New Build (Water) Temps...

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Got my new system up and running and am worried that the cpu temps are nowhere near as good as they should be.

Parts are:

i7 920 DO / Asus Rampage 2 Extreme

Swiftech GTZ Se / XSPC RX360 / Swiftech MCP655 / EK 250 Res / 1/2" all round.

Also got an Asus 5870 with an EK full cover block in the water loop.

I've got Scythe Kaze Jyuni 1200RPM Slipstream 120mm Fan's on the radiator, I actually ordered the 1900RPM ones but they sent these by mistake. I didn't notice until I'd sleeved all the cables so couldn't send them back:( But I'm not sure hwo much that extra RPM would make, I'm thinking not a great deal.

Just sat in the bios the cpu is at 35deg C and in windows using RealTemp it's saying about 40deg C. I ran a quick stress test from within RealTemp and the cpu maxed out at 60deg C, which sounds very hot to me. Also this isn't with any load on the gfx card which will add a lot more heat to the loop when I do any 3d Bench's

I then tried the "easy oc" function in the bios which lets you select either 2.9Ghz or 3.2Ghz for the cpu. Selected the 3.2Ghz option which worked without any problem, but in windows the temps were 45 - 50deg C, and under load hit 75deg C.

So I'm more than a little miffed that the temps seem so bad. Any thoughts anyone?

Thanks.

Nick
 
This is at stock, right?

Main things which stand out are the fans and the cpu block, I think the former are the issue. Static pressure scales as the square of rpm, so the 1900rpm fans would be running at about 2.5 times the pressure of the 1200 rpm ones. The block I don't know much about except that I rarely see it recommended for i7 processors, no idea what performance hit you're taking because of that.

Does the air coming out of the radiator feel hot or not?

If it's not the fans or the block I'm at a loss, using a ddc, ek supreme and the equivalent of a quad radiator with 3 1600rpm s-flex I'm loading at 60 degrees at 4.2ghz, 8800gt in the loop. I might come up with something better later, been awake for quite a while now. Good luck
 
i have a very similar setup barring the i7 , mines a i5 @ 3.5ghz i get 35 average idle going upto 60-64 under load @ 28 ambient my 5870 never goes above 45

fans @ 7volts triple rad ek waterblocks and liang pump video card at beginning of loop to cpu to rad.
 
That was at stock yes, max was 60Deg C under load.

The air coming out the case from the radiator does not feel hot at all.

The pump is the variable speed version, but it's set at the fastest setting for the highest flow.

I've seen the Skythe Gentle Typhoon fans are possibly better than the other skythe ones I have now, so thinking I'd be better with the 1850RPM GT ones instead. But then if the air isn't coming out hot now would that suggest another issue?
 
my thoughts are the cpu is not getting cooled quick enough , either the block cannot cope, the water aint going through fast enough, thermal paste is not working efficiently.

whats your cpu core voltage @ try lowering it a bit or is it too high

also check the temp of the water before it enters your rad from the cpu, just because the core reports 60 does not mean the water is that high.

tbh i just think its poor thermal transfer from the cpu core to the h/s intel fit.
 
Did you bleed all the air out of your loop first?

I've just finished setting up my first ever WC loop, and my load temps at 4GHz when running LinX don't exceed 60c.

Maybe your CPU block isn't seated correctly?
 
I'm going to reseat the block again tonight. I'm using the Arctic Ceramique stuff I think, but it did seem very thick and paste like, and not like a more liquid / grease which I'm used to.

Also the fans are set to push air through the rad and out of the case roof, would they be better the other way pulling air in through the rad and then also reverse the rear case fan to exahust instead?
 
Well I did reseat the block, and I also turned the block 90Deg as the instructions with the block say it has to be mounted a certain way with respect to the cpu. The pipe work was better with it mounted liked I was, but thought I'd best mount it correctly just in case.

I've now dropped another 5deg c off the cpu temp by doing the above.

Problem is I'm not sure which temperature readout to believe. The bios temp for the cpu is saying 38 deg C sat in the bios or in windows (I've got a little LCD readout with the motherboard to give the temp readouts). Also RealTemp is saying about 45 deg C at the same time, so a good 6 to 7 deg difference.

The temperature reported by the 5870 from the Catalyst drivers is just over 30 Deg C which to me sounds good tho.
 
Wouldn't that affect the water speed / pressure in the loop generally, even if the cpu block was first? As in it will still have to go through the gpu block and the rest of the loop would be brought down to the lowest (most restricted) part of the loop.

Not that it helps if thats the case, but it would stop me thinking about redesigning the pipe layout again with the cpu first:eek::D
 
What Buttkinx meant is that having the gpu block in the loop anywhere is reducing your flow of water round your loop enough that the heat is not getting removed quick enough.

With my q9650 I can feel all the hot air coming out of the top of my radiator (much faster and higher pressure fans than yours though) but even with the fans on low, you can feel the heat radiate upwards.

Good watercooling in general needs at least 1.5 gallons per minute of flow.

To be honest, your pump should be fine as it's the same as mine and I have a full gpu block as well.

One last quick stupid question - you have turned the pump the full and not lowest as I know it's easy to make that mistake with that pump and you wouldn't be the first or the last...................;)
 
Thats what I thought was meant yeah.

