Looking for water cooler for CPU

[Wintermute]

I have a phenom II X4 980 on air with a Zalman 9700. Temps don't see to be right at idle (36 C), but aren't in the red. I've been looking for an excuse to go with water, especially now with more mid-range solutions available. Plus, it will give me an excuse to OC a bit. Not really looking to break the bank. Suggestions appreciated.

 

[Ares]

I have not done water cooling for GPU or CPU in a long time.... when I did use it, it really did good work on keeping temps down.... but keep in mind with water/liquid cooling you will constantly have to be replacing coolant that evaporates. Lol I used to keep a big ass cup in my room with the plastic syringe type thingy so I could easily add more water in to the system when it got low.

Once I built a new machine and found I could get within 5C of the old temps on water cooling with air cooling and great case ventilation I never looked back.

Also be sure you have the extra PSU capacity for the water cooling.... its a pump.... its constantly pumping water through the tubes so it will have a drain on the PSU.... could be significant depending on what cooler you go with.

 

[Wintermute]

I have not done water cooling for GPU or CPU in a long time.... when I did use it, it really did good work on keeping temps down.... but keep in mind with water/liquid cooling you will constantly have to be replacing coolant that evaporates. Lol I used to keep a big ass cup in my room with the plastic syringe type thingy so I could easily add more water in to the system when it got low.

Once I built a new machine and found I could get within 5C of the old temps on water cooling with air cooling and great case ventilation I never looked back.

Also be sure you have the extra PSU capacity for the water cooling.... its a pump.... its constantly pumping water through the tubes so it will have a drain on the PSU.... could be significant depending on what cooler you go with.

Thanks

Was there a noticeable noise difference?

 

[Crystallas]

Redo your thermal paste. That should drop temps 5 degrees. Anyways, 37c is a good temp.


But Corsair makes good one-stop water cooling solutions.

 

[Ares]

Thanks

Was there a noticeable noise difference?

Yeah I mean the water cooler is gonna make some noise.... its a water pump. But I have never been one to complain about noise tbh.... lol when I was using water cooling I would have put up with a car engine level of noise if it would have gotten my temps down.

Its not going to be too much worse than some bigger fans in terms of noise IMO but it will add some noise.

 

[Wintermute]

Redo your thermal paste. That should drop temps 5 degrees. Anyways, 37c is a good temp.


But Corsair makes good one-stop water cooling solutions.

Been thinking about that. Wondering if the Tuniq 3 I have was some old OEM stuff they had on the shelf for a few years before I bought it.

Looking at a Noctua NH D14 right now.

 

[botfly10]

Redo your thermal paste. That should drop temps 5 degrees. Anyways, 37c is a good temp.


But Corsair makes good one-stop water cooling solutions.

This. That temp seems fine. Re-apply your paste and don't put too much on.

Imo, water cooling is not worth the risk of springing a leak and wrecking your shit. I think air cooling performs plenty good enough even for OCing. I use this old standby and have OC'ed my 4770K to 4.3 gig.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835608018

I dropped my shit back down to stock though. Its pretty rare nowadays that your cpu is a bottleneck.

 

[Ares]

Also to sort of add on to what Bot is saying.... it is important to keep an eye on your temps and make sure you are not spending hours gaming at 75C+.... that being said I have done it before and the machines I did it on still run today.

Do not let yourself get too hung up on temps.... if you are idling at 30-40C and running heavy load at 50-60C IMO you are fine.

 

[botfly10]

I think 70c is even fine. Even 80. My gpu doesn't even throttle until 89c.

I guess it depends on your motherboard, but I think the newer gen cpu's are fine into the low 80's.

Also, I am very skeptical about people that claim they idle at 25c. I have never seen it in person and it makes me wonder what the ambient temp is.

 

[botfly10]

I am still trying to find out why people OC a 3.9 gig cpu to 4.5. As far as I can see, the only reason is because you can. It sure isn't necessary for gaming. If you have a 3.9 gig quad its hard to imagine that will ever bottleneck for gaming.

 

[Wintermute]

What brands of TIM do you folks prefer?

 

[Wintermute]

I think 70c is even fine. Even 80. My gpu doesn't even throttle until 89c.

I guess it depends on your motherboard, but I think the newer gen cpu's are fine into the low 80's.

Also, I am very skeptical about people that claim they idle at 25c. I have never seen it in person and it makes me wonder what the ambient temp is.

I used to be close to that temp at idle with my old phenom II x4 925. It bottomed out at about 28C from what I recall? Now keep in mind this was in the winter, with my thermostat down to ~65, with a CPU that had a TDP of 95 W

I'll have to check my load temps again. They weren't bad either. As stated above, I'm tinkering mostly because I can. Case in point, I'll be swapping out my laptop APU in the next few weeks to see if I can squeeze some gains out of it. Will they be marginal? Probably. Will I have fun doing it? You bet. Hopefully my disposable laptop mobo can handle a few extra watts...

 

[botfly10]

I just use arctec silver or whatever the **** it is. I think there is a lot of hype in TIMs

 

[fatbeard]

I used to be close to that temp at idle with my old phenom II x4 925. It bottomed out at about 28C from what I recall? Now keep in mind this was in the winter, with my thermostat down to ~65, with a CPU that had a TDP of 95 W

I'll have to check my load temps again. They weren't bad either. As stated above, I'm tinkering mostly because I can. Case in point, I'll be swapping out my laptop APU in the next few weeks to see if I can squeeze some gains out of it. Will they be marginal? Probably. Will I have fun doing it? You bet. Hopefully my disposable laptop mobo can handle a few extra watts...

Off-the-shelf water cooling is generally never worth what you pay for it. Better to either do it yourself (daunting if you've never done it before) or get a high quality, quiet air cooler like a Noctua, which comes with its own good TIM. Just make sure your case is big enough to fit it and there is enough clearance for your RAM heat spreaders. You'll get equivalent cooling to a water cooler without any of the risk, and air cooling has its advantages as well, especially if you're in a cool room.

 

[Ares]

Off-the-shelf water cooling is generally never worth what you pay for it. Better to either do it yourself (daunting if you've never done it before) or get a high quality, quiet air cooler like a Noctua, which comes with its own good TIM. Just make sure your case is big enough to fit it and there is enough clearance for your RAM heat spreaders. You'll get equivalent cooling to a water cooler without any of the risk, and air cooling has its advantages as well, especially if you're in a cool room.

Or you can always submerge your entire case in a fish tank full of mineral oil lol

 

[clonetrooper264]

Or you can always submerge your entire case in a fish tank full of mineral oil lol

Seem legit

 

[Ares]

Seem legit

Its extreme, but the mineral oil thing has been done many times before.... the machine can actually run submerged in the oil if you do it right. And then you can OC the **** outta stuff cause heat is taken care of

 

[clonetrooper264]

Its extreme, but the mineral oil thing has been done many times before.... the machine can actually run submerged in the oil if you do it right. And then you can OC the **** outta stuff cause heat is taken care of

I said it's legit

 

[Crystallas]

I did a proper mineral oil submersion build before.

It's not all that good. Doesn't outperform liquid cooling.

 

[Ares]

I did a proper mineral oil submersion build before.

It's not all that good. Doesn't outperform liquid cooling.

Interesting.... yeah I would not do it unless it was for fun.... lol imagine the mess anytime you wanna go in and mess with anything connected to the mobo.