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Should I Water Cool NB?

C

Carlosinfl

Loves the juice
Joined
Sep 25, 2002
Messages
6,633
I have a Gigabye motherboard and I have an EK water block on my e6600 & 8800GTS however I find the NB cooling sink hidious and was wondering if I can and should water cool the NB? I don't even see anyone who makes a block for the chip set.
 
that board in general is not the nicest w/ yellows and purples etc..

the new ABIT IB9 is the sexiest board i ever saw


i like the danger den NB block better than that swiftech one .. not a fan of plastic barbs and/or delrin

alos, EK make a pretty hot NB block

you could just switch it out for a better looking passive sink

HR-05 etc....


keep the heat and restriction out of your loop


i understand the want to water it down though


mal
 
hr05 or mcw30 should work well for you, since the ds3 uses holes for mounting. Also, the mcw30 now (or will real soon) feature hard mounting hardware that offers better stability of the block on the chip.

that said, you're running full cover on the 8800. what pump and rad do you have? northbridge will add a fair amount of heat and restriction to your loop and probably end up hurting your cpu temps. hr05 is a good solution. I'm actually going back from mcw30 to hr05 myself.
 
I used the MCW-30 on mine works great.


IMG_0545Large.jpg
IMG_0553Large.jpg
 
to the OP : there is no NEED to watercool a NB , passive heatsinks with or without a fan on it works fine . Watercooling a NB would just be for the cool looking factor . If u got enough room in ur case and a decent rad and pump - why not ?! ;)
 
I've personally been inclined to move from a passive to WC my NB myself. I have that large zalman HS on there, but it gets so hot I'm not comfortable without putting a fan there, which kinda defeats the purpose of WC, got way too many fans atm.

That MCW30 looks like a good buy to me, Swiftech is a quality company, I have no complaints about anything I've bought from them. As long as it fits, go for it.
 
Russ said:
That MCW30 looks like a good buy to me, Swiftech is a quality company, I have no complaints about anything I've bought from them. As long as it fits, go for it.
Click to expand...
Agreed, you cannot beat the price for an MCW-30.
 
If you're running a 680i board and plan on overclocking, then WC'ing will grant you a lot more stability.

Most people who don't own 680i boards don't understand how hot they run. MCW30's give you the best future proofed design that's easy to install. With the new hard mounts now being shipped, its even easier to install than ever. They're the least restrictive out of all the blocks (however, their performance suffers slightly for that reason).

EK makes probably the sexiest blocks but they're not universal like the MCW30's are. I used to run a DD 680i and a MCW30 on my NB and SB on my main/benching/gaming computer. I use an EK 680i and EK NF4 1.1 on my NB and SB respectively on my "show" computer.

Intel boards, you won't have to WC. 680i boards, you might as well if you already have a WC loop. Your choice of blocks should based upon how restrictive your loop is, how powerful your pump is and if you want to resuse the blocks with future boards.

MCW30's for the least restriction, ease of installation, and future compatibility.

EK blocks for bling value and performance.
 
IMHO you should not watercool you're NB

Splitting the flowpath will effectively split the flow rate AND add additional flowrate restrictrion. If you're pump is powerful enough to saturate the maximal flow-rate/pressure equilibrium (more importantly, if its head is large enough to circumvent flow restrictions), then the addition of a NB block shouldn't alter the heat retention capacity (you want this to be low) and you wont notice a change to you're other watercooled parts.

If, however, this is not the case, you will notice a dramatic DECLINE in thermal dissipation from the important components (CPU/GPU).

Getting away from physics, and again IMHO, NB waterblocks are silly, and are a marketting gimic that unfortunately too many people have bought into. Under almost every condition, you're NB will never produce enough heat that a fan (or sometimes even just a passive heatsink) cannot handle.

To be honest, the only rigs i've seen with a NB block belong to ... ahem ... the younger crowd, who are only interested in bragging rights. All of these rigs were pre-built as well (i'm a stickler for this, if you're going to watercool, do it yourself, don't buy a damned kit, be a man!). Anyways, I know this isn't you're case, just making a statement.

Of course, there is always exceptions to the rule, and it all depends on you're setup, so take my advice however you see fit.
 
qdemn7 said:
Agreed, you cannot beat the price for an MCW-30.
Click to expand...

