Please tell me about extreme cooling...

[Firelord]

If it was me that was making a loop for your rig then I would buy:-

• DangerDen A64 TDX block
• 2 * Maze 4 Acatel topped
• 120.2 Rad but a 120.3 if it would fit
• DangerDen DD12v pump
• DangerDen Clear Res or Bay Res
• Tygon or Dangerden tubing
• Hose Clips
• 2 or 3 YSTech 1212257S-1I (depending on rad)
• Sunbeam Rheostat controller

That'll do you nicely Don't bother WCing the Northbridge either add a microcool northpole or Thermalright NB1 on to the NB. Also get a 120mm XinRuilian 120mm Fan 0.18A over the DIMM slots to cool the MOSFETs and RAM modules.

[RDL]

I always think that Watercooling is fairly expensive for little performance gain, but I'm not sure if this is right or not? In all the reviews I read it seems to beat air cooling by "a few degrees" but is it really worth the money, when spending a twice as much you can get a Vapochill and get some great overclocking, with extreme temperatures.

(Oh and by the way BM Platinum has a Mach II Regassed for just £240 ((I think) at the moment) Bargain!

[StormPC]

Watercooling looks cool but doesn't really perform that much better than air, at least not enough to justify the added cost and maintenance. If you've never played with it before it may be fun, but for use in a 24/7 rig it's just not that great. While watercooling is better in theory many of the kits available do not perform any better than very good aircooling.

For aircooling to be as good as water you need to have a proper case. If your airflow is restricted or case volume is small water will destroy air. If on the other hand you have a good case/fan combination it's quite easy to equal and in some cases surpass room-temp water.

[schmunk]

A decent watercooling kit will be much quieter for the same cooling capacity than air cooling.

[Firelord]

I like the fact that on water you can ramp up the volts and not really actually sustain much of a temp increase as long as you have a decent rad.

I ran 1.8v through my A64 3000+ on water and GPU and never really got much more than 45c under load but with 1.65v it was 42c...

[bujinkan-ka]

Does anyone Think it would be a good idea to salvage the radiator from my car when I scrap it ?

[StormPC]

Does anyone Think it would be a good idea to salvage the radiator from my car when I scrap it ?

Things pretty boring in Scotland at the moment? If so it could be a good way to kill a few hours, depending on how mechanically inclined you are. Not exactly OT. This thread relates to computer cooling, not automobile.

Yes schmunk, it is quieter if done properly, but you need to be careful what you use for radiator fans or it could be louder than aircooling.

[Rave]

Does anyone Think it would be a good idea to salvage the radiator from my car when I scrap it ?

You'd be better off with the heatercore.

[skb3]

Seriously the Coolriver product rocks, it easily keeps the CPU below 40'c when it is overclocked and doesn't allow my 6600GT to go above 50'c and thats overclocked too at 600Mhz core speed and stable. Something that I could never manage on air, artifacts would appear at about 560Mhz Core.

For 70 quid you are getting a great water cooling solution though as I mentioned the GPU clip is brutal, I would take your time with it as it certainly wasn't the easiest to fit.

Ohh Firelord, thats a 120MM rad. So put that in your pipe and smoke it!





N.b Make sure you apply memory heatsinks on the GFX card, otherwise the memory may overheat. These can also be bought from scan.

[SilentDeath]

Safer options than water? Probably air?


That depends entirely on the user installing it. I think I can say air is more dangerous when you consider the crappy clips SLK800 heatsinks had, making it easy to make a whole through the mobo with screw driver... (never done this myself.. but never had a leak either..).
My point is, if you buy a cheap kit then you dont spend any time finding out how it works, and how to prevent problems. If you buy stuff individually then you learn a lot. And you learn more by designing and making it yourself (which is a LOT cheaper if you have the time).

If the pump dies then your PC will either burn up (CPU and GFX) or it will turn itself off, depending on how your mb deals with it or luck. The pump for the coolriver product is guaranteed for 50,000 hours. Thats alot of years!

If the pump dies, it depends on your system. Warm water will still move upwards by convection. Based on the fact 1watt heats 1cc of pure water by 1°c/second, there should be plenty of time to turn it off and even if you dont, it shouldnt die.

The m/b will only turn off if 1) the pc hasnt crashed already, 2) its set to turn off.. Added protection can be done by using a flowmeter and attaching it as the cpu fan rpm cable and turning shutdown on cpu fan fail,to on.

The pump is NOT guaranteed to 50,000 hours. You think they would guarantee a £60 kit for 5.7 YEARS. Its cheap, and it will fail much quicker than proper components will.
By proper, I mean, compare the output of this pump to a common w/c pump. The MAXIMUIM (real use will be MUCH less) flow is not even close to any of them. Cant remember exactly.. but it was either 1/10th or 1/20th that ofmy pump (laing d4)

Where it says 50,000 hours (I cba to look) it is reffering to the MTBF statistic, which sounds very overestimated. Maybe the pumps motor is rated for that when no torque is applyed...

[rajagra]

skb3, you are seriously lazy. Most people just blow on their coffee when it's too hot!

[Firelord]

skb3 thats the deluxe version not the standard version. The standard is under £70 as the deluxe is closer to £80

Of course I haven't a clue about building watercooling systems, I have watercooled my rig and have it watercooled and phase changed cool at the moment

With that kit it comes pre filled so all you have to do is fit it...pray tell me how that is extreme?

The blocks look cheap and that GPU clip...I wouldn't put it on my system....

Still haven't given me your specs... From what I can see is that its a 6600 and an A64 but probably a 3000+ or 3200+ which is prob around 150w of heat which 1 92mm Thermochill could match...

Your 6600GT is 50c under load.... My X800 Pro -> XT PE VModded 1.6v at the mo is 26c unloaded and 34c under load and held 30c idle and 38c with a A64 in the loop as well at 1.8v....

[schmunk]

Ahem

OK, no stock, but some due in next week...

[skb3]

skb3 thats the deluxe version not the standard version. The standard is under £70 as the deluxe is closer to £80

You can purchase the deluxe version from Xcase as well for 70 quid. Cheers for the other link schmunk.

Of course I haven't a clue about building watercooling systems, I have watercooled my rig and have it watercooled and phase changed cool at the moment

Well done!!!

With that kit it comes pre filled so all you have to do is fit it...pray tell me how that is extreme?

It isn't extreme and I never said it was, I was offering my opinion of a cheap water cooling solution; I was trying to help BlueM.

The blocks look cheap and that GPU clip...I wouldn't put it on my system....

Fair enough.

Still haven't given me your specs... From what I can see is that its a 6600 and an A64 but probably a 3000+ or 3200+ which is prob around 150w of heat which 1 92mm Thermochill could match...

Athlon64 3200+
XFX 6600GT
1gb Kingston 'Hardcore'

Your 6600GT is 50c under load.... My X800 Pro -> XT PE VModded 1.6v at the mo is 26c unloaded and 34c under load and held 30c idle and 38c with a A64 in the loop as well at 1.8v....

How can you compare that, they are 2 different cards from 2 different manufacturers? Besides now I am using artic silver my CPU overclocked to 2500Mhz under watercooling, idles at 28 and 37'c under load.

[skb3]

Cheers for the info SilentDeath.

[BlueMagician]

I really appreciate everyones info here. And dare I say, that the discussion is heated? (bad pun intended)

I guess, if I'm gonna do it, I should do it properly, and use something that's really worth changing to.

So, we have votes for entry and mid level Watercooling.. how about the "little bit madder / nuts" stuff?

S.