WaterCooling Component Guide

[freakgeek1337]

School year has been extremely busy and just came back from vacation. Time to give this sticky a good old update.

EDIT: BTW, the guide will look REALLY MESSED UP in these coming days.

[miggs78]

Yeah.. was wondering where you went.. WB.. Good Luck..

[c0defreak]

I have a question to the water-cooling freaks out there.
I have a system (Aquacomputer) cooling my video card (295 GTX) and also my CPU (Kentsfield q6600). Now given the fact that I have my processor and video card on the same system you might guess the liquid is remaining at an average temperature of 42°C. That said my processor cannot sit at a temperature any lower than the temperature of the water and therefore the average temp is about 46.5°C.

My question(which I think I already have concluded) : would it make more sense to air-cool my CPU?
I have talked to a professional about this and I actually got a funny answer whereby he said simply "my processor with happier on the water-cooling system". I personally think if I put my Zalman CNPS9700 back on the processor the processor will in fact run cooler @ around an average of 38°C!

You input is appreciated!
:help:

[MpG]

You're talking about your idle temps, right? At that point, a few degrees is largely meaningless. Which will be better under load will depend largely on how hard you're pushing your Q6600.

[c0defreak]

Originally Posted by MpG

You're talking about your idle temps, right? At that point, a few degrees is largely meaningless. Which will be better under load will depend largely on how hard you're pushing your Q6600.

Yes, idle temps. I see your point. I can't really recall how my computer performed under a load with the Zalman... I guess it was just around the same. Although, you brought a good point to the table and I am guessing this is the correct point of concentration! I can imagine if the processor is under heavy load with the Zalman there is a lot less opportunity for heat dispersion as compared to the water cooled block!

I am running my 6600 @ 3.0Ghz

[MpG]

Meh, I've got the Q6600 in my backup rig at 3.2 on air, with only a single 800rpm fan, and it won't go over 60*C under full load. Honestly, with what air heatsinks can do these days, water is kind of wasted at that level. It's still cool, but it's honestly just a little like driving a race car to the corner store for groceries.

[c0defreak]

Originally Posted by MpG

Meh, I've got the Q6600 in my backup rig at 3.2 on air, with only a single 800rpm fan, and it won't go over 60*C under full load. Honestly, with what air heatsinks can do these days, water is kind of wasted at that level. It's still cool, but it's honestly just a little like driving a race car to the corner store for groceries.

hmm, I haven't been able to get my processor stable over 3.0.. your making me think about giving it another shot! I guess I was never sure how many extra volts to give the processor. All the reading you can do I guess in the end its dependent on all the components of your system! I think I tried like 3.2 at 1.35V and maybe that was not enough. I run 3.0 using auto-handling on the voltage. I have a Gigabyte EP35 DS3P 2.1

[CanadaRox]

Originally Posted by MpG

Meh, I've got the Q6600 in my backup rig at 3.2 on air, with only a single 800rpm fan, and it won't go over 60*C under full load. Honestly, with what air heatsinks can do these days, water is kind of wasted at that level. It's still cool, but it's honestly just a little like driving a race car to the corner store for groceries.

Its a great way to overclock a toasty i7 and GPU(s) while staying very quiet. It also looks awesome and is a fun hobby. But so does driving a tricked-out street-racer to the grocery store.