I believe this is the proper forum to stick this, if not please move it to the correct one, I feel it's pretty important for me to let people know about the issues of this particular liquid cooler setup.
So this cooler arrived, looked great, I installed it and everything seemed okay. Little bit of smudged thermal paste because it was difficult to bend the tubing to get the cooler on but I believe I did install it correctly:
http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h82/kasooi/zalman/IMG_0834.jpg
http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h82/kasooi/zalman/IMG_0835.jpg
http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h82/kasooi/zalman/IMG_0832.jpg
http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h82/kasooi/zalman/IMG_0831.jpg
But the cpu temp started slowly climbing, almost reaching 90+ celsius before I hit the power button!
That's actually way more thermal paste than I would normally use. I added more because I thought that was the issue. There was a tiny bit of gurgling from the pump so I thought it must have water in it, but then the pump began squeeling very loudly, a clear sign of an issue with it not pumping any water,
What the issue actually was: The unit wasn't filled with any liquid!
It's marketed as hermetically sealed and there is no fill port whatsoever anywhere on the unit, I'm not even sure how Zalman would fill it at their factory actually. They specifically state on their site that it comes prefilled as well.
Needless to say, I chopped it. I didn't want to wait months for a refund/exchange and figured if the thing is toast it's not the end of the world, I could still use the radiator with another water block and pump anyways. Plus Zalman's support line is quite terrible from what I've heard.
This is how much liquid was in it:
http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h82/kasooi/zalman/IMG_0836.jpg
That's maybe 1-2 mL at best, no where near enough to even fill the pump let alone the full radiator and tubing.
So this how I decided to fix it. I went to home depot to get some plumbing supplies
http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h82/kasooi/zalman/IMG_0839.jpg
I used the barbed 1/4" to 1/4" thread copper fitting with a 1/4" copper plug
Then I used a barbed 1/4" T and some 7/32 to 1/2" hose clamps
http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h82/kasooi/zalman/IMG_0843.jpg
http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h82/kasooi/zalman/IMG_0849.jpg
I filled it all with deionized water meant for radiators and pumps doing the following:
http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h82/kasooi/zalman/IMG_0841.jpg
http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h82/kasooi/zalman/IMG_0844.jpg
http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h82/kasooi/zalman/IMG_0847.jpg
I just left the fill line open to the atmosphere:
http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h82/kasooi/zalman/IMG_0848.jpg
The weird thing is there was some odd soapy stuff already inside the whole setup, I had to pump fresh DI water through it to rinse all that crap out. I assume that's their supposed "nanoparticles," but I can't see that stuff doing anything other than reduce the lifespan of that pump by introducing large amounts of air bubbles to the setup.
It took about 5-6 hours to bleed the air out and it took approximately 3-4 full fills of that 1-foot tube coming off the top of the barbed T.
The pump was completely silent once filled properly, you could barely hear it from even an inch away.
Finally got it all installed
http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h82/kasooi/zalman/IMG_0857.jpg
And huzzah it actually does indeed work:
http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h82/kasooi/zalman/IMG_0853.jpg
I left the fill hose sticking out the top of my case as air bubbles are still working their way through the system. I'll tape and dope the cap on to properly seal it once all the air is out of the system.
Some quick final things I want to mention:
Reviewers of this particular product noted the pump was loud. Well anyone familiar with aquarium pumps or other pumps should immediately realize that it's due to an air bubble or lack of water, the pump is not loud at all.
If your pump is loud most likely Zalman did not fill your cooler or it's not filled with enough water! Those air bubbles will inevitably kill your pump as well, you need to rip your system apart and refill it if there are air bubbles.
I was just glad I caught it early on because otherwise it would have cooked my processor. So if you plan on purchasing these Zalman kits make sure you are very careful and watch your cpu temps like a hawk! They clearly didn't fill these things properly at all.
I hope this is the right forum to stick this, I didn't really know any other website to post this and I felt somewhat obligated to let people know that Zalman doesn't seem to be filling any of these kits like they say they are.
