- Joined
- Mar 27, 2004
Hi there all. This is my first post and I hope it's not a bad one. I've snooped around here for a long time and I've searched in particular about this question I have and haven't really hit upon a definitive answer, so I decided to ask.
First the question and then the details. I have this 2.4C which is just fine at 3000 MHz. Due to memory limitations the darned thing will boot up Windows XP at any viable speed up to and beyond 3364 MHz, but nothing above 3000 is reliably stable.
As an overclocker going back to the 300A days, that seems to be an unusual amount of "unstable" headroom--more unstable headroom than a whole darned 300A itself, in fact--which leads me to believe that I've not properly tweaked the voltage or mis-set something else in the BIOS. But then again perhaps it's not unusual at all, which is why I'm asking.
Now for the details. Last year I spotted this Koolance box (it's a mid-tower, but I don't know its model name) and picked it up because I was planning on building a new system soon and wanted to fiddle with entry-level liquid cooling, but I couldn't find a water block for it. As it happened the old "Sanford Box" died a premature death and as I had important work to do, I had to cobble together a new rig, "Lamont," ASAP. I hope all the relevant system details are below.
Because I was in a hurry and didn't have the waterblock yet, I went for a Thermalright/Thermaltake HSF solution which I found to be quite satisfactory. I quickly found the 250/200 FSB-memory sweet spot and it's stayed there ever since because anything higher led to immediate crack-ups.
Nine months or so later--yesterday--I finally had the time to hook up the liquid cooling. At first I was astounded. I could start up at any speed that crappy 1 GHz of Golden Dragon memory will tolerate (not more than 208 memory bus with any divider). It will even post at 3.6G before the memory craps out. However, I quickly noticed that Prime 95 would crap out within minutes and Lamont would crash while fragging in Call of Duty. So I'm back to 3000 MHz for the moment.
The Koolance tells me that it likes to ride at about 80F/27C idle, about 89F/31C under load at 3000, a few ticks higher at higher speeds. Hardware Doctor claims CPU temperatures are 111F/44C at idle, roughly 120F/49C under load--about the same as with the SLK900U heatsink. Ambient temperature is 78F. Right now my voltages are 1.7 core, 1.65 AGP, 2.7 DDR. I took the 80mm Thermaltake CPU fan and used it as an intake fan (which is pretty wild-combined with the Koolance smoke stack I can feel air blowing out the back of the case through an open card slot!), so I'm pretty certain case flow isn't a problem.
Hope I haven't put you to sleep there, but I didn't want to leave anything out. By the way, I realize that a Koolance is sort of like a tricicle at Sturgis, but I'm pretty tickled with this watercooling thing. You can bet I'll be building the next one myself. Thanks for your input.
First the question and then the details. I have this 2.4C which is just fine at 3000 MHz. Due to memory limitations the darned thing will boot up Windows XP at any viable speed up to and beyond 3364 MHz, but nothing above 3000 is reliably stable.
As an overclocker going back to the 300A days, that seems to be an unusual amount of "unstable" headroom--more unstable headroom than a whole darned 300A itself, in fact--which leads me to believe that I've not properly tweaked the voltage or mis-set something else in the BIOS. But then again perhaps it's not unusual at all, which is why I'm asking.
Now for the details. Last year I spotted this Koolance box (it's a mid-tower, but I don't know its model name) and picked it up because I was planning on building a new system soon and wanted to fiddle with entry-level liquid cooling, but I couldn't find a water block for it. As it happened the old "Sanford Box" died a premature death and as I had important work to do, I had to cobble together a new rig, "Lamont," ASAP. I hope all the relevant system details are below.
Because I was in a hurry and didn't have the waterblock yet, I went for a Thermalright/Thermaltake HSF solution which I found to be quite satisfactory. I quickly found the 250/200 FSB-memory sweet spot and it's stayed there ever since because anything higher led to immediate crack-ups.
Nine months or so later--yesterday--I finally had the time to hook up the liquid cooling. At first I was astounded. I could start up at any speed that crappy 1 GHz of Golden Dragon memory will tolerate (not more than 208 memory bus with any divider). It will even post at 3.6G before the memory craps out. However, I quickly noticed that Prime 95 would crap out within minutes and Lamont would crash while fragging in Call of Duty. So I'm back to 3000 MHz for the moment.
The Koolance tells me that it likes to ride at about 80F/27C idle, about 89F/31C under load at 3000, a few ticks higher at higher speeds. Hardware Doctor claims CPU temperatures are 111F/44C at idle, roughly 120F/49C under load--about the same as with the SLK900U heatsink. Ambient temperature is 78F. Right now my voltages are 1.7 core, 1.65 AGP, 2.7 DDR. I took the 80mm Thermaltake CPU fan and used it as an intake fan (which is pretty wild-combined with the Koolance smoke stack I can feel air blowing out the back of the case through an open card slot!), so I'm pretty certain case flow isn't a problem.
Hope I haven't put you to sleep there, but I didn't want to leave anything out. By the way, I realize that a Koolance is sort of like a tricicle at Sturgis, but I'm pretty tickled with this watercooling thing. You can bet I'll be building the next one myself. Thanks for your input.
