Cooling: Asetek WaterChill :: Installation

Now that we've gone over the various parts of this unit, let's see how it all goes together on the board and inside the case. Naturally, you will have to remove the motherboard from the case to attach the CPU and North Bridge water blocks. You will also need to figure out where the radiator/fan and pump are going to be mounted. This may or may not require some serious case modding depending on your case and the configuration of your inner system. Once the board is removed and the current North Bridge cooling is uninstalled and the chip cleaned with isopropyl alcohol, I highly recommend that you do what I call a "Pre-install". This involves placing the CPU and North Bridge water blocks in the areas where they will go to see how they fit, especially the CPU block. Here is what it looked like on my motherboard.

Because of the configuration of my board, both because of capacitors near the CPU socket and the proximity of the North Bridge chip, I had to use the alternate CPU top plate. Now I will tell you about the two missing items that I think should have been included. First is another Allen wrench. The push and lock connectors also require an Allen wrench if you wish to use the alternate top plate, and the one required is much larger than the one used for the screws, so you will need to obtain the right size to unscrew them. If you're like me and have a ton of tools lying about, then you might have the right one available. If not, then a trip to the hardware store is in order. Wile you're at the store be sure to pick up the other item you'll need if you don't already have it; Teflon Plumbers tape. You'll need this to wrap around the threads of the connectors you've just unscrewed to protect against leakage. Again, these are items that should have been included in the kit. Neither costs very much at all so adding them to the equipment list would not increase the price of the unit by more than a couple of dollars. Here is what the interior of the CPU water block looks like, what it looks like with the new top plate attached and what it looks like on the board.

The interior of the CPU block has a half-moon extrusion of copper just off center. Water flows from the tube onto the center of the block, swirls around the half-moon, and is removed through the outlet tube. With the new plate attached, you can see that there is much more room for both the capacitors and the North Bridge block. Now that that is taken care of, you can proceed to mount the blocks. Following the manual, get the CPU ready with thermal paste and then attach the long guides with screws and washers into the four mounting holes.

Once the guides are in place, carefully lower the CPU water block onto the CPU socket. Slide the large springs onto the guides, place a washer on top of the springs and then attach the finger screws with just a couple of turns. Once all four finger screws are started in the guides, turn them one half turn each until they touch the top of the guides. I recommend turning them in an alternating fashion (1-3-2-4) to ensure even pressure on the CPU die while mounting. This is one of the better mounting mechanisms I've used and it is very easy and very secure.

On to the North Bridge now. If your motherboard has two mounting holes located around the North Bridge, then simply repeat the process with the provided bolts and finger screws. However, if you have a board like mine, then you will need to get creative. On my board, there are no holes, but instead there are clip brackets. While normally seen on Intel North Bridges, you do sometimes find them on AMD boards. The manual does not have details to mount a North Bridge block to an AMD board without holes, but it does include instruction for mounting to Intel boards, so I used those. If you've done the "Pre-install", you've seen the best way the North Bridge block is going to be mounted. Using the zip ties, thread them through the bracket clips, make sure the chip has thermal paste applied, and place the chipset block onto the chipset. Pull one end of the zip tie through an installation hole of the top plate and close it loosely. Do the same with the other installation hole. Now very carefully, close the zip ties little by little until they are completely closed. Cut off the loose ends of the ties, and the North Bridge chipset block is done.

Moving on now to the video card. Depending on which make and model you have, it may be very easy or extremely difficult to remove the existing heatsink from the card. If you have one of the harder ones and are not comfortable with removing it, then either take it to a professional to be removed or simply don't use the GPU block. Fortunately, mine was dead easy to uninstall. If yours is too, here's what to do. After cleaning up the GPU and re-applying thermal paste, place a bolt and washer through the installation holes of the GPU block and through the mounting holes of the video card. Turn the video card so that it is now on edge and place another washer on the bottom of the bolt, then a spring, another washer, and attach a finger screw to each bolt. Again, half a turn until it is tight does the trick. One thing to note is that over-tightening on your video card will bend the card so please be extra careful.

Once all of the blocks are attached, it should look something like this.

Now attach the fan to the radiator with the provided self-tapping screws.

Get the pump, reservoir, reservoir bracket and about 2" of tubing ready because now we're going to mount them together. Line up the four holes on the bracket with the bottom of the pump. Attach the rubber suction feet through the bracket holes and into the pump. Slide the 2" of tubing into the reservoir, remove the paper from the adhesive on the bracket, slide the other end of the tube into the in-take of the pump and press the reservoir down onto the adhesive. The pump and reservoir are now mounted together.

Ok, so the easy part is done, now for the fun part. Hopefully, you've given some thought to where exactly you want to put the radiator/fan and the pump. Again, depending on your case set-up, this may be easy or a serious challenge. Despite the fact that I have a re-badged Chieftec server case (Antec 1030SX SOHO), the size of both the pump and radiator gave me pause for a moment. I really was not interested in cutting a hole in the top of the case for the radiator as I have seen others do, as heat rises and I do not want the radiator/fan working against that. I had no room in the front or the back of the case so those options were out. I decided to mount the radiator and the pump outside of the case completely. I did this by removing the lowest case fan from the back of the case and covering the edges of the hole with duct tape. I then ran the tubing through the hole to the water blocks and back out again.

Once you've decided where everything is going to go, now you need to measure out the tubing and get ready to cut it. Re-mount the motherboard temporarily so that you can get an accurate measurement. I highly advise that you use the sharpest cutting tool that you have. It is really necessary to make the straightest cut that you can so that the end of the tube fits inside the push and lock connectors properly. Once the tubing is cut, I would recommend removing the motherboard again, laying it on a flat wooden surface and then attaching the tubing for the water blocks. Then you can go ahead and re-attach the motherboard inside the case and proceed to attach the pump and radiator. I went ahead and followed the manuals recommendation as to how the water was going to flow with the water coming out of the pump, going into the radiator to be cooled then on to the CPU, North Bridge, video card and then to the reservoir.

Add in the rest of your PCI cards, attach the Hermaphrodite power cord and the PCI slot bracket for the pump power, attach that cable and a floppy disk power cable from the power supply to the Control Unit. You're almost ready to add water and get to chilling, but there is one more step before that can be done. In the accessories bag, you will find a green wire. Attach one end of this wire to pin 13 (black wire) of the power supply's motherboard connector. The other end goes into pin 14 (green wire). Hook up your main power cable to the Hermaphrodite. If you have a switching power supply, when you switch it to the ON position, the pump will start running. If you don't have a switching PSU, the pump will start the moment you attach the main power cable to the Hermaphrodite. Now remove the cap from the reservoir and have a liter or so of distilled water pre-mixed with about ¼ (6ml) of the Anti-Algae fluid ready. Start up the pump and carefully pour the water in.

The pump will be pretty loud at first while the system is filling with water. You will also see a lot of air bubbles in the tubing. As the level in the reservoir drops, keep adding water until the entire system has water running through it. Depending on how you have it set up, this may take from 10 to 45 minutes or so. After the air has been pushed out of the tubing, the reservoir level will not go down any more. Replace the cap and check all of the connectors for leaks. I recommend that you run the system in this way for a few hours to make very sure that there are no leaks whatsoever. This is one time where you simply must be patient and have the time to constantly check the system. Once you are assured that it's safe, turn the unit off, remove the green wire and re-attach the power supply motherboard connector. Re-boot and make sure everything is running as it should. I'd leave the case side off for a day or two at the very least and check to make sure that there are no leaks.

Here is a before and after shot.

OK! It's all installed, running smooth and leak-free, so let's see how well the WaterChill did against my battery of tests.