Temp spike when running CPU test

M

McDeth

Limp Gawd
Joined
Sep 26, 2002
Messages
414
Well after much consideration I went out today and purchased a Thermaltake Bigwater 750is. It is what is it, a replacement for a noisy Zalman Zxxxx 15 1/2 lbs air cooler I'm not looking to achieve a 4ghz OC with a simple 120mm cooler, water or air.

Installation was fairly simple, although a problem with a leak took a few hours to find and fix (gg teflon tape). Have been up and running for a few hours now.

I've begun the process of attempting to OC my computer now. Max I was able to do on air was about a 3.2ghz on my Q6600. I figured I could probably do the same with water cooling. I was wrong.

What is happening is that when I run a CPU test (Orthos), temperatures start at about 35*C, but quickly rocket up to 50*C and slowly climb from there. When I say rocket, I mean they get to around 50 in about 5 seconds. As soon as I stop the test the cores go back to their normal (35*C) within no less than 5 seconds. This never happened on air cooling. I've double and triple checked that there is enough article silver around the cpu, and that it is making contact with the cpu, but I can't escape the nagging feeling I'm doing something wrong or missing something!

Any suggestions are welcome!
 
The Zalman 9700 gives alot of the cheap liquid cooling setups a run for their money... and it is a thermaltake...

anyways pretty traditional behavior of a poorly designed water block. Assuming the rest of the loop is adaquate, the copper plate of the waterblock just isn't getting the heat into the water fast enough. Actually after reading that bit-tech artical on waterblocks and understanding the boundry layer a little better it makes sense that the TT block would suck.

anyways, I've never run a WC loop so ima stfu now. But I think if you have the abillity to return the big water, you might wanna take it, and get a nice swiftech kit or asetek kit or something instead.

ok noooww im done.

edit: but after a quick check, no, the zalman should not be outperforming even a TT bigwater kit, perhalps you got bubbles in the loop? How did you bleed it?
edit2: aww, ncix removed all of their custom kits they used to sell. Too bad...
 
Hmm, I was thinking it could have been this, thanks for affirming this. I'm pretty sure the radiator and pump are fine for now. I'm curious if just throwing in a DangerDen cpu waterblock would solve the problem.

I mean I LIKE how small and compact the 760 is, and it DOES do it's job of keeping the cpu cool under regular game load, but as soon as you run a 100% cpu test it rapes the capacity of the waterblock :LOL:

Too bad there's no great shops in the bay area that deal heavily in water cooling, would love to drop by somewhere and get some input heh :(
 
I think that a lot of people have had the wrong idea about a quad's ability to overclock at high levels.

Yes they have a lot of potential out of the box but your setup has to be in good shape for this to happen. One thing with the quads is that your CPU waterblock has to have the surface area to handle the extra cores and the heat that it will output onto that CPU which you probably won't get an optimal one out of that product.

Next is the radiator, depending on where you mount this, it could have an adverse affect on the temperature. If it's back mounted and it's running hot air from the system, then you will not get the optimal temperatures.

With a kit solution like the BIg Water, you have to balance your air with your watercooling. Make sure that the inside of your case is well ventilated around your 3d card, northbridge and around your CPU. Creating hot pockets of air will diminish your overclocking potential.

Lastly, take a look at where the computer is situated. Make sure it's not inside a cabinet or where the radiator doesn't have clean, cool air going through it. Remember that watercooling will not give you better temperatures than what your ambient is so if it's fairly hot in that room, that's all you're going to get.
 
How did you mount the radiator/fan/resevoir in the case? Did you cut a hole in the top of the case for the exhaust air to escape? If you made it 100% internal, that system would definitely not get rid of heat very well.

Jeremy
 
Heh did you even read the thread?

It's a Thermaltake Bigwater, it's self contained.

I'm currently rethinking my options. For now I've ordered a DD MC-TDX w/ 3/8" fittings because the stupid TT block is leaking again. Depending on the results, I just might order all DD stuff and return this PoS thermaltake. Shame about the P180 though, it doesn't look like you can't add a dual 120mm fan compatible radiator without some pretty hefty case modding.

Would there be any significant disadvantages to having two separate 120mm radiators, one feeding into the other?
 
the DD uses 3/8" ID outlets, and the Thermaltake uses 1/4" :confused:

McDeth said:
Shame about the P180 though, it doesn't look like you can't add a dual 120mm fan compatible radiator without some pretty hefty case modding.
Click to expand...

oh yes, modding I will be doing, I'll shoot my worklog in your direction when I really get going ;)

Even so, two, or even just a single, MCR 30 should give your quad core quite a chunk of extra cooling. Combined with a MCP 650 and you've got quite a nice little loop.
 
Heh did you even read the thread?

It's a Thermaltake Bigwater, it's self contained.

I'm currently rethinking my options. For now I've ordered a DD MC-TDX w/ 3/8" fittings because the stupid TT block is leaking again. Depending on the results, I just might order all DD stuff and return this PoS thermaltake. Shame about the P180 though, it doesn't look like you can't add a dual 120mm fan compatible radiator without some pretty hefty case modding.



The pump, res and radiator are all placed in the same tin (aluminum) box but can be easily separated. The statement was where you put the actual box. Because the location of the intake/exhaust area can have an adverse effect on your temperatures.

McDeth said:
Would there be any significant disadvantages to having two separate 120mm radiators, one feeding into the other?
Click to expand...

Are you saying putting them one behind the other? or sandwiching the radiator in a push/pull? No real disadvantage to it.
 
Another thing to consider, especially the behavior you described with temps, is that the radiator is choking with too much heat load. I think it's designed to dissipate about 100w of heat, not more. a quad can dissipate over 150w at 3.2 GHz...

This is a POS and I suggest you toss it off in favor of a custom build : Apogee GT, MCR120, MCP655-B, MCRES and 7/16" tubing.

 
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