Hi guys,

Who here has water cooling. I'm slightly nervous about it to say the least, as I don't like the thought of water in such close proximity to electrical components.

What cooling do you guys have?

What is there that is relatively cheap?

Is it possible to o/c the Q6600 (which I have) with the stock cooler? It normally runs at about 40c.

Cheers


Tom

drummer_tom wrote on Mar 24^th, 2008 at 6:05pm:


If your not comfortable, don't do it . I don't use water cooling, and never would for the same reason that you don't like the thought of it, water+electricity usually = death to components/humans touching the PC

Quote:


I have the stock cooling on my Dual core (E6850), and it works very well. Temps usually around 10-20C (then again, I'm in Glasgow, so VERY cold ambient temps )

Quote:

I have heard of the Q6600 getting to 3.2Ghz on air, but I wouldn't go above 3Ghz with stock cooling (infact I wouldn't overclock at all - if I need better performance I would buy a better part, especially after my old AMD blew up on my when I overclocked...... )

Regards,
Neil

You may be abled to squeeze some more juice from your Q6600 on stock cooling, maybe 2.8ghz with good case ventilation? To get into more serious overclocking you need a good heatsink, it's not just with a bigger fan, but usually advanced designs utilising advanced thermal pipes, often they're so heavy that they require a backplate on the mobo to stop the weight of the cooler straining or even snapping the board. The best coolers are the Tuniq 120 and the Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme, they're huge and may not fit into some cases.

E.G. http://www.thg.ru/cpu/20050813/images/tuniq_tower.jpg

And you also need thermal compound between the heatsink and CPU for optimal thermal transfer.... e.g. Arctic Silver 5. All instructions, dimensions and so on should be on the manufacturers site.



If you want a further temperature drop you can use sand paper to sand the Integrated heat spreader of the CPU and the bottom of them heatsink to allow better heat transfer, known as lapping... of course, research this more before you do it.

Just renember, you've got a small square that puts out 100 watts of heat, stock, WAY more overclocked.

Celtman wrote on Mar 24^th, 2008 at 6:22pm:


Give that Man a prize... ...!

Paul...Stock everything......!

Need a faster Processor?...Buy a faster Processor!......!
Need a faster Graphics Card?...Buy a faster Graphics Card!......!

Need Reliability?....Observe the above!......!

Celtman wrote on Mar 25^th, 2008 at 2:17pm:


Your lucky day... ...>>>

...my old, un-clocked Pentium 486!... ...!

Paul...A free gift every week!... ...!

At this precise moment in time, I do not understand FULL WELL what I am doing. I have a basic idea but no in depth knowledge - hence the asking of the question on here first and lots of reading on here and other places to follow 

I'm not trying anything until I am 150% confident!

Even with aftermarket air cooling my WC setup still beats it out. At complete idle my q6600 never gets hotter than 28-29C and thats at 3.6ghz. I was nervous about it to, but now that its running and ive seen how darn tight the hose connects are (had to run under really hot water for 10 minutes and took another 10 to get out of the tube) I have no issues with it and consider it a good investment for not only keeping your cpu cool but enabling you to overclcock further than I would ever dare, or feel comfortable with running 24/7 on air.

I have never been one to fiddle about, when everything I have seems to be working to my satisfaction.... ...!

...as has been said, time and time again, ....

If it aint broke, don't try and fix it...

...and risk trashing what you have already got!.. ...!

Why mess about with something that is working perfectly O.K...

...just for the sake of "Fiddling about"?.... ...!

Paul...I would much prefer to mow the grass...much more practical...Trust me......!

.... ....!

...I am sure that urinating (Water Cooling) on my trusty Socket A, AMD 2600+MMX Central Processor  is not going to improve its performance, in any way, shape, or form!.... ...!

Fozzer wrote on May 9^th, 2008 at 7:39am:



It's not a matter of fixing what aint broke... it's a matter of using something to it's optimum potential.

Modern CPUs are UNDERclocked, and have built-in thermal shutdown. A Q6600 is DESIGNED to run much faster than it comes out of the box. Part of the reason they do that, is to account for OEM components. Part of it is so they can force people who are afraid to overclock into paying HUNDREDS more, for better performance  

Now.. if you have a Dell or Gateway, you might run into trouble because of budget (junk) motherboards and RAM. But if you've taken the time to select quality components, overclocking is almost expected  

Here's a scenario:

Needed:   3.0ghz, quad-core, 8mb cache  CPU

Solution 1)  Buy a QX6850 for $1,025

Solution 2) Buy a Q6600 for $200  and overclock it  

So.. if you decided to install software that required 3.0ghz, quad core performance (like FSX   )..you'd pay $1000 instead of $200 for the CPU ?

Brett_Henderson wrote on May 9^th, 2008 at 7:38pm:


OOpppsss..

