Custom WC List

Arthalen

Arthalen

Arthalen

Associate
Joined
20 Apr 2006
Posts
2,037
Location
Leeds, UK
I need of a little guidance over a proposed Custom WC Setup. Specs of my system in sig.

I'm thinking of the following:

Swiftech Apogee CPU Block
Swiftech MCW30 Northbridge Block
Swiftech MCW60-B GPU Block (x2 for my Crossfire setup)
All 1/2" ID.

Are the Swiftech GPU blocks going to be ok with some RamSinks on my X1900GT's ?

Then adding:

Thermochill PA120.2
Swiftech MCP655 12 VDC Pump
2x Papst Fans

Is a PA120.2 going to be enough, or should I opt for a 120.3?
Is the pump good enough ?

Ermm, what else am I going to need ?
And is this going to be enough to cool my toasty system and keep it quiet ??
What tubing and coolant does everyone recommend ??

Many, many questions on my mind about this new setup... hope someone can elighten me a little better.
 
my 2 cents, I'm getting into wc'ing at the moment too, and a lot of people have told me to go for 7/16" ID tubing. It's slightly smaller than 1/2" so what you do is heat the ends in warm water to get it over the 1/2" barbs, then when it cools it will be tighter around the barb (still advise using ties of some sort though) - apparently you get the benefits of 1/2" (good flow rate) but it's easier to work with and route.
 
I've decided to leave the GPU Blocks out of the equation for the moment, the setup is becoming too expensive with those added in and VGA memory heatsinks on top, and its an expense I dont want to add that may impact choice of components for the CPU cooling.

I've gone with cut down prices on WC once and it doesn't work.....

I'm just not sure wether to get the Swiftech kit or go with mainly swiftech parts and a PA120.2 seperately...

Hmm :/
 
I'm aiming somewhere between £150.00 to £200.00 tops, but I think I'm pushing it for a Thermochill Radiator in their as well.

God knows what I was thinking trying to get a pair of GPU blocks in their as well.

Total I've got is £300 but I'm having a new spanky Eclipse 62 case out of that.

All WC Specs for that budget welcome.
 
your sigs too big.. may want to change it.

if your not getting GPU blocks you'll notice the fan noise more on your card.. and it'll soon get on your nerves.. mine does.. and i have an HIS IceQ 3 card with 3 other 12cm fans and i can still hear it over all those
 
Heh, I just cant afford the GPU Blocks on top of a new case as well, so they will have to come later :D

To help with the fan noise i've done some BIOS editing on my pair of video cards to reduce the fan usage at low temps, I.E when I'm in windows.

This should give me time to look at buying GPU blocks later...
 
You can get Aquaextreme MP-1's for the GPU for around £25 inc.They are just as good, if not better than the MCW 60's. I have two and they keep my 7800gt's below 31 idle and 35 load. Radiator is on the windowsill. I don't exactly know the idle temps as Nvidia's new control panel will not read below 31 degrees. I know my cpu idles at 18 degrees. Been down to 13 degrees as it's been so cold up here. That uses an Aquaextreme MP-05 Pro Limited Edition.

Using 7/16" tubing here with distilled water and Zerex mix. Pump is an Aquaextreme 50z with an XSPC passive reservoir and a Nexxxos Extreme lll rad.
 
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Water Impingement blocks like the Nexos , Aquaextreme ect.. only work
well if they are the only block in the loop with a single high power/head
pump or dual inline pumps and the block mounted on cpus that have the die
in the center like the old 32 bit Athlon xp cpu's for the striking point
of the water jets.

Modern dual core cpu's now have the die's mounted off center above and
below each other ( even more spread out on the new Quad cores ) and to
make matters worse the die's are now protected by a metal plate (IHS)
across the top of the cpu with the die's in contact Underneath via
heatsink compound , so blocks no longer have direct cooling.

To get the best results the (IHS) metal plate has to be evenly cooled
across its entire surface which is why Swiftech designed the Apogee.and
not as a cheap design alternative to the Storm as forum gossip mongers
would like people to think.Why people think this is beyond me as they
are not forced to produce the storm and could drop it from prodution
anytime they like.

http://www.swiftnets.com/products/Apogee.asp

Quote
"Using Computational Fluid Dynamics analysis, we optimized the structure
-the Patent Pending Diamond Pin Matrix of our MCW55 water-block cold plate
to match the thermal and physical characteristics of AMD® and Intel® latest
microprocessors. In particular we took into account the trend for dual core
processors which feature larger die sizes thus requiring a different treatment
of the heat fluxes.

