Second time lucky

[Steve]

You may recall last week's attempt at reinstalling my watercooling went a bit wrong. Yesterday I had another go with a simpler loop and things have gone a lot better.

After a couple of hours leak testing outside the case I put the loop into the PC, mounting the 120mm Black Ice Extreme radiator and the DangerDen RBX waterblock, with the pump hanging around in there somewhere too.

The system booted and didn't BSOD, so I knew I was on a winner, but temperatures were only a few degrees lower than the stock AMD cooler. I wiggled the block slightly and tightened it a little more and knocked a further 7-8 degrees off the CPU temperature.

Right now the CPU is reading 30, hitting about 36 under load. It is an A64 3200+ Winchester, which I have now overclocked from 2.0GHz up to 2.55GHz on 1.5volts. I got a bad week CPU for overclocking so I can't get much higher. In fact I can probably take the voltage back down a bit because it didn't seem to give my any extra o/c headroom. Still, it's nippier, and this time it works

[Rys]

Good show! That's two out of six of us running water now. I've been pondering just how many enthusiasts run, or even consider, watercooling for their PCs. I know it's a lot easier now than it used to be, and many people consider for noise reasons, so I wonder if the uptake of water is higher now than it ever has been.

I think the large amount of easy-to-fit kits from guys like Corsair, who'd normally sell something else entirely, is a sign of the times?

Glad to see you back up and running sir! Chat to me on MSN later about it, got something I want to ask thee in private.