Testing And Installation 

Carefully planning out this water cooling adventure to ensure that no nightmares occur is a must; it's time for a test setup. Mimicking the basic placement of the installation inside the computer, all of the components were set out to estimate tube lengths. Cutting the tubing was a little tricky due to the physical properties of the tubing. A sharp tool with consistent pressure is needed to make the proper cuts. With as little excess as there is, making a shortage mistake is not a possibility. Measuring out the tube lengths is easy. Running the tube from part to part and cutting a generous length for each section is the best way. Once installed, the tube lengths can be easily trimmed. Before attaching the water block, a series of stepped sandpaper up to 1500 grit was used to improve the lap job from the factory. This is more of a personal habit. The stock lap job is sufficient for most applications.

With the tubes attached, coolant was added into the reservoir and the Thermaltake Bigwater 745 was plugged in. The 400 L/h pump filled the system and started flowing in a complete circle within 3 reservoir refills. While maintaining the level of coolant, the amazing capacity of the pump can be seen. The pump runs dry quickly, ensuring that the pump remains in good working order. Following the addition of fluid, the system ran for 24 hours straight to ensure that none of the components leaked. The only concern that was encountered was with the connection assembly on the 240 mm radiator. Tightening the caps too much would cause leaking. However, simply loosening the joint bit by bit cured the leak problem.

Everything else in the system worked like a charm. The pump sounded like a quiet fish tank and the three 120mm fans were barely audible. At the 1300 rpm levels, the air flow was rapid across the radiators. This changes when the fan controller is turned up. With the airflow surging from 38.6 CFM ~ 93.7 CFM, the noise levels spikes from ~15 db to upwards of ~30 db. This will be useful when running the system at full load or when going to sleep. With the test successfully completed, the integrity of the water system after shipping was verified.

While the water system was being "burned" in, work on the motherboard needed to be accomplished. Removing all of the components and the motherboard from the computer is necessary to complete the next phase of installation. A complex socket assembly requires some direct access to the bottom of the motherboard. Once the motherboard was out of the case, some problems were encountered when attempting to remove the support for the old air cooling solution. The standard mount was glued on by ASUS and was difficult to remove without fear of breaking the motherboard. Screws from the kit were placed into the board half way to have leveragability without putting the tiny components at risk. Be sure to check for compatibility with the target motherboard mounts.

After removal of all old components everything else flows smoothly. The new H-type bracket was easy to put together. Some patience is required because of the precautions necessary due to the glue's effectiveness. Alignment of the holes within the four-layer design is crucial for a good seat. Once the glue sets, the layers are hard to adjust. Still, placement is a breeze with the single screws all the way through the board, and the mount is stable. There's no worry about damage to the motherboard from support related stress. All of the processor mount types incorporate specific sets of screws and clips. This is where thermaltake has the most flexibility. There's even BTX support.

After 24 hours there were no leaks and it was ready to be installed. First, I disconnected the power and the pump's exit tube from the water block. With a tub handy, the radiator fluid was then pumped out of the system and into the tub. The parts were then placed into the system with the external configuration described in the manual. The choice was made to leave the 120mm fan in the computer so that the 120mm radiator would have two fans. The only modification needed was flipping the fan on the radiator so it would pull rather than push the air across the radiator block. Overall, the assembly was trouble free and everything fit. Trimming the tube sections the lengths of the permanent installation cleaned up the look of the system. The style that was added to the case was definitely noticeable. The Bigwater 745 has a nuclear reactor look, due to the UV reactive coolant and tubing.

With everything installed and prepped it's time to see if the water system performs as well as it looks

Powering up the system had an interesting feeling of anticipation. Everything powered up and the pump whirred away. Under the bios, the temperatures were checked to ensure that the setup was properly seated. The CPU was sitting at an amazing 86 F, which was a tell-tale sign that the installation was successful. Upon reaching the desktop, the CPU reached a stable temperature of 91 F. This was a cool 13 degree reduction from the stock idle temperatures. Pushing the CPU to its limits was the next step. Running a loop of 3d mark 2005 CPU test is a sufficient method for CPU stressing. During the loop, the temperature slowly rose to a peak of 104 F and where it flat-lined. This is an amazing 25 degree difference when compared against stock temperatures.

One of the strongest indications that this systems heat dissipation capacity is sufficient is how quickly the temperatures return to idle. Within 30 seconds the temperature dropped to 95, and within the following 90 seconds it settled at 91 F. That is four times as fast as stock cooling. The Bigwater 745 can definitely support additional water blocks for VGA cooling due to its massive cooling capacity. Another interesting note is that the case runs 6 F cooler because the CPU heat is not dissipated into the common air space of the case. However, due to the lack of airflow in the socket area, motherboard temperatures rise 4 to 5 F. These combined temperature changes equal out to a longer lifespan for the computer. Under stock settings this water system is proving to be effective.

Before

After

Now that the standard run through is completed, it's time to see if Bigwater 745 can allow for a modest overclock while keeping our test system stable. While gradually increasing the front side bus, a stable overclock was reached. With the multiplier set at a stock 11.00, the FSB set at 233MHz, and the voltage upped to 1.65, the CPU was able to achieve a 2.56GHz clock rate. These results only bring a thermal cost of 10F. The idle temperatures changed to 100-102. While under full load, a stable 104F was maintained. It's interesting that both clock rates have the same peak temp. Further testing revealed that the peak temp rose and fell based on room temperature. This water system has amazing heat dissipation capacity and is definitely an advantage for any over clocker.