Modding CoolIT Freezone Elite

[Tim S]

http://www.bit-tech.net/modding/2008...eezone-elite/1

Most of us love the looks and performance of watercooling - but the utter mess and difficulty drives many away. Canada-based CoolIT seems to think it has a solution that beats the pre-boxed watercooling sets hands down while remaining simple. Does it succeed?

[badders]

So what were the temperatures with different TIM?

Did you try fitting another waterblock?

I think it would be nice to see what performance the TECSink gives vs. a standard radiator.

[donnie]

I think i'll stick with my yet to be installed swiftech ultra+ kit, i must admit i'm in two minds as to whether i'm going to enjoy the massive project of modding my case and installing my WC loop but thankfully i've got my level headed father to assist his rather quick to make a mess of it son so lol i may enjoy it.

[Paradigm Shifter]

I'd be really interested in seeing the temps with something like Ceramique or AS5 as the TIM.

Did you mention how loud the fan was? I'm in the hunt for silence again after swapping cases and discovering that the new one is anything but silent...

[Da Dego]

Hey guys, let me answer a question or two here

1) I did not *yet* try a different thermal paste BECAUSE anyone buying this will be getting what's on there first. So I wanted to give it a shot. I will test with other paste tonight and give you the results.

2) Fitting another waterblock requires cutting the old one off, thus ruining the "self contained" nature of the product. That being said, I'm curious to possibly give it a go.

3) The fan noise is mentioned in the conclusion as "far from silent" at full speed. However, I did find that the MTEC Software kept it generally well below that, so I'd say it's not horrible. I would rate it about equivalent to a standard medium-quality 120mm at high speed - it moves a lot of air but it has a bit of vibrational quality to it. A fan grommet at the connection point to your case would make a bit of difference in this regard.

[Paradigm Shifter]

Originally Posted by Da Dego

Hey guys, let me answer a question or two here

1) I did not *yet* try a different thermal paste BECAUSE anyone buying this will be getting what's on there first. So I wanted to give it a shot. I will test with other paste tonight and give you the results.

Nice. Thanks.

Originally Posted by Da Dego

3) The fan noise is mentioned in the conclusion as "far from silent" at full speed. However, I did find that the MTEC Software kept it generally well below that, so I'd say it's not horrible. I would rate it about equivalent to a standard medium-quality 120mm at high speed - it moves a lot of air but it has a bit of vibrational quality to it. A fan grommet at the connection point to your case would make a bit of difference in this regard.

OK, I missed that (reading at work, tut-tut... ) thanks. I'm still not totally enthused by this product, but it's a very neat idea, anyway. (Let's just hope that Intel and AMD continue with the 'performance per watt' idea, and avoid going the route of Prescott again, otherwise this sort of cooler is going to have to become the standard... )

[Da Dego]

Just a quick note - I've heard from the awesome guys at CoolIT (keep in mind, it's barely after 9am there), and they inform me the thermal paste IS Arctic Silver Ceramique.

That being said, there really is no need for so damn much of it. :P In the pictures, I've already wiped about half of it off..

[phuzz]

It makes me think about dissecting this unit and putting a good, staunch performing low-flow block (like the Aquacomputer Cuplex XT) and trying it out again.

Do it!

[Pace11]

Now I'm really interested! I've already seen it online, but your (well written btw!) review has shed some light on it. Would it be possible to get some more pictures of the Peltiers, what kind of heatsink they used etc...
Since the idea is obviously pretty solid, I would like to build my own version of it. Using an EK Supreme low-flow block, 1/2" tubing, Silent fans, better heatsinks,... You get the point.

[HourBeforeDawn]

ya I cant wait to see how it performs with a better block.

[kempez]

Originally Posted by Pace11

Now I'm really interested! I've already seen it online, but your (well written btw!) review has shed some light on it. Would it be possible to get some more pictures of the Peltiers, what kind of heatsink they used etc...
Since the idea is obviously pretty solid, I would like to build my own version of it. Using an EK Supreme low-flow block, 1/2" tubing, Silent fans, better heatsinks,... You get the point.

In fairness you could do that before, Swiftech make a decent enough peltier block then it's a case of hooking it up to some watercooling

Review was decent, but I'm surprised that you either couldn't tell it was a kind of ceramique (and Arctic Silver Ceramique does have it's own consistency), or that you didn't ask CoolIT before putting the review live (they are generally nice responsive people after all ). Also for fairness in temperatures I would have thought testing both systems with identical thermal paste is a no-brainer, noting and picturing the bad application as standard.

