Well i finished off my beast

core duo extreme @ 2.33ghz runs faster then the old duo i had...
Same graphics and so on not so much gaming now more for work photoshop ETC

so i installed a cooler master water cooling unit but im just not sure about it. the temps just seem a little strange
the fans on max and has being for a while but the water is still warmish when i feel the pipes....
i also think that the contact between the processor and the cooling unit isnt great as i expected alot more from water cooling.....

all the instructions are in Chinese and i cant read it too well so how much fluid should be in it and how often should i top it up and how do u know when??

ive attached some photos and help would be greatly appreciated

Coolermaster Watercooling = Rubbish.

Secondly - your CPU is at IDLE for that test. You want to know your temperatures once the CPU is at 100% utilization (accross both cores) for several minutes before you'll know the actual temperature.

The temp of the pipes means nothing.

i have actually been planning on getting watercooling. can anybody advise exactly what i need to get to make it worth while.

will need cooling for CPU, 2 GPU's Not too worried about PSU / hard drives

What CPU's and GFX cards? Will you be overclocking?

Water cooling a PSU/HDD/RAM is pointless, as is WC'ing a chipset 90% of the time.

CPU not yet decided.. 99.999% certain it will either be an AMD 6400 or perhaps a phenom (but have not yet been convinced by the phenom's) The Intel's i am not too fond of and don't see the point in forking out for something that i am close to as it is... currently AMD 5600 though

GPU currently 8800 GTX's

:X

I know you only asked for advice on Water Cooling, but PLEASE get something like an Intel Q6600 - NOTHING AMD make comes close to it's performance. The Phenom is rubbish, and the 6400 is really only worth it as an upgrade.

Don't bother with an 8800GTX - Get an 8800GTS 512 MB. Almost the same performance, alot lower price (...and quiter. And uses less. And cooler).

EDIT - On Topic. A GTX (at stock) throws out 177w of heat. An AMD 6400 throws out 125w of heat - thats 479w of heat if you went for SLi, which would require some CRAZY watercooling. Two 8800GTS' and a Q6600 G0 would be faster and make only 375w of heat. Still a fairly insane amount of heat to dissipate, but slightly more manageable. Does it HAVE to be watercooling? Your looking at £200+, and yet for £90 you could have a VERY quiet PC that would be cool enough to be overclocked (although not as much)...

Could be worse though - if you had a QX6700 and two 2900 Pro's in Crossfire they would put out 620w of heat!

no it doesn't have to be watercooled.. doesn't even have to be quiet. was just looking at a better way to keep things cool. More likely just gonna get a better case with more space for fans.

As for the intel change. no.. no.. no.... no....... did i say no yet? The only way i would go intel would be if the top end intel quads come down to less than 300 quid... which i dont see happening at the moment. even then.. i would only consider it.

I have not used any intels since i last had a P4 2.4ghz which was almost new at the time, Since then i have been AMD all the way. I just respect them more and know what im gonna get for a price that wont force me to sell my soul...

Quote from franky500 :

The only way i would go intel would be if the top end intel quads come down to less than 300 quid... which i dont see happening at the moment.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/ ... mp;catid=6&subcat=793

Its a 2.66ghz QX9650 for 250 queen heads. Should be out any time next week fingers x'd (and it will wiped the floor with those amd's)

I think your right to go with GTX's though, They are so cheap atm and if you run higher res they should perform better than the gts's

Quote from franky500 :

no it doesn't have to be watercooled.. doesn't even have to be quiet. was just looking at a better way to keep things cool. More likely just gonna get a better case with more space for fans.

As for the intel change. no.. no.. no.... no....... did i say no yet? The only way i would go intel would be if the top end intel quads come down to less than 300 quid... which i dont see happening at the moment. even then.. i would only consider it.

Watercooling is a LOT of hassle for nothing useful if your not overclocking.

Get a nice air cooler, some nice case fans and new coolers for your GFX card. Will serve you fine.

And heres the issue - Intel's "entry" Quad, the Q6600, which is £150, outperforms EVERY AMD Quad on the market and outperforms ALL AMD CPU's in 99% of benchmarks.

I LOVE AMD, but when I wanted to upgrade my S939 rig I had no choice if I wanted decent performance for my money.

