TriRyan or anyone else. Liquid Cooling.....

[TriRan]

Awesome news glad I could share my knowledge with someone else keep posting updates I want to know how you did

[ninjageek]

Think I have reached my limit. I am at 4.5 stable running 1.325. Running Idle at 36c, Never saw it go over 45c while testing. The only way I was able to get it up this high was using Asus Suite 2, Used DIGI Plus VRM Tool.

CPU Load LIne Calibration and CPU current Cabpability are Maxed out. The CPU/MB current Capability is set to 120 Pecent and I left CPU/NB Line Calibration alone.

I am gonna leave it this way for a few days just to see how it goes. Play a few games and such. Bet its fine.

I confirmed the DIGI plus VRM tool settings. I backed everything off, the 4.5 settings Failed. Kicked them back up to what I had them set at passed no problem. Looking at the graphs wile testing, IMHO thats the limit. Now just have to play a few games, See how it does. Hope it passes.

Hope I was able to help you or a lurker with what I found out. Had so much fun.

Oh one last thing. GF was NOT crazy about me overclocking my cpu. It kinda scared her. I tried to tell her how safe it was. Then of course later I told her I messed up, I fried my CPU and Motherboard, No way will warranty cover it. She did not find that funny at all. I sure laughed when I told her I was lying.

For any Lurkers or anyone else reading this. Keep in mind I overclocked it so high because I have Liquid Cooling. I only did this to learn how to do it, I notice no difference in computer performance. My only piece of advice, if you want to learn how to overclock and everyone telling you DON'T DO IT !!!! Is not gonna stop you. Keep a Close eye on your temps, Don't leave it so high for very long. It can and will kill your CPU. I tried to warn you.

Edited February 22, 2012 by ninjageek

[TriRan]

Think I have reached my limit. I am at 4.5 stable running 1.325. Running Idle at 36c, Never saw it go over 45c while testing. The only way I was able to get it up this high was using Asus Suite 2, Used DIGI Plus VRM Tool.

CPU Load LIne Calibration and CPU current Cabpability are Maxed out. The CPU/MB current Capability is set to 120 Pecent and I left CPU/NB Line Calibration alone.

I am gonna leave it this way for a few days just to see how it goes. Play a few games and such. Bet its fine.

I confirmed the DIGI plus VRM tool settings. I backed everything off, the 4.5 settings Failed. Kicked them back up to what I had them set at passed no problem. Looking at the graphs wile testing, IMHO thats the limit. Now just have to play a few games, See how it does. Hope it passes.

Hope I was able to help you or a lurker with what I found out. Had so much fun.

Oh one last thing. GF was NOT crazy about me overclocking my cpu. It kinda scared her. I tried to tell her how safe it was. Then of course later I told her I messed up, I fried my CPU and Motherboard, No way will warranty cover it. She did not find that funny at all. I sure laughed when I told her I was lying.

For any Lurkers or anyone else reading this. Keep in mind I overclocked it so high because I have Liquid Cooling. I only did this to learn how to do it, I notice no difference in computer performance. My only piece of advice, if you want to learn how to overclock and everyone telling you DON'T DO IT !!!! Is not gonna stop you. Keep a Close eye on your temps, Don't leave it so high for very long. It can and will kill your CPU. I tried to warn you.

great news man glad you did so well and i 2nd that! Overclocking is not for the weak stomach if you aren't careful you can really screw something up and it takes quite a bit of knowledge and practice to get good at it so please read up before you go trying to push your computer past its designed limits

[ninjageek]

Hope sometime when the mood strike you TriRan you try to beat that over clock. No I am not bragging in the LEAST bit. If it had not been for you my friend I would still be lost, I only ask you to try it so maybe you will find something that will allow you to push that bad boy to a solid stable 5.0!!! YOU CAN DO IT!!! LoL.

I will say I am overgeeked out, think I have reached my limit, Something else will come along to change my mind and bring out the geek.

[TriRan]

Hope sometime when the mood strike you TriRan you try to beat that over clock. No I am not bragging in the LEAST bit. If it had not been for you my friend I would still be lost, I only ask you to try it so maybe you will find something that will allow you to push that bad boy to a solid stable 5.0!!! YOU CAN DO IT!!! LoL.

