Evening all,
been a while since i posted on here
i need to update my system and will soon go for a new motherboard combination based around the Pressler dual core chip
all my watercooling needs re-working. Last time round I developed quite a silent system but it didn't stay hugely silent for that long. I am not bothered if I don't overclock. I just want something neat that works and gives very little noise.
This time round I would like to try and go semi-passive. My idea is to first base the system round the innovatek Konvekt-O-Matic ULTRA with the 5v booster fan. I've heard good things about this (see:
http://www.webshop-innovatek.de/asse...-innovatek.de/) and the long booster fan at 5v is apparently inaudible but greatly increases the cooling of the radiator. I have considered a large car radiator but it would appear that wide spaced fins are far more suited to natural convection and a relatively fanless heatercore of large radiator won't cool a great deal.
Now the plan is to waterblock cool the following:
x1 pressler
x1 7800 gtx
x1 northbridge 775 chipset
x2 aquacomputer aqua drive HD enclosures (i already own these)
x1 mosfets
x1 fanless psu heatsink
As you will see, I plan to have a small mosfet block and a small block on the heatsink of a fanless psu. Also, to keep a small amount of airflow to prevent cumulative heat build up I plan to run something like a 5 or 7v papst/panaflo exhaust fan at the back of the case.
The case will be picked for silence with acoustic damping material, decoupled mounting wherever possible etc...
I have found that when you start silencing a PC, 5v and 7v 80mm fans are pretty much inaudible if mounted properly. Rather, its the hard drives that are noisy and also worst of all this general "whooshing" noise thats produced by the PSU fan. I have a nexus PSU at the moment and although its VERY quiet, in a system with little other noise it becomes loud and although you cant really hear the fan itself, once its installed in the case this general whooshing sound is created which IS noisy. So therefore a fanless psu with a waterblock on the heatsink is a must, as is teh hard drives wrapped in noise isolating material and in watercooled enclosures.
My worries are as follows:
1. will the ultra konvekt + booster fan be enough to cool all the components. According to the innovatek forums the ultra will cool a wattage of 175W in passive mode. Thats probably a little short for what I am planning to cool but with the innovatek booster fan cooling capacity is supposed to be greatly increased over that 175W. A chap on the forums cools an A8N SLI Deluxe + 4400X2 + X850 XT + 3 Hdds + northbrige with an Ultra in passive mode (note: with no booster fan) quite successfully. I'd be very interested to hear from any users here who have the Konvekt.
2. this huge passive radiator is aluminium yet my current blocks are copper (whitewater and danger den chipset block). Maybe I should convert over to innovatek blocks ? Is it ok to mix aluminium and copper if I use decent amount of antifreeze ?
3. Will I need a powerful pump ? If I go over to innovatek blocks then they are designed around low flow therefore maybe I should stick with my two Eheim 1048's or maybe replace them with a 1250. I dont think the Laing D5 is going to be quiet enough and im not sure about the Iwakis.
anyway, feedback welcome. Would be especialy interested in people who have successfully built a nearly passive system thats inaudible.
cheers
Rich