My water cooling is failing, please help!

unkel

The water pump in my trusty old Zalman Reserator (near completely passive water cooling tower) is failing after well over 10 years of 24/7 use. It owes me nothing but I need a new solution



System: i5 4440 cpu, 16GB RAM, full ATX Z97 motherboard. Integrated Intel HD4600 Graphics. Intensive use sometimes 24/7, 4k playback, but no gaming / video editing / severe mathematical crunching

Passive case, no case fans running, passive power supply. I like my silence.

Only one requirement: must be completely silent

Budget flexible. Help much appreciated!

Serephucus

I've been looking for an excuse to use this...

You'd need a new motherboard for it, but that shouldn't be too hard to find on Adverts.

K.O.Kiki

If you're willing to consider a single fan, the Arctic Liquid Freezer 120 has great thermals AND acoustics (<40dB)

https://www.eteknix.com/arctic-liquid-freezer-120-aio-cpu-cooler-review/5/
https://www.hardocp.com/article/2016/02/11/arctic_cooling_liquid_freezer_120_aio_cpu_cooler_review/3

You could also look into the Noctua lineup; their fans are whisper-quiet (you'd never hear them above the ambient noise)

unkel

Cheers K.O.Kiki, but 40dB is far too noisy for me. I don't think a fan cooler will be a solution. I love the passive case like above, if it was available now and if I didn't have to change my mobo, I'd consider it!

Any (near) passive water cooling solutions about? I love my reserator, could change the silent 5W aquarium pump in it, but it looks like a brutal job to do.

Should have mentioned, I don't overclock (any more)

Serephucus

They're extremely rare. Honestly, the CPU you're cooling isn't that high of a TDP; why not look into air?

unkel

Air is too noisy. Or is it?

Just googled the above suggested air coolers and most air coolers are between 30dB (low) and 40dB (load). You have to appreciate I come from a completely passive (silent) system that was expensive to put together over the years and I don't want to be annoyed by noise at this stage.

I had Zalman air coolers well over a decade ago, they were the best there was at the time, and even they were noisy most of the time (I did heavily overclock back then)

Serephucus

Sorry, should have specified: I meant passive air, hence why I suggested the Streacom case first.

I'm a silent nut myself. Anything over about 30dB and I get annoyed. That said, you can get some damn quiet fans these days. A Gentle Typhoon -if you can find them - or an NF-F12 if you can't, spinning at about 400RPM is below my hearing threshold most of the time.

Alternatively, you could strap something like this to your board and call it a day.

unkel

Excellent, Nofan CR-80EH bought

Looks exactly like what I need. TDP for my cpu is 84 and this one is rated 80, but I doubt that will be much of a problem. Reasonable money too, £45 + £5 shipping to Ireland.

Serephucus

Let me know how you get on with it actually. I've seen a couple of reviews and they seem pretty good, but being as niche as they are, there isn't a lot of info to go on.

Lu Tze

Serephucus wrote: »

Let me know how you get on with it actually. I've seen a couple of reviews and they seem pretty good, but being as niche as they are, there isn't a lot of info to go on.

I would also be interested to hear about this, they are supposed to be heavy as they are all copper. Thought you might still need a case fan for these though? Just for a little airflow through the case?

unkel

I'll let you know here on the thread how it is working out for me. Hope I won't be needing to switch on case fans. I still do have 2 case fans in my Lian Li aluminium case, at some point I had them undervolted from 12V to 5V but these days they are switched off completely. Everything passive except two 2TB storage HDDs

K.O.Kiki

unkel wrote: »

I'll let you know here on the thread how it is working out for me. Hope I won't be needing to switch on case fans. I still do have 2 case fans in my Lian Li aluminium case, at some point I had them undervolted from 12V to 5V but these days they are switched off completely. Everything passive except two 2TB storage HDDs

In my own system (in sig) I kept wondering why it wasn't quiet enough during non-gaming tasks.

Turned quiet enough when I removed the old HDD and replaced them with SSD & 5400rpm

unkel

Yeah my HDDs are just for storage Samsung EVO 250 SSD as main drive.

unkel

The Amazon seller has cancelled the order on me "Sorry but due to a logistical error with shipping settings we are unable to send this item"


Anyway, I flushed and changed the coolant in the Reserator the other day and it seems to be soldiering on for now. Would still like to pick up the Nofan CR-80EH at some stage though...

savemejebus

unkel wrote: »

Would still like to pick up the Nofan CR-80EH at some stage though...

https://www.amazon.de/Nofan-CR-80EH/dp/B00HW2O2L2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1498658842&sr=8-1&keywords=Nofan+CR-80EH

Any good to you?

unkel

Cheers, savemejebus. That's almost €70 delivered. A bit rich. But I'll keep an open mind.

Just reading reviews on Amazon.com and they're not the best. Getting cold feet here. Might need the higher rated 95 version.

CPU currently at 31C (ambient 23C) so it looks like the Reserator might hold out a little longer for me. I should still have the stock cooler somewhere so in case of emergency I should be back up and running with it within the hour

K.O.Kiki

unkel wrote: »

Cheers, savemejebus. That's almost €70 delivered. A bit rich. But I'll keep an open mind.

Just reading reviews on Amazon.com and they're not the best. Getting cold feet here. Might need the higher rated 95 version.

CPU currently at 31C (ambient 23C) so it looks like the Reserator might hold out a little longer for me. I should still have the stock cooler somewhere so in case of emergency I should be back up and running with it within the hour

Even the CR-95 would struggle to match your Reserator (fanless)

With a Noctua NF-S12A ULN @600rpm either No-Fan should work though, especially if you undervolt.

unkel

Impressive fan by all means, but you'll appreciate I'm reluctant to introduce fans to my silent & fanless system

K.O.Kiki

unkel wrote: »

Impressive fan by all means, but you'll appreciate I'm reluctant to introduce fans to my silent & fanless system

It is a concept I can't get my head around! :pac: