Water cooling

[plodkiller]

I recently bought the Opteron CPU to replace my old 3800X2 cpu so I could overclock it. Unfortunately the temps I am getting seem to make overclocking this chip difficult. Idle is usually 38-39 but on load can jump to nearly 50. I have been looking into watercooling kits and have come up with three options.

1.Danger Den Power Kit, http://www.dangerden.com/store/product.php...83&cat=2&page=1

 

2. Asetek CPU cooling kit - KT03A-12VS/10mm

http://www2.asetek.com/Webshopfolder/websh...=1&liste=&side=

 

3. CORSAIR Nautilus 500 Complete External Liquid Cooling System

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16835181004

 

Now I realize that all all the purists out there will say to buy the items:confused:separately but I only need to cool my processor and from what I have read these systems are relatively straightforward to fit. A copy of my system specs is below. Am I likely to see temps that will allow me to overclock, not insanely high but hopefully around 2.5-2.7ghz? I cannot really afford to go over $200

 

And also is I read about a discount coupon for Danger Den. That one is expired but is there a new one.

 

Opteron 170 with thermaltake XP-90 and 80mm fan

DFI Lanparty NF4 SLi-d motherboard

4 x 512mb sticks of corsair ddr3200, dual channel

2x Maxtor 100gig SATA drives on NVidia raid controller

EVGA 7900 GS OC KO 256 graphics

Soundblaster SB Live 5.1

Memorex 16x D/L DVD writer

Antec 900 case

Antec Neo 550 watt P/S

Windows XP Pro

[radodrill]

For CPU only; here's a good "kit" http://www.petrastechshop.com/pecoli.html

[Voltes-5]

I can vouch for the Nautilus. I had it cooling my c2d @3.6 /1.48vcore, now as you will know the c2d's run pretty hot and the Nautilus did help me pass the Orthos OCDB entry. I did a bit of a modification on the fan, instead of the fan blowing on the rad, I turned it over and it sucked the air from the bottom and it performed even better, thats with the stock fan. Now if you can get a better performing fan, then you're set. Another thing is that the Opty's run pretty cool and the Nautilus will be able to handle the heat it generates.

[Clay]

You can do better. Than any of those. Don't buy a kit! Except maybe a swiftech or a Petra kit. The dangerden kit looks they are trying to close out the stuff that didn't sell. The other kits I looked at and buying a high end air sink would probably be somewhat better.

 

All you need is a decent block,pick a nice rad.(Rad makes the biggest diff) And a good pump. And some 7/16" ID master clear tubing. Be sure everything is plumbed with 1/2" barbs.A T-fitting and a fillsport. BIX for a rad is not really a good choice unless you like lotsa' noise.(They need fairly high cfm fans) An MCR220-320 are good choices. As they rate a little better than BIP or BIX for a rad.(BIX wants lotsa' fannage to work good) If money is a problem just buy 1 piece atta' time. That way you won't be sorry. (I spent nearly a year studing and collecting the pieces for my main rigs loop. And I'm really glad I did.)

 

http://www.petrastechshop.com/pecoli.html This should be much better than any of those kits.

Ooops sorry radodrill I posted the same link...

 

Anyway all you need is a good block. Maze4 or better.

Decent rad: 2core at least BIPII or III or MCR220-320...Or better yet a PA120.2-.3(Be sure it has 1/2" barbs though 3/8" will work ok but you'll loose a c or 2 maybe more.. This stuff adds up though so its best to shoot for 1/2" from the start. Plus the costs to upgrade it's cheaper if you start with 1/2" barbs.

Try not to pick a rad thats designed 100+cfm fans. (Or else your multimedia gaming enjoyment could be somewhat lessened by excessive noise)

 

Some 7/16"ID masterclear tubing.5-6ft at least.Better make it 8" just to be safe... Hopefully you won't need all of that be it pays have some extra.Unless of course your rad and pump and block are plumbed with 3/8" barbs.(Then you need 3/8's LOL)

Though I use 1/2" ID tygon on my main rig aqs it's easier to fit over the barbs.

 

Then you'll need a pump. In this regard bigger is not allways better. Unless you've selected a rad that can handle the extra heat dump. So if you pick a mcp655-d5 pump you might want a tripple core rad. To handle the extra heat dump from the pump. This one of the things that set you above most kits. In that you can easily upgrade or replace should the pump fail..