As a result the Apogee water-block may outperform our STORM model by a up to
1°C (at 100 Watts thermal load and 1.0 GPM), and further increase its lead in
multiprocessor, multi-vga applications due to its low restriction characteristics
as can be seen in our kit test results HERE."

http://www.swiftnets.com/products/H20-220-APEX.asp#comparative


I can't find the links that i read some time ago on other forums but a few people reported a 1°C improvement using the Nexos over the Apogee but
this was found to be the clamping mechanism used by the Nexos as that
uses a hard screw bolt to clamp the block down and the swiftech uses
Springs so it was all down to clamping pressure and not block design and
the 1°C improvement was lost in a multiblock setup due to the flow restrictions.It was also found that Impingement blocks under load gave uneven cooling with one die running hotter than the other.

so unless your prepared to remove the (IHS) protective metal plate and
run high head pump/pumps and not cool the chipset or your VGA card then the current design of Water Impingement blocks are a waste of time and expense.

In my opinion :)
 
Nice read there Icetea and informative.

I have my conroe cooled with a nexxos XP. I purchased the XP because many reviews placed it a close second behind the storm block and as the storm is like rocking horse poo and the nexxos being so cheap, it wasn't a hard decision.

If the XP is setup correctly there should be no detrimental effect of using it on a modern CPU than a single core one, it will still outperform older style blocks even though it is of the more restrcitive impingement type.

nexxosbp.jpg
nexxos-mp.jpg


The pictures show exactly where the main cooling is in the nexxos, which as far as I can tell perfectly matches the placement of cores on modern cpus (expect quadcore).

My past three cpu's (opty 170(naked), 3800x2 , e6600) all have the core in the centre of the pcb and have been cooled very well by the nexxos. I have also recently upgraded my AP700 pump (700 lp/h) to a DDC and saw minimal differences at load so the theory that a high powered pump is neccessary to run a nexxos is tosh imo, it will run better yes, especially if you have other blocks in the loop but not by a great margin.

I can't really comment on the apogee block as I havn't used one but going off other peoples opinions who have, it is not a patch on the storm blocks and struggles to keep pace with most high end blocks inc the nexxos blocks.

Just my 2p's worth.
 
I wasn't trying to say the Apogee is the best block ,What i should have said
in a much shorter post is that there seems to be little difference in temps
between all the blocks with the IHS left on.

Not that this proves anything as it seems we all have different opinions
due to what we read and what results we get in our own setups as webbo
has pointed out , but in this link below they even found that the old Maze 3 gave temps close to modern blocks with the IHS on.

second post down maze 3 results

Apogee / storm ect ect
http://www.systemcooling.com/forums/...pic=3903&st=15

@Arthalen
Sorry if this makes things more confusing but there is a lot of conflicting
post on a lot of cooling forums between benchmarks and what people
get when they use blocks in there own setup on dual cores.Sadly you
also get a lot of claims of something being the best just because they
own it and have spent a lot of money on it.
 
Ok, let me simplify it a little....

Is having an Apogee combined with a PA120.3 and 1/2" tubing going to be a massive improvement over my Thermaltake bigwater SE with its pants copper cooler, single 120.1 Rad, tiny tubing and REALLY weak pump ?

I am looking for a severe improvement in my temps ... at Idle, my Presler 945 runs at 50C currently...
 
Arthalen said:
Ok, let me simplify it a little....

Is having an Apogee combined with a PA120.3 and 1/2" tubing going to be a massive improvement over my Thermaltake bigwater SE with its pants copper cooler, single 120.1 Rad, tiny tubing and REALLY weak pump ?

I am looking for a severe improvement in my temps ... at Idle, my Presler 945 runs at 50C currently...
Click to expand...

It depends what you call 'massive'. a 10c load temp drop is massive in cooling terms which is what I would expect as a minimum from changing from a bigwater to the above setup. So yes it will be a massive improvement.

You probably wont notice a big drop in idle temps but load temps are what count.
 
Ice Tea said:
.Sadly you
also get a lot of claims of something being the best just because they
own it and have spent a lot of money on it.
Click to expand...

Never a true a word has been spoken...my sentiments exactly.
 
w3bbo said:
It depends what you call 'massive'. a 10c load temp drop is massive in cooling terms which is what I would expect as a minimum from changing from a bigwater to the above setup. So yes it will be a massive improvement.

You probably wont notice a big drop in idle temps but load temps are what count.
Click to expand...

Thanks for reassuring me. I guess I'll see a big improvement with Load temps as well. 10C at idle is a massive improvement to me, if I get the same or even more at Load ... well that would just be dandy!
 
Just to clarify m8, you won't see massive gains at idle. You will see a big difference with load temps.
 
Thanks for clarifying.

I'm intending to replace my case with Lian Li G70 to help improve system temperatures as well, so overall I should hopefully see a big drop here to. System temps can easily reach 45C+ thanks to the sheer heat pouring off my Northbridge, my power regulators and the video cards.

My Tt Soprano was never designed for this kind of monstrous task, and with the Radiator being the source of inflowing air this isn't the best setup in the world.

I need to give some thought to inflowing/outflowing air so as to balance the air pressure, as a 120.3 rad is going to be shifting a lot of air for me into the case and I need to expel as efficiently as possible...
 
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