Need Advice - Watercooled Dual Core Rig

teknerd · Post by **teknerd** » Mon Aug 01, 2005 10:12 am

Hey everybody,
So i'm planning my new rig, which will be a dual core AMD setup, below is what im thinking for the components

Proc: Athlon X2 4200+ (OC to 2.64GHz)
RAM: 2GB OCZ PC3200 RAM (Already Bought)
Mobo: Asus A8N-SLI Platinum
HD: 74GB Raptor (Already have)
320GB WD Caviar SE SATA (JD Series) (already have)
Graphics: XFX 6600GT (Dual DVI, yay)
Case: P180 (bought already)
PSU: Antec SmartPower 500W (I know, I've read the review, but i already bought it and since it will be in the lower chamber of the P180 the fan ramping up shouldn't be a problem)

My calculations figure that i need about 50W dissipation for the 6600GT (tell me if that figure is off) and about 115 Watts dissipation for the chip.

So here comes the hard part (and i guess my quesitons), choosing my cooling setup. They way i see it i have three options.
1) Air cooling - cheap and portable but not as quiet as i'd like, especially since i plan on adding another Graphics card later and there doesnt seem to be any really quiet GFX cooling solutions (i just dont trust the passive one's to not fail on me).
2)Reserator - Nice solution, silent, don't really mind the extra piece outside the case, but im not sure if it can handle the cooling.
3)Custom internal WC rig. Probably with a dual 120mm rad mounted to the back, cooled with Nexus fans @ %V (on a controller so i can ramp them up.
thinking:
-eheim 1048 pump
-either dangerden dual 120mm heatercore or black ice pro II radiator
-5 1/4 inch bay resevoir
-waterblocks (not sure, is there really that much difference between the different blocks).
The other idea i had was to use the reserator and then also put a single 120mm rad on the back of the p180 with a nexus that i can turn on if i need the extra cooling, but i dont know if the reserator's pump can handle an extra radiator in the cooling loop.

any advice/guidance/elder wisdom (experience wise, not age, necessarily) would be greatly appreciated - advice both on which way to go, and which watercooling components are the best.

darthan · Post by **darthan** » Mon Aug 01, 2005 10:40 am

The only thing I'd be concerned about with your plans is the motherboard choice. If you are going to overclock I'd highly recommend a more overclocking friendly mobo. I understand that you want the passive northbridge but a nF4 waterblock would solve that problem without adding more than a few watts (compared to your 115W processor and planned dual 50W graphics cards). I have a A8N-SLI and the BIOS won't let me manipulate both the memory divider and the CPU speed. If I clock the memory to DDR500 speeds it underclocks my A64 3200+ (standard clock is 2.0GHz) down to 1.75GHz and if I overclock the CPU to 2.5GHz it underclocks the memory to DDR333.

teknerd · Post by **teknerd** » Mon Aug 01, 2005 12:12 pm

darthan wrote:The only thing I'd be concerned about with your plans is the motherboard choice. If you are going to overclock I'd highly recommend a more overclocking friendly mobo. I understand that you want the passive northbridge but a nF4 waterblock would solve that problem without adding more than a few watts (compared to your 115W processor and planned dual 50W graphics cards). I have a A8N-SLI and the BIOS won't let me manipulate both the memory divider and the CPU speed. If I clock the memory to DDR500 speeds it underclocks my A64 3200+ (standard clock is 2.0GHz) down to 1.75GHz and if I overclock the CPU to 2.5GHz it underclocks the memory to DDR333.

I considered other boards and just using a waterblock, but i also like the feature set and stability of the asus boards. As far as the overclocking problem goes, over at The Tech Report, they used an A8N-SLI Deluxe (which is practically the same board) and they were able to go up to 240 with a 5:6 memory divider no problem.

thanks for brining up that issue then, im gonna check some other boards (also if anyone else has the problem, i'd really appreciate you posting it) and if it seems to be widespread, i'll get a DFI board and use a waterblock on the nb.

