120.2 CPU Loop vs Ultima-90

cornelious0_0

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Hey all, just have a quick question before I start to budget for the coming months of modding.

At the moment my E8400 is running at 4.04GHz 1.36v cooled by my Thermalright Ultima-90. I have a single Xigmatek 92mm fan on the Ultima-90 that is in the 30-40cfm range and my load temps under full load (Orthos Blend for 4+ hours) are 55c and 51c for Core0 and Core1 respectively.

My dilemma is this, I am planning a 120.2 setup for the CPU alone and I would like to make some half decent headway on my temps/clock speed as well as visual appeal. I'm not 100% set on every piece of the loop but I will be using either a Black Ice GT Stealth 240 or a Swiftech MCR220 (due to space constraints in my TJ08) with a pair of Scythe S-Flex "G" 120mm fans rated @ 75cfm in a "push" setup. Given my current load temps do you guys think it's feasible to expect at least a 10c drop in my load temps with water if I don't skimp on the pump/CPU block?

Thanks in advance for your time, I'm really hoping to iron things out soon so I can start seriously budgeting and planning for what's going to be my most well done modded case/system to date!
 
Well it is going to depend on a lot of factors, The basic answer would be yes you should expect a very nice drop in temps, i know my q6600 at load would not go above 30c when i was running it on a 360 rad. So seeing a big drop on the teps of a dual core should not be an issue. Beyond that a lot of it will depend on ambient temps of the room, what water block you get and so on.
 
I'm planning on going with a DTek Fuzion or Swiftech GTZ for the waterblock I think and the loop is gonna be comprised of MAYbe 2ft of tubing so I'm not to worried about the pump. I was recommended a DCC pump with an XSPC top but we'll see.

My ambient temps are no more then 20-22c at most.

I guess I'm not to worried about not dropping my temps, I just saw a few people with E8xxx chips at the same clock/voltage as mine on water that were only a few degrees cooler then my chip on air.

I guess there's a lot of things that could have been lacking in those loops I saw mentioned but I thought it was worth looking into.
 
well with water you should be able to push your clock a fair amount higher and give yourself a lot more headroom.
 
That's definitely what I'm hoping for. Unfortunately my GSkill PC2-8000 only hits about 550MHz before it craps out, so I'll be "stuck" at 4.4GHz.

I may aim for some faster memory but it'll be very low on my list of priorities if I can hit 550x8 with the memory @ 1:1.

We'll see how things go, if anything I'll be tempted to step up to an E8500 or E8600 for the higher multiplier at the same bus speed.

I dunno, I think 4.95GHz @ 550x9 might be a little much to ask, pro bably easier to go for some faster DDR2 and push farther with the 8x multiplier.

I'll be starting up a worklog thread in the next couple days titled "Project Open Air2" where I'll outline the watercooling and case mods in full detail.
 
Your dual core quite honestly won't have the gonads to feed a 4870X2 for max benchmarks unless of course you are merely looking to get highest score for your cpu. If that is your aim then by all means get a 4870X2 and water cool it as well.

I honestly don't know if it worth getting rid of the GTX260 I already have now that I really think about it.

I only game at 1680x1050 and I only predominantly play WoW and UT3 anyways...so it's not like I'm lacking in the GPU department with the GTX260.

I'm sure that a 4.4GHz E8400 would fuel an HD4870x2 fairly well, but the reason I'm considering just keeping the GTX260 now is because I priced out my watercooling loop for the CPU and selling the 4870 after I get the RMA replacement would basically pay for the whole loop...and cash is tight...so that would help immensely.

Here's the parts I'm looking into for the CPU loop:

- Swiftech Apogee GTZ CPU Block
- Alphacool Laing DDC-Pump 12v Pro /w Water Tank
- Black Ice GT Stealth 240 Radiator
- 2 x Scythe S-Flex "G" @ 75cfm

I'm fairly confident in the loop itself...and I could very easily have the h2O running without completing the rest of my case mods in advance, so being able to (almost) pay for the water in full without dipping into my own wallet is very exciting.

