Watercooling musings, ramblings and hopefully some advise .......

{SAS}TB

{SAS}TB

{SAS}TB

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Hi

A few months ago I took my first tentative steps into watercooling.

I currently have the following setup (rig in sig):

XSPC Dual 750 Bay Reservoir Pump / Clear

Swiftech Apogee GTZ (LGA775) CPU Block

EK - Full COver 4870x2 Block

XSPC RS360 Radiator

XSPC G1/4 to 10mm Compression Fitting

XSPC 10/8mm PVC Tubing

10mm Flow Springz (UV Blue)

Feser One Coolant UV Blue

6 x Noctua NF-S12 1200 RPM 120mm Quiet Case Fan - 3 on the rad, one top exhuast, one rear exhaust and one door exhaust


The setup has worked (IMO) well but as thw weather is getting milder the temps have eeked up over the last few weeks.

My OCd Q6600 is at 3.62 24/7 and my temps idle around 36 to 40 with the GPU cores arpund low / mid 30s.

I have noticed that the load temps have also started to get higher - even gaming their getting to high 50s / Low 60s.

So after the ramblings, and some musing - would I benefit from a "beefier" pump, new res and larger tubing?

I have read that there is "negligable" difference between tube sizing, but cant help feeling that a larger bore and more pwerful pump would helo my overall temps ??

Any thoughts on this ?

And then, if so, what kit?

I was thinking of a Laing Pump, 1/2" / 3/4" Tubing and a new Bay Res?

Any thoughts / comments would be greatly appreciated

Cheers

TB
 
The pump would really help.

Also the tubing size does not matter. That's the standard size german watercoolers use and they have zero problems with it.


I'd say get a better pump, the Liang DDC Ultra would be perfect at your tubing size.
Also get the XSPC res/top for it as it offer the best top perfromance with that pump.

The best thing would be to get a better rad aswell if you really want to drop those temps.

The new XPSC rads are great, same for the Feser ones.
 
N19h7m4r3 said:
The pump would really help.

Also the tubing size does not matter. That's the standard size german watercoolers use and they have zero problems with it.


I'd say get a better pump, the Liang DDC Ultra would be perfect at your tubing size.
Also get the XSPC res/top for it as it offer the best top perfromance with that pump.

The best thing would be to get a better rad aswell if you really want to drop those temps.

The new XPSC rads are great, same for the Feser ones.
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Personally I think this is poor advice.

A quad core cpu and a 4870x2 (one of the hottest running gpus on the market) on a single loop are always gonna run hot irrespective of whether he uses a Therm rad or an XSPC rad. His temps are absolutely fine for his set-up. Ambient temps will continue to rise towards summer and theres nowt you can do about it so changing your pump, res, top and radiator will make little difference and would be a waste of money and time, especially if you continue to cool a cpu and gpu on a single loop.

If you really want to see your temps drop during the summer months you'd need to cool the cpu and gpu on separate loops, but I wouldnt bother.

I ran a heavily overclocked E8600 and an overclocked GTX280 on a single loop, very similar to the OP and got temps in the 50s and 60s, and that was with a laing DDC Ultra with XSPC top, Dtek V2 block and a Thermochill 120.3 rad.

His current loop is fine in my opinion.
 
If temps are rising just because of the milder ambient temperatures and not deterioration of the blocks/rad then one quick thing which may be worth doing before you go about upgrading pumps and rads is to simply put higher cfm fans on the rad. If it is only a few degrees you are talking about compared to the temps when you first built it, I'm guessing in the middle of winter, then you could possibly claw some back by having beefier fans, and/or push-pull if the case allows.
 
It's worth considering the location of your machine. I know a bunch of people that swap the room around in the summer to avoid house radiators and direct sunlight.

I understand this is not always a simple task and might not be worth your time, but if you're in a study and it's easy to do, then it can make a difference.
 
DampCat said:
It's worth considering the location of your machine. I know a bunch of people that swap the room around in the summer to avoid house radiators and direct sunlight.

I understand this is not always a simple task and might not be worth your time, but if you're in a study and it's easy to do, then it can make a difference.
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Good point. Last summer I directed my floor standing fan at the intakes on my TJ07. The increased air circulation made an amazing difference to the cooling ability of my rad.
 
Yep, sounds more like an issue with the air flow through the rad.

Can you post some pictures of the case and it's location then so we can see how the airflow works?
 
Thanks for the comments and ideas (although I am still as confused ::)

The PC is on my desk in my study (radiator permanently off ;))

There is about a 2" gap from the underside of the rad to the top of the desk and the air under and the rad are cold to the touch

dsc02307.jpg


Inside of the case:

dsc01928te0.jpg


And I have a fan controller :)

Temps as im sat here are 34 / 34 / 28 / 30 on the CPU and 28/28 on the GPUs although the PC has only been on (and idle) for about an hour :D
 
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Im confused as there is seemingly good (but conflicting) advice :P

And the rig isn't "upside down", the mobo tray is inverted ;)
 
Is your system now unstable? My advice if the machine is still stable but the "high" temperatures are bothering you is to stop monitoring the temperatures!

That was easy, next question!

(Seriously, why do you care? Stability is what's important not willy-waving about how low your temps are or how great your rig is)
 
Well theyre rising as we get towards summer. On a boiling hot day (if we actually get any this year!) his temps may increase quite a bit and and make it become unstable, considering he's already getting over 60

Better to plan ahead I guess
 
Everyones temps rise as the ambient temp rises. The only way you will overcome this is buy using a chiller or by using extreme cooling.

Your temps are a long way from being 'high', as Mike said, quit worrying about it unless you are getting stability issues (which I doubt at those temps).

If you are really intent on maximising your WC setup then a better rad (think thermochill or Feser) will help a little but not by a lot. A better pump will increase flow but it's debatable if it will decrease temps. The two together may drop temps a little but nothing worth upgrading for unless you're obsessed imo.
 
Would adding another radiator to a single loop have the same cooling effects as having two separate loops?

I have my motherboard chipsets, two 8800Ultras and an overclocked E6600 in a single loop cooled by a Black ICE 480 rad. I'm thinking about making another loop with my spare BlastFlow 240 rad?
 
i have the oposite problem my ambient room temps go down in the summer....in the winter heating is up max and nice and cosy (so hot that im in shorts!!)in the summer all windows are open to keep the place cool.
 
Sayso said:
i have the oposite problem my ambient room temps go down in the summer....in the winter heating is up max and nice and cosy (so hot that im in shorts!!)in the summer all windows are open to keep the place cool.
Click to expand...

Remind me why the government want me to fully switch off my telly at night rather than leaving it on standby? ;)
 
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