Greetings programs
A while back I used to follow these forums religiously, and built my first water system based on the advice of a few names that I still recognize here (Though some seemed to have gone, and many new have appeared). I never posted much at all back then, but found the posts of others to provide more than enough information to get my rig running.
Back then, the Maze 2 was brand-spankin' new, and so I bought one, along with an aquacoil (I), and a Danner 250GPH pond pump. I also found a deal on a 5 pack of Orion 120mm AC fans, and went ahead and bought them. Somewhere along the way, I found a deal on a 500GPH Danner, and picked one up as well, which now serves as my pump (Though it didn't improve my temps one bit!).
The system never performed great...but never terribly. My highest temps under load were never higher than 44C under 'typical' conditions (though some hot days, it has reached 47). I was just at the point where the rig was up and running (and ready for tweaking) when life kicked in, and bogged me down with school work, until just recently (well, one more quarter to go, than MSEE)
Still running my A7V133 with the original water rig, I'm ready to move on, and I'd like to do it in style. I figured a good place to start would be with these new NForce2 2.0 boards, and I'm aiming at subzero TEC cooling...but first things first! I need to get this water rig running as well as it can in hopes that it will eventually be able to dump the heat from at least a couple of ~220W pelts to start (maybe as many as 4-6 eventually)
What I'm wondering is if any of my old WC hardware is still useable (at least for the time being), to get the 2x 220W pelts working at subzero (C) temps (even under load). I'm not so worried about the block as I am about the radiator, as I've noticed from many (old) reviews (and a couple of thermodynamics courses) that the aquacoil isn't the best solution for a radiator in this environment...it's just too restrictive to flow for the desired amount of cooling from air at ambient temps. (These fans couldn't be any more powerful, yet still be tolerable on the ears)
I've seen the design of the Aquacoil 2 in a few places on the web, and was thinking of modifying my current aquacoil to follow suit. I was hoping some of you out there could help me figure out the best way to do this (or at least, just tell me it's not worth it and to get another radiator, or a heater core) But, here's the Idea I had...
The aquacoil is about a 20-pass radiator (approx, don't remember for sure)...and then the Aquacoil II was a parallel config of about 2x10 passes. This (ideally) cuts down the flow resistance in half, and thus, should theoretically double the flow through the radiator (take away some error at the junctions). I'm wondering if it would be worth it to make my own "Aquacoil II" by cutting the tubing at about the 10th pass, and then hooking the 2x10pass in parallel. If this isn't adequate, than what if I cut the 2x10 config into a 4x5 parallel config, thus increasing the flow (though also increasing the error!). Is this clear...does someone understand what I mean? I'll try some ASCII art if it isn't
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More important though, from those with experience, is this worth the work for what I intend to accomplish? Or should I just find an alternative for the radiator?
Good to see this board still running strong!
-Z