Results 1 to 9 of 9

Thread: Modding the OCZ Hydroflow for Core i7

  1. #1
    Xtreme Enthusiast
    Join Date
    Jul 2008
    Location
    Winterthur, Switzerland
    Posts
    584

    Modding the OCZ Hydroflow for Core i7

    In my last waterblock roundup (this one), the OCZ Hydroflow HF-MK1 was featured. It's a very affordable block that, according to some tests I saw, performed quite well on Core2 processors.




    Unfortunately, it's performance on the i7 was pretty bad. While it's nicely unrestrictive, I measured the worst temperatures out of all 16 blocks tested with the Hydroflow. Not so thrilling.

    Since it had done well in other tests, I was wondering why this might be. One thing about the Hydroflow was immediately apparent:



    The Hydroflow has a stepped base and the stepped area is relatively small. I can imagine that this area is simply too small for an i7, which has a considerably larger die-area than previous CPU generations.

    So, I started lapping down the surface to see if it would make a differnece.

    Since it's a lot of material that needs to be removed, I used a Dremel for some rough work:



    After that, I got busy lapping it down using the same method that I also use for lapping CPU-heatspreaders: Sheet of glass and sandpaper of different grits.



    It took way too long to get the surface flat... one of the problems I encountered is that there was a slight trough around the edges of the stepped part of the base. So it wasn't enough to just lap down that step, I needed to lap down the entire surface of the block further than I had expected.
    After a hell of a lot of work, I finally saw a completely even surface and lapped that with continually finer grains until I finished the surface off with 1200 grit sandpaper. This is what the end-result looked like:



    Now, while I was at it, I tried some more modifications, to try and improve the performance of this block.

    Increased mounting pressure. The screws that come with the Hydroflow can only be tightened to a certain degree before they are stopped on the spacers (or whatever those things are called in english...). So I replaced the spacers with shorter ones. This allowed me to increase mounting pressure significantly.

    Bowing the surface. I placed an O-Ring in the centre of the block and made sure that I tightened the top onto it very firmly. This should produce more bow than usual on the block's surface.

    Polish. I polished the surface to see if it made a difference to the unpolished one.


    Here are the results (testing methology same as always, see my wb-roundups for details):



    The numbers in front of the labels show in which order the mods were applied. This means that "3) Increased pressure" is also lapped, "4) Bowed base" is also lapped and with increased mounting pressure etc.

    As we can see, increasing the mounting pressure is very important. This is obviously the case because after lapping, the base has become thinner (by probably more than 1mm) so the original spacers are now too long.
    Combined with the increased mounting pressure, lapping the base drops the temperatures by a respectable 1.9 K. The other modifications fail to further improve the block's performance, though.
    Still, 1.9 K is quite good. It still doesn't make the Hydroflow a particularly good block, when compared to others, but that's not mainly what this was about.

    My personal conclusion from this is that the Hydroflow has some potential, even on the i7. If OCZ decide to make a version with a flat base and maybe do some minor tweaking on the pin-structure (in their place, I would test what happens if the pins are made slighty smaller), the Hydroflow would still be a block worth recommending to anyone who doesn't want to spend a ton of cash.

    That's that. Your thoughts and comments on this are greatly appreciated.

    Regards,
    Shane

  2. #2
    Xtreme Mentor
    Join Date
    Sep 2006
    Posts
    2,834
    That seems like a lot of work for 1.9 degrees difference, but good on you for exploring all avenues. Information is priceless.

    For my part I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream.

    ..

  3. #3
    Xtreme Mentor
    Join Date
    May 2005
    Location
    Westlake Village, West Hills
    Posts
    3,046
    sort of lousy results in my opinion, but i love the mod idea, good work!
    PC Lab Qmicra V2 Case SFFi7 950 4.4GHz 200 x 22 1.36 volts
    Cooled by Swiftech GTZ - CPX-Pro - MCR420+MCR320+MCR220 | Completely Silent loads at 62c
    GTX 470 EVGA SuperClocked Plain stock
    12 Gigs OCZ Reaper DDR3 1600MHz) 8-8-8-24
    ASUS Rampage Gene II |Four OCZ Vertex 2 in RAID-0(60Gig x 4) | WD 2000Gig Storage


