A newbie question before going on chiller powered watercooling

ci2kla · 10-11-2009, 08:51 PM

Hey guys I'm currently using traditional radiator w/ fan cooled watercooling but seems the performance is not as good as expected due to high ambient temperature. Therefore I'm planning to buy a chiller to improve the temp. However some experianced member seems uses huge water tank as reservoir. So here's my question. Does that huge reservoir is a must for chilled water cooling build? BTW I'm planning to buy a Hailea HC-300A / 350A / 150A to cool a single i7 860 or maybe plus a GTX 275. Any help will be much appreciated and thanks in advance.

Dark Bishop · 10-12-2009, 12:46 AM

the reasoning behind the large reservoir is that it will take longer for the water to warm with load, its not required but I would highly recommend some kind of large volume reservoir.

Naja002 · 10-12-2009, 02:11 AM

Agreed.

The large res just reduces the speed that the water heats up. It allows to chiller to run longer when on and remain off longer....the chiller cycles less.

ci2kla · 10-12-2009, 02:29 AM

Oh I got the idea....thank you guys

Seems it's used to save up electricity cost and increase the chiller's lifetime so it's 'better to have' but not a 'must'

Naja002 · 10-12-2009, 03:17 AM

right, except that you're not really going to save on electricity costs....in the end it works out about the same....the difference is negligible.

It's mainly to save wear-n-tear on the unit, and to help make sure that the unit shuts off for the generally recommended 3-5 min minimum. Less cycling=better.