In-place FFT's usually give me the highest temps using Prime95 but that's kinda personal preference

Lack of instructions in a bundle aimed at the mainstream is really unforgivable so let's hope CoolIT correct that

Jealous at your 16°C office by the way

[Mach1.9pants]

I'd be interested to see what it did on a severely OC'd quad. I have my q6600 running at 3.5GHz using a Swiftech H20-120 (I got it before they announced the -240 version damn it!) and it is dead silent.
According to CustomPC (not up on their webiste yet, just in the mag) this unit is not upto higher voltages even with the fan on whining high, but I'd like a second opinion
Just to note I got (v cheap) a SLI unit which uses the old TEC and 90mm fan to cool to 8800GTXs. The temps were OK but the fan was soo annoying and do easy wat to convert to a 120mm fan. However it was great to drop out of double slots for the three GPUs
So I think they are good (and easy) units but I don't think they are quiet enough. So how does it go on the q6600 with a few more volts running through it?

[Da Dego]

@kempez -
I see your point about the ceramique, but actually I wouldn't necessarily know it. Here's why: I've had tons of heatsinks, review units, etc that come with cheap ass TIMs that are white and of similar consistency to what Ceramique is like when it's left to cure. The difference is, these things are that way out of the box and they never do cure..they just stay that rubbery consistency. If it was AS5, that's a different story as it can be fairly well recognized on sight.

Regarding scraping it all off to test both units, I do agree that is a possibility. I was also working hard to review the unit as someone who bought it to use would, though...it would take some considerable effort just to get the stuff off and clean up the block. I intend to do that however when I test again tonight or tomorrow, so I'll let you know how I make out with it.

@Mach1.9pants -
I would not assume the unit to be able to really handle extreme OCs - not because of the inability to dissipate the heat (which becomes the problem on cheaper watercooling setups, usually) but because of the inability to absorb it at the onset. I think I'll give it a try and see how I get on with it though.

[kempez]

Ye I agree on the fact that that's what provided to a customer for sure, but if it's a fairly enthusiast-targeted product then I spose some will scrape it off or at least ask on forums (like here ) KL on the re-test, but as you say, the block does look a little lack-lustre

[DarkLord7854]

What's the tubing on that? 3/8th or 1/4th?

I really like the TEC-cooled radiator concept though.. tempted to try to buy a 150W or 250W TEC, sticking it onto a copper reservoir with fins in it, sticking a big copper heatsink and putting a fan over it

Any chance on getting a breakdown of how they put the unit together?

[-EVRE-]

I've been wanting to do something like this for a few years now. My idea is to mill a custom waterblock I can stick 4 50 watt or larger peltiers into. The cold side would run to the system and on its way back the coolant would hit the hot side, then the radiator. Using some simple electronics I could set a target temperature. As the temperature increases more of the 4 peltiers would be activated.

DarkLord7854,
I have tried cooling inline with a 240 watt peltier... worked very poorly by cooing the hot side with air, using another water block however I got some nice results but at low system loads I had condensation. At the time I didn't have the resources to have in line monitoring of the water temps and automatically turn the peltier on and off. It should also be noted I had a tripple 120mm fan radiator to get rid of all that heat! (I had 6 fans on it actually!)

I dont see why it would be necessary to use PWM on a home brew system. The cooper heat sink on the peltier could be enough to keep the coolant at a stable temperature and have a tight setting for the target temperature.

[DarkLord7854]

Originally Posted by -EVRE-

DarkLord7854,
I have tried cooling inline with a 240 watt peltier... worked very poorly by cooing the hot side with air, using another water block however I got some nice results but at low system loads I had condensation. At the time I didn't have the resources to have in line monitoring of the water temps and automatically turn the peltier on and off. It should also be noted I had a tripple 120mm fan radiator to get rid of all that heat! (I had 6 fans on it actually!)

I dont see why it would be necessary to use PWM on a home brew system. The cooper heat sink on the peltier could be enough to keep the coolant at a stable temperature and have a tight setting for the target temperature.

So you stuck the waterblock to the TEC? The 250W was hard to cool, even with the six fans, though?

[dmak]

what I am curious about is the pump, the Eliminator version of this unit for a while had a tenancy to fail. Coolit was good about replacing it but there still wasnt a guaranty that it would work, also not to mention if it failing took out took out your cpu.

I gathered this info when I was reading the forum responses to a review of this unit, the person who lost their cpu was the reviewer in qestion, so I am curious how long this unit can work for. Unfortunately I cant remember where I read all this, but it is referenced at legit reviews. http://forums.legitreviews.com/viewtopic.php?t=8741

[-EVRE-]

So you stuck the waterblock to the TEC? The 250W was hard to cool, even with the six fans, though?

No... I had a hard timekeeping a 240 watt TEC cool by using a large CPU heat sink on the hot side (The cold side was already in line with the cooling loop for the CPU/GPU/Chipset) thus my results of cooling the coolant down were not very good, using a waterblock on the hotside instead cooled VERY well and created a condensation issues.

[B3CK]

I would be very interested in the performance numbers using a different waterblock completly.