I will say I am overgeeked out, think I have reached my limit, Something else will come along to change my mind and bring out the geek.

lol noo on liquid with this quad core 4.3GHz is the highest reported i've seen and they had a way better liquid cooler then i did as in not a closed loop system and a much much larger radiator you have inspired me to delve a bit deeper into OC'ing though and i've started to learn how to tighten memory timings to increase overclocking potential

[ninjageek]

Yea I have Seen messing with Ram will help with overclocks. Man that's a mountain I don't think I wanna climb. You just have all kinds of different brands and sizes of ram. Think getting the memory right would be super tough. Best of luck on it though. I did look at overclockers on ram, wow, that is one process I am not sure is worth the reward. I could be wrong.

IMHO, In all the overclock videos I have watched and seen, no mention of changing the ram settings. Unless they are doing it and not telling. Best of luck!!

[TriRan]

Yea I have Seen messing with Ram will help with overclocks. Man that's a mountain I don't think I wanna climb. You just have all kinds of different brands and sizes of ram. Think getting the memory right would be super tough. Best of luck on it though. I did look at overclockers on ram, wow, that is one process I am not sure is worth the reward. I could be wrong.

IMHO, In all the overclock videos I have watched and seen, no mention of changing the ram settings. Unless they are doing it and not telling. Best of luck!!

so right now i'm using less voltage am sitting at about 4.01GHz ram is OC'd to 1780 and i've tightened my memory timings to 8-10-8-26 and using less voltage on my memory then before too the system as a whole seems to be running smoother

[ninjageek]

so right now i'm using less voltage am sitting at about 4.01GHz ram is OC'd to 1780 and i've tightened my memory timings to 8-10-8-26 and using less voltage on my memory then before too the system as a whole seems to be running smoother

Well??? How did you do it? Was it ddr 3 Ram? Think it can be done with the bios I have? LOL, Im gonna fry my computer, LOL LOL LOL.

[TriRan]

Well??? How did you do it? Was it ddr 3 Ram? Think it can be done with the bios I have? LOL, Im gonna fry my computer, LOL LOL LOL.

lol i found a guide on some steps to do it, it requires a flash drive and Memtest86 but it wasn't really all that hard i lowered my timings first then i OC'd a little differently instead of just using my multiplier i upped the FSB of my cpu which ups the ram speed and NB clock speed aswell once i got the timings down it was easy to get a stable overclock using the methods i taught you i'm only using 1.3994V on my cpu aswell i can probably up my CPU higher but its running so smooth right now i don't really want to touch it, know what i mean?

http://www.masterslair.com/tightening-your-memory-ram-timings/ this got me started on tightening my memory timings

[ninjageek]

Oh Man, I so got the overclockers a bit excited. Told them I reached 4.5. Told them how I did it. Even gave them screen shots. One guy questioned my stress test, Told him used OCCT and LINPACK, ran both for a hour. Then I told them overclocking IMHO was pointless. Think that kinda got them wound up. Talking about how much it improved there system. (not buying it but whatever spanky) Just found it funny they got a little excited about my own personal opinion. Hey, Its your computer, do what ever you want.

After doing some research on memory timings, it seems like it could go either way, Tighten them up or Loosen them up, One or the other could help you reach a better overclock. I have 8 GB Corsair Vengeance DDR 3 1600 MHz Ram Dual Channel. Been using google to see if changing it helps or hinders. So far it looks like it may help a bit, but not much. While I will do some research, My gut says DONT mess with it. To complicated, Wanna bet I try it anyway? lol. GF says I can't play with you anymore. She is scared your a BAD infulance on me. No worries she will get over it.

Oh come on dude. Crank that thing up. Don't be a girl. Easy to talk trash when its not your own computer don't ya think?. All kidding aside, Yea, Can understand that. Sometimes its best to go with your gut.

Edited February 23, 2012 by ninjageek

[TriRan]

Oh Man, I so got the overclockers a bit excited. Told them I reached 4.5. Told them how I did it. Even gave them screen shots. One guy questioned my stress test, Told him used OCCT and LINPACK, ran both for a hour. Then I told them overclocking IMHO was pointless. Think that kinda got them wound up. Talking about how much it improved there system. (not buying it but whatever spanky) Just found it funny they got a little excited about my own personal opinion. Hey, Its your computer, do what ever you want.

