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Higher end watercooling, not so cool?

P

PnZrFsT

Gawd
Joined
Jun 10, 2005
Messages
855
Well, here's my issue. I've watercooled about three computers in my day, and this lat one was nothing out of the ordinary. My setup consists of.

Swiftech Storm
Swiftech 655 pump
1/2" Tygon
Single bay 5 1/4" res
Black Ice 120mm
Loud arse 120mm fan
50/50 engine coolant/water mix

Cooling a un-OC'd FX-55

Now for the problem. The dang thing just isn't cool. My idle temps sit around 113F and when playing BF2, I see about 125-130F. When using the stock heatpipe, I would see temps lower than that almost all the time. What gives?

I've reseated the block, cleaned the old thermal paste off, re applied, lapped the block, ll with no result.

The only thing I do notice is that, the rad never gets warm, and the air never ever blows out warmer then room temp.

Any ideas?
 
Those temps aren't that bad. Hows the ambient temperature in the room?
 
Don't compare the temps you are getting with the temps you read about on these forums. I've never seen anyone report their WC temps in Farenheight. They are reporting their temps in Celcius.
 
Alright, well, those temps would translate to.

ambient room temp=21*C
idle=45*C
BF2=51*C-54*C

I just noticed, the coolant isn't actually cool to the touch. I don't understand why nothing is warming up, but the chip isn't cool. It would make sense to me that at 53*C the coolant would warm up to some degree. I don't get it.

And for Mark? Why wouldn't I compare my temps to what I see? If everyone running similar equipment are getting lower temps, even OC'd, I would tend to believe there is an issue? Correct?
 
If the coolant is cool, the problem lies within your waterblock or it's connection to your CPU'S IHS. If the connection is bad, for whatever reason, heat is not transferred in sufficient quantities resulting in cooling which doesn't have anything to "cool" and a hot CPU.

Even though you've reseated the waterblock a couple times, i'm almost certain that's where the problem is. Make sure it's actually on there good, maybe check the thermal paste and the CPU's IHS? If that doesn't work i'd suggest looking for a better block.

Also to make sure check the temperature of the water in or near the waterblock itself. If that coolant is hot, and the rest is cold then the problem may lie elsewhere.
 
Better block? Swiftech Storm

that is one of if not the best block.

hmm.. make sure you dont have any kinks...
 
The problem with the storm are those little jets, they get clogged. I would rip it apart and clean it, maybe flush the whole system. Chances are the jets are plugged up tho. 50/50 is pretty tough - you aren't sub zero, so there isnt a need for that much antifreeze.
 
Like what the other poster above said... sounds like your waterblock isn't seated properly and making good contact w/ your cpu.
 
Take it you have inlet and outlet plumbed in the correct way round at the Waterblock? Inlet being the one over the center of the chip, outlet being the one off to oneside...
 
dnottis said:
50/50 is pretty tough - you aren't sub zero, so there isnt a need for that much antifreeze.
Click to expand...
Bingo.
Although it may not completely solve your problem, reducing the ratio to 95/5 or so would be an easy improvement.
The second step I'd try is a larger rad.
I suspect that most of the systems you're comparing to are running at least 120.2s if not 120.3s.
 
I missed that bit... getting ratio at 95:5 will DEFINITELY improve things... LOTS. At a guess 75% of your problem will be caused by your current coolant mixture.
 
The more antifreeze you add to a loop, the less performance you get out of it.

Go 95% distilled 5% antifreeze, that'll drop your temps a bit right there.
 
PnZrFsT said:
Well, here's my issue. I've watercooled about three computers in my day, and this lat one was nothing out of the ordinary. My setup consists of.

Swiftech Storm
Swiftech 655 pump
1/2" Tygon
Single bay 5 1/4" res
Black Ice 120mm
Loud arse 120mm fan
50/50 engine coolant/water mix

Cooling a un-OC'd FX-55

Now for the problem. The dang thing just isn't cool. My idle temps sit around 113F and when playing BF2, I see about 125-130F. When using the stock heatpipe, I would see temps lower than that almost all the time. What gives?

I've reseated the block, cleaned the old thermal paste off, re applied, lapped the block, ll with no result.

The only thing I do notice is that, the rad never gets warm, and the air never ever blows out warmer then room temp.

Any ideas?
Click to expand...
First off you have a small rad and waaaaaaaay too much antifreeze. All you need is...
99.?% distilled water
1 oz of antifreeze
4-5 drops of Povidone Iodine (non-alcohol).

A MCR220 rad or a BIPro II will do a much better job with much quieter fans. But for the ultimate rad go for a ThermoChill PA120.2.
 
I run a pentium 805D at 3.8ghz now on a single 120mm BIP, 100% load at like 56 degrees, so I think a single BIX would do a good enough job on a loop that only contains the CPU.
 
Just one question:

Is the FX 55 a SanDiego or a Clawhammer?
 
First off I want to thank everyone for the input! You guys are awesome:cool:

@ Bbq core is San Diego.
@ SiGfever I forgot to say, I am on a fan controller, I said it was loud as heck to get it across that it moved the proper amount of CFM's.
@ sprocket Thanks, reducing the ratio was a big help.
@ Marci plumbing was correct, thank you for the idea.
@ dnottis thank you soooo much for the idea. You win the prize:p

I reduced my mixture waaaaay down.
And fixed my problem by cleaning my block out. It was clogged something awful. So the good news is, my computer is sitting idle at 31*C right now. Thanks for everyone's help. I feel much more comfortable with it running 14*C cooler.

I'm going to play some BF2 and see what it looks like once things heat up!
 
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