Corsair Nautilus 500 Radiator Modifications Improved Cooling

[uclajd]

Well, I bought one of these Nautiluses and ordered the BE Extreme. Kathi said she'd include the blue poly elbows. Gonna majorly upgrade a friend's rig with this cooling a quad.

I assume I can just chop off the brackets from the old radiator without too much problem or loss of hose, and use the snake clamps?

Thanks for a great thread.

[nrs250]

I too am going to try this mod.

My only debate is the Extreme vs. the Pro Radiator in the Series. The Pro one is thinner but I want the 4 degree C cooling and I am afraid that this thread has only tested out the extreme version.

The extra 4-5 C on the Q6600 is appealing. I will have to call Danger Den and ask about the connector referenced in this thread.

2 questions.

1) How did you go about "draining" the resovoir or getting the coolant out of the lines in the enclosure so you could work on the tubing inside the unit.
2) Did you just cut the hoses, attach the blue elbow connectors and reconnect?
3) Did it make a mess, if someone could explain the procedure for removing/pumping liquid out of the resovoir and radiator (old radiator of course) I will be all set.

This was a great thread.



Asus P5W DH
Q6600 G0 Stepping @ 3.0 Ghz, Prime95 Stable
BIOS 2103
Western Digital Raptor RAID 0
2 GB Corsair PC2-8500 Dominator @ 5-5-5-15-2

Idle: 44 C
Load: 55 C

[uclajd]

I guess you already have an up-and-running unit, since they ship empty.

I've always found a turkey baster to be helpful for both filling and emptying resevoirs.



This particular unit is a lot easier than most watercooling solutions since it is external and can be turned upside down and different angles to get fluid out of it. I guess you can use the pump for this a bit.

I cut the hoses and connected (it will be hard, so wet them first and do it before you mount the new raddy, as it can come loose from the pressure of pushing the hoses on). Use a PVC cutter for the cleanest cuts. Do not use an Xacto knife unless you want a visit to the ER, not that I have ever done that.

I actually used worm clamps just to be safe, and some teflon tape as well.

BTW, the raddy is mounted with #5 Torx screws. #5 wrenches can be hard to find. And you will have to cut a corner off of the fan to make it fit.

Good luck!!

I too am going to try this mod.

My only debate is the Extreme vs. the Pro Radiator in the Series. The Pro one is thinner but I want the 4 degree C cooling and I am afraid that this thread has only tested out the extreme version.

The extra 4-5 C on the Q6600 is appealing. I will have to call Danger Den and ask about the connector referenced in this thread.

2 questions.

1) How did you go about "draining" the resovoir or getting the coolant out of the lines in the enclosure so you could work on the tubing inside the unit.
2) Did you just cut the hoses, attach the blue elbow connectors and reconnect?
3) Did it make a mess, if someone could explain the procedure for removing/pumping liquid out of the resovoir and radiator (old radiator of course) I will be all set.

This was a great thread.



Asus P5W DH
Q6600 G0 Stepping @ 3.0 Ghz, Prime95 Stable
BIOS 2103
Western Digital Raptor RAID 0
2 GB Corsair PC2-8500 Dominator @ 5-5-5-15-2

Idle: 44 C
Load: 55 C

[nrs250]

Thanks, the turkey baster thing is a good idea.

My plan is to set up a "drain kit".

I got parts from http://www.mcmaster.com/
They were great. They have everything under the sun: elbows, quick disconnects, clamps....everything.

The "quick drain kit" basically involves a way to drain the system without touching the CPU water block. I have no desire to remove that tubing that is attached so well to the CPU-block. I basically bought some 3/8 ID hose from Lowe's and got 2 quick connect connectors from the above supplier along with some quick-grip clamps to help with draining the residual fluid in the radiator and resovoir so I could change out the radiator with minimal mess. I diagrammed it below:

Corsair.jpg

Steps for draining the radiator.

(65.45 KiB) Downloaded 126 times

My questions are when I connect a set of hoses to the quick connects and empty into a bucket, will I need the pump or can I just tip the unit and have the coolant essentially just drain through the open tubes as long as the unit is held above the level of the bucket. I read the above post so I gues tipping will be enough as I have no idea how to turn on the pump without connecting to the mother board.

I don't want to stress the pump and turning the unit on will also be a hassle.

PS: What is up with Danger Den. No one ever answers the phone there? I also wanted to try out the Danger Den "Torture Rack" Acyrilic case. Anyone have it. I wanted one that could support 2 hard drives and 2 CD-ROM/DVD drives and I called Danger Den but no answer for 3 days now. Email works but the phone is a no-go.

[uclajd]

Candidly, while I have drained many a watercooling rig, this is my first experience with this one so I can't speak intelligently on whether running dry would hurt the pump. But since all pumps start dry before you prime them, I can't see it hurting for a short term. Maybe check out Corsair's forums?