After doing some research on memory timings, it seems like it could go either way, Tighten them up or Loosen them up, One or the other could help you reach a better overclock. I have 8 GB Corsair Vengeance DDR 3 1600 MHz Ram Dual Channel. Been using google to see if changing it helps or hinders. So far it looks like it may help a bit, but not much. While I will do some research, My gut says DONT mess with it. To complicated, Wanna bet I try it anyway? lol. GF says I can't play with you anymore. She is scared your a BAD infulance on me. No worries she will get over it.

Oh come on dude. Crank that thing up. Don't be a girl. Easy to talk trash when its not your own computer don't ya think?. All kidding aside, Yea, Can understand that. Sometimes its best to go with your gut.

lol!! your girlfriend is pretty funny... i'm actually trying to help you so you don't screw anything up imagine if you were trying to do it with no clue what you were doing now that could permanently damage something

[ninjageek]

It seems from what I have seen on the overclockers forum, Corsair Vengeance DDR 3 1600 MHz Ram is hard to overclock. Well I mean you can overclock it, but you loose it when you overclock the cpu.

Yea we are always giving each other crap. We like to laugh. Think thats why we lasted so long. She is pretty funny. She was only kidding when she said that. She is clueless on the geek side of computers. Think thats one reason she keeps me around, HONEY my computer is acting funny, fix it. LOL.

While I could be wrong, I think using that AI Suite 2 and changing the settings in it, imho was the answer to reach it. I had such a hard time reaching 4.5. Said to heck with it, Cranked up the settings in that, and there ya go.

Still stand firm, im most cases, doing it is pointless IMHO. Putting in a Solid state hard drive Will really make your computer snappy. The 120 on windows 7 is lots of space. Have room for the OS, Still have 80 gig free. I use a couple of sata drives for extra storage, I have to 500 gig sata drives.

Not sure if the Man in charge would do it. Think having a "overclockers" Sub forum would be kinda handy. Just a Idea. Yes I know, Seems kinda strange my stance of overclocking to want a sub forum. Well, there has to be other people like me, wanting to learn. Just a thought.

Edited February 23, 2012 by ninjageek

[TriRan]

It seems from what I have seen on the overclockers forum, Corsair Vengeance DDR 3 1600 MHz Ram is hard to overclock. Well I mean you can overclock it, but you loose it when you overclock the cpu.

Yea we are always giving each other crap. We like to laugh. Think thats why we lasted so long. She is pretty funny. She was only kidding when she said that. She is clueless on the geek side of computers. Think thats one reason she keeps me around, HONEY my computer is acting funny, fix it. LOL.

While I could be wrong, I think using that AI Suite 2 and changing the settings in it, imho was the answer to reach it. I had such a hard time reaching 4.5. Said to heck with it, Cranked up the settings in that, and there ya go.

Still stand firm, im most cases, doing it is pointless IMHO. Putting in a Solid state hard drive Will really make your computer snappy. The 120 on windows 7 is lots of space. Have room for the OS, Still have 80 gig free. I use a couple of sata drives for extra storage, I have to 500 gig sata drives.

Not sure if the Man in charge would do it. Think having a "overclockers" Sub forum would be kinda handy. Just a Idea. Yes I know, Seems kinda strange my stance of overclocking to want a sub forum. Well, there has to be other people like me, wanting to learn. Just a thought.

yeah i am using A-DATA memory its actually their flagship memory i bought it because i heard it OC'd well plus its got an XMP-black profile for my black edition CPU

btw not sure if you've ever seen my rig i got some pics uploaded here somewhere... aha found them

the only thing i've changed since that picture is i added extra RAM i bought two more sticks of what i have in there so i'm sitting at 8GB

[ninjageek]

Now that is one SWEET looking rig. I will post pics of mine probably next week. I have some 120mm aftermarket fans on the way. Should be here in a few days. After I get them hooked up and running I will take some pics and upload them. I am gonna try something different with the fans. Common sense says have two 120 blowing air IN from the side panel. I want to see what happens if I reverse that and have them suck air out of the tower. If it fails, I will just switch them around and run them right. It looks like your tower has side loading bays for Sata and Sold State Drives? Am I seeing that right?

