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Hardware

Watercooled Aluminum Casing 66

Posted by CmdrTaco from the cooler-is-better dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Overclockers Online has posted a review of an all aluminium black Lian Li case equipped with a Z4 watercooler. Besides looking slick this product, that goes by the name Heat Seeker, performs very well." Part of me wonders when is enough, well, enough. Then I stuff that part into a box and try to justify buying one of these things ;)
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Watercooled Aluminum Casing More

Watercooled Aluminum Casing

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  • http://www.virtual-hideout.com has this kind of stuff all the time. along with howto's on how to make them yourself.

  • Save Your Time (Score:5, Informative)

    by webword ( 82711 ) on Saturday December 29, 2001 @10:43AM (#2762118) Homepage
    Just visit the Google watercooling category...

    Computers > Hardware > Components > Fans and Cooling Devices > Watercooling [google.com]

  • Buy one (and best picture I could find) (Score:3, Informative)

    by the_radix ( 454343 ) on Saturday December 29, 2001 @10:45AM (#2762119) Homepage Journal

    You can buy one here [overclockershideout.com] that comes with a nice window mod. It's also the largest screenshot found so far. You'd think they'd want to show this off more....

  • Crash (Score:1, Funny)

    by spencerogden ( 49254 )
    That must be the fastest crash of MySQL I'v seen. Yah slashdot, making articles inaccessible for 5 years!!
  • Is there a "HTML-Bible" out there somewhere that says "Thou shalt not create a web page with more then two paragraphs of content on it." Many of the tech-review web pages have the incredibly useless format of having to go through 20 pages of fluff just to get to any type of meat in the article. Give me one page that has the entire article.

    • Re:Slightly OT (Score:2, Informative)

      by Tryfen ( 216209 )
      Part of the problem is advertising revenue. If you have to look at 5 pages, you have to look at 5 adverts.

      Another, more journalistically useful, feature allows the editor to see which stories are actually being read. There have been studies (and I'll try and post the links later) which show how much people don't read on a website. If you can see that only 5% of people reading the first page bother reading all the way to the end of an article - you can generate some useful feedback to your writers. If everything is on one page, you don't know how much of the page is being read.
      • Err, but what if 80% of the people refresh over and over and over and over in a desperate attempt to make a connection on page two?

        OK, mod me down. POOF!

        --pi

  • Watercooling... how quaint... (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I seem to recall someone (probably on ocp.com) that decided to put the whole computer into mineral oil, and then stuff it into a freezer...

    Mineral oil is non-conductive, and freezes nicely... Gist is that once he took it out of the freezer, he was able to overclock this poor chip until the oil melted, and the chip began to overheat...

    Why he didn't just leave it in the freezer, I'll never know...

  • /.'d already! (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Good grief... Only 7 replies to this thread and already the mighty Oveclocking Online site is /.'d...

    Oh yeah, I realllllllly want one of those super fast, watercooled whatjamahozits now...
  • Due to the fact that the site is /.'ed, I couldn't find out if they found a way to combat condensation. What good is having a computer that runs at room temperature if the motherboard shorts out constantly?

    Oh well, I guess i'll stick to heat sinks and fans for now.

  • Complete mirror, minus pictures (Score:3, Redundant)

    by mESSDan ( 302670 ) on Saturday December 29, 2001 @11:23AM (#2762177) Homepage
    (This is just minus the pictures)

    Overclockers Online

    The Heat Seeker
    Date: 12/27/01 - 11:57:51 PM
    Author: Tim Verbist [mailto]
    Category: Cooling [slashdot.org]

    Page 1 : Introduction

    Manufacturer: Overclockers Hideout [overclockershideout.com] & CPU F/X [cpufx.com]
    Price: $349.99

    Introduction

    Not so long ago I reviewed the Z4 waterblock [overclockersonline.com], one of the best waterblocks currently available.But there was still a bridge to cross before the "normal" computer user would install one in his/her box. Why? Because the installation scares many people ... "Will it fit in my case?", "How do I get the power cord out of the case without cutting it up?", "How long do I need to make my tubing?" ... these kind of questions were asked on a daily base by people who wanted to turn into the watercooling alley, but were afraid of it for various reasons.

    The good people at Overclockers Hideout [overclockershideout.com] and CPU F/X [www.cpufx.comquot] were aware of these problems and they decided to take care of them. Their solution: The Heat Seeker .

    In short, The Heat Seeker is an all-in-one solution leaving the end users without questions and hard-to-install hardware. Basically, what they did was take a very good computer case (can you say Lian Li?) and install a very good watercooling setup (goes by the name "Z4") on the inside.

    Is "The Heat Seeker" the way to go for watercooling boxes? What do I get for my money and how does it perform? All these questions and more are answered in the review, so lets buckle up and push the pedal to the metal shall we?


