Cooling 3 quick questions for experienced WCers

3 quick questions.

1. How do you secure the NB block to the motherboard for MB's without screw holes? Does it just stick with the thermal paste?

2. Can I make my own Blocks using a hand drill since I don't have a drill press?

3. What's better? Hydrx or Zerex?

Thanks guys.

 

1 most boards that dont have screws use retainning springs... the blocks are to heavy to be held by thermal past. Screws would be best as the are the most secure. I guess if the block was light enough you could use thermal epoxy or cement but you may never get the block off..... ever.

2 yes you can but you need the right bits an some lubing oil for the drill, and a very steady strong hand. ( i would rent a drill press at a local lumber yard or tool rental company for 20 dollars for the day, you will get better results.)

3. nither is better, they wont give you magical performance, but most people go with zerex, it has the trusted history and may give you degree (but with a homemade block... you may not notice it. ) Its important to have something to prevent the alge build up, and fundamintaly thats what they do.

 

2. i wouldnt bother even trying to make your own blocks espically with only a hand drill, it simply wont be worth it. i see your from Tdot, there are lots of forums that are southern ont local that sell cheap waterblocks, check out www.redflagdeals.com and bigfootcomputers.com both have great forums for buying/selling.

 

Wow.. thanks Los Vegas.. awsome answer. That helps alot. Dastt, I'm building my own blocks just for fun, not to save money really, since they end up costing about the same after renting tools, buying copper/plexi/drill bits etc. Thanks for the awsome link though Dastt.

Please, more feed back people.

 

Neither is "better", neither is "worse".
It's the amount/concentration you use that makes the difference.
If you're only concerned with the biocidal properties then iodine or maybe Petra's algaecide would work better than either of those products.
If you have a mixed metal loop then a 95/5 mixture would be fine and both brands would perform equally.

 

Thanks for the response. I'm looking for something that will kill algae, stop corrosion, and keep temps low. I was going to go with Zerex for that but I heard complaints from people who used it saying ti ruined their blocks. So how does hydrx stack up against zerex in this regard?

 

If zerez apparently ruin's people blocks... then whats the risk just go with hydrx and be done with it. I cannot imagine that it makes an actual difference to the temps though - although they might say it does, I would like to see proof.

 

A must read by RoboTech (Lee Garbutt)


"PC Water Coolant Chemistry - Part I"


"PC Water Coolant Chemistry - Part II"

 

Good post coolmiester. I read that a while ago and forgot all about it. I blame the eighties for my low attention span.

 

Still need to now how to mount the NB block, any one got any suggestions?

 

what MOBO are you putting it on?

 

you can make waterblocks with a rotory tool (aka dremel as some people call them even tho thats a brand)
you can usally get them just as good as the store bought stuff. but dam copper is expensive, 5AU$ a kilo lol
(by hand drill do you mean a cordless drill? you could do it with that, just lots of small holes, and then drill sideways, same for plexi)

 

Motherboard is a P4P800se where the NB is attached to the MB with like retaining clips. Guess I could rig something to fit in there, but on the motherboards without even these what do you do?

Yeah Ener, I have a corded drill and rotary tool, also a table saw and a few 6mm think pieces of copper. 4 square 50mm x 50mm blocks and one rectangular bout the size of the tidewater base.

I don't want to screw any of them up cause they were hard to get so I've been waiting on getting access to my friends drill press at his work but I'm getting ancy and want to get to work on them. I figure I could make the NB block pretty easily.

Thanks for all the help guys.