You do know WHY the MCW-30 is so cheap right?

It is a top, barbs, and a flat copper plate. That is *all*. No fins, no nothing. Granted that is probably all you need for cooling a NB.....but still.....
 
HiTech-Hate said:
IMHO you should not watercool you're NB

Splitting the flowpath will effectively split the flow rate AND add additional flowrate restrictrion. If you're pump is powerful enough to saturate the maximal flow-rate/pressure equilibrium (more importantly, if its head is large enough to circumvent flow restrictions), then the addition of a NB block shouldn't alter the heat retention capacity (you want this to be low) and you wont notice a change to you're other watercooled parts.

If, however, this is not the case, you will notice a dramatic DECLINE in thermal dissipation from the important components (CPU/GPU).

Getting away from physics, and again IMHO, NB waterblocks are silly, and are a marketting gimic that unfortunately too many people have bought into. Under almost every condition, you're NB will never produce enough heat that a fan (or sometimes even just a passive heatsink) cannot handle.

To be honest, the only rigs i've seen with a NB block belong to ... ahem ... the younger crowd, who are only interested in bragging rights. All of these rigs were pre-built as well (i'm a stickler for this, if you're going to watercool, do it yourself, don't buy a damned kit, be a man!). Anyways, I know this isn't you're case, just making a statement.

Of course, there is always exceptions to the rule, and it all depends on you're setup, so take my advice however you see fit.
Click to expand...

That's why I run three loops. But the most optimal way to WC the NB without the hit to flow would be to use Swiftech F fittings and put the NB/SB on the 1/4" loop in parallel while the main line is passed to the CPU. Since water follows the path of least resistance, there won't be much of a hit on performance, yet you'll still get the benefits of WC'ing your NB/SB

Basically it'd look like this:

Pump -> Swiftech F-fitting (1/4" & 1/2") - CPU block - Swiftech F-Fitting
-> MCW30 -> MCW30 -> back to Swiftech F-Fitting
 
Erasmus354 said:
You do know WHY the MCW-30 is so cheap right?

It is a top, barbs, and a flat copper plate. That is *all*. No fins, no nothing. Granted that is probably all you need for cooling a NB.....but still.....
Click to expand...
Yes I know since I bought one. I replaced the barbs with EK barbs, but otherwise I'm quite happy with it.
 
MCW30 is basically everything a chipset block should be.

Least restrictive block on the market, compatibility with almost all motherboards on the market, very low cost, and easy installation.

The only thing it lacks is bling.

It's the most sold chipset block for a reason.
 
Ranker said:
That's why I run three loops. But the most optimal way to WC the NB without the hit to flow would be to use Swiftech F fittings and put the NB/SB on the 1/4" loop in parallel while the main line is passed to the CPU. Since water follows the path of least resistance, there won't be much of a hit on performance, yet you'll still get the benefits of WC'ing your NB/SB

Basically it'd look like this:

Pump -> Swiftech F-fitting (1/4" & 1/2") - CPU block - Swiftech F-Fitting
-> MCW30 -> MCW30 -> back to Swiftech F-Fitting
Click to expand...


Point taken, that would work.

I still think NB blocks are lame though, and I make fun of the posers at LANs who have them :) (these ppl don't really even know what a northbridge chipset is ... so i feel justified in making fun of them =P)
 
(see sig)

my loop gose pump>rad>nb>cpu>gpu>(pump)

i tried all possible combonations with this setup, includeing only adding in one componet at a time.

cpu alone ran at 38c

gpu alone ran at 40c

nb alone ran at 30c

gpu +cpu at at 43c

gpu + cpu + Nb runs at 44c

note.. i didnt change fan speeds or ambient temps (which are 28((about 80-82f) also note my rad is a 120.1 with a 7v fan mod... the temps drop off fast if i run it at full power, but as it is, i have never seen the system over 71c(160f) and this was when the fan didnt come on and i played halflife 2 for 4 hours... it had enought to ambient cool the system (im not saying try it though.)

my system isnt over clocked, i went for silence and stability over speed, but i do have the capacity for more speed if i want to give up some silence.

