Need some advice on current system..

[demonR6]

I've recently set up a watercooling system in my computer consisting of an MCP350 pump, Black Ice radiator, 5.25 Bay Res, Swiftech MCW6000K-64 waterblock, Danger Den Maze 4 GPU waterblock, 3/8 id ClearFlex tubing for most of the system.. I modded the pump to a 1/2 id inlet barb which made a huge difference in the performance of the pump. Between the radiator and pump I am running 1/2 id tubing due to the mod also I have an inline temp sensor between the radiator and pump. I am using a mix of Hyrdx and distilled water in the system.

I am running the circuit pump>CPU>GPU>Res>Rad mostly due to the convenience. I have the system installed in a CM Stacker with the radiator occupying the lower three bays as they are not in use, the pump is in the lower rear of the case, the bay res is at the very top bay. I have adequate ventilation, the stock 80mm on the top of the case for exhaust, the rear 120mm intake with the radiator set up to push through the radiator and vent out the front.. also I have the CM crossflow fan to provide fresh outside air to the motherboard. The CM has the 120mm fan that is on the hard drive cage plus my SATA drive has a cooler so I have.. a lot of fans you could say?

I chose these components mostly because I wanted to keep it minimalist, no huge noisy pumps, giant radiators that required outside mounting or making holes etc.

My idle temps are around 32-32-34 (CPU-PWMIC-SYS) with loads 38-38-38. I have an overclocked s939 3000+ @ 2.5 running 1.46V to the core and 2.5 to the memory. I am not overvolting the components other than the CPU but even that is not considered high by most standards.

Hopefully that provided enough information to get my to my actual problem..
I swapped out my ATI x800XL for a Sapphire x800GTO2 for the sole purpose of overclocking the @#^% out of it. So far, so good.. but that has caused me the new headache that my temps have gone to hell. My inline temp is telling me 30c going into the pump but my idle and load temps are up 3~5 deg. Last night while running ATI Tool to get my max core/mem I watched my temps peak at 41-40-40 which is nasty hot I think. My temps going into the pump are still in the 30~33c range. I know the added heat being created by the overclocked card have come into play.. the XL card did not require the 12v pci-e where this one does. All this added heat is bad.. the case temps are still fine, I have it cracked open to keep an eye on things as I am anal about all this.

I would really appreciate some help, comments, concerns.. suggestions. I am open to suggestions. I don't want to scrap the whole system and start over but I am willing to make changes to alleviate the situation. I am not counting nickels here so feel free to make suggestions. I am already contemplating a larger radiator, mounting it to the bottom of the case as I have room for a hamster cage down there. It's just the low noise, low impact would be sacrificed. The pump runs like a champ after that mod, I compared them side by side, I have two and it is like a garden hose barely open to a fire hose on full bore, I can wash my car with that damn thing.

Thanks much guys!!

~d

 

[ƒÓÒl]

Cracking the case door open will change temps a bit. It changes because you loose the secondary cooling that the airflow was giving you.

You can also look for kinks in the tubing now that you've changed your vid card too.

Did you unseat/reseat the cpu waterblock during all this? That may well give you a different cpu temp reading without changing the water temp. Just a thin smear of thermal goo. Try it again to see.

With those things checked and rechecked, you might have reached the limit of your cooling. You could try to make more of your fans exhaust to try and "boost" the air coming in through the rad, but that may not be it because you're saying that the water temp hasn't changed.

Oh one more thing, different programs will sometimes read different temps. You try reading it with the same proggy that you used before? Updated bios? (which often changes temp readings too).

 

[demonR6]

I've taken your suggestion and looked more closely at the fan set up. I flipped the 120mm rear fan as it was set up for intake and also flipped the radiator fan as it was set up for exhaust. I thought taking cool air from behind the case, sending it into and pass through the radiator would be okay but by my putting the side panel back on I will increase the heat in the case and blow warm air through the radiator so not good. Also I think the crossflow fan may be adding to the mix, although it is blowing cool air from outside over the mobo and components, by the very nature of having the rear 120mm as intake they would be causing a disturbance in the flow?

The way I have it set up now is in the image below. More or less the way it goes is the radiator is in the front three bays on the bottom with the 120mm mounted to the front as an intake. From there it flows to the pump located to the rear of the case. Then upwards to the CPU then down to the GPU and up to the bay res located at the top front of the case. The air flow is now identical to what you see in the pic with the inclusion of the radiator fan blowing in now as well. I am hoping this will lower the temps some.

I did reseat the CPU and GPU block in the last few days, switched tims from Ceramique to AS5 hoping that would help. I have double checked each time I mess with anything that there are no kinks whatsoever anywhere in the lines. I am using ClearFlex tubing which has turned out to be very good with regards to bends.. no kinking whatsoever with a couple of good bends. Mostly straight line stuff though for me other than between the two waterblocks. I think the additon of the GPU which is now overclocked, is adding a lot of heat into the circuit and even though the pump is more efficient, the radiator possibly is not able to handle the additional heat plus the fact that I am moving more fluid faster through it?

I am not kidding, this pump mod makes that little sucker circulate fluid really fast. To give you an idea, before it was barely audible, you could almost not hear the fluid moving through the system. Now the water exiting the two blocks has so much force, when it enters the bay res it is coming through with enough velocity that you can hear and see it forced into the bay res. There is a lot of action in there where before it was like nothing. I also changed my mixture to allow for more distilled water and less of the Hydrx to see if that lowered my temps but no joy. I am still thinking it is an issue between the radiator and the velocity of the fluid not being adequately cooled.

Thanks for the help.. I was beginning to lose hope that no one would step in and offer a hand.

 

[ƒÓÒl]

Well, if you've tried all I could think of, you may well have overpowered your BlackIce.

High flow (both air and water) is necessary for good cooling in the rad as much as in the block. It was once mistakenly thought that slowing the water through the rad gave it more time to cool off, but it turns out that high flow transfers heat into the rad fins much better than low flow resulting in better cooling.

Sounds like it's time to consider a Black Ice Extreme, or even a heatercore upgrade. Heatercores are the bomb, but you can't beat the size of the BIX. The newer double and triple sizes are catching heatercores in performance.
Choose on size/room available and price. Either would be an improvement over a BlackIcePrime.

Luck to ya.

 

[demonR6]

Most likely a double on the bottom. In the CM Stacker case that is a big piece of real estate in the bottom of the case that is available.