CoolIT Systems

Today I decided to add a DangerGen 120mm crossflow radiator to my original Freezone unit, cossflow so to make is a bit easier for the Freezone pump, warm water dumps in at the top of radiator, cooler water is gravity fed to the pelt cooling device input from the bottom of the radiator....tried to keep it just a bit higher than the actual Freezone unit.....

The biggest problem was coming up with a mounting spot in my Thermaltake 8004 Armour case. After several days of thinking, I decided to locate it on the opposite side of the case, mounted to the other part of the case cover, I won't go into details as I am sure those who are going to try this will have the skills.......and I can provide pics later.

Anyway, it was a snap, I assembled the radiator/fan on the outside of the opposite cover, then after precutting the two new neoprene tubes, adding spring wrap and two clamps, I 'prefilled' the tubes and radiator, plugged the ends of the neoprene tubes and installed the cover back in place.....

Then I detached the Freezone unit and the CPU water block, carefully removed the clamp, then holding everything higher than the rest of the unit, I pulled the one tube off, plugged the old tubing so it wouldn't leak, then slipped the new prefilled tube on the block and then reclamped it and arranged the spring wrap properly....that part went real easy....

Now I moved on to the other connection to the pelt unit, again being careful not to spill much, I pulled the other old clamp and old tube off, then while the opening was presented, topped it off with some 50/50 fuilds and then slipped the other tube on, clamped and spring wrapped, quickly reinstalled the CPU block and mounted the freezone unit in it customary place....this was all done with all the wires still hooked and in the case. I just made a short table next to the case to pull this off.....

Am I anxious at this point, heck yeah....so without further ado.....

I am happy to report it fired right up and is happily pumping fluids at this minute.....

What was the net result, not much different at idle, within a degree or three, however, under full load is where one will see a difference, today it is kinda warm, so I fully expected my full load temps to be higher than with the cooler morning weather, it is about 6* to 10*c warmer, yet my full load temps were 7*c LOWER on brand new thermal paste, fully expect a bit more when it 'settles' in....I have to wait until later tonight when the temps dip again to get a true comparison in load temps...and, after a full load stress run, when you just put her in idle, the temps plummet back to normal much quicker than with the freezone unit by itself.....

I did this mod because of moving to a Phenom II, and I wanted to improve the cooling of my Original Freezone which is really rated for a single or dual core processor.....

Cost of upgrade

Radiator about $50
120mm fan I already had
clamps and spring wrap for neoprene tubing about $15
hose kit and more clamps rom Freezone, another $25 or so....

total cost under a $100, I am sure if you cheaped out on the radiator and got your tubing from somewhere else other than Freezone you could save some more $$$$....I went with the Freezone supplied neoprene tubing cause I knew it would fit no hassle.....

Right now my system is under 100% full load stress testing and my full load temps are a flat 49*c on a beautiful and warm California day, and I am pumping a bit more vcore than stock (1.475)...

Was it worth it, I will let you be the judge, but if you have an original Freezone unit and don't want to spend a huge chunk for a better unit but want much better temps.....

This obviously will help the better Freezone units, I was a bit timid about doing it because of taking apart the orignal unit, but it was very easy to do.....

All I can say is it frigging works.......and no air bubbles/pockets to speak of, prefilling really does the deed....and by mounting the radiator just a bit higher than the unit, any air small amount of residual air bubbles quickly migrate to the top of the radiator, and stay there, woohoo!!!!

contemplating adding a small reservoir so that refilling/topping off is easy and air bubbles are COMPLETELY eliminated, non existant....this is the best hting you can do for your pump, keeping it completely immersed in H2O so it won't vibrate/cavatate on the air bubbles will insure it will last mucho longer....

laterzzzz..................

Okay,

Morning report on the upgrade.....idle temps not really affected that much as stated, this morning with the ambient about the same as before the mod the full load temps are a net of 10*C cooler...about the same as I reported yesterday....maybe a smidgen better.....

Now, that may not seem like much, but for an Original Freezone (the least powerful of all the pelt action chillers) now running a PhenomII @3.8gig with fullload/100%stress temps topping out @47*c, this with a chiller designed to cool a single/dual core.........it takes care of business on a clocked and volted PhenomII real well....

When summertime hits I will be ready...

And finally, the forums are really dead, what happened???? I suspect it is the new layout of the board, just not as information friendly at the get go as the old design....

Oh, still no leaks, LOL....

*******Update, put in a 2nd 940 (I got 2), 3.91gig 1.50vcore, no problem with handling temps, before adding the radiator, the full load temps would skyrocket into the 60*c+ real easy, and kinda kept creeping up higher after that, causing the system to shutdown eventually....

This is a MUST if you want to keep your quad core temps down to righteous levels....simple as simple can be.....best of both worlds, radiator now precooling the hot and then Pelt Chilling with the precooled is a snap**************

laterzzzzz...............

Very impressive!!
I'm thinking about getting me an Elite for my 940, as it sure loves the cold.
I just can't make a decision whether to go on custom H2O or order me an Elite.
TEC cooling really interests me, so if I can get my 940 to run cooler with an Elite, then the Elite it is, but if I get same results with a custom built setup....

The Elite has just 1 disadvantage... It's not easy to come by here in Europe, so the shipment costs are just too high.

Could you upload some pics of that setup please ?

here ya go, couple of pics, radiator mounted on outside of opposite case cover, you can see it on the upper right, slightly blocked from view...



red coiled tubing leads to radiator, 120mm fan sucking air out of case through radiator....

here is a pic of that....ignore my cable management, it sucks.....just in the case too often, and it makes for a mess when testing stuffs over and over again....



remounted pump to facilitate two things, first, it is now not in the way of the air flow for the pelt chiller making it much more efficient at cooling, and, two, I can now access the CPU without having to remove the chiller, something that the pump in its original position prevented....the 120mm fans I am using are around 47CFM, much less than the 92mm that came originally, still looking for higher CFM fannage, but it has to be quiet.....

very simple setup, and today when I moved the pump I was able to get rid of the last air bubbles as I was able to make the pump the highest point in the system (had the unit laying flat for maintenence), unscrewed the pump access plug, injected some more fluids until it topped off at the plug hole and got rid of all the remaining air bubbles....so very easy to work on, I waited three years to tinker with this unit, too easy to modify....

laterzzzz...............