Temps - Core2Duo e5300 @ 3500 - on water

[amora]

I recently, re-discovered water-cooling and got back into OCing due to the abundance of later generation CPU/motherboards that have become readily available to me.

I rebuilt my WC loop to the following

-Swifttech Apogee HD
- EK res
-Swifttech mcp 35x
-2 x 120mm old school hw Labs Black Ice Pro rads(one were laying around so I figured instead of dumping a bunch of money into 2 newer models I'd just reactivate an old rad and buy a brand new one for $30)
-1/2" tubing.

config goes:
pump -> rad1 -> rad2 -> CPU block -> res -> back to pump

CPU is a Core 2 Duo OC'd on stock Vcore to ~3.4ghz.

#1 I pretty much saw NO improvement from a single 120mm rad to dual 120rads. I suspected at first that it maybe my old Hydor l30 was just not up to par after sitting around for 4 years unused, so i swapped that for the mcp-35x, still got the same load temps.
**fans are dual GT-AP15's an dual Zalman ZM-F3's both sets in P/P

#2 I'm pretty sure these load temps aren't on par due to the fact that I havent manipulated the CPU voltage. Plus I've read reviews with quadcores running in the low 40's in a multiple block loop.

My loop is a simple, single block loop.

Any suggestions... well other than swapping out the rads for up to the times Rads lol

**Flowrate isn't an issue due to a combination of the power of the pump as well as only being a single loop system what IS kind of cool and interesting to note is that if I run my pump wide open, my temps jump up! Idk if that's due to the pump itself dumping heat into the loop, or the fact that the water is going to fast for the rads to cool the water fast enough. Then again, faster flow rates means the water hits the rads that many more times her a given amount of total time.

anyway, would there be anything other than my rads to blame for high temps?

ignore the little notepad, I was doing testing all day with temps at different pump speeds.

 

[LennyRhys]

Something's definitely not right there... a 45nm dual core under water should be 10C above ambient at the very most... it's a 65W TDP processor, and they just don't get hot. My current CPU is 130W TDP and at 4GHz, 1.2v I get 55C full load temps on air cooling with two run-of-the-mill 1300rpm CoolerMaster fans in push/pull.

Something must be up with the CPU block, eg it's too restrictive for the pump, which might explain why temps get higher when you open up the pump... or maybe the mount is bad. I dunno.

Do you have an air cooler that you can slap on for comparison?

 

[amora]

Nah, in a single block loop with a flagship block, flowrate isn't an issue(although the block has medium restriction my pump more than overcomes this obstacle). My swiftech mcp35x pushes so much water at full speed it astounding. (ie the visual Inbound flow incoming from the block to the reservoir is enormous ). In fact in testing at 100% speed I ended up getting worse temps. After testing all day, the lowest temps were achieved at 40% power pwm, which visually compared to 100% is a trickle.

And yes, I did testing prior to installing every piece of the loop. On air, max load running OCCT is about 64c ish, at stock speeds that is. Overclocked on air (by air I mean the stock intel first gen coolers. Ie non-copper core), forget about it, I accidentally walked away for to long n when I came back the temps were past 80c lol I've installed/ uninstalled the block a million times with no variance in temps between mounts.

To be honest the temps don't really bug me to much as #1 the CPU is maxed out due to the mobo not able to manipulate vcore and #2 the temps are well within in max tdp for this core.

Idk I'm still blaming the rads as they're pretty much first generation rads when watercoolering first started up . It is strange however that even though I installed an additional brand new rad to the loop that the temps didn't improve at all.

I'm probably done with watercooling for a while lol its a very expensive and very addictive hobby. For me it wasn't even for trying to OC further, it was literally just curiosity on how cool I can get the CPU without sticking a block of ice on the thing lol



The mounting system for the swifttech block is just about as error proof as u get, u bolt it all the way down till the screws don't move anymore, accompanied by tension springs to even out any unbalanced pressure.

 

[LennyRhys]

I think your CPU is faulty mate... you shouldn't see temps anything like as high as 64C on air with one of these CPUs. Out of curiosity, how high is your ambient temp in celsius?

I had an E6300 a while back and I had it running at 3.5GHz, 1.4v - look at my temps ON AIR after an hour of small FFTs in Prime 95 (this test really heats up the CPU btw, much more than the blend test):



Idle: 30-35C; Load: 54-56C. Cooler: OCZ Vendetta 2 (cheap and cheerful!)

Like I said before, you should be getting MUCH better performance than this with water cooling, not to mention that your core voltage is a lot lower than what I was using.

I'd say that the CPU die isn't making proper contact with the underside of the IHS so the temperature just keeps rising. This would explain why you get inordinately high load temps irrespective of what cooling you use.

 

[amora]

The reason your getting such low temps is because you are using Prime95, which pales in comparison to OCCT/IntelBurnin when it comes to producing heat.

This test was started last night at 11pm yesterday night - 11:48am today...it's still running btw.

So yeah, comparing apples to apples, in this case Prime95 heat on your core2 overvolt + OC vs Prime95 on just OC.

Yes, my rig is superior and you would be correct, temps only rise, from idle, a little bit over 11C on water vs the 24c ish you are seeing on air.

I'm just wondering why I didn't get any benefit from adding another rad to the loop lol

Thanks for the insight by the way, much appreciated!

 

[LennyRhys]

Prime "Blend" doesn't generate a lot of heat, but I was using Custom FFTs of 20K-20K which stresses the CPU much more and generates a lot more heat. Prime can generate more heat than linpack on some platforms, believe it or not.

Try running Prime 95 with Small FFTs and you'll see the CPU get a lot hotter!

It's not possible to compare apples-to-apples unfortunately, but we can look at ballpark figures here and your temps are definitely very high for a dual core CPU under water.

 

[amora]

Well figured out what it's was. And tested with every single stress test software known... My ambient temps in my room due yo all the equipment plus the placement of the server was causing bad temps. I put the server in the living room where it's isolated from any other equipment and now my temps max using any software sit at 37c max for either core. Meh... Guess I didn't realize how hit my room gets when everything is turned on

 

[LennyRhys]

LOL!

Glad you figured it out in the end.