 

Heres an example of a decent little pump. http://www.petrastechshop.com/dadenmagiile.html For a maze4 cpu block and an mcr220 it should be ok.. Or maybe http://www.petrastechshop.com/ddb12inpu.html

 

Fans: You'll need a coupla' decent fans for your rad. Lately I've been buyin these yates-loones. But other fans can work as well. I will site these for the rated cfm to my observed heat and advertised noise to my observations. On the MCR220 47cfm rate 28db totally silent as best as I could tell. But on the mcr220 on the lp-b I thought my temps were abit high. All of my 70cfm(33db) fans are on the pa. (I can't hear those either.) So I used a some of these 88's I had laying around (40db) I hear those somewhat but they are not annoying. My load temps dropped 3-4c .

 

(I suspect kinda' the 47cfm fans on the PA wouldn't run much warmer.But I can't hear the 70's so why worry.)

And oh yeah rad boxes are nice too.

 

And oh you'll need a t-fitting and fillsport.To make a T-line. Much better than a res. I think everyone agrees on that.

 

Still I kinda' rue not buying an MCR320 for that rig.MCR220 is ok though. Temps would be better with a smaller pump But I was inna' hurry and had to get that rig quitened down. Loved 1's were complaining! They couldn't sleep at night. Didn't bother me though.(2#92mm tornados howling all night long might do that) With the 47cfm fans my temp were about the same as the volcano12-tornado combo.(Except my gpu is also cooled now) Now my loads are 3-4c cooler. And everyone sleeps. 37-8c load 30+c ambients. about an 8c delta between ambient and load @current settings. On that rig.

 

Whatever you do please don't buy a kit. (Except maybe a petra or swiftech w/ 1/2" barbs) Spend a little time working it out for yourself. People who buy kit's are usually in too much of a hurry. To do the math and nearly allways suffer for it. (Kit makers see ya's comming) They give ya's flimsey crap. many with non replacible parts. Often propertiery stuff that won't fit with anything else. High dollar upgrades if they have them. Plus they usually don't work worth a hoot.

 

Do youself a favor and read up. http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=70

 

I don't think you'll see any kits there though. Except that custom thing someone there is building. Don't worry about that though. The guy is swamped with orders. Besides its nothing you can't build yer'self cheaper.

 

Read up and you'll thank yourself for it.

 

Edit PS. Sorry about the length of this post. Sometimes I type aloud.

[Angry_Games]

I have a Nautilus and it does work pretty well, but there's too many drawbacks for such a setup in my opinion. I had to change out the 120mm fan in the unit to something that was just as good for airflow but almost silent because the stock fan can be aggravating (not super loud like Tornado or anything, just constant because it sits on the outside of your case so it's always noticeable).

 

Plus I removed the grill from the fan because it's very restrictive, and put a regular 120mm grill like you would see on a case fan (very open/non-restrictive). Then I turned the fan upside-down so it would pull air from the top of the unit instead of pulling it from the bottom...because pulling it from the bottom means pulling warm air being exhausted from the back of your power supply, plus any radiant heat that builds up on the top of the case under the unit where the power supply sits inside...the back of a case can get warm from the psu inside).

 

It does do a good job of cooling, but none of the kits can be considered as good as a decent DIY with separate pump, waterblock, radiator, etc.

 

And I hate watercooling that has a reservoir. Always finds some way to leak, and your pressure in the lines isn't as good...plus tipping the machine almost always makes it leak out of the res's fillport (no matter how good that seal is...)

 

A single radiator and 120mm fan on each side on silent speed should be just perfect for a single cpu cooling setup. I always prefer a dual-120mm rad as it is much more efficient for cooling (and dead silent because you don't need to move as much air across such a large area).

 

The drawback is that you need a proper case for either a single or a dual rad. Dual rad setups require even more money invested in a case. There are many out there that will do a good dual-rad setup, but my favorite is the CM Stacker. It's heavy as hell, but it's like living in the penthouse inside, plus it has wheels, so really easy to move. So much space you might try installing two complete pc's inside it haha.

 

A single rad just needs a decent case that can house a 120mm fan and radiator and still get the door on, cpu in, etc.

 

Anyway, stick to DIY watercooling instead of relying on a kit.

 

Swiftech is a favorite around here, as is DangerDen, which is all I use. Check that petras shop, plenty of good deals there. Also click the SVC link in my sig and check SVC for their watercooling/fan gear.

[radodrill]

Ooops sorry radodrill I posted the same link...

 

Hey; Great minds think alike

 

And I hate watercooling that has a reservoir. Always finds some way to leak, and your pressure in the lines isn't as good...plus tipping the machine almost always makes it leak out of the res's fillport (no matter how good that seal is...)

 

I never had any trouble with the Res i had in my sig-rig; It was my first H2O build. That said, my new rig (not yet finished) and the one I built for my prof are T-line setups

 

Anyway, stick to DIY watercooling instead of relying on a kit.

 

Big 10-4 on that.