Liquid Cooling opinion

Zen 2nd · 26-07-2009 2:49pm #1

Was thinking of getting liquid cooling for my PC and was wondering what peoples opinion of it were.

For instance my processor is now getting up to 50 degrees under heavy strain and it has only recently been put in so dust hasn't even started to build up yet. So may get hotter in the future.

For instance my MB is 45 degrees at the moment (no strain) and CPU is 38 degrees but depending on the day the MB can get up to 48 degrees which is above the recommended normal. What temperature would the MB and CPU be typically if done with liquid cooling?

I have 5 fans already in the computer and as such its not the quietest of machines.

Unregistered. · 26-07-2009 3:14pm

Zen 2nd wrote: »

Was thinking of getting liquid cooling for my PC and was wondering what peoples opinion of it were.

For instance my processor is now getting up to 50 degrees under heavy strain and it has only recently been put in so dust hasn't even started to build up yet. So may get hotter in the future.

For instance my MB is 45 degrees at the moment (no strain) and CPU is 38 degrees but depending on the day the MB can get up to 48 degrees which is above the recommended normal. What temperature would the MB and CPU be typically if done with liquid cooling?

I have 5 fans already in the computer and as such its not the quietest of machines.

spec?

Zen 2nd · 26-07-2009 3:35pm

AMD Phenom II X4 940 3.0GHZ
4GB RAM
Radeon X1950 XTX Graphics Card
ASUS M3A78-T Motherboard

Solitaire · 26-07-2009 7:01pm

Are you running that CPU at stock speed? What cooler do you have? And what's your case and airflow like? 50C under "heavy strain" is a lot cooler than my wee C2D while priming!

And if there's mediocre airflow in there I'm not surprised at the mobo temps - it is running a 125W+ CPU after all!

Zen 2nd · 26-07-2009 7:19pm

CPU is running at stock speed.

Unfortunately due to space constraints the back is very close to the wall.

Oh I forgot to mention those temperatures when under strain are achieved even with the assistance of an office fan blowing around the PC, which drops the MB temp by 5 degrees so imagine what it would be like without the office fan. Ideally I don't want to be using an office fan lol.

I don't know what make the fans are, the CPU fan is running at 3040RPM though.

Solitaire · 26-07-2009 7:25pm

Zen 2nd wrote:

I don't know what make the fans are

Who built that machine? If it doesn't say what's in there and/or its from a big OEM then it's most likely the stock cooler which almost guarantees it'll be a bit warm in there. Do you know what model your case is? What fans are on it? Part of the problem is that if it isn't one that mounts the PSU at the bottom and has a case fan exhausting hot air straight up from the top then being placed against a wall is probably killing the airflow in there

Do something like torture-testing (e.g. priming all 4 cores simultaneously for 15 minutes) without the assistance of an office fan then get back to me with the resulting temps (try using SpeedFan to see them, CoreTemp is better but I don't know if it supports Phenom2). But 50C for a 125W P2 is nothing.

Zen 2nd · 26-07-2009 8:08pm

I got the PC custom built by a shop called Computer Works. That was over 2 years ago with a single core processor.

Could only get info about the fan on the back (see attachment)

Did a stress test on the PC for 15mins:

At the 15min mark

CPU - 70 degrees
MB - 48 degrees

Now, idle

CPU - 43 degrees
MB - 47 degrees

I think I may have been a bit to used to the temp a single core processor was giving off, where both the CPU and MB hovered around the 35 degree mark.

Is it worth getting liquid cooling or perhaps better fans to help the MB?

Solitaire · 26-07-2009 9:45pm

70C while priming is just a wee bit on the "wild side" Not the nice one either

Simple: old P4-era case, just one 80/92mm fan, insufficient airflow. Even the stock cooler is being strangled. I usally insist on cases with 1-2 120mm fans for even basic builds, let alone ones with 125W monsters under the bonnet! :eek:

Do you know what model the case is? Or at least post pics of all the sides? What spare fan mounts do you have on it? At a guess I'd say getting better airflow will be next to impossible, and the only way to fit WC would be the same as an ordinary fan: attack it with a Dremel

Or do the decent thing and buy a new, decent one. But it depends; first I'd need to see what caliber of case we're dealing with here...

uberpixie · 26-07-2009 10:15pm

Zen 2nd wrote: »

Was thinking of getting liquid cooling for my PC and was wondering what peoples opinion of it were.

For instance my processor is now getting up to 50 degrees under heavy strain and it has only recently been put in so dust hasn't even started to build up yet. So may get hotter in the future.