    Page 2 : Specifications

    The Specs

    With a name as "Heat Seeker" you expect some military device with a heatseeking nose and built-in radar equipment ... the truth is not far from it ;) but there are some differences ... let me show you what I mean.

    [overclockersonline.com]

    - Black Lian Li PC61 case made entirely out of aluminium
    - 4 front USB ports
    - Dual 80mm intake fans with rheobus
    - 1 80mm fan behind CPU to take out hot air
    - Complete Z4 watercoolingkit consisting of:
    - Z4 waterblock
    - 5"x7" radiator with top blowhole
    - 120mm Sunon fan to cool down the radiator
    - CNC machined reservoir 100% aluminium
    - Clear tubing
    - Manual
    - CPU shim
    - Artic Silver II
    - Funnel (to fill the water reservoir)

    Thats what you get when you buy a "Heat Seeker". Not a bad deal huh? Lets take a closer look at the specs now.

    [overclockersonline.com]

    As said, Overclockers Hideout uses a Lian Li case as the base of their watercooling box. Although Lian Li cases are far from cheap, they offer a very high quality level and they look so damn fine :). For the "Heat Seeker", Overclockers Hideout chose a Lian Li PC61, which is a cool looking black case made entirely out of aluminium. Besides that, the case comes with a small USB hub, offering you 4 USB ports! This gadget wont do much good for me, but people who have their box on their desk will use these ports a lot to connect joysticks, game pads or other USB devices.
    The entire case can be opened up or closed without tools, as everything is done with thumbscrews. The only part where youll need a screwdriver is when you install the motherboard, the hard drives and the cd-rom. All the other stuff is tool-less.

    [overclockersonline.com]

    Lian Li equiped the PC61 with that handy rheobus, which controls the two 80mm fans bringing cold air in the case. The rheobus has three values: L, M, H or Low, Middle and High. You dont need a nuclear science degree to understand that the "L" setting runs the fans at a low, no noise speed whereas the "H" tab will add some noise to your setup, but also more airflow. The "M" setting sits somewhere in the middle.

    [overclockersonline.com]

    Both fans are sitting behind an easy to remove and washable dust filter, making sure no filthy crap can touch that GF3 Ti 500! Enough blabbering about the Lian Li case, for more details look at this review [overclockersonline.com] and this one [overclockersonline.com], both reviews of some sweet Lian Li cases.

    [overclockersonline.com]

    The most important part of the Z4 watercooling kit, is of course the Z4 waterblock. Although Z4 makes you think of a new BMW roadster, I can reassure you that it is a waterblock :). The finishing is excellent and the performance is very good to say the least, but Ill get back to that later on. For more detail on the Z4 waterblock I suggest that you read the review [overclockersonline.com] I made a few weeks ago.

    [overclockersonline.com]

    Apart from the waterblock, there are two other important parts of a watercooler: the water reservoir and the radiator. The radiator that is used in the "Heat Seeker" is one I saw before in kits from OCH and CPU F/X. Dont let the age fool you, the performance is still up to date, especially when you look at the size of it. Something to point out about the Z4 radiator is that it does not slow the waterflow down, unlike some other radiators out there. The radiator is located at the top front of the PC61, just above the cd-rom bays. A radiator needs to be cooled in order to perform as planned, so the engineers at OCH installed a blowhole above it. The cut is perfect and with a 120mm Sunon fan preinstalled you cant go wrong. The fan grill is also present, so dont worry about chopping of a finger or two ...

    [overclockersonline.com]

    There is also a bad side on the placement of the radiator: you loose one cd-rom bay. There was no other way to install the radiator and still get sufficient cooling to it, so I guess well just have to learn to live with it. Besides, the only way you wont loose a cd-rom bay, is by getting a very large case or put the radiator on the exterior of the case. None of these options were available as it would make the "Heat Seeker" a lot less mobile, scaring of people who often go to LANs.

    [overclockersonline.com]

    Last but not least, there is the Z4 water reservoir. This baby can hold about 1.5 liter/0.25 gallon of water, comes with a 145GPH waterpump available in 120v and 230v edition, anodized fittings, a knurled filler cap with an O-ring seal, a non-leak cord, mounting points for LANs and to conclude: it is made entirely out of CNC machined aluminium! Filling the unit is done with the included funnel, making it dead easy to fill it up to the top without spilling a drop ... ow yeah :). Once you filled it up, turn the filler cap until it sits tight. Thanks to the rubber O-ring no water will escape this way. The reservoir also has a non-leak cord, which basically means that there is a metal cover on the hole where the power cord leaves the reservoir, again equipped with a rubber sealing making sure no water is spilled. Once filled and closed up, you can shake this baby as much as you want, there isnt water coming out of it. This leaves me with a good feeling when travelling to my buddies with my rig ... as arriving there with an aquarium of computer hardware sucks big time.