if you go DD, all of their blocks flow about the same, i noticed no noticible difference in flow (visual, i have no real way to test it) between 1 block in the loop and 3 blocks in the loop, the loop will flow only as fast as the lowest flow block ( and like i said, there isnt much of a difference)

i would say go for it if you want quiet stability, but dont expect much gain from it if your trying to achive a overclock with water cooling vs active hsf cooling,it will be about the same (really, there is no reason not to, unless your trying to go for an extream oc, inwhich case you want to, but on a different loop)

/edit

i take that back, im not cooling the NB on this board, as it dose not have one, but i am cooliing the south bridge, which got hot enought to make the system unstable without a fan on that side of the case, ( i did cool the NB on my a7n8x dlx which ran REALLY hot when OC'ed not to menthion one heck of a hot barton core chip when OC'ed, same NB block, same CPU block, different vid card, and there for a different gpu block (gpu was a x800pro, and was only cooled on the core , about the same core heat load, but the current card/block is also cooling the its ram, the system runs about the same temps at the same fan speeds)
 
A nice little passive/air cooler is all that's needed on the NB, why waste flow where it's not needed.

25ql3.jpg
 
Most 680i boards run hot. You'll get away with not WC'ing it. However, if you plan on overclocking it, I'd suggest WC'ing it for stability. An aftermarket HS like the Thermalright HR-05 will work as well (I use it in one of my air cooled 680i systems at work).

However, call me Xtreme from coming from Xtremesystems forums, but I cool both of my NB and SB since I OC my rig to ridiculous levels.
 
LOL......Ya, I know you from XS forums as well.............;) I also do a bit of OC'ing myself, but to this day, I've never water cooled a NB, but that's just me. My OC's aren't really to extreme really, just got my little ole E4300 up to 3.7 GHz so far, maybe one day I might try pushing a bit harder.


http://valid.x86-secret.com/show_oc.php?id=187008
 
Bio-Hazard said:
LOL......Ya, I know you from XS forums as well.............;) I also do a bit of OC'ing myself, but to this day, I've never water cooled a NB, but that's just me. My OC's aren't really to extreme really, just got my little ole E4300 up to 3.7 GHz so far, maybe one day I might try pushing a bit harder.


http://valid.x86-secret.com/show_oc.php?id=187008
Click to expand...

Hell, that's xtreme!

I'm pushing my e6700 to 4.1Ghz and saw better stability after putting a HR-05 on my chipsets. After sometime, the WC bug bit me and I built a 3rd loop in my system just for the chipsets.
 
One of these days I may get around to water cooling the chipset............:eek: I've already got the pumps and radiators sitting around the house for a third loop, all I need to buy is 2 blocks...............;) And they are pretty cheap really.
 
Bio-Hazard, hows that Noctua NC-U6 work for you?

I have one on my DS3 and it gets hot as hell. I was running it passive at first and actualy burnt myself on the damn thing. I added a 70mm Sunnon to it but I still think it runs to hot. Ive tried reseating it a few times but I get the same results.
 
Mine seems to be doing very well with a 60mm 3000 rpm Delta installed on it, even when reaching uppwards of a 500 FSB with 1.5 volts going to the NB, it only gets warm to the touch, nothing what I would call hot though.
 
Bio-Hazard said:
Mine seems to be doing very well with a 60mm 3000 rpm Delta installed on it, even when reaching uppwards of a 500 FSB with 1.5 volts going to the NB, it only gets warm to the touch, nothing what I would call hot though.
Click to expand...
Delta fan @ 3,000 rpm - Isn't that loud as hell though? The TR-HR-05 doesn't look like it has any way to mount a fan, hot glue anyone? :cool:

I too, am debating on WC my NB or passive cooling it. I am torn between the MCW30 and the TR-HR05.

If I went with the MCW30 I would want to replace the barbs with something 1/2" high flow.
If I went with the TR-HR05, I would want a fan that didn't sound like a jet, but was able to handle 400+ FSB clocks.. and keep the temps in check.

Right now, my E6600/PW5DH is @ 3.4Ghz stable, 24/7 running @ 32 idle / 47 load on Tuniq Tower, and I would like to push it further.

Questions:
Do most people buy 2 coolers of the same time, and slap one on the NB and one identical on the SB?
How do you then keep your MOSFET cool, if you rip off the passive heat pipe?
 