My fans are red. Do like the blue. My last set up was blue. Thought red would be a nice change. Dig the nice clean look of the inside. Well done. Thought about adding a light kit. After seeing them, Just not my cup of tea. REALLY like the 2 120s at the top if I am seeing right. Mine only has one. No color. Its 80mm stock. That one will be replaced with a red 120. I ordered 4 120mm Red Fans. 3 will go in right away, Not sure about the forth. I am sure I will find someplace or keep it set aside in case one dies.

I kinda like having a spare of most my stuff, Spare CPU,(always hang on to the old one I replaced). Thanks for the pics. Will post mine early to middle part of next week.

[TriRan]

thanks man! i also have spares laying around i have 3 or 4 spare cpu's that are the right socket for my MB laying around plus 8 GB of DDR3 gskill ripjaw i got for a shell shocker deal for like 29.99 with free shipping

and yeah everything you observed was correct i forgot i have made a couple changes, due to the push/pull on my radiator i had mounted on the back i could only have one door fan so i changed my setup a tad i put the radiator on my door instead and was able to get all the fans installed it's got 120mm fans all around it has slots for 140mm fans tho i just didn't feel like paying the extra money for them and i love cases like this where you can manage the cables really well thats my favorite thing about building a computer

anywho i think my PSU needs to be replaced its about two years old now and is not providing the power i need, its only a 550W psu and i never intended on running this graphics card with it the video cards is taking up almost 200W under full load and when that happens i can actually hear the strain on my psu the fan kicks up and it makes me cringe a little lol the gpu i was running before was an Nvidia 9800GTX+ basically the equivilant of a 260GTX it was a lot less card than this 5870 is you can actually see the old video card in that 2nd picture its about 2" shorter too lol

'

all in all i'm running 8 120mm case fans

3 exhaust ( 2 top 1 rear )

3 intake ( 1 side 1 bottom 1 front )

and 2 120mm fans on my cpu in push pull style setup on the 2nd fan slot in my door

[ninjageek]

Is there a way to tell how much of the power supply the computer is using? I mean I have 650w power supply, is there something that would tell me how much the computer is using or is that a dumb question? Wait strike the dumb question remark. IMHO, there is no such thing as a dumb question. Its how we learn.

Yea I have a 120 push pull on my radiator, Nice setup. Cable management I leaned ALMOST the hard way. The case I originally got, after doing some research on youtube was not a good case. Poor cable management. I called the company that night, changed my case, I am sooooo glad I did. Cable management was better. The way my motherboard is, it was a bit tough getting the sata drives put it. I mean hooked to the motherboard. They had to route the main wire harness right beside the hookups for the sata drive. No big deal really. Got the job done, but wish it was a tad easier to access those hookups for the sata.

The rest of the managemt of wires just kicks ass. Here is a link to my case to kinda explain it better. OOPS. Forgot they embed the youtube video. The guy is wrong about being able to put 2 120s at the top. It only has one.

Edited February 24, 2012 by ninjageek

[TriRan]

Is there a way to tell how much of the power supply the computer is using? I mean I have 650w power supply, is there something that would tell me how much the computer is using or is that a dumb question? Wait strike the dumb question remark. IMHO, there is no such thing as a dumb question. Its how we learn.

Yea I have a 120 push pull on my radiator, Nice setup. Cable management I leaned ALMOST the hard way. The case I originally got, after doing some research on youtube was not a good case. Poor cable management. I called the company that night, changed my case, I am sooooo glad I did. Cable management was better. The way my motherboard is, it was a bit tough getting the sata drives put it. I mean hooked to the motherboard. They had to route the main wire harness right beside the hookups for the sata drive. No big deal really. Got the job done, but wish it was a tad easier to access those hookups for the sata.