    [overclockersonline.com]

    The tubing is preinstalled as well, so you wont have to worry about cutting it too long or too short ...

    [overclockersonline.com]

    Also note that an Athlon XP/MP shim is included, as well as a tube of Artic Silver II. No more core crushing and the best thermal paste currently available ... what more can you ask for.

    [overclockersonline.com]

    So you know what you get ... lets see how the installation takes place ...


    Page 3 : Installation

    Installation

    The "Heat Seeker" has been made in a way that even a watercooling newbie can get the system up and running in no time! OCH includes a very well written manual with pictures, text, explanations, examples, ... everything you need to get the job done.

    [overclockersonline.com]

    To be honest, they do all the work for you. The only thing you have to do is install the Z4 waterblock onto your motherboard and connect the tubing to it. Once you done that, fill the water reservoir with the supplied funnel and youre all set. Thats it :).

    I want to point out that the Z4 waterblock comes with a very good mounting system. There are two black, plastic tabs included that fit your motherboard perfectly. You attach both with included plastic bolts through the motherboard. Then you bolt the Z4 to these black tabs with 4 metal screws. What does this mean? It means that the Z4 waterblock is attached to your processor through the motherboard, which is the safest way to mount it! Be careful when you bolt down the block to the processor, because if you bolt them down too much you can kill your motherboard! And the good part is, you dont have to remove your motherboard to remove the block from the CPU! Note that these black tabs are "Overclockers Hideout Exclusive" and you wont find them anywhere else.

    [overclockersonline.com]

    To get the power cord out of the case, there is a predrilled hole in one of the slot covers. The power cord comes with connectors so you can disconnect the "head" of it to be able to push the cable through that hole. Good thinking!

    [overclockersonline.com]

    [overclockersonline.com]

    The water reservoir is installed in the removable hdd rack that comes with all Lian Li cases. Because of this, you loose some hdd mounts, but dont worry, there are enough left to fulfil the average Joes needs :).

    [overclockersonline.com]

    [overclockersonline.com]



    Page 4 : Testing

    Testing

    In order to see how good the "Heat Seeker" performs, I installed one of my own rigs in the unit. Here is a short description:

    [overclockersonline.com]

    - ABIT KR7A-RAID
    - AMD Athlon 1400
    - 2x256MB DDR2100 Crucial
    - ABIT GeForce 3 Ti 200
    - Accton NIC
    - Windows 2000 + SP2 + VIA drivers + Detonator drivers

    To give the setup a run for its money, I overclocked the processor to 1.6GHz with a core voltage of 1.85v and ran some prime95 and RC5 loving on it :). After 30 minutes temperatures were measured and compared to the same tests with some of the best air cooled heatsinks out there. All aircooled heatsinks were tested at default speed (1.4GHz). The Heat Seeker was tested at default speed (1.4GHz) and overclocked (1.6GHz).





    As you can see, the "Heat Seeker" is performing very well, and leaving the competition with nothing but dust in their face. I am sure that the Lian Li case is pulling its weight in the results as well, because an aluminium case will definitely get the heat away faster than a normal steel casing. All in all I am very pleased with the results and I am not ashamed to show them to my friends and colleagues :). Note that all tests were run at a room temperature of approximately 21 degrees celcius. Another advantage of the Heat Seeker is the noise ... it is much more quiet than those high RPM fans installed on most aircooled heatsinks :).


    Page 5 : Conclusion

    Conclusion

    [overclockersonline.com]

    The "Heat Seeker" is one great product that makes watercooling accessible for everyone out there. The quality is perfect and the kit comes with everything you need to build yourself a well performing and good looking system. The price seems high, but let me remind you that it contains not only the entire Z4 watercooler setup, it also contains a full featured PC61 Lian Li case and we all know that these beauties dont come cheap! Would I recommend this product? If you can afford it, this is one great buy, so yes I have no problem putting it on my wish list :). Note that Overclockers Hideout gives you the possibility to put your own watercooler together: you can choose your radiator, reservoir, ... everything according to your needs and budget. In short, the "Heat Seeker" offers astonishing quality and performance for the right price, and therefore it receives the official Overclockers Online Power Award.



    Good

    - Quality
    - Bundle
    - Performance
    - Looks

    Bad

    - Not cheap
    - Be careful with the bolts to mount the block to the CPU ;)


  • One of the main reasons to have an aluminum case is that it dissapates heat better. My question is this: is the radiator directly bolted down to the aluminum? If so, this is a great idea!

    Other than that, from the transcript I read (w/o pictures) it uses a blowhole. Now, since this is for the radiator, I will let it slide, but otherwise, if your case needs a blowhole, you have a poor case design. Nuff Said.

