Installation – Continued
Reservoir and Pump
For mounting the pump and reservoir I went with the provided mounting bracket and positioned the assembly in the bottom of my case as most of the drive bays are (or soon will be) filled. The suction cup feet do a good job of isolating the small amount of vibration and noise generated by the pump. The suction cups do a good job of holding the pump in position if sitting on a horizontal surface but if you decide to mount the pump some other way then some added security may be required (wire ties, double sided tape, Velcro, etc).
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I ran into a minor problem with routing the return water line back into the reservoir. The ports on the reservoir are positioned at 90º, which for my installation requires a rather tight bend coming into the reservoir. I would like to see Asetek include an additional port in the base of the reservoir at 180º with a blanking plug. That way, users could decide which orientation (90º or 180º) works best for them.
Waterblocks
Each of the three waterblocks came with universal mounts that allow them to fit a broad range of boards and processors. The WaterChill Owner’s Manual goes into great detail on how to mount the waterblocks. Installing the CPU and Chipset waterblocks requires access to the back of the board so it must be removed if already installed in the PC.
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I removed the NB heatsink and installed the hardware for mounting the CPU waterblock. A quick clearance check with the Antarctica waterblock made it obvious it would not fit my EP-8RDA+ motherboard without a minor modification.
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The center K8 mounting lug interfered with the row of capacitors above the CPU socket.
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Removing this lug allowed it to fit just fine (I trimmed it off with a hack saw and file).
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Here is a picture of the Antarctica waterblock mounted on top of the AMD Athlon XP-2400 with the NB waterblock nestled nicely into place on top of the AMD North Bridge.
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I installed the VGA waterblock onto the GPU of my GeForce4 FX-440 video card with only a minor problem. I suspect that when I inserted the tubing into the VGA waterblock (which took a lot of force) I disturbed the mount. A second try proved successful.
Connecting the Parts
OK, now that all of the larger components are installed it’s time to hook everything up. Pay careful attention to the routing of tubing to insure all runs are as short as reasonably possible and there are no sharp bends that could lead to crimping the tubes.
It is very important to have a clean, straight cut at the end of each tube to insure a good seal when pushed into the push-on fittings. Be careful when inserting the tubes into the waterblock fittings that you don’t disturb the alignment of the waterblock, especially the VGA waterblock.
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The vinyl tubing supplied with the WaterChill kit is fairly rigid. It can frequently help to soak a piece of tubing in very hot water prior to installation to soften it up. Once the tubing cools down to room temperature it will tend to take the shape it was formed into rather than resist bending. This can also help minimize the side loading of waterblocks caused by stiff tubing and tight bends.
I mounted the Control Unit behind the pump with double-sided tape. The radiator fans plug in here as well as a FDD power connector. The pump power cord was routed out the back of the case thru the bottom PCI card slot.
Routing the power cord into the case requires sliding the power cord and PCI bracket thru an open PCI slot from the rear first and then securing it in place with a screw.
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The unique WaterChill power cord plugs right into the back of the PC’s power supply line cord receptacle — pretty cool.
Heya!
great test / review but
Heya!
great test / review but i have a question. according to my research this pump require 240v and as far as i know a psu only give 12v so how does this work does it have a built in adapter or is that the controller you mentioned to transform the 12v to 240v? sorry if i misspelled and dont know the word for that thing,
Best regards Naala