For instance my MB is 45 degrees at the moment (no strain) and CPU is 38 degrees but depending on the day the MB can get up to 48 degrees which is above the recommended normal. What temperature would the MB and CPU be typically if done with liquid cooling?

I have 5 fans already in the computer and as such its not the quietest of machines.

1) you do not NEED water cooling. 50 degress at load is nothing..... My 1st generation b3 stepping q6600 used to hit 70 degress at load for a few months before a strapped a better cooler on it, chip still runs fine and regualrly hits 50 degrees+ under load and is in the 40s when I dial my case fans down. (50 degrees is nothing, 90 degrees is the safety point at which most motherboards will kill power to protect CPUs....)

2) Water cooling will add an extra layer of complication to the PC and you will still need case fans anyway to cool radiators etc. There are also space issues for your case: will the case take radiators internally, will they have to be mounted externally, how much chopping up of the case will you needs to do etc.... Also you need a little extra TLC when moving the PC (only an issue if you go to LANs)

3) What case, PSU and what fans have you? What CPU cooler do you have?

Case and fans make the biggest difference in killing noise in a PC backed up with a nice quiet PSU and a nice quiet cooler on the gfx card.

My PC runs quiet because I have an antec p180 case that has epic airflow with very thick side panels for dampening noise, a seasonic PSU which I can't hear, an artic cooler fitted to my gfx card which I can't hear, a thermalright cpu heatsink on the CPU. I then have have 4 case fans: mainly scythe flex 120mm 1200rpm which are all super quiet.

There are a load of things you should be doing first before even thinking water cooling: air cooling can be very quiet and in a lot of cases quieter than water cooling. Again with water cooling you still need case fans for cooling radiators and you have the added extra of vibration from water pumps to contend with....

If you want to go water cooling fair enough: but it is not a magic bullet and you will need to do a lot of planning and a nice chunk of money to do it right.

You can go an all in one solution that only cools the CPU.(easy option but still does not deal with issues such as loud case fans or a crappy case, loud psu or loud gfx card cooler......)

EXAMPLES
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=WC-028-SW&groupid=701&catid=193&subcat=1038

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=WC-029-SW&groupid=701&catid=193&subcat=1038

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=WC-001-CI&groupid=701&catid=193&subcat=1038
(a good cpu cooler is actually better, quieter and cheaper than this one.....)

A quiet pc is a pc that has been properly planned from the start, a quiet pc is one where every single component has been selected to be quiet. Simply slapping in water cooling will not reduce noise if your PSU or your gfx card sound like a jet engine or your case is crap and won't dampen noise and has crap airflow meaning all your parts run hotter than they should or if you case fans are rubbish. It only takes one ****e part to fcuk it all up.

Zen 2nd · 26-07-2009 10:16pm

So there is 5 fans in the PC:

2 around the PSU

1 on the side

1 on the CPU

1 on the front bottom

Solitaire · 26-07-2009 10:32pm

It probably won't help as much as it should given it's going to be pushed up against the wall but actually mounting a 120mm fan on the rear would help quite a bit... first time I've seen a build without any exhaust fan. Sloppy! :mad:

Is there a fan inside the front cover? That and all the blue glowing stuff makes it hard to see... :rolleyes: What size is it? I doubt a cheap-and-nasty clone case has a working 120mm intake fan included, but to be fair said case actually has a full-size 120mm rear mount so it's nowhere near as bad as many I've seen.

Tiny side fan is probably doing jack, other than being a wee noisemaker :P

PSU ain't helping, its an old through-and-through design with the 80mm fan taking cool air from the front of the case and blasting it out the back. Most modern PSUs act as a supplementary exhaust, with a big 120-140mm fan on the bottom that shifts a lot of air out of the case via the PSU. As a result the case fans need to pick up the slack in that machine but the only exhaust doesn't even have anything mounted there so the hot air from the CPU is just pooling next to the PSU and helping roast that for good measure! :mad:

I'm guessing you have the stock cooler or worse (yes, the AMD 125W CPU stock cooler is good enough to outperform countless cheap-and-nasty jobbies!), and I'm pretty sure those are SATA(wtf?) cables hanging across it. Not so good. Tidy up and think about filling those 120mm fan mounts with something (I'd recommend fans!