I think I'll "put up" with the GTX260 for now so I can order my watercooling, I don't need the extra GPU power at all, and the watercooling will please me MUCH more then the faster card that would go to waste 90% of the time.
 
I'd just stick with air, it's much less trouble in the long run, but not necessarily as neat.
 
I'd just stick with air, it's much less trouble in the long run, but not necessarily as neat.

After having use both air cooling and water I'm still very drawn to another h2O system, but I have also been tempted to stick with air cooling, don't get me wrong there.

I'm contemplating using the cash from the HD4870 to start and finish all the actual case mods I have planned for the TJ08 as opposed to the watercooling. Instead of the h2O what I had planned was to pickup thermalright heatsinks for the motherboard mosfets and for my memory as well as an HR-05 SLI for the NB to improve my motherboard temps. Actually, I was planning on picking up those heatsinks either way, it'll just come down to whether or not I REALLY want the water.

If I don't go watercooling I'm considering swapping out all my fans in the system for faster variants (I'm used to more fan noise anyways) and cranking up my GTX260's fan to match to drop all my temps.

I'll probably be wrestling with it for awhile, but I'll make up my mind eventually.
 
Using a double radiator on a single dual core CPU has the potential to net you a large temperature drop.

The limiting factor - however - will be the contact between the block and the CPU. No matter how much heat a radiator can dissipate, if the mating surface between the block and CPU isn't perfect, your temps won't decrease much. Lap your CPU, and mount your waterblock properly, and I'd expect a 10-12c drop in temps, depending on your room temp.

A dual core WILL drive a 4870x2. (wtf?)

Get a MCR220 radiator - The Black Ice GTS rads are absolute shit
And get a fan controller for those fans - They're not quiet :)
 
I already have lapped my E8400...so no issues there.

I also didn't understand the comment about the dualcore chip not being able to "fuel" the HD4870x2...the card doesn't benefit much at all from a quadcore compared to a dual if the frequency is the same...so I'm not worried. I'm not 100% sure if I'm going to be going with the x2 or whether I'm just going to use the funds from the HD4870 for my case mods.

I actually just found out that there's someone willing to help me out with some watercooling hardware so I'll probably end up with h2O one way or another, and I plan on going with a Swiftech GTZ cpu block so I'm not at all doubting the ability of the loop to drop my temps.

Updates to come.
 
Plans have changed slightly, I just had a member of another forum offer to give me some watercooling gear to help out after my Shuttle died.

I'm being offered the following:

- DangerDen DD-CPX1 12v Pump: http://www.dangerden.com/store/product.php?productid=279&cat=23&page=1
- Magicool Pro Slim Profile 120.2 Radiator: http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=200&products_id=21113
- Swiftech MicroRes: http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=318&products_id=3615

This is great as it saves me over $100, and leaves me only the CPU block to purchase (aside from random bits and pieces) to get my loop running!

I'm not sure how the Magicool 120.2 stacks up against the MCR220 but in all fairness, I doubt it would completely ruin my loop, and $60 means quite a bit to me right now with cash being as tight as it is.

There's a good chance that I'm just going to keep the GTX260 so that once I sell the HD4870 and get this free loot I'll have 90% of my case mods and watercooling setup completely covered.
 
I assumed that because my loop would be insanely small I would be alright, but I'm not even sure what I'm going to be doing yet so we'll see.

Cash is pretty tight and the money I get from selling he HD4870 may very well just be going to something unrelated to my comp.

I'll do benchmark comparisons between the GTX260 and HD4870 first though...all I play is UT3 and WoW so either card is fine really. I'll probably still side with the GTX260 because of nicer asthetics and lower heat/power consumption/noise but it'll be worth one last comparison at the very least.

I'm really curious now though...I've never ran my Q6600 in anything but my Shuttle...it's really tempting to drop it in my system now and see if I can get anywhere near 4GHz. If I can hit or clear 3.6GHz on air with the Q6600 then I may be tempted to keep it and sell the E8400. I'd rather have the quadcore if I'm only losing 400MHz as I am still doing a decent amount of photo/video editting, the E8400 was just more tempting when the Q6600 was stuck at a measely 3GHz.

Stay tuned!
 
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