Maximus Extreme liquid cooling??

[bharatwaja]

I am planning to buy a new system in Feb, and am currently thinking about the maximus extreme... One thing that confuses me is the cooling...

Reviews say its got a built in mechanism for liquid cooling... but is liquid cooling provided or jus the heat pipe assembly for liquid cooling? (the structure)

Also, is it compulsory to use a liquid cooling thingie (i am very very new to this concept, ZIP KNOWLEDGE ON THIS) with this motherboard or nothing special is required (translate to "motherboard alone will do")???

Please help...

 

[PCTC2]

It just has a waterblock attached to the heatpipe cooler. It can still just run on air because the heatsink should be large enough. Just have a fan blowing on it.

But to run with the water block, you'd need a CPU block, radiator, pump, reservoir, etc.

 

[bharatwaja]

I am very very new to this concept as u can see... could u give me a detailed account of what is required?
Thanks

 

[PCTC2]

It actually comes with a little fan that attaches to a part of the heatsink.

If you really wanted to, you could buy the Antec SpotCool or a small 40mm fan and then have it blowing on the heatsink to the left of the RoG logo. But that shouldn't be necessary. Only do that if you have stability issues after bootup and you have narrowed it down to thermals.

 

[bharatwaja]

I dont do any overclocking.... Just for the purpose of gaming and some 3d designing and I do a lot of software developing mainly for symbian smartphones... In this case, is any extra cooling measure required? other than normal air circulation thru the chassis?

 

[PCTC2]

No, you should be fine. But why the Maximus Extreme? Are you going for Tri-Crossfire? Otherwise, cheaper boards with the same features would be beneficial to your wallet.

 

[bharatwaja]

No specific reason... other than its a cool board to have and i would be the first in my entire university (probably) to own it, I am in INDIA, so i guess u understand what i am talking about. My main purpose is developing symbian applications. I really dont care much about overclocking and all, coz software development is all I live for! I know how to overclock n stuff, but really dont have a taste for it...

what other x38 boards would u suggest? crossfire capability (2 full x16) support is a must... and should be a good gaming platform... My processor is QX9650... I know u r screaming "overkill" at ur screen now, but i aint spending for the processor.. its a gift to me!!!

DDR3 support also necessary... i wud be using DDR3 1333 Mhz corsair or patriot...

 

[PCTC2]

Since you aren't overclocking or using watercooling, then the P5E3 is a bit cheaper, and so is the Gigabyte X38T-DQ6. Both offer better air coolers for the chipset, DDR3 1333, dual PCIe 2.0 x16, and are cheaper.

 

[Grimner]

PCTC2 is right. Writing this on a two-day old computer featuring the Maximus I can add a few elaborations.

-It does not need water-cooling, but it is ready for it.
-The extra little fan is intended to help with cooling if the CPU is water-cooled. Poking around, ASUS has a point - the copper heatsink maze gets hot and definitly needs plenty of air.
-The whole board and BIOS screams OVERCLOCK!!! and GAMES!!! (intentional use of capital letters and exclamation marks).
-Plenty of fun and glitz - the board is full of LEDs - putting things together takes time but it is a delightfull design.

But hey, DDR3 and a QX9650? You might as well go for a Maximus just to top it off. A gift is a gift

 

[PCTC2]

Originally posted by: bharatwaja
No specific reason... other than its a cool board to have and i would be the first in my entire university (probably) to own it, I am in INDIA, so i guess u understand what i am talking about. My main purpose is developing symbian applications. I really dont care much about overclocking and all, coz software development is all I live for! I know how to overclock n stuff, but really dont have a taste for it...

what other x38 boards would u suggest? crossfire capability (2 full x16) support is a must... and should be a good gaming platform... My processor is QX9650... I know u r screaming "overkill" at ur screen now, but i aint spending for the processor.. its a gift to me!!!

DDR3 support also necessary... i wud be using DDR3 1333 Mhz corsair or patriot...

Oh, and BTW, i'm not screaming OVERKILL. I bought 2 high-end desktops and 2 laptops this year and next year I'm buying a Q9550, a QX9650, a P5E3 Deluxe Wifi, an NVIDIA 790i SLI based board when they come out, and 8GB of DDR3 1800. Along with all other computer parts that are needed for desktops (I sold both desktops and a laptop this past month so I'm down to this laptop I'm typing on).