Way to hot with water cooling

[jackthecruel]

I'm running a barton 2500+ with thermaltake bigwater and my idle temp is like 51 C. I've tried mounting the fan different ways etc. Would could I have done wrong? Also note that I'm cooling my VGA-card with it as well but that shouldn't make that big a difference right? Any help is appreciated..

 

[SidVicious]

What type of GPU, using which GPU waterblock in serie or parallel ?

Any overclocking on either/both the GPU and CPU ?

How is your loop set up ? (pump -> reservoir -> CPU is bad)

Consider that watercooling kits (except for a few exceptions) are vastly inferior and a lot more expensive than a watercooling system assembled from carefully chosen components. Some watercooling kits are even worst than a mid-range, 3rd party heatsink.

At first glance, I would'nt touch the Tt BigWater: restrictive 6mm (1/4 inch ID) hose and fittings, a weak pump combined with a reservoir, a simple and seemingly innefective waterblock and a cheap, flow killing, evaporator type rad spells disaster IMHO.

The reviews I've read barely show any improvements over a simple yet effective copper heatsink with a 80mm fan.

Those idle temps clearly indicate that the BigWater can't cope with the thermal output of your components.

Powerfull pumps, 12mm (1/2 inch ID) tubing, heatercore type radiators, in-line valve based bleeders and complex waterblocks are prefered and within the same price range as those overpriced and innefective watercooling kits.

My 'rig :

 

[bombasschicken]

make sure you have quality thermal compound on there. if you dont then thats going to make problems worse. also like the other guy said check your loop. you want it to be in the right order or not enough heat is going to be removed..

 

[RichPLS]

I have the ThermalTake BigWaterSE cooling my overclocked Opteron 175 and my temps are 38C right now while watching TV with my TV Wonder Elite and browsing net... Max I have seen it get, is 51C under heavy load for long periods, but it rarely breaks 50C at max ordinarily.

This cooling setup is excellent quality, as you know, but is only designed for the CPU, and in your case you are also cooling the GPU which puts out way more heat than a CPU, and combined is partly why your temps are higher than normal.

You can add another radiator and fan, that alone should drop temps considerably. Best would be to also include another pump and run two separate cooling systems, that way both would be cooled with maximum efficiency.

 

[SidVicious]

make sure you have quality thermal compound on there. if you dont then thats going to make problems worse.

Thermal compound is a no-brainer, I consider that anyone even remotely interested in exotic cooling won't need a reminder on how to apply thermal interface and how to secure an heat exchanger to their hardware...

also like the other guy said

Would have taken you half a second to check my name and write it down, I guess I should'nt expect much from explosive ended poultry...

check your loop. you want it to be in the right order or not enough heat is going to be removed..

Thanks for "a[rt/w]fully" rewording what I already pointed out despite the seeming lack of knowledge that you let through.

Care to elaborate on how and why the morphology of a watercooling system would impact factors such as pressure, flow and ultimately heat dissipation ?

 

[cmptrdude79]

Care to elaborate on how and why the morphology of a watercooling system would impact factors such as pressure, flow and ultimately heat dissipation ?

I'll take that one...lol. I'm almost scared to think of what might be posted here otherwise...

The order of components in your watercooling loop is important for two reasons. The first and most often recognized, is the heat of the various components that you're trying to cool...in this case the GPU and CPU. You would want to cool the CPU first, as it is generating less heat (in general) than the GPU, and tends to be more reactive to higher temperatures, thus it should be before the GPU waterblock in the loop.

The other factor to consider is flow restrictions of the components you're pumping water through. You want to ensure that you have the least resistance possible in your loop. Hence the references to the diameter of your tubing, and also to your waterblocks. Certain blocks flow water better than others. You may want to look at DangerDen to see what the specs of some of their higher end CPU and GPU waterblocks are (like the RBX or TDX).

