Water cooling vs air cooling

[TT120]

So I'm sitting here after having just built a second T-bird system. 1 has watercooling and the other has an Alpha Pal 8045 monster HSF on it. The system with the watercooling is a T-bird 1400 @ 1550 and the air cooled one is a T-bird 1333 @ 1550. Both are running at the same core voltage, the same speed and the same ambient temp. Funny thing is, both chips are at the same exact temp. So then I gotta ask myself, is the Alpha really that good or is something wrong with my water cooling rig?

Sheesh, $150 for the water cooling and $50 for the Alpha.
Wassup wit dat?

[AntmanMike]

First of all, your Water cooling system is running at a higher speed than the air cooling one. Are you using a radiator?If so, is it being cooling by cool air? stick it in a fridge. Is the bottom of the water block lapped? Make sure there is some Arctic Silver II or Arctic Alumina on it. Make sure it is mounted correctly and stable.

[Dissolved]

just get some good water cooling stuff, thats all i have to say..

i wanna be a member of the OADO too :)

[AntmanMike]

just add the OADO tag to your sig.

[Dissolved]

Originally posted by AntmanMike
just add the OADO tag to your sig.

did u make this up?

[Big_KiD]

I have the same alpha 8045 on a soyo dragon with a xp1600
i have only had the system up and running for about 3 days now but it appears to be working very well.. The only complaint i have is that i had to cut out one corner of the heatsink about .5"x.5" to clear a capacitor on the mb... while were on the subject what's a good way to tell the temp of the proccessor while the machines running?..

[Silver]

Assuming you have a bong and all is set up correctly, push the voltage and overclock up around 2.2 volts and I believe that you will see the difference. The water will and the heatsink won't. Water is considered extreme, other than the quite why use it at low voltage? Might try for 1.7 on the h20.

[donny_paycheck]

I wanted to sub-zero my cpu with a TEC and I debated for a long time whether or not to watercool. I opted for the mother of all air cooled heat sinks - the Swiftech MCX462. See my sig. It works awesome. Even with the thermal loading from both the pelt AND the cpu, the heat sink is only lukewarm to the touch under full load. Not to mention the CPU running at 35F full load. That's no t-bird though, so I'm a bit different.

[Silver]

Donny, hello again. I love the fact that you are running air cooling on a tec and it is working. My problem of course is the t-bird needing more. I believe that I would need a tec in the range of say 154 or so to have a shot at 1.8 Ghz and this assumes that I would not have to raise the vcore any. My version of radiate does not have the xp chip so I can not say what your watts are but I am looking at about 140-145 to get there and I think I will need water to have a shot at it. Possibly dual 118s but I think 154s. I will however remember your air cooled pelt so that I have another option on the first xp chip I get. I wonder if on a xp chip if you could sand down the top of the socket (this I know you can do) and run a longer plate with dual air cooled pelts. Of course good case air flow would be required.

[Silver]

This of course would require the plate to run vertical rather than horizontal. I think this might work (on an xp and given your 1.7 Ghz at 35c under load).

[donny_paycheck]

Originally posted by Silver
Donny, hello again. I love the fact that you are running air cooling on a tec and it is working. My problem of course is the t-bird needing more. I believe that I would need a tec in the range of say 154 or so to have a shot at 1.8 Ghz and this assumes that I would not have to raise the vcore any. My version of radiate does not have the xp chip so I can not say what your watts are but I am looking at about 140-145 to get there and I think I will need water to have a shot at it. Possibly dual 118s but I think 154s. I will however remember your air cooled pelt so that I have another option on the first xp chip I get. I wonder if on a xp chip if you could sand down the top of the socket (this I know you can do) and run a longer plate with dual air cooled pelts. Of course good case air flow would be required.

Yeah, no way an 80 watt TEC could handle a tbird. I wanted to air cool a TEC for a long time but was scared off by the misconception that ALL (even lower wattage) TECs get too hot for air. I decided to put down the $$ and try it. Bingo! Below-ambient cooling without even getting into water! Here's a pic (only this was with a MC462, not the MCX model that I switched to a few days later):

[Silver]

Thats a good looking setup donny. I have to put that on my list of to do's. Two heatsinks and two 80 watt tecs. Might be able to pull that off and get away from the umbilical cord of the bong.

[donny_paycheck]

Originally posted by Silver
Thats a good looking setup donny. I have to put that on my list of to do's. Two heatsinks and two 80 watt tecs. Might be able to pull that off and get away from the umbilical cord of the bong.

Hey thanks, and lemme know if you have a question cuz air cooling a TEC seems to be a rare happening.

[KILLorBE]

Originally posted by AntmanMike
First of all, your Water cooling system is running at a higher speed than the air cooling one.

Is it me or....
1550=1550 right?
So they put out the same amount of WATTS right?

BTW donny_paycheck Nice :beer: , but its not that rare :p
PEP66+62W (for now...till my 80W arrives:D ).

[ButcherUK]

An XP puts out about 65W at 1700, 1.75V. I'm quite surprised the 80W TEC works that well, are you using standard Vcore on that?

[Silver]

I am a little surprised as well however 80w x 80% efficiency = 64 watts. The heat sink is bordering on water cooling and is obviously doing a really good job. efficiency on thermal transfer is really good (great insulation job?). At any rate he is right on the edge at 34c under load. It does work for him though, no denying that. I think he made an excellent decision on the heatsink as nothing else would have done the job. Good work Donny.

[donny_paycheck]

Originally posted by ButcherUK
An XP puts out about 65W at 1700, 1.75V. I'm quite surprised the 80W TEC works that well, are you using standard Vcore on that?

Yeah, didn't need to go higher to hit 1700. I also have a 122w module sitting here for a water block when I get the motivation to try it. It's left over from a science project. I wonder though, because the hs only gets slightly warm at full load. I drilled a little hole in the side and epoxied a thermocouple digidoc sensor in there so I could check the hot side temps. The lukewarm feeling is only about 90F so you think I could put the 122w module in and do it with air cooling? Ambient case temp is about 75F usually, mabye 78-79 at times.

[donny_paycheck]

Originally posted by KILLorBE
BTW donny_paycheck Nice :beer: , but its not that rare :p
PEP66+62W (for now...till my 80W arrives:D ).

AWW %#(&*$#!!!! Hah...that's a nice looking one too. Thing is you're the first person I've seen doing it besides me, although granted I haven't been here that long.

[Silver]

Donny, I am not using pelt cooling (though I am very interestd in it) so I would ask around some before trying this. As is I think you are on the edge and it is working. Adding another 50% (40watts) to the heat sink load I believe would overtax the heat sink. I would ask around though as I am not a pro at pelts. I believe that you are looking at water cooling on that pelt (118w).

[donny_paycheck]

Yeah, I thought so. Ah well, looks like it's 80 watts for me cuz I'm too lazy to water cool.