If you want AMD then fine, but I just want you to know that all the "Intels r hot and r the suck111!!!" myths you may have heard do NOT apply to the new Core 2's, and by saying AMD-only to a high-end build you really are spiting yourself.

overclocked the cpu to 2.8GHZ ran the fan up to full then opened up bioshock and put all the settings up to max played the game smooth for 25 mins.
quit to check temp and it was sat at 45 deg cel according to intel tat

also im moving house and my pc already weighs a tun and i cant take it on the plane to Beijing so i have to take it on the train.... meaning i have to carry it i could of got a TT case with all the external water cooling and so on but how am i ment to carry that???? lol so for now this will do it seems to be ok after looking at Jakg's temps from the post ur lfs rig page mine seems to be doing just fine lol

when i hit beijing i may upgrade again if the temps aint what i really want them to be
and may look at getting my quad ive being lookin at getting
Q9450

Quote from Jakg :

Watercooling is a LOT of hassle for nothing useful if your not overclocking.

Get a nice air cooler, some nice case fans and new coolers for your GFX card. Will serve you fine.

And heres the issue - Intel's "entry" Quad, the Q6600, which is £150, outperforms EVERY AMD Quad on the market and outperforms ALL AMD CPU's in 99% of benchmarks.

I LOVE AMD, but when I wanted to upgrade my S939 rig I had no choice if I wanted decent performance for my money.

If you want AMD then fine, but I just want you to know that all the "Intels r hot and r the suck111!!!" myths you may have heard do NOT apply to the new Core 2's, and by saying AMD-only to a high-end build you really are spiting yourself.

i whole heartedly agree that the intel core 2's and quads are far better than anything AMD have out at the moment. There is no argument.

i do LOVE amd, and i have always told myself "Franky.. your will always be a d*head if you go to Intel" so obviously that holds me back .

We'll see.

Thanks for the advice. Guess i will stick with my original plan of better casing and fanage.

AMD quads and duos suck ass my work pc is a amd athlon 2.1ghz and it eats all my memory silly thing i do admit dam fast transfer speeds and quick at processing images but my intels still work far better to me

Simple... some people like AMD and some like Intel but does not matter what difference they make on benchmarks it's what you feel happy with.

Quote from Dooonster :

after looking at Jakg's temps from the post ur lfs rig page mine seems to be doing just fine lol

First of all I stressed my temps properly (all 4 cores versus running Bioshock which uses probably only 1 core) My CPU is also a bad stepping (B3) which runs very hot, and the water cooler sucks balls. My temp (63) is the very maximum Intel recommend for my CPU.

I've been reading up on water cooling lately and I may have some sugguestions for Franky.

If you want quiet with a watercooling setup, look into a thin radiator in addition to a few quiet fans. A Swiftech MCR220-QP/MCR320-QP radiator coupled with a few Yate Loons would do pretty well cooling the CPU and GFX, and still be on the quiet side.

Choosing a decent CPU block and GPU block would also help all this cooling. D-Tek or Swiftech make very good CPU blocks, just choose one that is enough for your needs. Same thing applies with GPU blocks, there are many choices available for the 8800's. One of the best performing GPU blocks is the Swiftech MCW-60, and it will work with a 8800.

With 2 GPU's and a pretty fast CPU, you may want to run one loop, you may want to run two loops. If you get a strong enough pump, the two loop method may be better and help a bit on the cooling. Just a few T-lines or the less restrictive Y-lines will get all that flowing nicely.

I understand that this might get a bit confusing, so if anything needs clarification in this post, just ask.

Franky, this thread might help you a little better.

Yopu said a pair of GPUs and said you're thinking about 8800 GTXs. Change that to 8800 GTS 512 or 9800 GTX. And then there's another rpoblem. For a utilized SLI rig you need CPU power. Loads of it. Think in the range od 3,6 GHz Core 2s when OCed GFX cards. What does AMD have to offer in that performance region? Sadly nothing... That's the problem. It would work, but the CPU would be a bottleneck. And i know you said you hate Intel (or love AMD9, but for your own good, think of the alternative. AMD is very good in the price perfomance region, but in the perfomance region...

Put the radiator outside the case, that way it will actually make sense as the water will move the heat from the processor outside the case, where it can be cooled with ambient air and with the heat not staying inside the case. Keeping it inside the case would only make sense if you have a really big radiator.

Or making the fans on the radiator as exhausts. Or making the case basicly an air tunnel. The air going through the radiator doesn't get warmed up THAT much. If you have exhaust vents on the back/top it's more or less okay to have it inside then. The most common place is the front or bottom anyway. The top is quite popular too though.