Assembly and Filling Tips

Prior to connecting the water-block to the main block with pipes, you should fill and degas the system. You need 1 liter of distilled water for that. The bottle with concentrated anti-corrosion liquid included into the kit is the same as was included with the Reserator 2 and has a volume of 250 milliliters.

Polypropylene glycol and anticorrosion additive are the main components of the liquid. The label on the bottle informs you that the liquid keeps its properties for 1 year and has a freezing point of -9°C. You must dilute it with 1 liter of distilled water, thus obtaining a total of 1.25 liters of coolant.

Then you should connect the main block to the power source. The power cable of the new Reserator ends in a Molex connector that is to be attached to your PSU.

The connection and degas process is illustrated as follows:

So, the Zalman Reserator XT is supposed to be started up using the same wire as the Reserator 2. This wire closes two contacts of the PSU’s 24-pin power connector. I did it in a simpler way, though. I just plugged the Reserator’s Molex into the PSU and started up an assembled system case with an air cooler on the CPU. After a few starts and stops (the manual recommends 3-7 cycles 10 seconds long) the radiators of the cooling system get filled up as indicated by the liquid in the pipe:

Then you install the water-block on the CPU.