Uh8meDoncha

Vdroop people... VDroop... do the vdroop pencil mod (if you are running 680 or 780i there are plenty of forums with instructions.. google it) and you can achieve 3.6 at less than 1.425v in most cases. The reason you have to run at such high volts is that when the cpu goes under load the vdroop feature in the mobo kicks in and drops the voltage so you are compensating (volting up to be stable at droop) for the droop. I am running a Q6600 G0 @ 3.6Ghz w/1.3325v I still droop to 1.325 but that voltage doesn't cause instability.

Yeah probably.. lol. I have drained and refilled my loop so many times trying different liquids that I doubt there is anything growing in there. Too many anti-life chemicals in the mixtures.

I think the thermaltake hose that I am using is the same sort of tight fit deal as this 7/16 to 1/2 thing. What I have to do is spit lube the plastic fitting a little before pushing the tubing on. if I don't there is no way I can get the hose all the way onto the fitting. I use a q-tip to make sure non of my "natures lube" gets onto the inside of the fitting... lol.

That is so simple I am kicking myself for ever trying anything else... I have the same res and I've been wanting to try out some new coolant. I guess I've got no excuse to not try it now. Thanks for the knock on the noggin!

Oh ok. So it may just be the type of hose. Well I was going to switch the the PC ICE that I had but I didn't I noticed something floating in the bottle so I just threw it away. I had used some of it before and I guess I must have left the bottle open or something so contaminants got in there. I'm just going to stick with the DW+Zerex mix. Cool to see what everyone else is using. I was using Feser One Black and it worked well but if you spill/splash any of that stuff if stains and its definately sticky when it dries. Performance was great though. DW and Zerex is a heck of alot cheaper and performs just as well.

Well I guess it depends one what kind of hose you are using. I would guess most hose you wouldn't be able to tell if it were clouding because the hose material. Its probably nothing. My hose is green but clear as glass well it was clear as glass. Now its got a haze and if I pinch the hose an rub the inside together the "haze" on the inside rubs off. I thought it may have been the thermaltake hose I was using but its happening to the clear hose I bought as well. I'm going to drain the system then run plain distilled through it for a little while then replace it with the PC-ICE i have and see how that goes.

I may give it a try. The non-conductive part is good with PC-ICE and the clouding from the dw+zerex mixture is bothering me a little bit. Plus the zerex smells like hot candy when you spill it. I spilled a little in the last case that I had and I could never get that smell out. Whenever I turned my machine on it smelled like i was boiling koolaid. Granted it was my first attempt and when I switched cases I made sure not to spill any but that plus the clouding gives me enough reason to at least try PC-ICE. I have a full container of it I bought and never used. Its scentless and non-toxic. I have a dog and I'm kind of afriad of it licking up coolant somehow specially when it smells so sweet. Verran if you read this can you tell me if your mixture is clouding your hose? I know that nothing wicks away heat better than distilled water so there is the chance that the PC-ICE may not perform as well. dw is like 99 cents a gallon so its not like I can't go back.

I was wondering what people experiences were with different cooling fluids. I am using distilled + additive (zerex) but I'm thinking of going with PC ICE non-conductive which seems to be an oil based non-toxic (i would use the clear kind) and looks to not stain or discolor my hose. Anyone had any experience? Should I not be worried about the clouding hoses? The zerex looks like its leaving watermarks all over my acrylic resevior... not sexy.

those are darn good temps. my "home office" (den) doesn't get cool enough for temps that low. If I open the windows I may see 31C-33C especially now that its getting warmer out. I have 2 laptops and another desktop in there running so its hard to keep it cool in there. Do you notice any variation in card temps? Like is the top card lik +1C warmer than the bottom card? Are you running 3-Way?

Cool... thats what I kinda figured but I wanted to make sure. Do you think the second pump makes a difference? this is off topic but do you know if there is a performance difference between distilled water + zerex vs non-conductive (oil based i.e. PC ICE)? The reason I ask is that my dw and zerex mixture seems to clouding up the houses so I was thinking I'd switch to the "oilier" PC ICE non-conductive which is clear and appearently non-toxic so I don't have to worry about my system totally draining when I'm not home and the dog licking up the sweet smelling zerex mixture. Oh and does the loop look ok?

My GPU temps are 35-37C idle and 46C-47C full load even across all cards. I have a second pump to pick up flow restriction on the other side of the cards (does that even work?). Here is a blueprint of my setup. Oh and they are overclocked at GPU:620 Shader:1500 Mem:1010 x2 effective: 2020

Oh and the extra pump I put in isn't in these pictures either.

the clear lines are extra cheapo hose I bought from the local Microcenter comp store and if you look closely you'll see the pump is actually not mounted to anything its just sitting there held upright by the hoses. Once I get more hose I am going to move it under the harddrives at the bottom right. The others are thermaltake hoses which are pretty ridged on the outside and have a super grip inner core (its chore to get them over even a 3/8 nozzle/connector) so there is no "need" for clamps. I had to clamp the clear hoses because they are a lower grade hose and actually become more maluable and swell with heat. I am going to get more thermaltake (TT) hose on monday. I tried using clamps at first on the thermaltake but sometimes the clamps would create dimple in the TT hose at the connector and they would leak so I used only use them in places that leaked without an in some cases I would have to use 2 clamps facing in opposite directions to counter the dimple effect. The pictures are a few days old and before I got the swiftech reseviour and did the double clamp thing. I'll post pictures when I get home.

Thanks! I apprieciate that! Its my first wc build and I was wondering if there was anything wrong with splitting the flow like that. Seemed like a good idea but hey it could be horribly wrong and I wouldn't know. Also I wanted to keep everything inside the case so all of the fans on the rads are blowing in pulling cool air from outside across the rads. There are only 2 of them so the rear exhaust fan takes care of any heat coming in and there is a large fan on the sidepanel so the components still running on air inside the case still get a fresh blast of cool air.

So I put together my first watercooled rig with a Coolermaster CosmosS, Intel quad Q6600 and tri-sli. Temps are about 35C-37C across the board. The Q6600 is overclocked to 3.6Ghz @ 1.325v stable. I have Black Ice II 3x120mm fan dual pass rad running at the top of the case and a dual pass single 120mm Black Ice between the CPU and the res->pump->cards loop. I have applied the pencil vdropp mod as before I did I had to run at 1.425v to compensate for the vdroop. My question is this. As you will see in the pictures instead of running from card to card to card I split the flow 3 ways so that each card was getting fresh cool liquid instead of compiling heat. I was wondering if anyone else had tryed this or the other way and what their results were? Oh yeah and to compensate for the flow restriction caused by the y connectors I have a second pump on the other side of the card loop. Just a sidenote. I am no longer using the thermaltake reseviour I switched to a swiftech that has matching 3/8" connectors. That thermaltake thing was horrible. Made my machine sound like a fish tank. Here are some pics: yes I know... I need to work on cable management