Need help with my WC setup

Can someone tell me what I should do to get lower temps on my system? I have:

Abit Max3
Prescott 3.0E stepping [email protected] 1.43vcore
1gb G.Skill LE 2.5-3-3-8 277fsb 1:1 2.7v
BFG 6800GT OC@425x1100
Antec P-160 case
OCZ Powerstream 520

Watercooling consists of:

Swiftech 6000 cpu wb
Swiftech 350 pump
Swiftech 120 rad w/2 120mm fans in push/pull
Swiftech res
I added to the kit:
120mm heatercore with two 120mm fans in push/pull (shrouded both sides)
Polarflo TT

I've replaced all the 3/8" tubing with 1/2" ID Clearflex60. I did this by using some brass inserts that I insert into the ends of the 3/8 stuff and then insert the 1/2" over the 3/8" and tighten down with steel worm clamp. The thin brass sleeve keeps the 3/8 tube from collapsing. The places I had to do this are on the pump in/out, cpu in/out, res in/out and 120mm rad in/out. Note that even before doing this, temps were the same.

Temps:

CPU idle = 48c
CPU max= 53c
SYS idle/load = 32c/38c
PWM idle/load = 35c/50c

GPU idle = 47c
GPU max = 53c
GPU ambient idle/load = 36c/41c

System is in my basement and we have airconditioning. I know my wc is working better than my SP-94 and NV5 were because I can overclock higher and use less voltage, but why are my temps so high? I know this mobo reads high also, but when I was air cooled, my temps were something like 36 idle, 60+ load on the CPU when I oc to 3.9.

What is really strange is that even after being turned off all night, I power up and go straight into the bios and it reads 45c. Should I be worried about these temps?

Thanks!

Sounds more like a faulty temp sensor if it is reading 45° C when you first turn it on after a whole night of being shut down, unless your room is that temp. I would suggest checking into an external temp probe that you can put next to the core (without disrupting the water block seating) and see what it reads. Typically the mobo sensors are horable at giving accurate readings.

What do you have for caseflow? Usually the cpu temp sensor isn't near accurate unless there is good air flow in the case.

My case is moving a lot of air I think. The top hc is sandwitched between two 120mm fans, the rear rad is sandwitched between two 120mm fans and they all suck air in from the outside. I have a 120mm fan in the lower fron and it is sucking cool air in as well. The PSU exhausts of course, and also have a 120mm hole cut in the side panel but I took the fan out since it didn't really seem needed. You can feel the heat being blown out the side from 3' away and that is with all the fans running at 7v. I also have an 80mm blowing across the ram/NB/vid card. I'll post pics in a few (waiting on kid to bring my camera back).

I know the wc is working because I can oc from air 260fsb (3.9) 1.46vcore, to 277 fsb on water 1.43vcore 100% stable. I think this chip will do 280fsb (4.2ghz) stable if the temps were a tad lower. I'm just curious why these temps are so high now.

Temp reporting is notoriously inaccurate, as stated above, and I personally have stuck with fairly ancient hardware so I am not sure just what typical temps people see for systems such as yours......

BUT: what I consider the single most important consideration is System Stability.

If you can run something like prime or similar load testing and fault reporting software and get no errors at your present oc and temp, and have no stability issues in use, I would call it ok.
Unless you are running insane voltages and so on, which doesn't seem to be the situation here.

That isn't to say that it wouldn't be POSSIBLE to improve your indicated temps, just that it might not really be neccessary.
One thing you can do to check if airflow in the socket area is causing an inflated reading is to temporarily place a fan so that it is blowing directly onto the cpu socket area; if temps improve much than that is the issue most likely.

As far as things that might improve temps- experimentation is needed, and some of it might require new/different parts.
The only cheap and easy one that comes to mind is changing the direction of airflow on your rear rad- blow out of the case. This might improve mobo airflow and overall circulation. Of course, it might not.

Thanks for the replies. I just got done reseating my gpu and cpu wb's with AS5 and I also reversed the rear fan to exhaust to the outside. My cpu temp wnt up about 1-2c and this was expected, and my sys and pwm temps dropped. I think I will leave it this way though since my PWN on this mobo is stressed so much as it it is.

