I've looked at water cooling and I may one day make the leap but my heat problems are not CPU related so much as they are chipset. I've been visiting the Asetek website quite a bit lately but not for the watercooling systems but rather the Vapochill systems. LOL
The stand alone VapoChill unit I had installed keeps the CPU temp at 75 to 92 Fer. , Depending on "WHAT" I am doing at the Time...
I had a rather interesting development happen with my P4/Zalman cooler. I've been fooling around with the speed of my 120mm case fan. The sweet spot for best temps is 1450 rpm or so. If I raise the speed to max (2500) the cpu runs a few degrees hotter??? Since it's a fairly aggressive fan from a CFM point of view (57cfm), I'm assuming that by slowing the airflow down both the 120mm on the bottom of the power supply and the case fan don't fight each other and collectively pick up more heat in the process. Case temps when warmed up stay about 10 to 12 degrees below the processor temp which tells me that the cpu cooler is removing lots of heat. With the stock Intel cooler the case temps never went over 34C or so, yet the processor ran as high as 68C when oc'd to 3.45 (15% oc). Any attempt to raise the speed higher resulted in thermal shutdown by asus Probe when running the CPU/Arithmatic burn-in continuously at 100% CPU usage. While there isn't a place for a front case fan, there is a panel of vent holes in front of the lower 5 drive bays with room to slip one in front of the bays. I may try and add one there as I don't think that I need more airflow going out but more cool air coming in. As it is now, I can put a piece of bond paper over the holes in the side of the case and it stays where ever you put it just by the airflow. My case has an 80mm fan in the side window that's feeding both 120s and another 80mm on the power supply that helps to shove hot air out the power supply exhaust vents in the back. I may just put an 80 or 90mm fan directly behind the front lower holes and mount it to the bottom of the case with double sided foam tape. I will probably go with the 80mm as the 90mm Thermatake is another very aggressive fan (58cfm) and is pretty noisey at flank speed. Or maybe I'll see about getting another fan-mate II to put on it. Then I should be able to "tune" the airflow better and make the removal of heat more efficient. Since I plan to use the same model case on my next build (only black this time) this should be a good test, the results of which I can use to keep the future 64x2 4400+ cool and quiet. With the "fanless" passive chip cooling on the Asus SLI Premium MB it should work quite well as I will be able to control the airflow over the MB better. Sophocles, I have a question for you regarding your old machine. I know that you have an SLI board but you are only using 1 video card. If you wanted to add another would you be able at this late date to buy a compatible ATI card? 7800GTs are a little pricey right now and if I can get away from needing 2 right away, with the ability to add another say 6 months down the road, I would be very happy. By the way, how do you turn off the auto-eject on the DVD drives? Sincerely, theonejrs
theonejrs Damn, between you and brobear I've caught up on all my reading. LOL SLI as you know is for Nvidia cards only but you can use any single PCIe card that you desire. I'm currently using the Saphire X800 pro and it plays everything that I've thrown at it so far with better than 40 frames or more but never below. Two cards in SLI are mostly just bragging rights. I purchased the board mostly for its other features but when the 6800's or 7800's come down in price then I'm ready. I like to think of it as future proofing. The A8N-SLI premium is a fix for all the flaws in the Deluxe version, expecially the chipset cooling.
Sophocles, I don't quite know what the difference is but the MB I want is the ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce SPP 100 ATX AMD Motherboard @$229 (USD). This has a copper heatpipe and heat sinks. Should look nice with the copper Zalman cooler. Whether it's worth the $60 price difference I don't know but knowing Asus, it probably is. With the settup I'm refining now, heat should not be an issue! Sincerely, theonejrs
Unless you're definitely doing SLi, just get the A8N-SLi premium. The 32 model costs extra and the only difference is a double speed SLi controller.
Sophocles, I am definately going to do SLI. I may need to use my 5200 PCI card for a starter but I will definately be getting 2 FX5200GTs as soon as reasonably possible. Besides, as I have already learned Copper cools better than aluminum and it looks pretty neat to boot! Since I'll be running the latest version of AutoCad for work, I think I will pay the difference. theonejrs
Sophocles, I am definately going to do SLI. I may need to use my FX5200 PCI card for a starter but I will definately be getting 2 FX7800GTs as soon as reasonably possible. Besides, as I have already learned Copper cools better than aluminum and it looks pretty neat to boot! Since I'll be running the latest version of AutoCad for work, I think I will pay the difference. theonejrs
theonejrs The A8N-SLI premium does everything that you would want it too. The only benefit of 32-SLI is Running two 16 times PCIe epress cards while trying to get the benefits of 32 times. The problem is that most good single 16X PCIe card or even an 8X AGP card can play most games well and any middle of the road SLI or crossfire setup can play them all. There's very little to be gained by going to the A8N32.
theonejrs The A8N-SLI Deluxe, Premium, or A8N32 are all SLI boards. The A8N32 is more fantasy than reality and of the other two the A8N-SLI premium has the best chipset cooling solution. Get it because in reality it can produce the same video quality that the A8N32 can for a lot less money.
Theonejr, If you could post one more time what your definitely going to do I think I'll have it down. Sophocles. If you wanted to cool your nf4 chipset, the cooler master fanless heat sink works really well for about 10 bucks. I also mounted a quiet fan on top just to be certain. Or maybe something a little fancier. http://www.coolerguys.com/840556037323.html
64026402 Thanks I'll look into them tomorrow since I'm playing hooky. I've looked at modifying the board but I still need something to house my Venice core or loose all that memory I have stored into time. The DC Opteron is the cause of the chipset stress so I figure to move it to the premium and use the Deluxe with my Venice core.
6402, Sorry about the multiples. I kept getting a timed out message so i just kept sending. Is there a way to remove posts? If you can tell me how I will remove the extras. Sincerely, theonejrs
