Home-made CPU-,GPU-,Chipset water blocks tested

Cooling/Water Cooling by piotke @ 2004-01-28

Watercooling your entire system, something only for the rich ? Wrong! Buying cheaper blocks means crappy performance ? Wrong again! I received some home made water-blocks, for VGA, CPU and Chipset, to see how they stack up against retail water-cooling solutions. Now these blocks are going into mass production: low priced, good performing water-cooling for everyone? Let?s find out

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CPU block

CPU block

Looks

The block looks very solid, much stronger then any block with plexi. The block is made fully out of copper, it has 3/8" fittings, and the top and bottom part are held together with four steel screws.
The design itself is simple. That doesn't imply that it isn’t a sight for the eye. Its good looking, not too square shaped, but with some elegant curves.

Installation

When you receive this block, the package contains of course the block itself, but the parts needed for installation, such as 4 bolts, 4 springs, 12 nuts, ...

Installation is very easy, place the four bolts through the main boards holes, don't forget the isolating rings between the bolts/nuts and the main board. Then you tighten it with a nut.
After that you place the water block itself, place the other rings and springs, and finally tighten the last nuts.
Sounds complicated? Take a look at the pictures below.

I recommend removing the Pentium 4 retention bracket. This water block fits in it, but very tight, so a very small difference on the block or bracket and it won't fit anymore.

Temperatures

Performance that's what it's all about.
Nowadays there a lot of water-cooling sets around. One of the best performing kits, and one of the most expensive, is the Asetek Waterchill ([M]adshrimps review). I compared the water block from the asetek with this block. I installed the Waterchill, monitored the temperature, then I removed the Waterchill block, and put this one in its place. Thus the radiator and fan remained the same, and wouldn't have any influence on the tests done
.
And just for comparison I throw in an SLK 947U ([M]adshrimps review) with an 80 mm fan at about the same sound level as the WaterChill fan.

Test setup:
CPU Intel Pentium 4 2.4 GHz 800 fsb HT @ 3.3 GHz - 1.65 Vcore
Mainboard Asus P4P800 deluxe


I used Arctic Silver 3 As thermal paste and stressed the system for about 30 minutes before jotting down the temperatures.

Keep in mind, the temperatures are not that high, why? Ambient temperature was 20° C and the most important thing: no case was used.

 
Temperatures after 30min 100% load
Asetek Waterchill 26°C
Custom Made Water block 27°C
Thermalright SLK947U 34°C


The difference in performance between these two water blocks is too small to declare a real winner.


The block:

Madshrimps (c)

Madshrimps (c)

Nice & shiny:

Madshrimps (c)

Madshrimps (c)

The package & installation:

Madshrimps (c)

Madshrimps (c)



Let's take a look at the chipset block.

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