18 replies to this topic

[Animefan93]

Water cooling Yes or No. How much does it affect your temps??

Zachimillius - If you want to overclock then it can be good. But depending on your hardware and how much you want to overclock, it can be worth it or it can be useless. For example: If you have i7 and top notch GPU then there is little point to overlock, thus little point to watercool. But in near future, rather than buy new hardware overclock the fuck out of stuff and water cool to keep temps down. So what is your hardware and what do you use your system for?

Cman21 - i would look into the self contained systems for CPU but i would not do a full custom liquid cooled build as the cost is crazy.

koolzz24 - You can get a great case that is not water cooled but that has great ventilation.
I have an antec case, and boy does it keep the computer cool and also quiet as well.

Koby - You can get liquid cooling instead of water cooling. The good thing about it is you never have to mess with it.


To reply

I already have a Corsair Obsidian 800d Koolzz.

Zach My specs are;
2 Asus GTX 560Ti Factory OC to 900MHz then i have OCed then to 950MHz the first GPU idles at about 40 degrees with the 2nd at about 29 degrees.
A gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5P with a Intel i7 920 @ 2.67GHz


I just made a post about it.

[JohnFlower]

The question you should ask is do you need water cooling. With your current hardware, a corsair h60 or something similar would suffice for a cpu cooler. You should really think about your current hardware and whether or not you plan on upgrading any time soon.

[13ack.Stab]

With your current hardware, no - but there are a few other factors to take into account before you make a decision either way. Your idle temperatures are low and your CPU clock is really tame, so you honestly should be fine on air alone. That said, could you post your temperatures on full load, both for the CPU and GPU?

A decent water cooling system can be dreadfully expensive, and really should only be implemented if you truly need it. If you're relatively new to tinkering with computer parts and building new rigs, then there's also the difficulty factor to keep in mind - it can be hard for less experienced users to install nice-looking loops. And while water cooling is significantly quieter than air cooling, it does require some additional maintenance (i.e. flushing your loop(s) every once in a while to prevent buildup).

On a different note, why is your second video card's idle temps so much lower than the first? Are you sure you installed the SLI bridge correctly and it's being properly utilized?

[Animefan93]

The question you should ask is do you need water cooling. With your current hardware, a corsair h60 or something similar would suffice for a cpu cooler. You should really think about your current hardware and whether or not you plan on upgrading any time soon.

I was actually looking at the H100 after posting this.

With your current hardware, no - but there are a few other factors to take into account before you make a decision either way. Your idle temperatures are low and your CPU clock is really tame, so you honestly should be fine on air alone. That said, could you post your temperatures on full load, both for the CPU and GPU?

On a different note, why is your second video card's idle temps so much lower than the first? Are you sure you installed the SLI bridge correctly and it's being properly utilized?

I don't know my CPU temps on full load sorry, but i will make a guess as its not OC so about 30-40 degree, but i do have a round about figure for my GPUS. 50-60 degree on full load depending on what game i am on E.g. Skyrim round about 52 -57 and Crysis about 60-62.

On a different note, why is your second video card's idle temps so much lower than the first? Are you sure you installed the SLI bridge correctly and it's being properly utilized?

I honestly don't know why it is lower... I though it was to do with that my top GPU is closer to the bottom so when its cooling its hitting the 2nd GPU while the 2nd GPU has no obstruction, I shall post a picture of my RigIT(Rig In Training lol) to show you what i mean, and because i want to.. I will also check my SLI bridge to see if its in correctly and how do i check to see that it's being properly utilized? But as i said i am going with either the H100 or H60 for the direct CPU cooling.

A decent water cooling system can be dreadfully expensive, and really should only be implemented if you truly need it. If you're relatively new to tinkering with computer parts and building new rigs, then there's also the difficulty factor to keep in mind - it can be hard for less experienced users to install nice-looking loops. And while water cooling is significantly quieter than air cooling, it does require some additional maintenance (i.e. flushing your loop(s) every once in a while to prevent buildup).

This is where i go DAAAAAAAD!!! how do i do this, this and this also why isn't that doing this and where do i put this and could you please find a place for this.

[JohnFlower]

About the temperatures... Sometimes sli likes to play funny buggers. I've had similar results when I used to use sli. Even though there was plenty of space, one gpu would always be hotter than the other (the second one, ie bottom card). Reinstalled my drivers (can't remember if it was the same version or older lol)... both temps were within 1 degree of each other. Also, do you use MSI Afterburner? If no, I suggest you do. Oh, and flash your bios to something that allows 100% fan speed if it already isn't set.