Danger, danger....You mentioned ...FSX.... ... ...!

I purchased...FSX...on the day it was released in England.
Had to wind everything down to the absolute minimum to get it to work after a fashion....(never had to do that before, with my other FS software)!
Spent most days ever since observing (from a vast distance if possible) all the goings-on in the FSX Forum to get the program to run anywhere near everyones satisfaction.
So my decision has been; do I spend loads of money upgrading all my hardware especially to run FSX..... .....
...or be perfectly satisfied with what I've already got, (to run all my other software; Games, FS 2004, etc), and give my flying club £100 every now and again on the (very) rare occasions when I wish/get excited enough to sample a proper flight in a real Cessna 152...
...and in between times remind myself that a Flight Sim is really just another computer game....(like it, or not)...and not to take them too/at all seriously......!
I go to great pains to prevent computers, and computer games, from taking over my life...and my Old Age Pension!.. ...!

It all comes down to priorities, I think you will agree?......I'm good at making wise decisions!...!

Take care, Brett*... ...!

Paul....time to switch the computer off.....and mow the grass...again.... ...!

* P.S. ...I'm winding you up, Brett... ... ... ... ...!

So in conclusion then, it's not worth buying something like this? http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Thermaltake-CL-W0075-Bigwater-735-Water-Cooling-System_W0Q...


Tom

Stay away from the bigwater, far away!

drummer_tom wrote on May 15^th, 2008 at 1:27pm:



Its garbage, both design and parts quality

The ONLY complete water system on the market that is worth the 'use' (not the money spent) is the Zalman Resonator XT

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/coolers/display/zalman-reserator-xt.html

http://www.zalman.com/ENG/product/Product_Read.asp?Idx=185


That only cools the processor too

The only way to really use liquid right and cool everything in the tower is to make it yourself from good quality separate parts ordered online and that takes experience.

You can make a liquid system that will keep things cooler than air, however it is NOT quieter than air cooling and it will cost you, quite a bit.

With the newer 45nm processors and newer designed motherboard... liquid cooling is dead. You can overclock to the max on air now (except extreme overclocks which you dont use for everyday computing)

raptorx wrote on May 17^th, 2008 at 12:01am:



Switech is where you can go to buy some parts.. their systems are good too but when it comes to liquid no 2 towers are equal and the user is best served by understanding liquid and spec'ing their own parts list

no matter what, its not quieter than air.. the radiator must be air cooled and that takes fans anyway

drummer_tom wrote on May 19^th, 2008 at 2:59am:




Quiet is relative.. it depends on what you are use too

many systems are made with unneeded loud fans... mine never are

My tower is air cooled and when not in 3Dmode, dead silent.. under full overclocked power my tower db level (sound noise level) is right around 32db as measured by my own equiptment from 2 feet away

Now, if you can find a water system which has that db sound rating and cools the GPU, CPU, chipset and hard drives, I will buy it... even if its 800+ dollars

Brett_Henderson wrote on May 20^th, 2008 at 7:08am:


Toilets work great too... the rear tank ceramics keep that tank nice and chilly and a temp sensor which activates a flush maintains the temp under long flight loads

you still have to use case fans regardless of the component cooling... tower motherboard heat and ambient from components is still present

Funny you should mention that... my entire house has a primary control system (2 server motherboards) which is mounted in a Nema4 enclosure and is used for everything from answering the phone, light and sprinkler control, security system and sends HD video/surround audio to all rooms for entertainment throughout the house using 'in wall' blueray DVD units and a repeater for transmitting remote control (A/V) from each room... and is the primary network station for for the house and WiFI... and so I can remote access when not at home. It has no enclose fans due to its location and size of the enclosure.


does he have any videos he want to unload?

NickN wrote on May 20^th, 2008 at 1:32pm:

That's just showing off 

I WANT ONE!!!!!!!!!!! 

In holdings or capitol?    LOL

No, I am not a billionaire

I have just had access to a lot of fun toys over the years and started a financial investment portfolio when I was 16, and a mother/father who knew how to play the game and taught me well.

Although I did, I have not had to work past 1991 and have managed to hit quite a few of the larger IPO goldmines, like MS stock. I know when to buy it and when to dump it and I have lost my fair share playing that game too.


What’s nice is when I am not home and the system sends me a message a silent perimeter alarm has been triggered several times.. I can remote control and pan/scan infrared from the internet at night and see if there is anything lurking or if I am having a visit from the local raccoon population which is usually the case but there have been a few intrusions that never made it past the back yard.

I live on an island just west of Seattle across Puget Sound and if you can get past the security system, your welcome to stop by





The city made me remove the ABL Laser turrets so its a lot easier than it use to be   

NickN wrote on May 24^th, 2008 at 8:52pm:

Is the whole Island your residence? IE Your Island?!