra' pump/rad/fans attached to the res that would only come on in really hot situations.

 

[Shoggy]

If you have a USB problem, it is to 99% only with Asus/Asrock boards.
Sometimes newer BIOS versions solve the problem.

A workaround is to use an PCI USB card - ideally with an internal connector.

The aquaero can't control the multiswitch according to the temperature. It might be possible with the scripting functions but that will require you to run the aquasuite all the time in the background.

If you can program you can create a "multiquero" software which will do it