Liquid Cooling Your Processors?

[Synthetickiller]

I've already built liquid cooling systems before ( prepackaged) so i'm not a total newbie, but I had a question about something.

If i were to cool 1 CPU and 1 GPU, would it be better to have a set up like this:

Reservoir w/ pump to CPU to radiator w/ fans to GPU to radiator w/ fans to reservoir.

This way, some heat from the CPU will be disipated before getting to the GPU, allowing for greater heat absorbtion vs going from the CPU to GPU directly.

Also, is HDD liquid cooling overkill and pointless? Same with ram? North and Southbridge chipsets? The idea is to pull as much heat off the system with minimal fan usage.

 

[phreejak]

The setup your described is ideal. If you look at my sign below, you'll see that in one of my loops I have dual rads and that loop follows the exact loop you mentioned.

Northbridge cooling is ok and if you are a tremendous overclocker it might be understood but a decent quality HSF would do just fine. Cooling the southbridge isn't necessary beyond the stock heatsink htat it usually comes with. Ram cooling is purely a novelty - the heatspreader that typically comes with ram can handle even overclocking duties.

 

[wun911]

sepearte loop for GPU and CPU

 

[KOne]

looping from cpu to gpu works just fine. my card idles at 37c

 

[chuckshissle]

You can do that or do what Phreejak did and use two separate loop. I've also done this with a kit and got two of them one for the cpu and the other for the gpus. However with only one cpu and one gpu to cool you can use one loop. Less costly and less complicated, not to mention two separate water cooling loop will require a more powerful psu if you don't have one already. Well, I would suggest you get a triple 120mm radiator then, to keep up with the cooling. You should go reservoir, pump, cpu, gpu, radiator and back to reservoir. That way the heat is directed to the radiator and get rid off. The cpu might warm the water after the pass but it would still good enough to cool that gpu. Besides gpu can run way hotter than cpus. The gpu might reach 60c during gaming but it will still be at good safe level. But it's what I can suggest to you for a simple and least costly water cooling loop for your cpu and gpu.

 

[sirheck]

i agree a seperate loop for gpu and cpu

that is for ultimate cooling

 

[phreejak]

I have seperate loops for my CPU and GPU because I'm using a TEC on my CPU and that generates alot of heat. I felt it necessary to give each component their own cooling solution so that they wouldn't affect each other.

 

[Synthetickiller]

You can do that or do what Phreejak did and use two separate loop. I've also done this with a kit and got two of them one for the cpu and the other for the gpus. However with only one cpu and one gpu to cool you can use one loop. Less costly and less complicated, not to mention two separate water cooling loop will require a more powerful psu if you don't have one already. Well, I would suggest you get a triple 120mm radiator then, to keep up with the cooling. You should go reservoir, pump, cpu, gpu, radiator and back to reservoir. That way the heat is directed to the radiator and get rid off. The cpu might warm the water after the pass but it would still good enough to cool that gpu. Besides gpu can run way hotter than cpus. The gpu might reach 60c during gaming but it will still be at good safe level. But it's what I can suggest to you for a simple and least costly water cooling loop for your cpu and gpu.

If this were for my current set up, I could run 2 pumps since its a 1000 watt. I have 1 ICM-505 koolance cooler per CPU right now and they idle around 81-84 F, peak around 90 F.

The 3rd party heatsink on the GPU idle's between 38-41 C. If i'm going to do liquid cooling, it would be to get my GPU to aorund 22C (my house is about 70-74 F) for overclocking. Otheriwse, I'd just get another 3rd party heatsink w/ fan as the liquid cooling would cost more for no performance.

I'm just trying to get ideas for a good set up when I plan on shelling out the cash for a new comp in a few years. If I can actually skip the whole DDR2 revolution, that would be something most of you guys wouldn't do. Just a test of patience on my part.


Phreejak, I like your setup. I'll consider something like that when I go ahead and build a new computer.

Maybe I'll just keep Distilled Ice on hand and dump them into my resevior when I feel the need to get colder. Thats always an option, lol.

 

[chuckshissle]

Hey Phreejak, I think you need to clean that awesome rig.

 

[phreejak]

heh...

Actually, it's all in disarray right now. I'm about to take it apart to upgrade it but two things have held me back up until this morning:

1) work
2) I've had to create a custom water block for an odd voltage regulator on my AB9 PRO board that I just got through testing.

I've got all these upgrades sitting here that I couldn't intall until I got the water block done so my E6600 has been sitting here for about 4 weeks. Believe me, I'm going to clean it. I'm also going to take pictures of the construction process.

 

[Noblewolf]

I was curious what kind of delta Temps are you guys getting across your chips??

 

[chuckshissle]

For me, with my 840 oc'ed to 3.9Ghz @ 1.45v. I got 33c idle and 38c full load. At stock I'll get 25c idle and 30c full load. And now it's just snowed here in Chicago in the morning and seems to melt away, but it's getting cold out so I might place my pc near the window and opened it up for some serious low temps.

 

[phreejak]

Well, if you are looking for what my temps are at idle and on load for my CPU it's 0 celsius for both (I've got a TEC on it).

 

[Noblewolf]

I was more curious of the temperature drop before and after the coolant enters and leaves the CPU and GPU chips..

i.e. 35deg before cpu and 40deg after

35---------40
=| cpu |====

 

[phreejak]

Well, the nearest I can help you with that is when I start the computer and go immedately into my BIOS and check temps that way. My problem is, though, is that I am using a TEC waterblock so when the computer turns on, the peltier module automatically kicks on and its cold temps climb rather fast. WHen I go into BIOS, I "might" catch it at something like 1 - 2 degrees celsius but it drops to 0 (I can't read temps below 0 degrees) almost as fast as I see it.

The coolant cools the hotside of the peltier module and I don't have a temp sensor on it to tell how effective the coolant is.