Just installed Zalman RESERATOR 1 Plus. Excellent!!

[james_p]

After building my system:

1 Lian-Li Aluminum Case
1 ASUS SLI A8N Premium MB
1 AMD FX57 CPU (Stock Fan)
2x 512MB RAM
2x 7800 GT Overclocked BFG Cards SLI
2x 74 GB Raptor Drives RAID 0
1 600W Silverstone power supply

About sums it up...

Anyway, at idle it wasn't that bad on the ears. But play Quake4 or FEAR for about two hours and the darn thing soudned like a vacuum cleaner all the fans were going crazy.

Stop playing the games, system gets cool and fans slow down to low speed, sounds much quieter.

So I figured I could eliminate the CPU and each fan on the 7800 Cards with a water cooling system. I ordered the Zalman Reserator and while I admit it initially looked silly having that giant black tower next to my system. I've actually gotten used to it and think it's fairly cool now.

The setup was imposing out of the box, but this is about a no-brainer as it gets. I literally had the thing unboxed installed and running in about an hour. Just follow the directions, screw down the tubes and fill up the canister...no leaks at all! The thing is so freaking quiet that you have to put your ear right up to the unit to know it's running.

Very important, if you have an SLI system, you need to order a seperate VGA Cooler. One is already included with this kit, but you need an extra so both can be cooled.

System is SO MUCH quieter now, just the small exhaust fan and PSU fan running and even after playing games for two hours, they are no louder then when I first turned the system on.

The Reserator is easy, simple, and high quality.

Only thing that sucked was having to pull the MB off the case to get the backing plate on for the adapter that clamps down the Cooling block that came in the kit.

Oh well, just my .02
James

 

[Clob]

OK its quiet... How about some temp differences? :?:

 

[james_p]

About 5 degrees cooler across the board. Maybe as much as 8.

 

[shawnlizzle =]]

HAHAHAHHAHA that POS handleing fx57 + 2 7800gts? i don't think so... you are probably getting a lot worse temps and just try to run your system on full load for awhile to see it sizzle

 

[Crashman]

I have the Reserator 1, it's cold. But the 7800GTX...and TWO of them? Well, it still might work.

It would probably take gaming for around 2 hours just to get all that water warm!

 

[james_p]

Before I bought the Reserator, I looked at this online review, here is the link:
http://www.bigbruin.com/reviews05/reserator1plus/index.php?file=1

I recommend reading this first, it is an outstanding walk thru with great pictures on the exact product I am talking about.

The only heat compairsions I can commet on are a quick look at the Nvidia Temperature screen in 'Advanced' Settings under display. And the Asus Prope II software. So basically when surfing...editing pictures....movies...playing games I will switch between applications and look at the temps. I don't keep logs or anything that detailed. But over all I am seeing cooler temps across the board on the graphics cards (both of them) and the CPU.

You still have to have fans running int he system, no way around that really as the MB will still produce heat and the inside of the case (especially on insulated like mine) will become an oven.

I still have two small fans on the front lower of the case to draw air in, and a small exhaust fan on the back (those three came with the Lian-Li case and are very quiet) The Power supply fan is the only thing I really hear. It will automatically adjust it's speed to the temperature inside the case. But since installing the Reserator, the RPMS rarely get above the minimum. Which tells me the water/cooling system is doing a great job of absorbing the heat and transfering it to the external unit.

Two other things, keep the lins to the external unit as short as possible and route the tubes inside the case away from any chip sets and I also did not let the Intake tube touch the outlet tube during the configuration. Ever little bit helps!
James

 

[Crashman]

After I installed the reserator I had to add a chipset fan, that's about it. The northbridge used a passive cooler, and the passive cooler had been living off draft from the CPU fan. So I stuck a 50mm low-speed fan on it and wired it to 7v so I couldn't hear it.

 

[zentox]

Hey, have you tried overclocking using the reserator?

And is the zalman able to just cool the Video Cards seperately? I'm having an idea of two Zalmans, one for the cpu and one for the video cards

 

[Crashman]

The Resorator can support as many or as few water blocks as you'd like to use, dual Resorators in your suggested configuration would be fine.