BTW, I have this thing up-and-running with a Q6600 clocked at 3.6 GHz (1.4875 V). A brief Prime 95 run on the stock Intel heatsink had this thing at 71-73C (didn't leave it long there!). On high fan speed with the Danger Den Extreme raddy and some MX-2 thermal paste, I am Prime95-ing at 53-56C. Amazing performance with this thing.

I never ran the 500 with the stock radiator so I can't give you a delta, but the thread starter did that.

BTW, I also swapped in a standard 120mm fan grill for better airflow.

Oh, and I am using my own blend of distilled water and Hy-Per Lube.

Thanks, the turkey baster thing is a good idea.

My plan is to set up a "drain kit".

I got parts from http://www.mcmaster.com/
They were great. They have everything under the sun: elbows, quick disconnects, clamps....everything.

The "quick drain kit" basically involves a way to drain the system without touching the CPU water block. I have no desire to remove that tubing that is attached so well to the CPU-block. I basically bought some 3/8 ID hose from Lowe's and got 2 quick connect connectors from the above supplier along with some quick-grip clamps to help with draining the residual fluid in the radiator and resovoir so I could change out the radiator with minimal mess. I diagrammed it below:

Corsair.jpg

My questions are when I connect a set of hoses to the quick connects and empty into a bucket, will I need the pump or can I just tip the unit and have the coolant essentially just drain through the open tubes as long as the unit is held above the level of the bucket. I read the above post so I gues tipping will be enough as I have no idea how to turn on the pump without connecting to the mother board.

I don't want to stress the pump and turning the unit on will also be a hassle.

PS: What is up with Danger Den. No one ever answers the phone there? I also wanted to try out the Danger Den "Torture Rack" Acyrilic case. Anyone have it. I wanted one that could support 2 hard drives and 2 CD-ROM/DVD drives and I called Danger Den but no answer for 3 days now. Email works but the phone is a no-go.

[nrs250]

I did it!!

It took me too long because I did some stupid things.

First, don't bother to drain. Just tilt the damn thing and use a thin torx wrench to open the spigots and drain just the radiator. There will be fluid left in there but as long as the feeder tube and the output tube is clear you are good.

Second. The Teflon tape is a must, it leaked without it at the base of the elbows. I used the blue elbows and trimmed the tubing a bit. I did not use a secondary steel clamp but I will get one to secure the tubing.

My Prime 95 Temps went from IDLE: 44 to idle 40.
LOAD on Prime 95: 55 to 48-49.

I got 5-6 C out of the new radiator. Not bad for $30 and a few Tylenol tablets for the mild headache I now have.

[uclajd]

Glad it worked out for you.

I will check the fittings for leaks too.

I did it!!

It took me too long because I did some stupid things.

First, don't bother to drain. Just tilt the damn thing and use a thin torx wrench to open the spigots and drain just the radiator. There will be fluid left in there but as long as the feeder tube and the output tube is clear you are good.

Second. The Teflon tape is a must, it leaked without it at the base of the elbows. I used the blue elbows and trimmed the tubing a bit. I did not use a secondary steel clamp but I will get one to secure the tubing.

My Prime 95 Temps went from IDLE: 44 to idle 40.
LOAD on Prime 95: 55 to 48-49.

I got 5-6 C out of the new radiator. Not bad for $30 and a few Tylenol tablets for the mild headache I now have.

[Zyklon808]

So after a long while I decided to tinker with my Nautilus 500 some more. I somehow blew out the switch in back so I replaced with with a FanMate2 that's glued to the back (on the inside, with the little knob through the hole the switch was in). Also I simplified the wiring and made a fan-grill style attachments to hold whatever fan I want inside.

I'm thinking of getting a new radiator, however I would like to give the Black Ice Extereme x-flow radiator a try. It's bloody hot here in hawaii and the ambient temp is pretty high. So this rig cools my P4 805D @ 3.8ghz 1.5v at about 44C idle and up to 68 at load! Thats with an Aero cool fan as mentioned previous posts.

Obviously I 'suffer' greatly while trying to OC in the tropics. I feel for my overclocking friends in Malaysia!

[xh1r0]

Old thread resurrection ;)

I recently installed a Nautilus and while I love the massive heat reduction (E6600 OCd to 3ghz idling around 29c), it does seem to have a significant whine to it. If I press down a little on the outer case, the whine goes away, so I'm thinking its something vibrating. Any thoughts on what might be a good vibration dampening technique?

[stev]

Old thread resurrection ;)

I recently installed a Nautilus and while I love the massive heat reduction (E6600 OCd to 3ghz idling around 29c), it does seem to have a significant whine to it. If I press down a little on the outer case, the whine goes away, so I'm thinking its something vibrating. Any thoughts on what might be a good vibration dampening technique?

Neoprene foam pads work wonders. Use them link shims between the parts. I would guess it's the pump or fan since those are the parts with any movement.

[xh1r0]

Thanks Stev, I'll give that a try. Neoprene hadn't even crossed my mind! I guess I'm just too used to it being wetsuit material ;)