I guess one thing I could try is to change out the water. I just rebuilt this system this past weekend and ordered some UV dye. The dye came in a small unmarked white bottle and after adding a few drops, there wasn't much effect. I finally wound up putting the entire bottle in and things started to glow nicely then! I did add the entire bottle og hydra X (sp) as well and used distilled water.

I just read a post on another forum where someone said his temps rose 4c after adding UV dye, so since I cannot think of anything else to try, I will give replacing the water a shot.

Your pump is not powerful enough for that setup, you are expecting it to push the water through 2 blocks, a res and a radiator which it simply will not do. So if you really want to lower your temps a stronger pump is suggested. However much like what rogerdugans said if it is stable why bother?

Do a flow mod on your pump.

The mcp350 has great head pressure, but lacks good flow. Its plent powerful enough to push the water through your loop, you just aren't getting the full flow potential from the pump.

http://www.systemcooling.com/mcp350_mod-01.html <- this is the mod Jas was talking about, however this will void your warranty and has the potential to leak. So if you do it make sure you have a backup or can replace it. I do not recommend doing it for the very reason that this could easily leak if done incorrectly.

Even better alternative, buy a D5 pump.

Run ya about $80-90 depending on shipping costs.

Just to add, you already have a nice setup, outside of spening more money on stuff, or doing some serious modding, you'r ento going to see a huge drop in temps. Your setup is nice, and I think most would agree no real NEED to change it.

I'll concur with Jas.
Also, those temps are just a round about figure. It's very difficult to get accurate temps in these manners. Like you suggested, your temp could be as much as 10º off (in an extreme case), however I would find it likely that the temps are as much as 5º higher than reality.
Stability is the only important consideration, especially when you are below 60º

If it ain't broken, don't fix it...

Thanks for the replies all. Just for my own sanity, last night I did quite a few things in effort to eliminate as much as possible including:

1. drained half of the system and replaced with fresh distilled water. Bled completely.
2. reversed rear fans to exhaust to the outside.
3. reseated cpu and gpu blocks with fresh AS5
4. reversed lower front fan to be intake.
5. added 120mm intake fan on side panel.

CPU and GPU temps remain the same 48-49c idle though my system and pwm temps are slightly lower. I think I'm going to go with your advice and my own experience - since I can oc higher with lower vcore, the temps I'm seeing don't mean much.

Here are some pics of the system yesterday before I made these changes. The only diff today is I removed the push/pull on the rear rad and added a shroud (gutted 120mm) on the inside and also what I note above.

Again, thanks for the assist!

Very nice system Slammin, looks very clean.

On that last pic, it looks like you took a pic of your screen. Did u know that u can take a picture of the desktop from within windows? You can use the 'Print Screen' key located above the insert key, to the right of the F keys. After that, open up M$ Paint (or your preferred paintshop program) and paste. Give it a try. If you already knew this then just disreguard

Watercooling is an art, very fun to play with. Glad you hopped into the pool brother!

ok I have a few tips:

1) Clean up your wires and tubing there has to be 0 airflow in that case
2) Relocate that Radiator
3) Get a Heatercore (fedco 2-302), a shroud and 2 120mm fans (optional and will cost money not recommended)

Also your temps are worse cause you are pulling hot case air through the radiator.

Thanks man, but this still does not explain the temps I'm getting. I've tried all sorts of fan combinations, fan/airflow directions, push/pull, exhaust to the outside, pull from outside to inside, pointed an 80mm directly at nb/cpu, etc. Not meaning to kill this thread, but I think I have tried everything.

I've concluded that my mobo is reporting the temps off by a long shot. I cannot see any other explaination. I can oc farther and with less vcore with water than I could with my SP-94, though my temps report so much higher on water.

Now that I'm satisfied with this, I will forego the 280fsb=4.2ghz (+3 fsb) I was looking for, from my current 277fsb. Kind of sucks to be so close though!