[Animefan93]

About the temperatures... Sometimes sli likes to play funny buggers. I've had similar results when I used to use sli. Even though there was plenty of space, one gpu would always be hotter than the other (the second one, ie bottom card). Reinstalled my drivers (can't remember if it was the same version or older lol)... both temps were within 1 degree of each other. Also, do you use MSI Afterburner? If no, I suggest you do. Oh, and flash your bios to something that allows 100% fan speed if it already isn't set.

Yep i do use MSI Afterburner, i swapped it with Asus SmartDoctor after the SmartDoctor didn't have the ability to overclock and tune the fans of both the GPU's at once unlike MSI.

Look here for stuff about the SLI

[13ack.Stab]

You can check your temps with RealTemp, SpeedFan, and so forth. Nvidia Inspector will also tell you a lot about your GPU load, clocks, voltages, fan speeds, etc.

If you do decide to go with water cooling, make sure you do your research first. You can ask a bunch of questions here, sure, but I can guarantee that most of them have been answered elsewhere many times. You should live in OCN's Water Cooling forum for a while, and definitely make sure to check out their 'Essentials' sticky.

Also, make sure you have the latest WHQL drivers (301.42 came out on the 22nd). If you right-click your desktop and go to your NVIDIA Control Panel, make sure you have SLI enabled in the 'Configure SLI, Surround, PhysX' tab. If it is, use Nvidia Inspector to see how the load on your cards is, as well as their clocks and fan speeds. You can also view your SLI profiles with it, though you really shouldn't have to mess with them.

[Animefan93]

You can check your temps with RealTemp, SpeedFan, and so forth. Nvidia Inspector will also tell you a lot about your GPU load, clocks, voltages, fan speeds, etc.

If you do decide to go with water cooling, make sure you do your research first. You can ask a bunch of questions here, sure, but I can guarantee that most of them have been answered elsewhere many times. You should live in OCN's Water Cooling forum for a while, and definitely make sure to check out their 'Essentials' sticky.

Also, make sure you have the latest WHQL drivers (301.42 came out on the 22nd). If you right-click your desktop and go to your NVIDIA Control Panel, make sure you have SLI enabled in the 'Configure SLI, Surround, PhysX' tab. If it is, use Nvidia Inspector to see how the load on your cards is, as well as their clocks and fan speeds. You can also view your SLI profiles with it, though you really shouldn't have to mess with them.

While watching NCIX i found core temp and and these are my temps for the CPU with NO OC.

Core 0 - MIN 48 - MAX - 55

Core 1 - MIN 47 - MAX - 54

Core 2 - MIN 49 - MAX - 56

Core 3 - MIN 46 - MAX - 54

All in Degree Celsius.

Today has been warm in the UK about 22 degrees outside and about 20-22 in my room, so that will add to the temps also only running a stock cooler. This PC i am using was only meant for School/College work. Not gaming... I soon changed that

I have the Nvidia control panel to check for updates every hour(not necessary i know but why not). Also while looking over parts with my dad it turns out that so far no shop sells the parts i need. Water Block wise. . Looks like i will be going with the Corsair H100. NCIX did a review and i wont ever need to change, unless damaged.

[13ack.Stab]

If you have room in your case, I would just get a Noctua NH-D14. It's a great (albeit humongous) CPU cooler that should drop your temps significantly. It'd also be a hell of a lot cheaper than getting a full water cooling setup.

[Animefan93]

If you have room in your case, I would just get a Noctua NH-D14. It's a great (albeit humongous) CPU cooler that should drop your temps significantly. It'd also be a hell of a lot cheaper than getting a full water cooling setup.

It Should fit in an Corsair Obsidian 800d right .

[13ack.Stab]

I think it will, yes, but I couldn't find your motherboard on the NH-D14 compatibility list. That said, there are other variations of your EX58 board, so I think you're fine - if you follow their instructions and get a NM-I3 LGA1366 mounting kit. It should be free of charge according to their webpage, and it may even be packaged with the cooler.

You can also shift the fans around and mount the NH-D14 in two different configurations for maximum cooling, so I don't really foresee too many problems. It's a great cooler.