) and think about getting a cheap-but-not-nasty CPU cooler. If you take off the side cover and the big aluminium thing with a fan sticking out doesn't have copper heatpipes sticking out a wee bit then someone's being messing with you as 125W AMD CPUs come with a pretty butch cooler. Which some unscrupulous gits nick and stick a dreadful PoS in there instead :eek::mad:

Zen 2nd · 26-07-2009 10:52pm

Thankfully the CPU does seem to have copper heatpipes coming out of it.

Yeah the side fan seems to be blowing feck all out of the PC.

I have to admit that I don't really like venturing into my PC

I have provided two extra photos which may oir may not help.

Also I don't actually feel any air from the fan on the front of the PC, me thinks its not very useful??

Specs for the case: https://host8.successfulhosting.com/amaxpc.net/product.php?productid=16371&cat=349&page=1

So basically what I need to do is:

New PSU
120mm for the rear

Should I get/replace fans for better versions? Do they actually do anything where they are now?

or should I just go for a whole new case? lol

uberpixie · 26-07-2009 11:13pm

Would consider dumping the case, psu and cooler tbh... jeormxnrni

case: antec 300

psu: corsair non modalr 550w

Cooler: xigmatek dark knight.

total: 171.95

case will come with some antec tricool fans which are fairly quiet on low, bit rubbish on medium and high settings though.

Zen 2nd · 26-07-2009 11:25pm

yeah that sounds like the way to go.

Thanks for the advice guys, I'll be back on tomorrow to see if any further posts are made, and any other opinions are welcomed

Solitaire · 27-07-2009 12:18am

Hell, forget the CPU cooler for now (the stock one isn't that awful) and just get the Antec 300 and a VX550W. That alone will give a big improvement (if the rear exhaust is blocked there's a 140mm top exhaust to pick up the slack

). Only think about getting an expensive CPU cooler if the temps don't drop back down below 60C on priming runs (because they'll never be any higher!)

Zen 2nd · 27-07-2009 1:08pm

Well there is one problem with the top fan taking the slack would be that the top of the case would be getting pretty close to the ceiling of the table.

I was looking at the other Antec cases, they look pretty cool too but are also higher as well which doesn't help.

Joeface · 27-07-2009 4:13pm

Hey Zen 2nd

I don't think its your Fans.

I had a case similar size to that (Achilles Gaming Case) Loved it .but when I went to Dual core and the Quad thats when the temp in side went up and No amount of fans was going to sort it .
The Achilles case had 2 x120mm one front one rear.
and 2x 80mm Fans (side panel and top)
It was only when I changed cases that the temp drop and now I have only 2 Fans on the case they are both on the front of the case (XPS730) its just much better air flow. And even with the XPS case been closer to the wall and the desk the Airflow is still better.

(note I only have an XPS case all the rest is still the old system temps have dropped from the 50s+ to the low 30s+ even on a full load it barely gets passed 40.)

Zen 2nd · 01-08-2009 8:56pm

New case and PSU fitted and here are the results!! In brackets previous results

15min stress test end result:

CPU - 48 (70)
MB - 37 (48)

While idle:

CPU - 30 (43)
MB - 37 (47)

Thanks once again for all your help, the results are very good!!

Unregistered. · 02-08-2009 2:12pm

Zen 2nd wrote: »

New case and PSU fitted and here are the results!! In brackets previous results

15min stress test end result:
CPU - 48 (70)

MB - 37 (48)

While idle:
CPU - 30 (43)

MB - 37 (47)

Thanks once again for all your help, the results are very good!!

That's actually amazing!! Re: Case and PSU, what were you using before and what did you upgrade to? Did you buy any additional fans/cooling?

Zen 2nd · 02-08-2009 2:50pm

Here's what the old case was: https://host8.successfulhosting.com/...cat=349&page=1

Basic fans, old PSU with a fan either side of it.

Here's the new case: http://www.antec.com/Believe_it/product.php?id=MjM=

and the new PSU: http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=339898

For the new case all the fans are already in it. 2 in the front, 1 on the back and 1 on the top.

Unregistered. · 02-08-2009 3:03pm

Zen 2nd wrote: »

Here's what the old case was: https://host8.successfulhosting.com/...cat=349&page=1

Basic fans, old PSU with a fan either side of it.

Here's the new case: http://www.antec.com/Believe_it/product.php?id=MjM=

and the new PSU: http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=339898

For the new case all the fans are already in it. 2 in the front, 1 on the back and 1 on the top.

Andhow is the noise level?

Zen 2nd · 02-08-2009 3:17pm

Not too noisy, Like you can hear the fans but say it would be a bit quieter than an Xbox 360

Liquid Cooling opinion

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