Nautilus 500 Question(s)

[Mr. Scary]

I have a 500, mounted to a Q6600 oc'd to 3.3. It's a DIY dedicated folder. my question(s) are:

 

1. if i double the length of the cooling lines that'll double the amount of coolant. will that help?

2. how do you remove tiny air bubbles from the lines?

3. how often should i be checking to refill?

4. why is the incoming tube to the waterblock warm almost as much as the outgoing. seems to me the liquid isn't getting cooled enough.

5. does the fan in the unit suck from the top and blow down through the coils? if so will putting another fan on top the vent on the top of the unit help??

6. any other suggestions would sure be welcomed. i can't believe this rig runs hotter than my air cooled stock hsf QX6850 at 3.5ghz.

 

thanx in advance!

 

Mr. $cary

[valiant]

1. if i double the length of the cooling lines that'll double the amount of coolant. will that help?

 

Yes....but by VERY VERY little. The extra coolant will take very slightly longer to heat up and there will be some extra loss of heat through the extra plastic tubing.......but probably not even measurable. You could do what I did and incorporate a large passive radiator (8 Cape Cora units). That allowed me to turn the N500 fan off completely (you have to take the cover off to disconnect the fan) or keep it turned on for lower temps.

 

2. how do you remove tiny air bubbles from the lines?

 

They will dissipate over time......a very short period of time; maybe 15 mins. I'm a bit puzzled as to why you're having problems with this after more than 15 mins running the unit.

 

3. how often should i be checking to refill?

 

Probably not more than once every three months....possibly six months. It depends on the concentration of coolant. The higher the concentration the less evaporation. The longer the loop, the higher the evaporation.

 

4. why is the incoming tube to the waterblock warm almost as much as the outgoing. seems to me the liquid isn't getting cooled enough.

 

I thought the same thing. It's counter-intuitive but a factor of basic thermodynamics. The coolant is circulating far too fast for any significant difference of temperature to manifest itself. Even when I did a mod to reduce the speed of the pump by around 50%, there's still no measurable difference in temperature; either between the incoming and outgoing lines, or overall. This is normal.

 

5. does the fan in the unit suck from the top and blow down through the coils?

 

No, the other way around. I tried it both ways and it seems to make little or no difference to temps.

 

if so will putting another fan on top the vent on the top of the unit help??

 

It would help but not by much. You can get an idea of how much it might help by looking at the differences in temps between the fan set at high speed and low speed. It's a case of exponentially diminishing returns as you push more air through the radiator; and as the temperature of the coolant approaches that of the air.....but never actually gets there, no matter how much air you push through.

 

 

6. any other suggestions would sure be welcomed. i can't believe this rig runs hotter than my air cooled stock hsf QX6850 at 3.5ghz.

 

See my previous posts for details of my mods, which I'm now very pleased with. With the advent of better air cooling technology (fans) the advantage of water-cooling generally has diminished. The BIG advantage of water cooling is a reduction in noise, but unfortunately, in the case of the N500, you won't see any of those noise advantages unless you do some serious mod'ing. Perhaps that's why Corsair seems to have stopped pushing the N500.

 

I'm very pleased with the N500, but only as a starting point to get my system whisper quiet. To achieve that, and in descending order of affect (effect?.....interesting one!) on noise, you need to:

 

1) The pump makes the most noise. Reduce the voltage to the pump by re-wiring it to either a GOOD fan controller or the motherboard fan-header. Be careful with the latter because some motherboards won't cope with the high current. My ABIT IP35 was fine. Then use Speedfan to automatically reduce the pump speed to just above stalling point.

 

2) Get rid of the N500 fan by introducing a large passive radiator. You can still keep it there if you like but you'll only need to turn it on if you're running at load or if you're paranoid about getting permanently lower temps. I have the same Q6600 as you, which I overclock to 3.6 Ghz and I never use the fan. But then, with it off and when running at full load, I can hit 69'C. Unlike most people, I'm not worried about that. I only hit stability problems when temps reach into the low 70's. It probably reduces the life of my processor, but I'll be buying a new PC long before the CPU is likely to give up the ghost due to high temps. If you rewire the fan to another fan-header on your motherboard then, again, you can use Speedfan to control it automatically.

 

3) Get rid of the GPU fan by getting a GPU waterblock.

 

4) Get rid of the top plastic cover of the N500. It will look unsightly as a result, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't find a way to stop it causing noise through vibration. It's a case of bad design but, having said that, its contribution to noise only becomes obvious as you eliminate other sources. Obviously, you'll have to disconnect the fan and just lay it on top of the radiator.

 

Having done all the above, I'm pretty dubious about the value of other mods I've seen spoken of. Buying a new bigger fan didn't make much difference to anything. Replacing the radiator with a larger one might help a little, but not as much as spending your money on some of the above.

[Mr. Scary]

Valiant, thank you so much for such an awesome response! 102 views and one response, i was a bit surprised! :sigh!: were can i find these cape cora things and are you currently using them? can i just splice them into the N500 loop on the way back to the unit? will that stress the pump any?

 

lastly, how do you pop that grill off the top without destroying it??

 

thanx again for the reply, i'm gonna read it over several more times and then decide what to do.

 

i'm running 59,61,65,66*C full load, folding 24/7 at 3.1ghz with the Vcore at 1.375v.

 

what settings did you use to get a stable 3.6, i'm totally impressed. also, this is a 'naked folder' mounted in the open, caseless!

 

M$

[valiant]

were can i find these cape cora things and are you currently using them? can i just splice them into the N500 loop on the way back to the unit?

 

I'm in the UK, so I'm not sure if you can buy them elsewhere. Google is your friend! But any passive radiator will do. There are a number on the market. In the case of the Cape Cora's, you can buy them in one's, four's and six's. I found that it took eight of the things in series to allow me to operate at load without the fan.

 

will that stress the pump any?

 

That pump is amazingly powerful. As I said, I have it operating at about half speed (by lowering the voltage to it) and it's still driving the cpu and gpu waterblocks, together with the large Cape Cora radiator, with no problems.

 

lastly, how do you pop that grill off the top without destroying it??

 

When you take the case apart, it's pretty obvious. The major problem I found was that it's screwed onto four plastic posts with Toric (T5) screws. You have to have a special screwdriver to unscrew them. I suspect you might be able to remove them using a good vice-grips, IF you're prepared to cut off the little plastic washers beforehand. Have a look and you'll see what I mean. I'm a complete girl's-blouse when it comes to mechanical/electrical/plumbing stuff, hardly knowing one end of a screwdriver from the other, so if I can do these mods anyone can!

 

what settings did you use to get a stable 3.6

 

I'd need to reboot to find out:D:. I know that my VCore is above 1.40. But it's a little pointless anyway because the settings will depend on a whole range of factors, including your motherboard and memory. The best thing to do is to go to your motherboard manufacturer's web site and, if they have a forum, have a look at what other people are doing.

 

Also, have a look at my other posts on here. Keep in mind that I was posting as I was learning and I may have contradicted myself in later posts.