What Components Would You Water Cool?!

[mad0maxx]

What Components Would You Water Cool?!

Northbridge Chip
Southbridge Chip
Voltage Regulator
Hard Drive
CPU
Video Card
RAM

 

[RallyMaster]

anything that you overclock or affects your overclock IMO

 

[Cogman]

CPU gets first priority, followed by VGA, and then followed by your northbridge. Possibly ram, but I really don't think that it makes much of a difference. After that, there is no point. You could easily be happy just water cooling your CPU.

 

[aigomorla]

Originally posted by: Cogman
CPU gets first priority, followed by VGA, and then followed by your northbridge. Possibly ram, but I really don't think that it makes much of a difference. After that, there is no point. You could easily be happy just water cooling your CPU.

Actually this is a wrong statement. If your a gamer that pushes his Video harder then CPU. You Cool the GPU first b4 the CPU.



And you watercool whatever you want to watercool.

General given is the CPU. However if your on phase, you do gpu only.

Intel:
CPU + GPU + NB + SB < or you can passive this

AMD:
CPU + GPU + NB <-- you can passive this also


The AMD doesnt depend heavily on the NB like the Intel does. So cooling intel's NB is more benificial then cooling AMD's NB.

 

[MotF Bane]

I know my friend's system covers the CPU, GPU, and NB. His loop is GPU > CPU > NB > Radiator > Pump, repeat.

 

[Elfear]

IMO, first priority should be given to the videocard IF it's an ATI card with software voltage adjustments or you want to do volt mods to your Nvidia card. Card temps dropped ~40C with the X1900XTs I had and I saw a decent increase in clock speed. The biggest thing is reliability. You might be able to squeeze off some benchmarks with stock cooling at close to the same clock speeds that you'd get with watercooling, but for hours and hours of gaming you want something that will keep the temps down.

I personally wouldn't bother watercooling an Nvidia card. You can usually get close to the same speeds with stock cooling and still have good temps. Voltage has always been my biggest barrier to overclocking with Nvidia cards, rather than temps.

The CPU is also right up there at the top of the list. Other than that, I wouldn't bother watercooling anything else unless you are trying to break some records or you have poor airflow in your case.

 

[aigomorla]

Originally posted by: Elfear
IMO, first priority should be given to the videocard IF it's an ATI card with software voltage adjustments or you want to do volt mods to your Nvidia card. Card temps dropped ~40C with the X1900XTs I had and I saw a decent increase in clock speed. The biggest thing is reliability. You might be able to squeeze off some benchmarks with stock cooling at close to the same clock speeds that you'd get with watercooling, but for hours and hours of gaming you want something that will keep the temps down.

I personally wouldn't bother watercooling an Nvidia card. You can usually get close to the same speeds with stock cooling and still have good temps. Voltage has always been my biggest barrier to overclocking with Nvidia cards, rather than temps.

The CPU is also right up there at the top of the list. Other than that, I wouldn't bother watercooling anything else unless you are trying to break some records or you have poor airflow in your case.

all my video cards are watercooled. My load temps are better then AIR's idle temps. And i dont care what monster hsf you have on your video card. 35C loaded is impossible for air to match up to unless you live in sub degree temps.


Cooling the NB on Intel C2D has showen a hugh improvement on OCing. I explained above, intel uses the NB as a memory controler. That is why, its vital to watercool this if your aiming at high OC's. When your pushing your fsb 400mhz+ that thing heats up quite a bit.

Ambients 72-73F Load temps on both CPU and GPU

Internals of that complicated loop

thats my AMD. I wish i had taken a picture of the QX when she was all setup. However i ran into hugh problems with her b4 i could get her running stable. But her loop was a bit more messier then my AMD's thanks to 3 pumps 2 independant loops.

 

[Elfear]

Originally posted by: aigomorla

all my video cards are watercooled. My load temps are better then AIR's idle temps. And i dont care what monster hsf you have on your video card. 35C loaded is impossible for air to match up to unless you live in sub degree temps.

I'm not saying that temps won't be a lot better with watercooling but performance on Nvidia cards won't improve much as a result of those cooler temps unless you do hardware volt mods. I got a whopping 10Mhz out of my 7800GTX when I switched to watercooling. My 8800GTX seems to be hitting about the same speeds as unmodded watercooled 8800GTXs. I just don't see a hug benefit to watercooling an Nvidia card unless you plan on volt modding, you are a silence freak and have a very quiet loop, or you live somewhere with very high temps and you're worried about your card temps.

Cooling the NB on Intel C2D has showen a hugh improvement on OCing. I explained above, intel uses the NB as a memory controler. That is why, its vital to watercool this if your aiming at high OC's. When your pushing your fsb 400mhz+ that thing heats up quite a bit.

I guess it depends on your airflow and fsb needs. Both my MSI board and my Bad Axe 2 oced to 440MHz with just aircooling. I don't have experience with the 965 boards so maybe they would see a bigger benefit from cooling the NB.

IMO if you have a single loop with both a gpu block and a cpu block, than adding a restrictive NB block may be counterproductive. With a powerful pump and/or a 2nd loop it may be a good idea but in a conventional single loop configuration I would personally stick with just the cpu and gpu.

In all fairness however, the NB would come before any of the other components the OP listed besides the cpu and gpu in order of priority.

