Watercooling limit reached?

momo56

momo56

momo56

Soldato
Joined
18 Jul 2009
Posts
3,164
So I had a i7 920 and a 4870x2 in a single loop and the idle temp of the 4870x2 was about 37 degrees. This was fans at 40%, even with the fans at 100% the idle temp was about 36 - 37 degrees. Recently I changed a motherboards and so atm the the i7 is air cooled leaving only the 4870x2 in the loop and yet the temps are still 36-37 even though the card is the only thing being watercooled.
Is this the coolest I can get it under W/C ?

res>pump>i7 920>single rad (push/pull)>4870x2>double rad (push/pull)
 
Your idles arent really a concern, they are decent idles dont get me wrong. But you would probably notice a difference in your load temps, and load is really what matters.

So, if you know what your load temp was before, check them now, youll probably find them to be lower than before.
 
Ambient temps get to about 22-25, (summer weather windows closed), and my load went from about 52 degrees to about 46 degrees without the i7. Just wondering because I am about to replace the rads with 3 thermochill pa.120.3's. Kinda thinking the 3rd rad is pointless now. Might just use it to cool the motherboard and ram.
 
What were your load temps under air? Even 60°C under load for a 4870x2 is pretty good, reading reviews, load temps appear to be around 90°C+ so 30°C drop is pretty darn good.
 
wild guess but what TIM are you using?

just thinking that it is either really bad or there is too much so it is a crap heat conductor

or the GPU's have reached their temp limit before sub-zero temps are needed.
 
i found that there is a certain limit to how cool you can get your components depending on your loop, there will always be internal heat produced and water cooling just takes the excess build up of heat away from your components.


As said above idle temps mean nothing its the distance between idle and load that measures how good your cooling is.
 
Its an EK waterblock, I used AS5 for the 2 cores and the pads that came with the block for the other stuff. I reseated twice. The 1st time i took it apart to check and i got a nice thin layer but I didnt want air pockets so I cleaned it up and applied it again. I doubt the TIM is an issue.

My load temps under air were 100+ degrees when playing far cry 2. I think its because of really poor airflow in the case but furmark made it crash after an hour under air cooling.
 
If you are still concerned about your idle temps, heres mine for you.

With a Q6600 at 3.8 and my 5870 idleing at 400/1275 it temp is 39c with the fans on low.
But running Vantage my GPU only rises to 47c.

idleload.png
 
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