  • Let me get this straight... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Isldeur ( 125133 ) on Saturday December 29, 2001 @12:50PM (#2762347)
    O.k., let me get this straight. I'm supposed to spend $350 bucks on a specialist possibly overly-complicated (and therefore prone to failure) water-cooled case so that I can clock my CPU at a higher frequency than what it was built for.

    OR I could use that money to buy the following (from pricewatch):
    • $67 for 256 Megs DDR 2700 Ram.

    • $135 for an Athlon XP 1700+



    which leaves ~$150 for a super mainboard and just use my normal case.

    Sorry, this sort of thing never made much sense to me.
    • Well, overclocking was never regarded as a practical hobby. A lot of overclockers are just excited by getting some extra mHz out of their processor.

      And besides, lets say you did buy that chip. If you were a zany overclocker, you could probably get another 200 or 300 mHz out of that chip, which could save you from buying an XP 1900+. That is until it melts. :P

    • Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)

      by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Saturday December 29, 2001 @03:08PM (#2762850)
      Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • wow, DDR 2700 ram, eh? you do realize that unless you OC, that that ram is just as good as 2100. When you start OCing the front side bus, thats where you get the real preformance. Please tell me that you would like to have a 1.8Ghz (real gigs, not AMD gigs) TBird? I have a friend that was able to do that. Sure the case is extremely expensive, and you can find it other places. But remember, the $350 is a 1 time cost, while the performance gain is evident everytime you turn on the computer.
    • I can totally see your point, as such I have never had a water cooled system and then over clocked it. But now I'm in the situation where my parents have a computer that is inside a desk (it's in the living room so they don't want an ugly computer case showing) with poor circulation. The problem with this the thing has a tendancy to heat up quite fast. It's just an athlon 1ghz, nothing terribly high end like in the article. But I do wonder if I system like the Z4 would allow the computer to run better in an area with poor curculation.

      Also, with it being quieter that would be another bonus.

      Then again $350 USD to a Canadian like myself would hurt (hell, it's another complete athlon 1ghz system).

      -Cuyler
  • I am interested in a case which *quietly* disipates heat from the internal components without cutting blow holes in the top of the case.

    I would buy a new case that had a modular radiator (the heat exhange unit) which supported four exchangers and four liquid cooling blocks. The user could easily choose between parallel and serial piping configurations of the exchangers/blocks. The radiator (exchanger) would be mounted about 2" from the top of the case. Low speed (quiet) fans would blow air through the radiator in volume, hence the radiator should be as large as possible. A ridge vent, like on the top of a house, would be used to exhaust the heated air out the sides of the case leaving the top of the case a solid piece. Integrating the force fluid pump into the bottom of the case seems logical.

    The quiet power supplies offerred today seem good enough and don't need to be liquid cooled.
  • Does anyone remember the days when they cooled the rooms the computers were in? I remember going into my college computer lab and the AC was set to 50 degrees, just to cool the CAD computers. The moral of this comment is...Just buy a commercial grade Air Conditioner for your house, set it to "Artic" and all your PC's can be overclocked to 10ghz
    • Remember? I remember like it was yesterday, oh wait, it was yesterday. Modern computer centers (or whatever you local organization calls them) are still air-conditioned heavily year round to combat the heat generated by all of the equiptment. Remember, the power that a computer draws is only half of the equation, you have to get all of that power (in the form of waste heat) back out of the room (which takes more power, which generates more heat...).
  • Just buy a small commercial chiller and put your PC in it. Why are people still doing this crap with water?

    Besides, if you really wanted something that was portable you would get a laptop.
  • You can tell you are a geek when you get a woody from looking at a freaken case.
  • The end of overclocking probably isn't far off. Signal propagation delay, rather than gate delay, is starting to limit CPU performance. Signal propagation delay is, of course, limited by the speed of light. Temperature and voltage don't matter.

    I'm not sure how far off this is, but it's getting close. I hear it talked about by people who design ICs.

    Supercomputers hit this wall years ago, and it killed Cray-type supercomputers, with physically-big CPUs built out of very fast logic elements. Seymour Cray once commented on one of his machines that if the gate delays were zero, it would only be 20% or so faster. Most of the delay was in the wires. All modern supercomputers are thus arrays of single-chip microprocessors, and Cray is defunct.

    • Signal propogation delay is NOT limited by the speed of light, it is limited by electron drift speed in the wires. That's why completely optical systems are only inherently faster once gate delay is less than signal propogation delay...
  • I'll stick to the cardinal rule of computing.

    Computer+Water=Bad News

    Besides. Anything overclocked to even *twice* it's manufactured spec is STILL going to be obsolete in 6-8 months.

    That equals time well wasted.

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