Hey all!
As of late I have seriously started to consider putting together my first watercooling system. While I'm not new to PC construction, watercooling is definitely a foreign term, but I've been doing some reading and a little research and think I'm close to putting together a good system. Before I start ordering parts I'd like a little advice/suggestions from some experts and before that I'll give you a little background on where I'm at currently.
A couple weeks ago I purchased new components to put together a new desktop system which are as follows:
i7 2600K
AsRock z68 Extreme 4 Gen 3 Motherboard
4 x 4GB of Gskill Ripjaws X series DDR3 1866 Ram
MSI GTX560 Ti Hawk Video Card
Mushkin Enhanced Chronos Deluxe 120GB SSD
OCZ ModXStream Pro 700 watt Modular Power supply
Zalman CNPS9900ALED Heatsink and fan
Housed in my 4 year old Coolermaster Mystique Mid tower case.
As you can see, this is a near top of the line system... at least in respects to WEI, which, after OC'ing to 4.5ghz stable, racks upto 7.8. Only thing holding me back from a perfect 7.9 across the board is the cpu, believe it or not, and this is where my trouble started. I've only been able to stablize this processor to 4.7Ghz and that's at a vcore of 1.390 with peak load temps in the low/mid 90's... didn't run that test very long. The trouble is, even at 4.5Ghz vcore 1.305 temps were still in the low 80's. I figured something was wrong with the heatsink, but everything is seated fine, so in a last ditch effort to bring temps down and get a higher clock I took the door and front panel off the case and set a desk fan blowing at the Heatsink. Load temps dropped almost 7-10c across the board. Guess the airflow through my case sucks, which is not surprising cause it is kinda crowded in there right now.
This left me with one obvious solution... New case, but which case. My goal is to hit 4.8-5.0 Ghz. I've got plenty of headroom as far as vcore, but any new case I buy isn't going to have any better airflow than my above solution... it's just going to look better and since a 7-10c drop still leaves 4.7 in the mid to high 80's, I won't have gained much. That leaves me with two options:
1.) Just be happy I got 4.5Ghz, button up my case, and just keep telling myself that I'll never notice the difference between 4.5 and 4.8 and 7.8 is still an awesome WEI score. (and yes, I know WEI doesn't really mean jack, but that single tenth of a point is still really irritating!)
2.) Build myself a custom case and add watercooling to the mix.
Since I'm posting here, I think we can all tell which way I'm leaning.
Ok, so as far as the case, I'm going to build my own around an existing frame (a wheel around Wiretech cart my current desktop is sitting in... plenty of space) using a combination of mesh panels, aluminum, plexi and canabalized parts from various other currently unused cases I have sitting around. Somewhat challenging, but I've got a plan and think it should work. Before I can finalize my plan and start sketching up schematics, I have to decide on a watercooling system, since it will be a major part of the system.
My main goal is to acheive a stable clock of 5.0Ghz with a full load temp of less than 80C on the hottest core.
Here are the main components I am currently considering:
Swiftech MCR420-XP eXtreme Performance Quad 120mm Slim Radiator
Swiftech MCP35X 12v PWM Controlled Water Pump
EK Supreme HF Universal CPU Liquid Cooling Block w/ Easy Mount Kit - Rev 2 - Full Copper - Electroless Nickel Plated
FrozenQ PC Mods 250mm Liquid Fusion V Series "2nd Generation" Reservoir UV Cathode - UV Blue Helix (or something similar to be displayed on the exterior front of the case)
Initially, I'm just planning on cooling the CPU. Next spring or summer I'm going to look at adding a couple of new Nvidia 600 series GPU's in SLI and Moving the 560ti down to a PhysyX only board at which time I'll add a seperate loop for cooling the three of them. That loop will probably use the same basic components I end up choosing for the CPU.
I haven't picked a Tubing/fitting size or brand yet. Assuming the above components will fit my needs (and please tell me if they won't or there are better/cheaper alternatives out there with equal or better performance) what would be the recommended size/types to maximize the cooling performance?
And what about chipset cooling? Just sitting here typing this post my MB temp is just barely above room temp... Under load I wasn't seeing it go much past the mid 30's. Is it really needed or is it only necessary when one is going to the absolute extreme with their CPU OC?
Anyway, I apologize for the length of the post, but I hope it helps paint an accurate picture of where I'm at and what I'm trying to achieve. Any thoughts, comments, and/or suggestions would be more than welcome at this stage. Thanks for reading!
