Upgrading (still on 939 though) and need some advice

Foehammer2003

Foehammer2003

Foehammer2003

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Upgrading (still on 939 though) and need some advice on WC kit

Hey,

Ok so i have the rig as in spec with an ASRock939 dual sataII board :eek: , and im going to move it all into a TT Armor Jnr. and change to a DFI SLi-DR mobo (bought from MM) but really cba to reinstall windows, so what i need to know is that is the following correct? http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=1755&page=5

I will back up regardless, but ideally dont want to set up all my settings and games installs again.

And the other thing was i need your guys thoughts on the following water cooling kit as i want to try WC so perhaps i can get some better clocks:

http://www.xspc.biz/kits.php , I know its far from a decent WC set-up but i simply want a bit better cooling than my current TT golden orbII and the quieter fan/lack of. I'm also a complete noob when it comes to WC so a cheap semi-easy kit is what im in the market for. Budget is always an issue so all other kits are out of my range atm, so basically shall i stay on air or will this be more towards what im after?
 
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The bit about a repair install is correct, there is of course a chance that it won't work but it offers you the best chance.

I'm afraid I know nothing about watercooling though so I'll leave that advice to someone else. :)
 
It is possible to swap mobo and most cpu parts without formatting but I would never EVER do it or recommend it to anyone

mainly because your hdd will still be full of little bits of drivers and settings and registry entries from all your last stuff, and no matter how many uninstalls and driver cleaners etc you run it never seems to get everything at perfectly as just starting again from scratch

which tbh, a full format only take 10 mins then "39 mins" to install windows, just back all your settings, faves, games etc up onto another hdd and re-apply them when your done, its hardly a HUGE effort
 
the bigwater is not that great. not much better then top-end air-cooling and nowhere near good water-cooling as well as offering almost zero upgrade options. i.e. if you wanted toupgrade the bigwater, you'd need to change all of it.
 
Couple of thoughts in my mind right now...

1 - Swapping a Mobo without installing can be done, and it can be done fairly easily and the end result will probably work too, but... It is a silly thing to do, there will always be junk left behind, as MuSsEr has already said, and its simply a bone-idle thing to do and in the end, you will suffer with a system that will be slower than it could be.

Hell, I F&R every few weeks purely for a laugh, and it takes me no more than about an hour from start to finish, and that includes backing all my EMails / Address Book / Docs etc, and of course putting them all back, and then updating Windows itself... The last time I did it, I went from XP to XP64 and it was done in about 40 minutes.

2 - Water Cooling.

My htoughts are simply that if you have to ask about Easy Water Cooling to get a little more out of your PC, coupled with asking about the Mobo/Reinstall as in Answer No.1 then you are not good enough to actually need to Water Cool your system.
 
Aftermarket air cooling is now way better than it used to be.

Watercooling is still better, however...

Good air cooling > Ok watercooling

In addition, with components producing much more heat than they did a couple of years ago, you can't get away with smaller radiators.

I set up watercooling on my PC 2 years ago, I spent a fortune and I got good, expensive stuff, however it's now pushed a little by an 8800 GTX, northbridge, mosfets and dual core. Not pushed too much, I've just had to adjust the way things work and optimise them, but I don't think a cheapo watercooling kit could cope.

At the end of the day watercooling is limited by 2 things.

1) The speed at which the water absorbs heat from the components.
2) The ability of the radiator to dispose of the heat.

It's all very well having expensive blocks, IHS removed, lapping everything, using good compound, making sure the water is de-ionised and has good coolant, the pump is up to the job, the loop is efficient etc... but if the radiator reaches equilibrium at 40 degrees then it's not good cooling.

By equilibrium I mean that if your radiator cannot discharge the heat fast enough then the water will heat over time, until it reaches a point where it's hot enough that the difference in air temperature is such that it can discharge the heat. The worse your radiator is doing the higher this temperature is.

Likewise you could have a massive radiator with a tornado blowing at it, but if the water isn't picking up the heat fast enough from the CPU/GFX/whatever then it's not going to do the job.


Edit : For some sort of conclusion....

If you do want to do watercooling, and you want to do it on as much a budget as you can get.

A) Go for a common tubing size.
B) Get a good radiator and pump.
C) Go cheap on the blocks.
D) Lap the blocks down, use good compound.

You'll find it much easier to later change the blocks than you will to later change the radiator.

I went for 1/8 tubing, from Aquacomputer, while I can't fault the quality of their stuff, I can however wish that I'd gone for 1/4, which is a much more common size and would mean I could choose from just about any producer for parts.

The radiator I have is a 240mm one (120x240mm, takes 2 120mm fans), it's a big radiator, but perhaps I could have gone for a 360, which would mean an extra 50% surface area for getting rid of heat. I'd suggest you look at nothing smaller than a 240mm radiator, and consider a 360mm as what you "want".

Cheap blocks lapped... well, there's two things for waterblocks that affect how good they are.They need to get good contact with the component, and they need to be well designed to expose the water to as much heat as possible as it passes through.

As far as good contact is concerned, as long as you pick a block that is sensibly designed (this won't mean expensive) then you can cheaply lap it and use decent thermal compound (even MX-1, apparently one of the best around is cheap in comparison to the other components in a watercooling setup). That'll be half the battle.
 
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I have found that the opposite way round TBH!

My last bunch of PCS have been gettign faster and faster, but also cooler too!

My last Pc that I used Water on was a Barton core XPM

Since then, the 939/754 PCs have never been very hot at all ( Except under serious clocking ) and the Conroes are chilly as hell

Cant say the same for the Prescott 660 ( 3.6Ghz ) howerver... Thats hot as the sun and I have taken it as far as 4.7Ghz FFS on air... Now, that could do with Water, however, its a waste of time CPU so will be replaced with a Conroe in the next few weeks.

So, no, I have found that newer CPUs for me have simply been getting cooler all the time not hotter.
 
Maybe it's a different upgrade path then. But certainly my overclocked Opteron 146 gave out more heat than my Barton 2500+, and my new 185 gives out more heat than the 146.

But there's no arguement for graphics cards, those things are pelting out the heat now.

Something else that "proves" it, if you like. Is that the demand on PSUs is increasing, higher power used = more heat.

I think compared to 2 or 3 years ago cooling has come forward in leaps and bounds.

Socket A
XP 2500+ - 68.4W
XP 3200+ - 76.8W

Socket 939
A64 3200+ - 67W
A64 4000+ - 89W
FX-57 - 104W

A64 X2 4200+ - 89W
A64 X2 4800+ - 110W

AM2

A64 X2 4000+ 89W (90nm)
A64 X2 6000+ 125W (90mm)
The 65nm ones they've come out with use 65W

So it has been on the increase - but with them using 65 and then 45, it's going to go down/stay around the same.

Useful site - http://balusc.xs4all.nl/srv/har-cpu-amd-k8.php
 
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