The pump was on 5 on the fastest speed. I tried it down at 1 last night to see how quiet it would be and how it affected the temp. CPU temp went up by about 3 degrees in the first couple of minutes. I've left it on 4 as on full speed there is a slight buzz from it with vanishes that bit slower and the temps seem as good as the same as full speed.

I had this problem before with my first water build, 6 or 7 years back. I had both CPU and GPU in the loop with a dual 120mm fan rad and the temps were not great. Ended up putting the oem fan back on the gfx and just having the cpu cooled. Had hoped that things had moved on in that time and a tripple rad would cope with both water blocks.

Having said that tho, the temps are not actually that bad really by the looks of things. At stock the bios reports 38Deg c, which doesn't hardly rise when running and benchmarks on it, and the GFX is saying 30 ish deg at idle.

Without having dual water loops it doesn't look like I'll get it much better and I've not got space or money to do that. The only thing I've not tried is having the fans in reverse pulling air in the case roof and over through the rad, and exhausting out of the rear. Might give that a go tonight just to see. If the air was warm coming out I might go for better fans, but again it's pretty much cold, even putting your hand on the radiator itself there feels no heat. :confused:
 
you could check with your fingers, touching the waterpipe as its leaving the cpu, if its red hot when under load but cools quickly as it moves to the radiator then the flow is quite low, daft test i know, just trying to get an idea, have you got a pic of your system so we can see the layout and setup?
 
your temps dont look bad at idle, iv got a cpu in the loop, had taken off teh 3870 block as im waiting for a block to be made for the 5770's, although from my old graphs on occt the graphics card make negligble difference to the temps, all my fans etc are on the slowest settings and i get around 38 idle and 55 on the linpack test, using a swiftech setup with 2 120mm fans on 7v. although you do have a toasty cpu there ;) Iv just built a i7 920 system for a friend with just a AC freezer 7 on it and that at 3.4ghz only peaked at 66degrees with a simple air cooler. have you tried it without the gpu in the loop??

edit : just noticed youve used the "easy oc" in the bios, just check it doesnt boost your cpu voltage to a daft amount :)
 
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Just noticed you have a quality triple rad and we know your pump is running at full or near full speed.

My dual, lessor quality, rad copes fine with my cpu and gpu.

Therefore the problem of "poor" cooling lies in one of two places.

1. You're not getting the heat transferred from the cpu to the water fast enough.

2. You're not getting the heat removed from the radiator quick enough.

It might be a combination of both. Good to see re-applying paste and the cpu block helped a lot.

Not familar with the cpu block so it may not be the best for an i7.

If the problem is the radiator end then higher pressure/rpm fans would help.

Of course no need to do either if you are happy with your temps with your overclock. In day to day use they won't ever go as high as that anyway.
 
That's a worry. If your cpu is under stress and hitting 70C, you really ought to be able to feel the heat in the pipe from the outlet and the radiator if everything is doing it's job properly...............
 
Now, I have made several mistakes in watercooling. One lethal mistake was when i forgot to flush a radiator. I later found out it had damaged my D5 vario so even at 5 there was not enough flow. This could be your problem. The pump should be virtually silent. Is it??

I doubt the thermal compound is to blame, i have found the amount used makes very little difference to temperatures.

Just double check that you are definitely putting the tubing into the correct in and out fittings.

My personal experience is that the fans used dont make a great deal of difference to the system but hey I havnt had that many systems.
 
God, incorrect information overload in this thread :p

In closed watercooling loops, the temperature reaches an equilibrium - there's no "hotter" part within the loop, so you can't attain the performance of a certain part by touching the tubing after it.

As already said, your pumping power is more than fine for your setup so flow and head pressure isn't your problem and neither will the cooling capacity of your radiator.

Several things that have crossed my mine are:

  1. The GTZ uses a special mounting mechanism which does not work too well on lapped CPUs. The mounting mechanism was designed for stock processors and the heigh difference can not be tollerated by the block when the CPU IHS is lapped. Are you using a lapped CPU?
  2. The GTZ has a certain inlet and outlet, I also believe it has a specific mounting direction too, or at least a recommended one.
 
Mekrel said:
Several things that have crossed my mine are:

  1. The GTZ uses a special mounting mechanism which does not work too well on lapped CPUs. The mounting mechanism was designed for stock processors and the heigh difference can not be tollerated by the block when the CPU IHS is lapped. Are you using a lapped CPU?
  2. The GTZ has a certain inlet and outlet, I also believe it has a specific mounting direction too, or at least a recommended one.
Click to expand...

Totally Stock CPU from the retail box.

Inlet has a 'dot' on it which is definitely being used as the inlet, and the block is orientated with it's base along the line of the cpu locking lever as in the instructions.

I've remounted the block again this evening and things seem better. In realtemp the idle is reported as 38 Deg C and at load with it's basic test running P95 at 50 Deg C. This is at stock CPU speed.

I'm currently at 3.2Ghz on the CPU but also undervolted from 1.3v down to 1.2v and the idle temp is 40 Deg C in realtemp and 39 Deg C on the motherboard lcd readout. All running fine at that speed / voltage, decided to try it to see how it went. Ran P95 for half hour and temps were steady in realtemp at 60 Deg C and 50 Deg C on the bios readout.

Still not sure which temp 'readout' to go by tho and whats actulaly classed as safe, or within acceptable limits.
 
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