As of late I have seriously started to consider putting together my first watercooling system. While I'm not new to PC construction, watercooling is definitely a foreign term, but I've been doing some reading and a little research and think I'm close to putting together a good system. Before I start ordering parts I'd like a little advice/suggestions from some experts and before that I'll give you a little background on where I'm at currently.
A couple weeks ago I purchased new components to put together a new desktop system which are as follows:
i7 2600K
AsRock z68 Extreme 4 Gen 3 Motherboard
4 x 4GB of Gskill Ripjaws X series DDR3 1866 Ram
MSI GTX560 Ti Hawk Video Card
Mushkin Enhanced Chronos Deluxe 120GB SSD
OCZ ModXStream Pro 700 watt Modular Power supply
Zalman CNPS9900ALED Heatsink and fan
Housed in my 4 year old Coolermaster Mystique Mid tower case.
As you can see, this is a near top of the line system... at least in respects to WEI, which, after OC'ing to 4.5ghz stable, racks upto 7.8. Only thing holding me back from a perfect 7.9 across the board is the cpu, believe it or not, and this is where my trouble started. I've only been able to stablize this processor to 4.7Ghz and that's at a vcore of 1.390 with peak load temps in the low/mid 90's... didn't run that test very long. The trouble is, even at 4.5Ghz vcore 1.305 temps were still in the low 80's. I figured something was wrong with the heatsink, but everything is seated fine, so in a last ditch effort to bring temps down and get a higher clock I took the door and front panel off the case and set a desk fan blowing at the Heatsink. Load temps dropped almost 7-10c across the board. Guess the airflow through my case sucks, which is not surprising cause it is kinda crowded in there right now.
This left me with one obvious solution... New case, but which case. My goal is to hit 4.8-5.0 Ghz. I've got plenty of headroom as far as vcore, but any new case I buy isn't going to have any better airflow than my above solution... it's just going to look better and since a 7-10c drop still leaves 4.7 in the mid to high 80's, I won't have gained much. That leaves me with two options:
1.) Just be happy I got 4.5Ghz, button up my case, and just keep telling myself that I'll never notice the difference between 4.5 and 4.8 and 7.8 is still an awesome WEI score. (and yes, I know WEI doesn't really mean jack, but that single tenth of a point is still really irritating!)
2.) Build myself a custom case and add watercooling to the mix.
Since I'm posting here, I think we can all tell which way I'm leaning.
Ok, so as far as the case, I'm going to build my own around an existing frame (a wheel around Wiretech cart my current desktop is sitting in... plenty of space) using a combination of mesh panels, aluminum, plexi and canabalized parts from various other currently unused cases I have sitting around. Somewhat challenging, but I've got a plan and think it should work. Before I can finalize my plan and start sketching up schematics, I have to decide on a watercooling system, since it will be a major part of the system.
My main goal is to acheive a stable clock of 5.0Ghz with a full load temp of less than 80C on the hottest core.
Here are the main components I am currently considering:
Swiftech MCR420-XP eXtreme Performance Quad 120mm Slim Radiator
Swiftech MCP35X 12v PWM Controlled Water Pump
EK Supreme HF Universal CPU Liquid Cooling Block w/ Easy Mount Kit - Rev 2 - Full Copper - Electroless Nickel Plated
FrozenQ PC Mods 250mm Liquid Fusion V Series "2nd Generation" Reservoir UV Cathode - UV Blue Helix (or something similar to be displayed on the exterior front of the case)
Initially, I'm just planning on cooling the CPU. Next spring or summer I'm going to look at adding a couple of new Nvidia 600 series GPU's in SLI and Moving the 560ti down to a PhysyX only board at which time I'll add a seperate loop for cooling the three of them. That loop will probably use the same basic components I end up choosing for the CPU.
I haven't picked a Tubing/fitting size or brand yet. Assuming the above components will fit my needs (and please tell me if they won't or there are better/cheaper alternatives out there with equal or better performance) what would be the recommended size/types to maximize the cooling performance?
And what about chipset cooling? Just sitting here typing this post my MB temp is just barely above room temp... Under load I wasn't seeing it go much past the mid 30's. Is it really needed or is it only necessary when one is going to the absolute extreme with their CPU OC?
Anyway, I apologize for the length of the post, but I hope it helps paint an accurate picture of where I'm at and what I'm trying to achieve. Any thoughts, comments, and/or suggestions would be more than welcome at this stage. Thanks for reading!
But good info