 

[mad0maxx]

I do not plan to overclock at all... just stock everything. Should I not go for water cooling?

 

[RallyMaster]

Just go for air in that case. Even though I don't OC any more, I use third party cooling solutions for all of my parts (none of my fans or heatsinks are stock). Part of it is the quietness (which can sometimes be unnerving because too quiet) and the other is hardware longevitah.

 

[aigomorla]

Originally posted by: Elfear

Originally posted by: aigomorla

all my video cards are watercooled. My load temps are better then AIR's idle temps. And i dont care what monster hsf you have on your video card. 35C loaded is impossible for air to match up to unless you live in sub degree temps.

I'm not saying that temps won't be a lot better with watercooling but performance on Nvidia cards won't improve much as a result of those cooler temps unless you do hardware volt mods. I got a whopping 10Mhz out of my 7800GTX when I switched to watercooling. My 8800GTX seems to be hitting about the same speeds as unmodded watercooled 8800GTXs. I just don't see a hug benefit to watercooling an Nvidia card unless you plan on volt modding, you are a silence freak and have a very quiet loop, or you live somewhere with very high temps and you're worried about your card temps.

Cooling the NB on Intel C2D has showen a hugh improvement on OCing. I explained above, intel uses the NB as a memory controler. That is why, its vital to watercool this if your aiming at high OC's. When your pushing your fsb 400mhz+ that thing heats up quite a bit.

I guess it depends on your airflow and fsb needs. Both my MSI board and my Bad Axe 2 oced to 440MHz with just aircooling. I don't have experience with the 965 boards so maybe they would see a bigger benefit from cooling the NB.

IMO if you have a single loop with both a gpu block and a cpu block, than adding a restrictive NB block may be counterproductive. With a powerful pump and/or a 2nd loop it may be a good idea but in a conventional single loop configuration I would personally stick with just the cpu and gpu.

In all fairness however, the NB would come before any of the other components the OP listed besides the cpu and gpu in order of priority.

Your completely right in all these statements. However i have a 7900GT and yes i over volted it at one time, and was hitting 700 mhz on the core with over 1000mhz on the ram. Thats a hugh improvement from factory.

And about the NB, your correct there, it does cause more restrictions in your loop. Restrictions is a bad thing unless its directed at the CPU in an accelerator fashion. But if your ocing, an extra 28 dollar investment to push that extra clock speed isnt a bad investment. Expecially when your already expected to drop 200+ dollars on your cooling system.

Originally posted by: mad0maxx
I do not plan to overclock at all... just stock everything. Should I not go for water cooling?

Why are you even asking about water then? You really should read my sticky, if the first 3 questions dont apply to you, stay with air. Its far cheaper, and far easier to work with.

 

[tylerdustin2008]

Well since i chipped out the money for watercooling, i am going to cool whatever i want to. Except fot hdds, those blocks are expensive, and i dont feel like making my own. I will cool my CPU, GPU, and NB. Couple months i will be cooling another 8800GTS.

I hope my temps are better.

Tyler

 

[mad0maxx]

I just wanted to do it once in my life... I am a complete n00b to water cooling and I plan to buy a Koolance kit haha ^_^

 

[trOver]

Originally posted by: MotF Bane
I know my friend's system covers the CPU, GPU, and NB. His loop is GPU > CPU > NB > Radiator > Pump, repeat.

Shouldnt the radiator be the last thing on the list, as the pump adds heat to the water?

 

[SparkyJJO]

Originally posted by: trOver

Originally posted by: MotF Bane
I know my friend's system covers the CPU, GPU, and NB. His loop is GPU > CPU > NB > Radiator > Pump, repeat.

Shouldnt the radiator be the last thing on the list, as the pump adds heat to the water?

Loop order doesn't really matter much, as long as the res or T-line comes before the pump. Most DC pumps add little heat to the water anyway.

I would cool the GPU and CPU with water, maybe chipset if I hate a flamethrower of one but my passive HR-05 keeps my ATI chipset really cool so no need to mess with that.

 

[aigomorla]

Originally posted by: trOver

Originally posted by: MotF Bane
I know my friend's system covers the CPU, GPU, and NB. His loop is GPU > CPU > NB > Radiator > Pump, repeat.

Shouldnt the radiator be the last thing on the list, as the pump adds heat to the water?

The pump is a DDC-2. The myth about pumps adding heat to the loop only applies if your pump is submersible. In Real Life experiments it showed that having a pump b4 a block only adds to fractions of a C in temp difference.

The advantage of having the pump first in the case is you dont have most of the head pressure lost in the rad. This helps because he has a storm cooling the CPU.

Originally posted by: mad0maxx
I just wanted to do it once in my life... I am a complete n00b to water cooling and I plan to buy a Koolance kit haha ^_^

Oh gowd you really didnt read my guide did you. :X


You can get cheaper and better. Koolance is so overrated, not to mention so not worth it, unless you plan on using it for your xbox360.

 

[mad0maxx]

Originally posted by: mad0maxx
I just wanted to do it once in my life... I am a complete n00b to water cooling and I plan to buy a Koolance kit haha ^_^

Oh gowd you really didnt read my guide did you. :X


You can get cheaper and better. Koolance is so overrated, not to mention so not worth it, unless you plan on using it for your xbox360.[/quote]

I figured I would read your guide when it came closer to the time I could buy a computer but right now I just have it book marked for later use ;-)