I have never watercooled before and have decided to bite the bullet. I want to push my q6600 and the chip seems capable, happily boots vista at 3.6 but fails prime after a while and i don't want to give it more volts with the freezer pro as temps are in the 70s under load with that clock. Running 24/7 at 3.2 with prime load temps in high 60s / touching 70s. The ambient temps in my office are hot as in the top of the house and too well insulated.
I am considering just cooling the CPU in which case i was thinking about the swiftech h20 220. However, i am torn on whether to cool my whole system.
I have coolermaster cosmos and although it is easy to work with, solid and looks great (IMO) the air flow is terrible and i am convinced that the sound surpressing foam acts as a nice duvet for my components. I have chaged out the main air intake fan at the bottom of the case, added an additional fan drawing air over the hdds. Modded three of the drive bay covers to take air in from the front with an additional 120mm fan and have added two spot fans to cool my graphics cards. This has worked well enough as the cards which are in trisli (which is really a crazy design as their is no space around the fans and the cards toast each other) stay within acceptable norms now (when first installed and before improving airflow they throttled back) and can even be slightly oc'd. I am also running striker ii formula which i am pleased with but the north bridge gets hot.
So sorry if that was long winded but i wanted to set the scene. I basically have the north bridge and GPUs under control through the additional air i am bringing in and the spot fans. However, the solution is a bit rough around the edges. Question now is should i watercool the whole thing, 3 gpus, NB and CPU? This is no doubt a big investment and more hassle for a first liquid cooling setup but is it worthwhile? Silence is not a priority but right now it is borderline noisy!
I really am 50:50 on this and would be grateful for any views! I don't mind spending but this system is already a money pit. Thanks
Skidder
I am considering just cooling the CPU in which case i was thinking about the swiftech h20 220. However, i am torn on whether to cool my whole system.
I have coolermaster cosmos and although it is easy to work with, solid and looks great (IMO) the air flow is terrible and i am convinced that the sound surpressing foam acts as a nice duvet for my components. I have chaged out the main air intake fan at the bottom of the case, added an additional fan drawing air over the hdds. Modded three of the drive bay covers to take air in from the front with an additional 120mm fan and have added two spot fans to cool my graphics cards. This has worked well enough as the cards which are in trisli (which is really a crazy design as their is no space around the fans and the cards toast each other) stay within acceptable norms now (when first installed and before improving airflow they throttled back) and can even be slightly oc'd. I am also running striker ii formula which i am pleased with but the north bridge gets hot.
So sorry if that was long winded but i wanted to set the scene. I basically have the north bridge and GPUs under control through the additional air i am bringing in and the spot fans. However, the solution is a bit rough around the edges. Question now is should i watercool the whole thing, 3 gpus, NB and CPU? This is no doubt a big investment and more hassle for a first liquid cooling setup but is it worthwhile? Silence is not a priority but right now it is borderline noisy!
I really am 50:50 on this and would be grateful for any views! I don't mind spending but this system is already a money pit. Thanks
Skidder