The rest of the managemt of wires just kicks ass. Here is a link to my case to kinda explain it better. OOPS. Forgot they embed the youtube video. The guy is wrong about being able to put 2 120s at the top. It only has one.

there is no way to measure total power consumption unless you have some sort of outside meter hooked up but i know from reviews that my video card uses about 191W under full load because they metered it during the tests they did

btw thats a nice case i have something similar mine is coolermaster aswell so is my PSU

[ninjageek]

Oh I am NOT the happy camper. Water cooler went bad, or there was a part they had to ad to my computer ot make it work, I am almost sure that its the problem. That 20 dollar part. Got up a started my computer, Front of it was white, Got a boot error saying "cpu fan error" Googled, Tried all the fixes. No luck. So I am going back to air cooling. Had to order a mother board bracket for the block and fan.

Honestly, Not sure I will ever go back to liquid cooling. My parts will be in friday. So it will be up and running by the weekend, Which is fine. Will be intesting to see the diffrence between liquid and air cooling on my set up and the way I run my computer. That will have lots to do with my choices If I go back or not.

Water coolers imho can be such a pain. Or atleast thats my experience. Its cheeper for me to fix it than send it back in. The fix was only 20 bucks. Wont take 20 min once I have my parts. Just chalk it all up to learning more. Hate this laptop, So In a week or so, I will get her up and running, get pics done, Upload them, Hope everyone is fine. See you all in about a week, time to catch up on my reading and take a break from the computer world.

[TriRan]

Oh I am NOT the happy camper. Water cooler went bad, or there was a part they had to ad to my computer ot make it work, I am almost sure that its the problem. That 20 dollar part. Got up a started my computer, Front of it was white, Got a boot error saying "cpu fan error" Googled, Tried all the fixes. No luck. So I am going back to air cooling. Had to order a mother board bracket for the block and fan.

Honestly, Not sure I will ever go back to liquid cooling. My parts will be in friday. So it will be up and running by the weekend, Which is fine. Will be intesting to see the diffrence between liquid and air cooling on my set up and the way I run my computer. That will have lots to do with my choices If I go back or not.

Water coolers imho can be such a pain. Or atleast thats my experience. Its cheeper for me to fix it than send it back in. The fix was only 20 bucks. Wont take 20 min once I have my parts. Just chalk it all up to learning more. Hate this laptop, So In a week or so, I will get her up and running, get pics done, Upload them, Hope everyone is fine. See you all in about a week, time to catch up on my reading and take a break from the computer world.

ouch that sucks man ive had my corsair h50 running nonstop for about a year now with no issues sorry to hear you had some

[Buntz]

What water cooler are you using? Also what part did they have to add? Can you take some pictures of the part that broke?

[ninjageek]

Hey guys. Sorry I will get the pics up really soon. Got the beast up and running a few days ago, and been putting it through its paces. To say I have learned LOTS with this new build would be a understatement. Got to learn how to overclock. Found that I personally prefer air cooling. Not only does it run cooler, I have more control over the computer. IMHO sometimes simpler is better. Plus fans are just easier to take care of and replace if and when they go bad.

Now I am not gonna swear my opinion will never change. Have to see how the summer goes. Just seems my rig runs cooler with fans. When pushed with a program like prime95 I never saw it go over 52c, with liquid cooling the max was 47c. IMHO unless your gonna run your rig overclocked for long periods of time, Liquid cooling seems to be overkill.

Right now I am running stock overclock at 3.8. My temps show a much cooler system. Then again I did put two 120mm fans in the side. Got a feeling the GF is gonna end up with either my rig, or something like it. She so loves my computer. The solid state hard drive makes such a HUGE difference. Thing just flys.

LOL, of course I will have to overclock it, run the tests see if can run overclocked at 4.5 on air. Will post pics and let you guys know how it turned out and find out what the heck that part is I need to replace. Its starting to drive me crazy.

[mudmanc4]

My thoughts are the reason you say the liquid did not show the same cooling effects as air, or close, is this enigma of a part were missing. If done properly , liquid will show significant cooling effects over air , on any given day. In normal circumstances at least.

[ninjageek]

My thoughts are the reason you say the liquid did not show the same cooling effects as air, or close, is this enigma of a part were missing. If done properly , liquid will show significant cooling effects over air , on any given day. In normal circumstances at least.

