Big water doesnt seem to be working

[DontStealMyFish]

I jsut installed the tt bigwater, i followed the manual, set up the tubing in the order they listed. but the liquid isnt flowing, or it moves for just a sec then stops. the bios says the cpu temp is 42C, thats with the side panel off. i have the ASUS a8v mobo, fx55 cpu, 1gb corsair xms ddr. im not quite familiar with what the temps should be using the fx55, but 42 seems too high.

 

[iamtrout]

It's very hard to tell if water is moving. Do you see ripples in the res or feel subtle vibrations in the tubes?

 

[CycloWizard]

If it's not moving, first thing is to check the pump. If the pump is running, check to see if you have a kink or blockage somewhere. The pump creates pressure that results in flow, so if it's working then there must be an obstruction to flow somewhere.

 

[DontStealMyFish]

i think maybe the coolant is flowing now, i fiddled with thetubing a little and drained and refilled the pump. now i dont see any gaps where theres a stationary air bubble. thanks.

 

[akira34]

Post up your temps and such after it's been on for a few days. I'm interested in the product, but not willing to dump the money if it's not going to give me good (or at least decent) results.

 

[DontStealMyFish]

the bios still has it in the 42s, the temp reader tells me its 35.7 i know its done well in reviews, maybe i just messed up putting on my thermal compound..., i dunno. im using arctic silver 5, and the shark case with the big honeycomb holes on its side panel...so i had to have done something wrong. i know the place i chose for my case isnt the best spot (4 inches away from the corner on both back and right side), but even still the temps seem too high.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

I think the things you need to look at are (a) what the CPU idle temperature had been when the stock cooling solution (HSF) was used, and (b) the difference between idle and load temperatures with the BigWater.

I see many FX-55 AMD users posting idle temps in the low 40's Centigrade, for air-cooled solutions. If your idle value is 42C, the really important question is "What's the load value?"

You would think, even so, that the idle CPU temp would be lower for a water-cooled system.

Maybe either you didn't us enough arctic silver, or you used too much, or you just need to wait for it to "cure" a bit. They say AS5 cures after about 200 hours of operation, so . . . .

 

[BonzaiDuck]

ONE MORE THING!

BIOS temperature readings will ALWAYS be significantly higher than monitoring software shows under the operating system. The more I think of it, 42C is not excessive for your processor, if my system (Intel 3.0C P4 @ 3.6 ) is showing something like 35 to 38C in the BIOS.

The reason for the discrepancy has been explained on this forum before. Suffice it to say -- your OS and software will give a more accurate reading.

 

[drpootums]

Well, if some temp monitoring program says 35 C idle, i think that's doing great!

BTW, a question i've had about these for a while, being the exhaust fan is blocked by the radiator fins, does that decrease the airflow a lot?