W/C Challenge +/- $400 - 3 GPUs/1 Core i7 - can it be done?

Is that 39C at load or idle? I'm assuming at idle, since you mentioned your video card is at 32. In that case, that is pretty high. How much more then your room temperature is it getting (the delta is a much better indicator of how well your cooling is working).
You may want to re-mount your cpu cooler. The good thing about the apogee XT is that the tension springs are pretty much preset, so you can screw them down as far as they go. If it were me, i'd clean off the chip to a nice shiny top again, and reapply my thermal, and remount. Since your using AS5, my person preference is to take a sandwich bag or ziptop, turn it inside out, and use that to smooth the thermal with my finger. There's different schools of thought on that, but I find I get a nice thin coat when I do it that way.
 
Idle temps - I also realized that I put the tubing wrong on the Apogee - there is a proper in and out and I didn't read that - oops! Ambient room temp is around 70F.

Should I use the Cermique stuff that came with the ApogeeXT or Artic Silver 5?
 
OK, great just got better..............

My Uncle ordered a 975 Extreme, then decided my system would better benefit from it, so he is swaping me for my 960 because he wants to see how far I can push it. He is also giving me his 920 in case I blow the Extreme chip. So in a few days I will be upgrading again to the 975 Extreme to start over clocking this baby.

He is also giving me his other two GTX 285's because he ordered dual Radeon cards for Crossfire and wants the DX11, so I plan on using one of them as the dedicated PhysX card as this motherboard supports 3-Way SLI + PhysX. I cannot wait!

I also got in my SuperCool WetterWater coolant I plan on using in the system, so I have to drain it anyway. I realized I had the loops wrong on the CPU block, I had in and out reversed. So I may do a complete re-route.

I did however get some really awesome pictures put up (been hammered with work):
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=1161650&l=0ee79491b7&id=1274259934

Here is a teaser:
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Here are updated pictures. I ended up doing 2 pumps, seperate loops for GPU and CPU's. I have on order the correct connectors for these GPU water blocks so they will clean up even more, but here it is with 3 of 4 water blocked. Once I get the correct SLI connectors all 4 GPU's will be water blocked.

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Wow, looks great. At least it was a quick clean death for your $400 budget. Definitely a [H]ard core setup.
 
$400 was just in connectors I think - at least it seemed that way by the time I got done. Yeahh it was a destroyed budget, not something I even came close to dreaming it would have been.

Thanks - I think it was worth it in the end though.

Considering this was the VANTAGE score and the temps directly after it finished running:
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Well "Frank" is getting more upgrades soon. If the $400 buget got destroyed b4 - I just obliterated it.

It seems this is an addicting thing and I have decided to water block the entire motherboard as well. So here within a week these items should be coming in:

Enzotech EVX58 Mos Classified Waterblock - Retail
35-708-078-Z02

This will allow me to keep the mosfet cooled

Enzotech EVX58 SN Classified Waterblock - Retail
35-708-079-Z01

This will replace the cool "E" EVGA has on the board, but it will add to the cooling of the North Bridge and South Bridge making Overclocking easier to control

Watercool HEATKILLER® CPU-X2 4-way Adapter
4-fachAdpt.jpg

http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=25224

This is what the GTX 285 I have water blocked and sitting in my closet needed to work in my case. With this end cap for the water blocks, I will be able to drop my loop connections from the very bottom card downward instead of up like the other cards, so there will be room to actually run tubing to the last GPU now. This was the final piece I needed for the GPU's to all be cooled via water. I was running a VANTAGE run the other day and saw the one on air was hitting 80c+ while the other 3 were sitting high 30c's - that told me I needed to get this last GPU on water fast.

Then I ordered some additional clean up items to dress up the inside of the case like black sleeved 24 pin and CPU 8 pin extenders to dress them up.

I also purchased two "Q" connectors to run the loops for the new coolers on the motherboard at the same run as the CPU by taking the input from the pump then splitting it to all three using the first "Q" connector (CPU, Mosfet, and NB/SB) then back again using the second "Q" connector into one going into the radiator. The double 240 radiator I am using for the CPU loop should be able to handle these other two items as well.

I believe that this should about wrap up Frank's build - though with most, it never reall stops...........
 
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