[Zachimillius]

I have one of these bad boys and they are great aircooling option!!

[Evil_Burrito]

Get an air cooler with some good fins, a copper base, and 90mm or 120mm fan. I currently have a cooler master on my phenom that I got on sale at newegg for like $35 and I have never a single issue with it, I have had good experiences with Zalman in the past.

If money of no object and you have plenty of free time and reaaaly want one, go ahead and build a water system.

[Animefan93]

Get an air cooler with some good fins, a copper base, and 90mm or 120mm fan. I currently have a cooler master on my phenom that I got on sale at newegg for like $35 and I have never a single issue with it, I have had good experiences with Zalman in the past.

If money of no object and you have plenty of free time and reaaaly want one, go ahead and build a water system.

I have bags of time but i don't have bags of money and i really want one. I plan was to buy it for the CPU first then go from there slowly make it to include the GPU's as well. But i cannot seem to find and GTX 560TI water blocks for sale in the UK.

Anyone know if this would fit my Asus GTX 560 TI Direct CU II CLICK|ME.

If not would a 570 Water block fit.

[JohnFlower]

Once you take the fans n stuff off, I do believe it is still a regular 560 ti. Have a look here for ek gpu water blocks. But, as you said, you're going to be doing your cpu first... so here. Of course, those links are to ek, you can always go for a different brand, but tbh, you will still get around the same results.

[Animefan93]

Once you take the fans n stuff off, I do believe it is still a regular 560 ti. Have a look here for ek gpu water blocks. But, as you said, you're going to be doing your cpu first... so here. Of course, those links are to ek, you can always go for a different brand, but tbh, you will still get around the same results.

Thanks will check it out. I have emailed watercooling UK to see if they can help me.

[pinny]

Per Intel's spec your CPU has a T_CASE of 67.9°C.
Unless you're often near that amount of degrees you don't need to worry about getting any kind of aftermarket cooling for your CPU. Especially seeing as you're not OC'ing it I doubt your CPU gets anywhere near that hot. Also note that since this is Intel's spec they probably made the number a little less than it actually is.

Your gfx chips seem to be able to take up to 97°C. So if you keep a 85°C max you're nowhere near to harming your gfx cards either. Looking at your temps you don't need any aftermarking cooling for these either.

Unless you're getting extremely annoyed by the noise all those fans make I see no point in getting any water cooling.
Also the $100 you would (at least) need for getting a water cooled solution for your gfx is better used in getting a more efficient chip. Sell both your 560's and buy a single 670. Using 1 card instead of 2 will reduce both the power usage and the heat.

[13ack.Stab]

Thanks will check it out. I have emailed watercooling UK to see if they can help me.

I still think you should just get an aftermarket CPU cooler instead. Is there a reason you're so fixated on watercooling?

Edit: Pinny spoke some words of wisdom. Listen to him.

[Animefan93]

Per Intel's spec your CPU has a T_CASE of 67.9°C.
Unless you're often near that amount of degrees you don't need to worry about getting any kind of aftermarket cooling for your CPU. Especially seeing as you're not OC'ing it I doubt your CPU gets anywhere near that hot. Also note that since this is Intel's spec they probably made the number a little less than it actually is.

Your gfx chips seem to be able to take up to 97°C. So if you keep a 85°C max you're nowhere near to harming your gfx cards either. Looking at your temps you don't need any aftermarking cooling for these either.

Unless you're getting extremely annoyed by the noise all those fans make I see no point in getting any water cooling.
Also the $100 you would (at least) need for getting a water cooled solution for your gfx is better used in getting a more efficient chip. Sell both your 560's and buy a single 670. Using 1 card instead of 2 will reduce both the power usage and the heat.

I still think you should just get an aftermarket CPU cooler instead. Is there a reason you're so fixated on watercooling?

Edit: Pinny spoke some words of wisdom. Listen to him.

I don't think my dad would like me to sell the 560's HE bought me , also the fans do kinda irritate me and my family when they are asleep and i have my fans on 70% to keep my GPU's cool lol. But until i hear back from water cooling UK about water blocks for my GPU's to see if they have what i need will either be put to bed if they don't or will go ahead with it slowly as i save money . Its also to say i have water cooling just to try something new, never had it before so be nice to try and to prove my friends wrong when they say it only cools it down by 1-2 degrees. Thanks for the awesome info Pinny . You guys are the best.