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Watercooling Rocks!

Elfear

Elfear

Diamond Member
I was a bit skeptical that I would see any advantages over an XP-120, but after building a cheap H2O kit I'm now a believer.

I used the following parts in the kit:
Heatercore from a '77 Bonneville w/AC
Universal radiator overflow tank from Autozone (reservoir)
Swiftech MCP600 pump
DD Maze4 GPU block
Swiftech MCW6002-64 CPU block
15' of Clearflex tubing
2 Sanyo Denki 120mmx38mm fans

I stuffed everything into an old case I had laying around. I mounted the overflow tank to the back of the case and epoxied two barbed fitting (one 1/2" and one 5/8") into it. I made a temporary ghetto shroud out of cardboard and duct tape until I can make a decent metal one. The heatercore I mounted into the side of the case.

I am completely amazed at the difference it made over my XP-120 with a 103cfm Sanyo Denki fan on top. I realize the mobo must be reporting the temps wrong, but I am more interested in the delta between the two setups since they were run on the same board. Temps changes are as follows at stock voltage:

................Idle...........................Load
XP-120......30C...........................40C
H2O..........21C...........................31C

Temps taken for H2O setup were measured with ambient being ~80F, and the temps for the XP-120 were taken with ambient temps being ~70F. I bumped the voltage up to 1.49V and with cooler ambient temps (~67F) I get idle temps of ~18C.

I'll test the temps when I've had a chance to bump the volts up a bit and compare the two.

I was even more amazed at the temp drop for my X850XT PE. Before I used to load @~80C using ATI Tool and ~77C while gaming using the stock leaf blower. After switching to H2O I now get load temps of ~41C using ATI Tool and ~37C whil gaming. I was expecting maybe a 20 degree drop at most but that's like 40 degrees! My max stable oc went up 45MHz with the stock voltage and still runs along at a much cooler temp.

I will add a caveat that watercooling is more expensive (I have ~$180 into mine), requires more maintenance, and LAN parties are going to be a pain, but, for me, it is well worth the trouble for the temps.

Just thought I'd share my experience with switching to H2O.

Quick update:

After raising the vcore up to 1.65V (according to CPU-Z or 1.67V in bios) and running Toast I get load temps of 41C with ambient temps at 70F. Super-PI loads at 36C. Prime95 would probably load at ~39C so I'm pretty satisfied with the results as my original goal was to get load temps at max vcore of <40C. I'll try and get some more accurate temperature readings to make sure that my mobo isn't way off.
 
It's actually not too bad. I need to get a fan controller to keep the 120mm fans at 7V for everyday use, but even at full blast they aren't too noisy.
 
your tems have to be off

21C is around 60F with your ambient at around 80F you should be idling at near room temp which at 80F is probably around 30C

in essence, if your room temp is 80F, and your cpu says 21C (around 60F), your cpu is actually absorbing heat, which is impossible
 
the coldest you can get your water temp without chilling the water will be 80F (around 30C)

its simple thermodynamics

thats a nice setup though, i'm thinking about building an external unit from plexi glass that that will house pump, res, radiator and fans, and simply have the tubes run into the case
 
Originally posted by: dannybin1742
your tems have to be off

21C is around 60F with your ambient at around 80F you should be idling at near room temp which at 80F is probably around 30C

in essence, if your room temp is 80F, and your cpu says 21C (around 60F), your cpu is actually absorbing heat, which is impossible
Click to expand...

16C is roughly 61F so I dont know where you get.

21C is ~69F and 80F is ~27C.

Although yes, your H2O idle temp seems to be off unless its your estimation of ambient.
 
Originally posted by: Elfear
I realize the mobo might be reporting the temps wrong, but I am more interested in the delta between the two setups since they were run on the same board.
Click to expand...

I realize the temps are off but like I said, I'm more interested in the delta between the two systems. That was what impressed me.

 
There will always be a small temp gradient between the CPU and the working fluid. If the working fluid is at 25C, then I would expect to see the CPU temp at 27C or higher.

In general, add about 7C to the CPU temp for air cooling, and 2C for water cooling. Higher Vcore will naturally translate to a higher temp delta between the CPU and working fluid.
 
Quick update:

After raising the vcore up to 1.65V (according to CPU-Z or 1.67V in bios) and running Toast I get load temps of 41C with ambient temps at 70F. Super-PI loads at 36C. Prime95 would probably load at ~39C so I'm pretty satisfied with the results as my original goal was to get load temps at max vcore of <40C. I'll try and get some more accurate temperature readings to make sure that my mobo isn't way off.
 
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