So this cooler arrived, looked great, I installed it and everything seemed okay. Little bit of smudged thermal paste because it was difficult to bend the tubing to get the cooler on but I believe I did install it correctly:
http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h82/kasooi/zalman/IMG_0834.jpg
http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h82/kasooi/zalman/IMG_0835.jpg
http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h82/kasooi/zalman/IMG_0832.jpg
http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h82/kasooi/zalman/IMG_0831.jpg
But the cpu temp started slowly climbing, almost reaching 90+ celsius before I hit the power button!
That's actually way more thermal paste than I would normally use. I added more because I thought that was the issue. There was a tiny bit of gurgling from the pump so I thought it must have water in it, but then the pump began squeeling very loudly, a clear sign of an issue with it not pumping any water,
What the issue actually was: The unit wasn't filled with any liquid!
It's marketed as hermetically sealed and there is no fill port whatsoever anywhere on the unit, I'm not even sure how Zalman would fill it at their factory actually. They specifically state on their site that it comes prefilled as well.
Needless to say, I chopped it. I didn't want to wait months for a refund/exchange and figured if the thing is toast it's not the end of the world, I could still use the radiator with another water block and pump anyways. Plus Zalman's support line is quite terrible from what I've heard.
This is how much liquid was in it:
http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h82/kasooi/zalman/IMG_0836.jpg
That's maybe 1-2 mL at best, no where near enough to even fill the pump let alone the full radiator and tubing.
So this how I decided to fix it. I went to home depot to get some plumbing supplies
http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h82/kasooi/zalman/IMG_0839.jpg
I used the barbed 1/4" to 1/4" thread copper fitting with a 1/4" copper plug
Then I used a barbed 1/4" T and some 7/32 to 1/2" hose clamps
http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h82/kasooi/zalman/IMG_0843.jpg
http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h82/kasooi/zalman/IMG_0849.jpg
I filled it all with deionized water meant for radiators and pumps doing the following:
http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h82/kasooi/zalman/IMG_0841.jpg
http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h82/kasooi/zalman/IMG_0844.jpg
http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h82/kasooi/zalman/IMG_0847.jpg
I just left the fill line open to the atmosphere:
http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h82/kasooi/zalman/IMG_0848.jpg
The weird thing is there was some odd soapy stuff already inside the whole setup, I had to pump fresh DI water through it to rinse all that crap out. I assume that's their supposed "nanoparticles," but I can't see that stuff doing anything other than reduce the lifespan of that pump by introducing large amounts of air bubbles to the setup.
It took about 5-6 hours to bleed the air out and it took approximately 3-4 full fills of that 1-foot tube coming off the top of the barbed T.
The pump was completely silent once filled properly, you could barely hear it from even an inch away.
Finally got it all installed
http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h82/kasooi/zalman/IMG_0857.jpg
And huzzah it actually does indeed work:
http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h82/kasooi/zalman/IMG_0853.jpg
I left the fill hose sticking out the top of my case as air bubbles are still working their way through the system. I'll tape and dope the cap on to properly seal it once all the air is out of the system.
Some quick final things I want to mention:
Reviewers of this particular product noted the pump was loud. Well anyone familiar with aquarium pumps or other pumps should immediately realize that it's due to an air bubble or lack of water, the pump is not loud at all.
If your pump is loud most likely Zalman did not fill your cooler or it's not filled with enough water! Those air bubbles will inevitably kill your pump as well, you need to rip your system apart and refill it if there are air bubbles.
I was just glad I caught it early on because otherwise it would have cooked my processor. So if you plan on purchasing these Zalman kits make sure you are very careful and watch your cpu temps like a hawk! They clearly didn't fill these things properly at all.
I hope this is the right forum to stick this, I didn't really know any other website to post this and I felt somewhat obligated to let people know that Zalman doesn't seem to be filling any of these kits like they say they are.
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