Finally, darthan, are you using the latest BIOS revision?

Teecee · Post by **Teecee** » Mon Aug 01, 2005 12:33 pm

You cannot use a waterblock on the NB if yuo run SLI. Just a heads up.

teknerd · Post by **teknerd** » Mon Aug 01, 2005 1:14 pm

Teecee wrote:You cannot use a waterblock on the NB if yuo run SLI. Just a heads up.

any particular reason. It looks as though the water block would conflict more with the primary GFX card rather than the secondary.

Teecee · Post by **Teecee** » Mon Aug 01, 2005 1:34 pm

What I am saying is if you run SLI, aka two cards, you cannot use a standard waterblock for your NB. IF you runa single card then you an just put the card in the second PCI-E slot and have room to do whatever you want with the NB. If a card is in the 1st slot, it actually is right on top of the NB.

teknerd · Post by **teknerd** » Mon Aug 01, 2005 2:04 pm

yah, i see that now, too bad, i guess im definately going with the Asus board, i think it should be fine, as almost all the problems from the deluxe version have been fixed in the premium.

darthan · Post by **darthan** » Mon Aug 01, 2005 2:10 pm

I'm using BIOS revision 1008 which is the latest non-beta bios for my board. I may try a beta BIOS or I may decide not to risk the board.

Teecee · Post by **Teecee** » Mon Aug 01, 2005 2:40 pm

teknerd wrote:yah, i see that now, too bad, i guess im definately going with the Asus board, i think it should be fine, as almost all the problems from the deluxe version have been fixed in the premium.

Asus is a very good board if you dont OC much. My Mushkin Redline memory likes 3.3vdimm or I would have one of those Asus boards with the NB heatpipe.

teknerd · Post by **teknerd** » Mon Aug 01, 2005 2:46 pm

Teecee wrote: Asus is a very good board if you dont OC much. My Mushkin Redline memory likes 3.3vdimm or I would have one of those Asus boards with the NB heatpipe.

yah, i just want to get the chip up to 2.6 and I'll be happy. It clocks out well since running the chip at 240MHz with a 5:6 memory divider gives a memory speed of 400 so i dont have to oc the memory.

i think i've got the core components down now. All thats left is really figuring out how to best do the cooling system.

UofLSpeed · Post by **UofLSpeed** » Mon Aug 01, 2005 3:03 pm

http://www.zalmanforums.com/showthread.php?t=968

I haven't had any experience with a reserator but judging from this, you shouldn't have a problem using it. Just something to look at.

teknerd · Post by **teknerd** » Mon Aug 01, 2005 5:23 pm

UofLSpeed wrote:http://www.zalmanforums.com/showthread.php?t=968

I haven't had any experience with a reserator but judging from this, you shouldn't have a problem using it. Just something to look at.

thanks, i poked around those forums and i think the reserator should be able to handle my load. If there are any problems i'll just grab an extra radiator and throw it in.

UofLSpeed · Post by **UofLSpeed** » Mon Aug 01, 2005 5:35 pm

Be sure to let us know what kind of temps you get from that.

teknerd · Post by **teknerd** » Mon Aug 01, 2005 5:37 pm

I will, but it might be a few weeks, gonna wait for the price cuts on the dual cores to take effect.

rpsgc · Post by **rpsgc** » Tue Aug 02, 2005 1:20 am

I have one question: would the performance of the Reserator be improved through the use of "good" after-market waterblocks instead of the stock ones?

MysterioX · Post by **MysterioX** » Tue Aug 02, 2005 4:50 am

rpsgc wrote:I have one question: would the performance of the Reserator be improved through the use of "good" after-market waterblocks instead of the stock ones?

Probably not with the standard Reserator pump.
The Zalman waterblocks are lowflow optimized and very unrestrictive so as to maintain a decent flowrate.
The "good" waterblocks are usually more restrictive and will lower the flowrate unless you use a better pump.

rpsgc · Post by **rpsgc** » Tue Aug 02, 2005 4:56 am

Uhm, ok thanks.