X6800 in ThermalTake Kandalf LCS Case.

Sholo1977

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Nov 16, 2006
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Hey guys, I am pretty new at overclocking and all so I was wondering about the system I just built and if you think it's set up properly for the temps that I'm getting.

I have yet to OC it since I'd like to read up a little more on the subject before I start tinkering with it.

System Setup.
Intel Core 2 Duo X6800 2.93mhz
Corsair CM2X 1024-6400C4D x 4
EVGA 680i motherboard
Nvidia 7800gt - Replacing with a BFG watercooled card when it arrives.
Raptor 150gb 10k rpm HD
ThermalTake 850w Power Supply
ThermalTake Kandalf LCS Case & Water Cooling System

The CPU core temps are running between 32-40 at idle to very light load (surfing for info).
Ran the Ntune Stability test last night for 6 hours and the highest it went was 46 degrees C.

Is that normal for a watercooled system like the one I have? Mostly I just want to make sure that I installed it and it's operating correctly. Would adding some higher speed fans inside the case make any major difference for the other components like RAM and VC?
The fans installed in the case are slow rotating 120mm fans and two 1800rpm 90mm fans.

TEMPS CURRENTLY:
Cpu - 39C + 40C
HD - 48C
Video Card - 71C (think the northbridge fan is affecting the temps on this card since the fan is right about it and blowing warm air right onto the top side of the card.

Also is there a way to detect the tempature of the installed RAM DIMMS?
and would removing two dimms increase overall system preformance since windows xp isn't very happy about having 4gb installed?

Apologize for so many questions so quickly. Any information or suggestions/criticism would be appreciated. I actually bought an Alienware PC about a month ago thinking it would be a nice high end system that I didn't have to assemble and had watercooling but
I sent it back based on the suggestions I found in this forum and others like it.

..oh and I was kind of pissed that alienware staff forgot to plug in the cases lights/set the lights to the right color/tell 4gigs in an nforce4 board with a 6800 was a bad idea/...well there was a long list of things really.

It may take more time but building is a lot less of a headache so far.
 

darkstar782

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Dec 24, 2005
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Ooooh kay....

Firstly, what are you measuring CPU temps with? You should be using Core Temp, or even better, Intel TAT.

These read the temp from the internal CPU diode and are fare more accurate and comparible.

Assuming you are using these, then those are not bad temps. The coolant in the water loop can never be below room temp, and there will always be a slight temperature gradient between the coolant, the waterblock, the thermal paste, the heatspreader, and the actual CPU core.

As the CPU produces more heat, you begin to truely test the water loop. You pretty much need to keep overclocking more and not let the CPU temp go above about 65°C. If the loop is good, and thats a 360mm Radiator system for just your CPU, you'll probably find the CPU temp barely shifts with vastly increasing heat output.

Dont worry too much while overclocking, if the CPU hits 85°C or so it will slow itself down to cool itself down, you could remove the waterblock while the PC was running and you wouldnt damage the CPU. Of course if it is hitting temps like this ever, you need to slow it down and examine why. I'm just saying dont be fearful!

As for hard disks... my personal opinion is that all 7200RPM+ HDDs need active cooling. The Kandalf has a nice fan and hard disk bay next to the PSU which I assume is where your Raptor is. If 48°C is the temp of the drive casing I'd be worried. If it is the temp of the platter, as read by SMART or similar, its fine. Basically just touch the HDD casing and see if it feels hot.

71°C isnt bad for a 7800GT with I assume stock cooling. The 7800 is based on the G70 110nm process, which runs pretty hot.

I know of no standard way to measure RAM temps, but RAM dissipates very little Wattage, and therefore heat. As long as you are running it at its rated voltage or less, which in the case of yours is 2.1v, it will be fine. There are Corsair Dominator modules with the same DHX heatspreaders as yours rated at 2.4v, so dont worry about it.

Windows XP 32bit only has 4GiB of memory address space. You therefore loose a bit of your 4GiB installed RAM as some of this is reserved for other things. This does not create a performance hit however, and with 4GiB you can happily disable your pagefile in most situations and gain a nice perfoamance boost due to Windows XPs dire memory management that swaps out for no reason at all.