worth it to water cool the chipset on evga 680i?

Dutt1113

[H]ard|Gawd
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I am putting together a water cooling system consisting of a D-tek FuZion cpu block, mcr220 radiator with 2 yate loons 47cfm 28dba, mcp655 pump, and dual bay res. I was wondering would it be worth it to water cool the chipset on the evga 680i mobo? Would help be go higher on the fsb or will it just be quieter? Would it be ok to just turn down that little fan ont chipset to like 50 or 60% so I can't really hear it or do I need it turned up when I have my cpu overclocked? Right now I have my e6600 at 3.4ghz (378 x 9) @ 1.39375v. BTW, how much higher do you estimate i could go with the water cooling?
 
I cooled mine with a Corair block. Right now I am cooling just the cpu and northbridge. Since I seem to change out gpus like a girl changes out here sanitary wares during that time, I decided to refain from WCing them. I got kind of sick of switching out blocks on gpus.

It really doesn't make a vital difference, but in the very least get get rid of the crap factory TIM, and put some good paste on the chipset,
 
I w/c mine just to get rid of the annoying whiny little fan. I run the Thermalright HR-05 SLI on the south bridge. Fanless and quiet!
 
I w/c mine just to get rid of the annoying whiny little fan. I run the Thermalright HR-05 SLI on the south bridge. Fanless and quiet!

So are you telling me that if i water cool the northbridge (the one with the heatsink and little fan on it), I would have to get another heatsink to cool the spot where the heatpipe is coming from? You obviously can't water cool that one because it is right behind where the video card sits? Correct me if I'm wrong.

BTW, what would be a descent/cheap water block for the evga 680i mobo northbridge? Also, if I did that what would be a cheap quiet solution for the southbridge?
 
You can actually watercool the south bridge if you want, personally I don't think it gets hot enough to warrant it. But yes, it will need a heatsink of some kind on it if you remove the heatpipe assembly. Here's a commonly used water block for the south bridge: (the description says north bridge, but it fits the s/b just fine)

http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=241&products_id=4527

I run this on the north bridge:

http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=241&products_id=21066

and this on the south bridge:

http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=197&products_id=20676

Here's a pic:

74256962.jpg
 
You can actually watercool the south bridge if you want, personally I don't think it gets hot enough to warrant it. But yes, it will need a heatsink of some kind on it if you remove the heatpipe assembly. Here's a commonly used water block for the south bridge: (the description says north bridge, but it fits the s/b just fine)

http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=241&products_id=4527

How would you even w/c the southbridge on the evga 680i board if the video card blocks it?
 
How would you even w/c the southbridge on the evga 680i board if the video card blocks it?

That block is low profile, and the fittings are off to one side, so it clears the video card.

The south bridge is slightly below the pci slot, the mounting pins miss the video card by 1/8 of an inch. Here's a better view:

74222048.jpg
 
Do you think that thermalright HR-05-SLI would fit on the southbridge while using an 8800gtx on the evga 680i board?
 
That block is low profile, and the fittings are off to one side, so it clears the video card.

The south bridge is slightly below the pci slot, the mounting pins miss the video card by 1/8 of an inch. Here's a better view:

74222048.jpg

Going by your picture, it doesn't look like an 8800gtx would fit with that thermalright cooler on the southbridge.
 
You can rotate the heat sink so it is almost parallel with the bottom of the board, it would clear an 8800GTX. In fact I've read you can run SLI GTX's with the Thermalright. Aren't you going to w/c the video card too?
 
You can rotate the heat sink so it is almost parallel with the bottom of the board, it would clear an 8800GTX. In fact I've read you can run SLI GTX's with the Thermalright. Aren't you going to w/c the video card too?

No, I don't feel the need to. Plus, I'm on a limited budget for this setup as it is and cooling an 8800gtx would probably require me to get a gpu block and a bigger/better radiator which would cost quite a bit more. than what i'm doing. I was just thinking about w/c the chipset on the evga 680i board just to quiet down the noise of that annoying little fan, but if it's not going to help my overclocking then I'll just turn the fan way down to like 50% or below until I can hear it anymore, if I can get away with slow it down that much.
 
Sup guys.



No, you cannot use the top 16x with that block. Yes, the bottom 16x slot works fine.
 
One more thing: The mosfets around the zif get really, REALLY freaking hot. It hasn't been a problem so far and doesn't seem to affect performance, but it might be worth looking into a custom solution for that.


Bah. Quote != edit.
 
Sup guys.



No, you cannot use the top 16x with that block. Yes, the bottom 16x slot works fine.

i didn't know you could put a single vid card in the bottom pci-express x16 and not the top. i tried that once and the computer wouldn't get passed bios. it would say that I had to put my vid card back in the first pci-express slot and the bottom one is used when using sli.
 
Yeah you cannot use second slot with single video card. I tried that too same result won;t boot.
 
Yeah you cannot use second slot with single video card. I tried that too same result won;t boot.

Ok, you're right. Just don't tell my pc, or I might not be able to post anymore.


Taken 2 minutes ago:


Edit: Ignore the mess, I'm still building it :z
 
Personally I see no reason to cool the chipsets. I just completed my watercoolin setup on my 680i and my system runs nice and cold. I left the stock fan on the northbridge and it keeps the MCP at 30C which is excellent. Plus when ya start cooling your chipsets ya get too much tubing in my opinion, but im someone who loves a clean looking case.

MDK, Im still confused in how your board works with that card in the second slot. You lucked out and got the only 680i that will allow a pci-e card in the bottom slot all us other suckers gotta use pci-e slot 1
 
I don't know why the rest of you have problems with it. No where in the manual does it say you need to use the top slot. I've never seen a post message about moving my card, either.
 
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