With all due respect. I am NOT flaming or giving you grief. I agree common sense would say liquid would run better, run cooler. IMHO, Think with a normal liquid cooler, Where you are just running it to your cpu, Its my experience, fans seem to run better. With the cooler in place, You don't have the hoses restricting air flow to the motherboard. You dont have a radiator that will restrict air flow out the back. How much restriction the parts create is a mystery to me.

I also believe that cost and ease of maintenance is a factor as well. Unless you keep a eye on your temps all the time, a cooler could go bad without you knowing it. If a fan dies, IMHO I would think you would notice it sooner. Cost is another factor, Fan goes bad its 10 bucks and a few min to fix. Cooler goes bad, Its what 100 bucks and 20 or 30 min to replace.

I did think I was wrong and Nuts to think the way I did. After trolling the overclockers forum, Have seen several people claim, with the right fans, and the way cases are designed anymore. Air can be just as effective as liquid. Seen claims of some impressive overclocks done on nothing but air.

In the end every computer setup is a bit different, How they are used by each person is different. With my case, My fan set up, the way I use my computer on a daily basis, Air simply is more effective. Now with someone else, Liquid may be better. Also the location of where you live has to come into play. If you live in a super hot dry area, Liquid may be needed. Live in a cooler area, then Air may be a better choice.

If I were to offer advice on it. Set your fans up, Wait till the weather outside gets hot, Use your computer the way you normally do, Keep a eye on your temps, Are they pretty high? Maybe a liquid cooler is what you need. Do you run decent temps on just fans? Then liquid cooling may not be necessary. Thats just my 2 cents.

I forgot to add, If you google air vs liquid you can see quite the debate on the subject. Some claim air, some claim liquid is better. IMHO, Think its like I said. Depends on where you live, how you use your computer, Its a choice. Run your computer on the hottest day, use it normal, what are your temps? That should be how one decides to go with liquid or air.

With air on my setup, I idle and betwen 15 and 20c max. Thats surfing and what not. Gaming and movies never saw it over 25c. With no use and the computer just sitting and running seen it at 10c. What summer brings I dont know. My guess 10 or 15c jump.

Edited March 5, 2012 by ninjageek

[mudmanc4]

Sorry your experience with liquid was a pain. And since i have no physical access to a liquid cooler , I cannot even compare. So I'm going by random but somewhat directed thought patterns.

And I think have a valid point when you talk about ambient temperatures being a major factor in the quality of the heat removal process. At the same time , the water will reach a critical point , where it can no longer be effective, but that threshold must be high , considering the temps a CPU and or other components operate at.

In a quick 6 month course we did a study on how different liquids react to dispersing heat compared to others, and proved the chemical makeup of the coolant plays a major factor. Even much more than the evaporator , or in this case , the radiator.

[RTB]

I can't see how you come to your conclusion at all.

Both aircooling and liquid cooling get temperature problems when a fan dies or a pump dies. The CPU will shut down/throttle either way. In terms of endurance, a fan should give out way earlier than a pump, which more or less justifies the price difference (which is not as big as you indicate by the way).

In terms of moving heat away from a heat source, liquid is a superior medium to air by miles. Regardless of how you cool your CPU, you still need a fan or two to get sufficient airflow in the case to make sure the remaining components (VRMs in particular) get enough airflow so they maintain efficiency and don't overheat. If you liquid cool your CPU, you are making sure that the heat generated by the CPU is transported more efficiently to a different location, keeping temperatures down at the CPU sockets, but at the same time you don't get the airflow going down on the CPU socket that is typical for aircoolers. I don't really see how the tubes interfere with airflow that much more than the usual cable mess in a case, but oh well.

The testing I've seen indicates that average aircoolers are beaten by average closed-loop watercooling sets (Corsair H50 for example), top-end aircoolers can get close to closed-loop watercooling sets, and that custom watercooling is in a different league altogether.

Finally, the temperatures you post are not realistic unless the ambient temperature in your house is about 5c or less. This is because both ordinary aircooling and ordinary watercooling cannot ever result in temperatures below ambient, it'd be a violation of the laws of thermodynamics, and we don't do that here at testmy.net. AMD is known to have inaccurate temperature sensors since the introduction of the original Phenom CPUs, so don't trust that.