First Watercooling Setup - Q6600

flatman

flatman

flatman

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28 Feb 2008
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16
Hi there guys,

Have just bought myself a new Q6600 rig, with the MSI Neo-2, and it's currently overclocked to 3200, with idle temps of 41degress and full load of about 55 on all 4 cores using an arctic freezer pro 7.

I'm looking in to a watercooling solution in order to get the temps right the way down, to give me soem more room to overclock... However, I have never watercooled before, and know for a fact that a W/C setup will not fit inside my case (Atrix something or other with big digital display...)

So, i'm after some help from you guys in order to spec a water rig in order to fit in to a new case (included as part of the spec). I've been looking at the Thermaltake Tai-Chi, however have read some dodgy comments on the reliability of the waterblocks etc. A few of the watercool kits don't seem to have rave reviews either, so I was thinking of specing each piece individually - but then I really have no idea...

Cases - I'm open about, but i'm big on my PC being as silent as possible, as I hate fan noise with a passion!!!

Ideally, for all of the components I have a budget of around 230 quid max - the tai-chi comes in at about this...

Any help would be great, or an msn watercooling contact would be great - if you could pm me, I would appreciate a messenger link :)

Thanks guys...
 
Hi buddy, yup if there’s any current cpu that will benefit from good water cooling its these quads.

How much do you have to spend?
 
Ideally looking to spend as little as possible of course...

With a new watercool setup, I would need a new case so would ahve to factor this in too...

I would say around the £200 mark if possible, although there is room for a little negotiation if saw some reallll difference :)

Looked the Antec 900 - but reviews say water cooling cramps the case out...

Also, really like the thermaltake armor plus - however having this case would only leave me about 100 quid for the watercool :(
 
To be brutally honest 100 pound would get you a pretty poor watercooling kit and make it impossible to spec up a half decent cutom setup.

Your probably best going all out on the best possible air cooling solution. Something like a thermalright ultra would easily outperform the water cooling setup in that Thermaltake Tai-Chi case.
 
Lovely setup there Steveo! exactly what I would recommend for cooling a Quad! but try and put together that case and h20 setup with 200 quid!
 
If i went for a more expensive watercooling system and then took a hit on the case - what would be your suggestions going forward for this. What money would I realistically need to spend with a nice looking see through side panel in order to create an extremely silent rig?

Did either of you two lap your Q6600? Am thinking of doing so, even with my air arctic freezer pro 7, and wondered how much of a difference I could exepct under load...
 
are you two on msn at all? would be good to have a real time convo if possible!

I would be open to suggestions on cooling/case suggestions for this budget of 200-250 by anyone!
 
Maybe for my budget, i'd be better going for an extreme air cooling system - any ideas on this guys? Currently run an arctic frezer pro, and a case with baaaaaaad ventilation...
 
flatman said:
Did either of you two lap your Q6600? Am thinking of doing so, even with my air arctic freezer pro 7, and wondered how much of a difference I could exepct under load...
Click to expand...

Nope, I think lapping cpu ihs's is over rated and pretty pointless if you watercool, also kills its resale value. Done properly it can help, but the amount it actually drops temps might be pretty insignificant.

Im not on messenger buddy :(

I would maybe check out a Swiftech H20-220 Apex Ultra Watercooling Kit for £150, that gives you 100 to spend on a case. A few people use that kit to cool quads and it does quite well.
Pair that up with a quality Lian Aluminium full tower case and you have a pretty top quality setup.
 
Lian Li PC-A16B £88
Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme CPU Cooler £40
with some yates and i think it would be on par to the swiftech compact kits
 
flatman said:
what set-up you using to get your 4.5 gig clock Hesky?
Click to expand...

Im using water on that rig but tbh its overkill, my E8400 really is a cool running cpu that would probably manage the same on good air.

My Q6600 at 4GHz is much much harder to keep cool!

steveo said:
Lian Li PC-A16B £88
Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme CPU Cooler £40
with some yates and i think it would be on par to the swiftech compact kits
Click to expand...

Agree
 
flatman said:
If I bought the thermaltake Ultra, and an antec 900 with some silent yates - how would that rate?
Click to expand...

Key to good air cooling is not just a great heatsink like the Ultra but a case with great air circulation, in that department the antec 900 can’t be beaten!!
Would be a great combo!
 
Hesky82 said:
Key to good air cooling is not just a great heatsink like the Ultra but a case with great air circulation, in that department the antec 900 can’t be beaten!!
Would be a great combo!
Click to expand...

indeed, and if you want to do "extreme air" , mabye ducting is in order?. depending on your ambient temp, also try to get some really powerful 120mm fans, the ANtec 900 case fans on max do 79 CFM (on highest), theres 1 here on OCUK that does 105CFM, and 1 that does 190CFM, but its out of stock....

also these types of cooling things its important to know your environment, so check temp the room, near the intake, and component temps, and the exhaust temps. if its like 35 degrees your fans would not cool very well :( . i might do this and create chart. should be interesting
 
If you get those high cfm fans as suggested above you would really notice it. I would suggest the yate loons or similar suggested earlier with the ultra.
 
Got the Swiftech myself and it's holding my quad @3.6ghz around 50 to 55c at full load. Works really well and is really quiet.

Idle temps have been as low as 14c but average is around 25c. It's a good piece of kit.

P.S. ( it cools far batter than the Thermalright Ultra-120. I had one on before the water cooling and it was ok. But noisy!
 
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