Asetek Antartica Waterchill System.

BeatFreak

I just finished building by H2O cooled system and in the light of recent request for info on H2O and user reviews I decided I'd do my bit .

I bought a Asetek Antartica (sorry can't lnk to the Asetek site doesn't like FireFox ) it's a complete set so I didn't have to worry about what components to buy.

The installation can be a bit of a bitch to be perfectly honest . I wasn't happy with the configuration so I had to bleed the system a number of times (messy) to get it right. But overall it doesn't require a huge amount of skill, mostly just patience and time Basically you want to make sure that everything is working perfectly outside the case before you hang it over your precious €500 GFX card.

I actually ended up getting a faulty NB block which was leaking from the block, as opposed to leaking from hose or the socket. Only for I decided to have another test run inside the case with everything set up but no cards/power in/on I'm pretty sure I'd be in tears right now .

But luckily I copped the leak and I'm going to get a new NB block. Which brings me right onto my next point. I used to be a devout AMD fanboy but decided that I'd like a change and bought myself a shiney "impeccably well built" Pentium IV and up untill now I thought Intel did everything right and always had the best designs/systems in place. But NEWSFLASH ! They screwed up... The mounting system for the NB in a intel compatible mobo has to be the most laughable system I've ever seen on any mobo 486 upwards. For anyone who doesn't know it consists of 4 wire loops as opposed to 2 mounting holes (as you'll find on AMD boards). Which results in the NB block having to be mounted with, wait for it, CABLETIES (?!?!?!). Maybe I'm getting a little over excited here but I think you'll find cableties are hardly a sufficiant method of mounting any kinda of hardware, except, maybe your stray PSU cables...[/rant]

Performance wise this kit is fantastic, Idle around 35/36 degrees a drop of about 10 degrees and under load about 46/47 a drop of around 14 degrees (on a 3.2C clocked at 3.8). Noise wise it's not silent by anymeans but it's just about bareable, once I get myself a decent fan controller I'm sure it will drop down the the "barely audible" level when idle. Comparing this system to my previous Vapochill system, I'd have to say I'm far happier with this that I was with my Vapo for a couple of reasons. Main reason being the noise level and the performance of H2O systems. Realistically speaking the performance gain from having a phase change cooling system as opposed to H2O is only about 20/25% In my case probably less. I've got this 3.2 @ 3.8 and I'll probably squeeze another 100+ mhz out of her now that the H2O is set up. But with the vapo I'd probably hit 4Ghz maybe slightly more and for what? 20db's of noise a nice and high ESB bill and a very large hole in my wallet.

I paid €300 for this kit (from the UK which brought up the price) which is atleast half what i paid for the Vapo. And I highly recommend the Asetek kits especially for anyone starting off.

P.S Sorry there wasn't more info on what to buy, but this is my first H2O kit so I don't know either but I thought I'd let you guys know how I got on anyway. Oh and no pics at the moment the gf took my camera but I'll have some soon

Col_Loki

Nice choice i must say!! CPU cooler based on the Whitewater......... cant go wrong there. Great choice in the kits, nice little review aswell !!

BeatFreak

Sorry to pull up an old post, but after a long leave of absence I've gotten my hands on my camera again So here are the promised pics for those of you who are curious.

Since the original post not much has changed really, I decided to scrap the NB altogether for the moment untill I find a decent NB with a decent mounting system. I've also decided not to add a waterblock to the GFX yet because I'm expecting a X800XT as soon as they arrive. And the fact that my 9800XT reaches about 60 degrees under load which would give a significant rise to the watertemps and as a result the CPU temps, which is NOT good. Oh and there's a new fancontroller and few new HDD's. Anyways...

The window



Front panel



Oh yeah and I dyed the water with a highlighter, just break it open and throw the sponge into your reservoir for a while and your flying Thanks to CombatCow for that tip

Col_Loki

Nice job, looks very neat in there i must say!! Hows the noise level, get it sorted ?

Still running at 3.8ghz, what sort of 3d marks are you pulling?

PS i like the way you plop the computer on old PC Pro mags..........

BeatFreak

Thank you

It's tidy enough I guess but not nearly tidy enough, I've got my eye on some spiral wrap and some nicer looking rounded ide cables and sata cables which will go better with the current colour scheme.

In terms of noise, its far better than it was the noisiest thing in the machine now would be the 120x120x38mm on the rad which is running at 7V but still gives off a slight drone. Unfortunately for aesthetic reasons I had to go with the Coolermaster Aerogate I which is 7 to 12 volt, I would have far prefered a 0 to 12 volt but I couldn't find one that looked in anyway decent. I'm thinking about modding the Aerogate with a few high resistance potentiometers at a later stage which would make the machine virtually silent when idle.

She's still at 3.8ghz, I've been busy of late and I've only just finished getting the H2O setup so I haven't got a chance to push her any harder, but I will don't worry about that I'll wait for a drunken night out then get into some hardcore OC'ing and really make the P4 work for it's money

She was hitting around the 6,800 mark the last time I checked iirc but I'm not going to be benching her again till I get my hands on a X800XT which hopefully will be soon enough.

There's so many uses for old copies of PC Pro, I'd never throw them out, especially handy in this case. Saves me disconnecting all the wires at the back of the case I just slide her out onto the PC Pros and save myself 10 minutes fidgeting at cables with my head jammed behind the desk

jozi

Looks cool. Wouldn't mind giving watercooling ago but i dont need it or have the money for it.
Is that a antec sonata chassis but with different front sides top etc? The inside looks the same, hard disks turned at 90 degrees anyway, as my sonata.

Jozi

BeatFreak

Nope it's not a Sonata, it's a Antec P160, it's kinda like the Sonatas big brother (or is it the Super Lanboys big brother?) It's one of the larger cases in the Antec range anyways. All Antec cases have the sidemounting HDD system, I guess they are quite similar on the inside but there's quite alot more space in the P160.

This watercooling kit only set me back about 200/250 eurons iirc, it's basically a starter kit and was very easy to install comes with everything in one box and has a great manual. All you need with watercooling is alot of patience, took me around 10 hours in total to get this one up and running