Water Cooled Tech Station

[vinister]

chib,

I would reconsider on the 5000+ Even keeping load temps below 40C with my case in freezing cold air, no amount of voltage would allow me to bring it over 3.3ghz stable. It is simply a limitation of the processor itself, heat seems to have nothing to do with it.

Your rig is very nice and an inspiration, I think I will go tech-station style on my next build, I just don't want to see you waste it on such a lame chip. Don't get me wrong, its great for budget performance and I am very happy with mine. I just think, you would get MUCH more headroom out of a 6400+ or the new B3 Phenom 9850. The new phenom's are showing way better OC potential, performance on par with Intel Q6600, and are leaps beyond the 5000+.

The big advantage of the 5000+ is that it's low-power, thus low-heat, but I really don't think heat is going to be an issue for you, therefore you are limiting your headroom for no good reason.

BTW the ram coolers are worst than useless, any good ram these days have heat spreaders, so the ASUS heatsink will just act as an insulator stopping airflow to the ram. Sure looks cool sitting in the trash bin though!

BTW where did you get that wicked fan you're mounting on your rad? Is it loud?

I LOVE the solid copper tubing, I think I will be using a similar plumbing method when I go to water.

[chibi_man]

Well, I don;t know where you got those numbers on the 5000+ Black Edition but I know for a fact thats not true at all... I have myself built and OC the very same processor as high as 3.5ghz STABLE on air. Not to mention I have read MANY articles about 3.7 and rumored 4ghz. The 6400+ and the 5000+ are very different especially due to the fact the 5000+ is 65nm while the 6400+ is 90nm. So I would have to beg the differ.

I'm waiting on more reviews on the Phenom 9850. I want to see what that processor is capable of by the average user first.

I had no intention on using those Asus memory coolers, they look cool but I'm not convinced they will be worth it.
My plan is to make up a special fan just for the memory, In the future you will see what I have in mind.

Those fans are SURELY a work of art. They can take up to 24V, and believe me, at 12V they can take skin off your finger in NO TIME. I got a good cut from them once.
Oh, and I picked them up and Princess Auto for 8 bucks each.
When there running all out at 12V(its the max I can give it anyways) it's about as loud as most air cooled towers as it is and they move an incredible volume of air.
Thats one reason why I have that fan controller in there, I can crank them down a ton and they are surprisingly quiet for there size and power.

Glad you like the solid copper, wait until I shine them up a bit.

[chibi_man]

Just so I have some evidence to back up my statement about the 5000+

Check this out

The highest recorded on water is 3.8ghz on there...

[vinister]

I find that really hard to believe or I and thousands of other people got really bad samples, mine seems to compare very well to any respected review site's sample, and any that I have been shown.

maybe by 'air' they mean 'sub-zero air'. 'air' doesnt really describe anything...

My case was in 10 degree air, with a ninja copper, and 8 case fans. I have your exact board, and I know how to use it. I am just giving you a realistic experience rather than something from the 'overclocking world record database'.

The point is the cpu does 3.3 on just about stock volts. To get to 3.4 you'll need a massive increase in voltage, its a very big steep wall. If you are a world-record overclocker and you buy chips daily then this is no big deal... I have no idea who you are and if you are that hardcore, if you are, then I apologize for wasting your time. Did you see those guys are running 1.63 - 1.65 volts? Those chips are begging for mercy, thats an insane amount of voltage for a 65nm processor. Also from what I can tell those are just the maximum speed at which they could get into windows - there is no proof of any kind of stability past a screenshot. Are you just doing quick pulls? or are you wanting to run this 24/7?

I'm just saying, there is no point in bringing a chip to near melting point just to get hardly any more performance (it does not scale well past 3.3), when you could easily just purchase a much more powerful chip to begin with. Especially on such a nice setup, this motherboard was designed for a phenom. Or better yet, you could have done it for $199 with an Intel chip on stock voltage using the stock heatsink hehe. But no worries I'm a fanboy too so I understand the AMD love.

Anyways I'm just saying I have one and they aren't that hot. But don't get me wrong, I can see why you want it, I wanted one too.

heres where my temps were: (I say were because I've come back down to 3.2 because the extra mhz didnt do squat, its not like I could suddenly play crysis reasonably or something lol) This was at 1.4 volts, barely over stock. It took almost 1.58 volts to be stable at 3.4 with these temps... its just not reasonable, or worth it, to go there.

[chibi_man]

Oh I can understand what your getting at, and I'm more then happy or interested rather to debate these things. So don't get me wrong with all this, I enjoy the discussion because I can learn things from it.

I know theres VERY little chance I can keep the processor running at such a high OC for very long, I was only planning on going huge and going home to a safe overclock.

For sure that board is meant for processors such as the Phenom. I would just rather spend a $100 bucks and have fun playing with a 5000+ rather then spend $300 on a Phenom that I don't know a whole lot about. In the future ABSOLUTELY I'm getting a Phenom, I just don't want to jump on it till I can see more fact on how well it handles.

I hope that clears up some doubt.

[vinister]

Ya seems like we're sittin in the same boat. I wonder how long I will be able to hold out with this 5000+, now with the phenom 9850's being out. The temptation is huge, because I have the board that's made for it, I kind of feel like its wasted potential. And If I wait until the 45nm ones come out, then I will want a new motherboard by then, and then I will have never maxxed out this board, which kind of sucks.

But in all honesty there is no game (other than crysis) in which a 5000+ BE will really be hampering performance. I generally see >100 FPS in almost every game I play, at 1680x1050. Not much point in going above 100fps other than for bragging rights.

[chibi_man]

Oh I AGREE 100%.

For me it's still more worth while to stay with a dual core. Unless your doing some REAL demanding work with your computer theres not much other point in going with more cores. Sure you can benefit from the phenom, but do you need it? not so much.

Your on air cooling with your setup right? If you got pics I'd like to see what you got.

[vinister]

sure! Just made a cool lit-up shelf

It's an NZXT HUSH.

there is a KAMA bay 120mm fan in the upper front slots, and another 120mm at the bottom. I added another 120mm at the back near the bottom on the outside of the case, its for the oven-cards I mean video cards. Thermalrite V2's on the 3870s.

Thats it, tons of copper ;)

[chibi_man]

Very nice. Gotta love the full copper heatsink.

Your using the Asus Ram coolers????

LOVE THE SHELF!!!

[vinister]

Ya I put them on in the beginning, but the ram is always cold anyways so I just haven't been bothered to take them off. Plus it adds a couple more copper heatpipes, which just make me happy ;)