So now, the bottom line: what does all this mean to you? With your TT BigWater system, you have neither the flow capabilities, nor the heat removal capabilities to cool both your CPU and your GPU. If you want to do that, you should do one of two things (assuming you want to stick with water cooling for everything):
1: Continue using the BigWater system, but only for your CPU, and set up a complete new loop (pump, radiator, waterblock, etc.) for your GPU cooling.
2: Replace your pump, radiator, and waterblocks with higher-flow variants (stick to 1/2" ID tubing, it's about the smallest recommended size for any kind of heavy duty cooling).

Bottom line is that the TT BigWater is just not capable of cooling a CPU and GPU, even less so if the GPU is something fairly recent (or fairly OC'd). If you need help choosing new components, just post back and I'm sure some of us forum junkies can help you out.

-J

 

[rodney_ws]

As someone who has just received his BigWater 745... tell me I didn't do too bad... everything I read said the 745 addressed a LOT of the problems with the 735 and the BigWater SE... 3/8 inch tubing from 1/4... higher flow pump (400 liter/h) and 2 radiators (1 X 120 mm and 2 X 120 mm) All of the benchmarks I read indicated a quality kit.

 

[cmptrdude79]

While that is a much higher-quality and higher capability kit than the previous incarnations (735 and SE), you may still run into issues if you're trying to cool an SLI- or Crossfire-based graphics system along with a high-end overclocked CPU. That being said, as long as you're not overclocked too high, or wanting to overclock to your limits, you should do just fine with that kit. You could have gotten better cooling by picking your individual components, but as far as kits go, the BigWater 745 is generally ok.

Good luck with your watercooling.

-J

 

[tokenz]

Throw the Thermaltake Big Crapper away. Buy quality parts. My rig is a 3.0 preshott overclocked to 3.7 temp wise they are 35 c idle 48c load.
I had to go with 1/2 tubing, dengerden tdx waterblock, an ehiem 1048 pump (which is a little small), and a bonneville heater core with 2 120mm fans. Now if I were to throw a gpu on that it would kill my loop. I would have to drop my cpu overclock to stock, and then it would still probably run hot. You almost have to build your own to be effective at watercooling.

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[RichPLS]

The ThermalTake BigWater SE is an excellent quality cooling kit, and includes a very good quality high flow CPU waterblock ... The BigWater 735 and 745 sytems are based on the same waterblock design, but bigger pumps/radiators, all excellent quality materials . . .
And the prices can not be touched for any other un-assembled systems, imo.

The BigWaters are targeted for beginners, but thier quality of components make them suitable for expansion or experienced users also.

 

[kev22257]

I have the same water cooling unit in my computer and first had outrageous temps. By swapping the fan on the radiator to blow out the back instead of into the case, which was the default way it came, my temps went way down. I also noticed that how the pump is oriented makes a huge difference in how well it performs. This was my second time installing a water cooling unit and while I found it was a pain to do, it gets excellent performance cooling my cpu and my video card.

 

[SidVicious]

I'll take that one...lol. I'm almost scared to think of what might be posted here otherwise...

Gratz and welcome to THGC !

It's good to see that a fraction of the new members know their stuff !

 

[tokenz]

The first line you should run is from the pump to the cpu waterblock. Then out of the cpu waterblock, to the vga waterblock. then the radiator, and then the pump. I would throw another rad inbetween the cpu waterblock and the vga waterblock.
Also I would use heatercores instead of the default rad. You might need to pick up another pump if you do that. I would try it without though. Its not like your out anything if it brings down you temps a couple of degrees. I personally think if you buy your own components you get better performance. And I know it can be done yourself cheaper than if you buy a $200 kit. But that is just my opinon. I have been known to be wrong. Also check you waterblock mounts.
And make sure you have enough tubing between them so that they aren't pulling at the waterblocks. Also the fan direction will make a little difference. I have noticed personal experiance is that if it is pulling into the case temps rise. I have heard people argue that the air is colder outside the case and therefor should lower temps, but I have had better luck with them blowing out. I guess the other fans in the system make a difference also. You can also try a thermaltake 120 mm fan. I got two of them they are rated at 93cfms. I run them a 7 volts though and they are not that loud.

Well thats about all I know.