    Theater ::: Panasonic G20 50" Plasma | Onkyo SC5508 Processor | Emotiva XPA-5 and XPA-2 | CSi A6 Center| 2 x Polk RTi A9 Front Towers| 2 x Klipsch RW-12d
    Lian-LI HTPC | Panasonic Blu Ray 655k| APC AV J10BLK Conditioner |

  4. #4
    Xtreme Addict
    Join Date
    Jul 2007
    Location
    Canada
    Posts
    1,397
    Wow, you actually lapped out the step? You sir, truly have the patience of Job.

    Nicely done, very interesting results. Hope OCZ sees this.
    i7 2600K | ASUS Maximus IV GENE-Z | GTX Titan | Corsair DDR3-2133

  5. #5
    Xtreme Addict
    Join Date
    Feb 2005
    Location
    USA
    Posts
    1,692
    Quote Originally Posted by YukonTrooper View Post
    That seems like a lot of work for 1.9 degrees difference, but good on you for exploring all avenues. Information is priceless.
    +1

    totally not worth the time and effort for that 2 degree, better off selling it and get a different one.
    Core i7 920 D0 3844A717 4.40Ghz HT on @1.36v (LinX/Prime/3D stable), Corsair 850W, 12GB OCZ Platinum 1600, P6T Deluxe V2, EVGA GTX 285 SS, OCZ Vortex SSD 30GB x3 RAID0, HAF 932.
    Water Cooling Setup: XSPC RX360, MCP355 + XSPC Res Top, Swiftech GTZ, 1/2" Tygon, Scythe S-Flex SFF21F push, 20mm yateloon D12SL-12C pull.


    Opteron 148 CABNE 0528 GPMW 3.1Ghz @1.6v Prime Stable. Westy 37" LVM-37W3, DFI Venus 975, 2GB TeamX Cronus Micron, GSkill HZ, Sapphire X1900XTX, Zippy 700W, X-Fi Xtrememusic, 36GB Raptors x2 @Raid-0.
    WC Setup: PA120.3 +Shroud, MCP655, STORM, MCW60, 1/2" Tygon, mini res, Yate Loon.

  6. #6
    Unoriginal Macho Energy
    Join Date
    Dec 2002
    Posts
    3,158
    What this tells me is that the step is too big... do we know the dimensions of the step? One thing I noticed the other day, I build my first i7 system and the stock HSF from intel has a TINY contact patch.... I mean, like the size of a US nickel, and round. Food for thought.

    *:-.,_,.-:*'``'*:-.,_,.-:*'``'*:-.,_,.-:*'``'*:-.,_,.-:*'``'*:-.,_,.-:*
    GTZ --> MCW-NBMAX --> EK FC --> PA 120.3 --> PA 160.1 --> 2x DDC Ultras in Series --> Custom Clear Res
    "Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity."
    *:-.,_,.-:*'``'*:-.,_,.-:*'``'*:-.,_,.-:*'``'*:-.,_,.-:*'``'*:-.,_,.-:*

    Quote Originally Posted by ranker View Post
    Did you just get hit in the head with a heavy object? Because obviously you're failing at reading comprehension.

  7. #7
    Xtreme Enthusiast
    Join Date
    Jul 2008
    Location
    Winterthur, Switzerland
    Posts
    584
    Unfortunately, I didn't measure it before I lapped it down...

    It's true that the stock heatsink's contact surface is tiny, but then, the stock heatsink is crap.

  8. #8
    Xtreme Enthusiast
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Posts
    755
    Great work, HESmelaugh, I'm always glad to see someone innovating and trying new things. Thank you for sharing! I've been thinking about modding my old storm.
    Current Project: City of Light, (sortof) Updated 3/25 - A New Arrival

  9. #9
    I am Xtreme
    Join Date
    Sep 2006
    Posts
    10,374
    Step is 24mm x 24mm...
    Question : Why do some overclockers switch into d*ckmode when money is involved

    Remark : They call me Pro Asus Saaya yupp, I agree

Bookmarks

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •