Will a water cooler really benefit me?

What kind of watercooling are you talking about?

The 550ti is a pretty low end card, there are no waterblocks for it. That's why I didn't purchase any GPU blocks for my own 550ti when I built my water loop last week.

Have you read the watercooling sticky?

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/265776-29-read-first-...

Is there a budget?

there is no reason to overclock your CPU with a low end GPU like that.

your overclock is likely failing because you are not providing enough voltage, and are using the "FSB" instead of the multiplier like you should. windows doesn't know anything, the CPU is just incapable of processing instructions correctly with the settings you are using.

Also sounds like a classic issue of poor case airflow.

I'm throwing in a vote for poor case airflow as well. Can you post some pictures of your setup and what directions the fan blow?

You temps on the X6 sound pretty good - sub-60C for an OCed CPU (and an AMD nonetheless) is pretty good, considering a lot of stock CPUs hit the mid 50C range even with good case airflow and a good CPU cooler.

is it a phenom II chip? because they hate going past 4GHz, so it would really be a waste to put too much on em

edit: boiler says 3.8GHz for 6 cores, im used to the quads

Phenom II X6s are the only desktop hex-cores AMD makes. I've seen quad cores get pretty high, but I think there's too much circuitry in the X6s that prevents them from being stable beyond 3.8GHz or so.

what about the hex core bulldozers

edit: well... i guess none of the 6 core bulldozers we're stock clocked at 2.7 GHz lol

True, but I don't really consider those 6 cores since they're really dual-thread modules.

They are completely different architectures, so I agree that there will be a difference in the way they 'handle', so to speak.

Hey guys,
thanks for the replies I am on my PC now last night I posted here from my phone so it was a little tough. Here is the inside of the PC because some of you think I have airflow issues (which I doubt actually it's got a lot of breathing room and multiple fans to cycle cool air in/hot air out):


This pic is when I was putting some better screws for ground issues in it last week I have the cables more organized now for the airflow of the graphics card. This is a huge custom gaming tower from xoxide.com, its got a massive fan on the side that sucks all the hot air out on the side.
First off, the stock heatsink/CPU fan, its VERY small. That's why I was looking at a different cooling solution. I have other heatsinks/fans and maybe some people recommend just upgrading a heat sink fan but hey. This is my first custom computer, I look at a water cooler as something that will not only keep it cooler but maybe something I can have when I want to upgrade this further into another computer I will always have an adequate cooling system!

One of you said something about the clock multiplier. I can't adjust it anymore. The motherboard is unlocked but this particular CPU has preset multiplier values, I can only really adjust the FSB. What makes me mad, I bought this motherboard/CPU on ebay for a good deal, it was SUPPOSE to come with a AMD black edition. The guy shipped me the wrong CPU but when I looked at price/stats it was a very similar CPU. I also didn't want to go through all the trouble of shipping it back. But finding out this multiplier value can't be customized to any number it makes me mad now!  
I'm also surprised by the negativity towards the graphics card... for the record I have the 2GB version that costed more. Second, I know there are better graphics cards on the market (especially the nvidia 600 series) but I definitely wouldn't consider the 550ti "low end". This is a monstrous graphics card! For $170 bucks I wouldn't consider it low end, it tears games apart. Third the graphics problems weren't power issues either, I actually did stress testing with "FurMark", the graphics card was cooking at 92 C. This card would actually freeze the computer during BF3, all i need to do is turn up the fan speed and it hasn't happened since.

I learned ALOT these past 2-3 months about building PCs. I was originally a laptop person but after having multiple laptops break on me (and suck for gaming) I got into building PCs. Originally this was an upgraded HP Pavilion desktop computer, but I spent some money and completely changed the system as well as installed a solid state drive. This computer is FAST. The games are great. I just wanted it to last me a few years before revamping the whole system (again) and heat is probably the number one killer of computer hardware!
Budget? I was looking at something between 80-120 bucks. I actually found one that goes into your CD-ROM slots in your case. I don't know if my case would allow the radiator to mounted to the top of the case because my PSU is there. But before even wasting the money that's why I came here.

furmark will bring out unrealistic numbers, games have alot of stopping and starting, which will keep your gpu cooler, and they won't use 100% of your gpu

i would suggest getting the CM hyper 212+ or Evo, they will do good... and it's not really a big deal black edition or not, no BE are a little more fuss, but their still easy to work with

That's a problem with the case.

The 550ti is the lowest end card in the GTX 5XX series of cards. I only paid $120 for mine, but $170 for yours? Crazy.

Anyways, the problem you have here is your case airflow. Spend $80-120 on a better case and a better cooler.

^ Could also be a Koolance bay res/drive unit.

Hey guys,
It's been a week or so since I originally posted this I thought I would post an update. There really wasn't a problem with the case... it's a brand new modtek case I ordered from xoxide.com, it's nice and room with a side fan but the problem was I had that tiny system fan from a small HP computer doing virtually nothing to cycle hot air out of the computer from the back side.
I bought a massive 120mm fan yesterday with adjustable fan speed (and a warranty), dead quiet but blows all the hot air. I did hours of gaming and this thing is keeping the system alot cooler, you can feel the different of the air coming out of the case.

I don't care for a water cooler anymore, I just wanted to do more overclocking but the CPU is already pushed to the max and working great. In the future when I build a better system I'll look into it. But thanks for the thoughts/opinions anyway on it everyone! I already put enough time/money into the PC it's time I actually enjoy it, it's the best computer I've ever owned.

Best answer selected by sedativechunk.

This topic has been closed by Rubix_1011