3000 max, I've got it set at 7v, so it's totally silent, but even at 3000 is not loud at all, my PSU fan if louder...........:)
 
Bio-Hazard said:
3000 max, I've got it set at 7v, so it's totally silent, but even at 3000 is not loud at all, my PSU fan if louder...........:)
Click to expand...

Oh my god.


I've got a 60mm evercool fan that runs at 800rpm (5v) and it bugs the hell out of me!!

You're a brave, brave man Bio, brave, brave man... :eek:
 
Arcygenical said:
Oh my god.


I've got a 60mm evercool fan that runs at 800rpm (5v) and it bugs the hell out of me!!

You're a brave, brave man Bio, brave, brave man... :eek:
Click to expand...

Agreed. Anything louder than undervolted 120mm Yates is still too loud for me!
 
A little fan noise is good for the soul...........:eek: And to be honest, after 20 years in the Army working on gas turbine helicopter engines, not to mention being involved in several shooting conflicts around the world, I'm just happy if I can hear any fan noise at all. .............:eek: My system sounds like it is only a small noise in the back ground, so nothing to worry about, noise is only relitive to how well you can hear it....................:D
 
Bio-Hazard said:
A little fan noise is good for the soul...........:eek: And to be honest, after 20 years in the Army working on gas turbine helicopter engines, not to mention being involved in several shooting conflicts around the world, I'm just happy if I can hear any fan noise at all. .............:eek: My system sounds like it is only a small noise in the back ground, so nothing to worry about, noise is only relitive to how well you can hear it....................:D
Click to expand...

thats true , who cares about noise u cant hear :rolleyes:
 
Bio-Hazard said:
And to be honest, after 20 years in the Army working on gas turbine helicopter engines I'm just happy if I can hear any fan noise at all.
Click to expand...

Hehe, well since you put it that way :p

A small bit of advice here from anyone on the MCW30 compatibility. Here is the list that Swiftech published of known boards this thing works with.. My board is not listed.

I am also interested (after looking into the Thermalright HR-05 not being compatible with my board either) in the Forcetake by Jing Ting, model# JTS 0006. I have found this cooler to be a reasonable buy as well.. but cannot find any compatibility confirmation with my board.

Anyone that owns an ASUS P5W-DH Deluxe board please chime in here.. and let me know what aftermarket cooling solution you use for your chipset. Also, if you don't mind.. how you compensate for no cooling around the MOSFET area.. do you just prop a fan up in that area, or use something more permanent?

Thanks! :)
 
Honestly, a 60mm fan at 3000 rpm's isn't loud at all................:eek: Loud is one of the old 60mm Delta screamers (7000 rpm) we used back in the old AMD Athlon days when all there was out there were 60mm fans for coolers. I guess most folks around here don't remember those days or were just to young to use a computer.......................:D
 
I've been around since Axp but never used a 60mm fan lol

80mm volcano 7 was my first cooler


wow how things have changed

now we have coolers that support 2x120mm fans lol

and case fans that are ginormous 250mm
 
oh and i don't care what you say a 60mm fan spinning at anything close to 3000rpms is too loud for me period....
 
No problem, some peoples ears are just that way, others are not, fact's of life I guess............:D Noise is still a issue with me as well, but some sounds don't bother me as much as they did long ago. But the ole ears still work well enough to hear poor little Bambi walking through the woods right before I take it's little head off..............:eek:
 
hyt3k9 said:
Hehe, well since you put it that way :p

A small bit of advice here from anyone on the MCW30 compatibility. Here is the list that Swiftech published of known boards this thing works with.. My board is not listed.

I am also interested (after looking into the Thermalright HR-05 not being compatible with my board either) in the Forcetake by Jing Ting, model# JTS 0006. I have found this cooler to be a reasonable buy as well.. but cannot find any compatibility confirmation with my board.

Anyone that owns an ASUS P5W-DH Deluxe board please chime in here.. and let me know what aftermarket cooling solution you use for your chipset. Also, if you don't mind.. how you compensate for no cooling around the MOSFET area.. do you just prop a fan up in that area, or use something more permanent?

Thanks! :)
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure your Asus board will work with either a MCW30 or an EK Asus block. There's numerous people using the MCW30's on your board.

Mosfets don't need active cooling. They only need a heatsink. If you were forced to remove yours for some reason, Thermalright has nice aftermarket mosfet heatsinks.
 
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