Water cooling... it is really starting to spike my interest-

[Xion X2]

I hadn't been there for a while and just saw it today. I'll be spending more time over there in the coming days scraping some of the cobwebs out of my brain, but for now I'm off to play Stalker for a while and then crash.

[Redeemed]

Well, I actually was considering going with a completely custom water cooling solution... and I haven't been able to check out those links that you posted Xion, been kinda' busy.

But I am thinking to just go completely custom... as far as the price I'm still deciding that...

[DiscipleDOC]

Redeemed,
Let us know about your progress. I am thinking about going with a different setup as well.

[Redeemed]

Originally Posted by DiscipleDOC

Redeemed,
Let us know about your progress. I am thinking about going with a different setup as well.

Of course I will. This is gonna' be my first 1337 build with 1337 hardware that is still considered "1337-hardware" while I'm building it- I ain't gonna' be shy about this rig.

[DiscipleDOC]

Honestly, my freezone is doing a good job, but I'm trying to plan for the future. I know that I want subzero temps like JaKUp!

[Redeemed]

To get extremely awesome temps (like jAkUp) you definitely need a full-blown water cooling loop. That is the main reason I've decided to go for it. I really can't afford it, but the experience will be a good one- and the results well worth the $$$. All this means is I'll have to put off buying a truck till sometime next year probably.

[DiscipleDOC]

That's one reason why I'm selling some stuff. I have to plan for a honeymoon, moving to another house, and marriage. My son wants to spend the summer with me. I got a lot of stuff I have planned this summer, and I got t budget my finances in order to pull it all off.

[Xion X2]

You're not going to get "sub-zero" temps with a water-cooling setup unless you go with a TEC block like Jakup has. Even then, they're only at that temp at idle. When the processor's under load from a heavy overclock they're around 40-45C--within about 10C of a regular waterblock like I have. They're also a lot more expensive than regular waterblocks as well.

They're not for 1st time watercoolers, and I think he would tell you that himself. You have to prep the motherboard with laquer and grease around the socket to protect it from condensation when you're at idle. Definitely not for the beginner. The risk for damage to your board and components is a lot greater than a standard waterblock.

[Redeemed]

Originally Posted by Xion X2

You're not going to get "sub-zero" temps with a water-cooling setup unless you go with a TEC block like Jakup has. Even then, they're only at that temp at idle. When the processor's under load from a heavy overclock they're around 40-45C--within about 10C of a regular waterblock like I have. They're also a lot more expensive than regular waterblocks as well.

They're not for 1st time watercoolers, and I think he would tell you that himself. You have to prep the motherboard with laquer and grease around the socket to protect it from condensation when you're at idle.

Thanks for reminding me- with a custom water cooling solution, will I have to worry about condensation any? Or is it not gonna' be an issue?

[Xion X2]

No condensation worries unless you go w/ a TEC block like Jakup's. At stock speed, my Conroe will idle anywhere from 20-25C depending on my ambient temp.

It's under full load when water shows its muscle, however. Don't worry about idle temps so much. Under a full load, water can dissipate a lot more heat than air can.

[DiscipleDOC]

Originally Posted by Xion X2

No condensation worries unless you go w/ a TEC block like Jakup's. At stock speed, my Conroe will idle anywhere from 20-25C depending on my ambient temp.

It's under full load when water shows its muscle, however. Don't worry about idle temps so much. Under a full load, water can dissipate a lot more heat than air can.

Well, I guess there is no reason for me to change my setup. At idle, my temps are between 16-20C. At full load, my temps is under 50C.

[Xion X2]

It depends on how much voltage you're running, Doc, and it also depends on whether or not you're going Quad in the near future. The more voltage you push, the more heat a TEC has to dissipate, and most of them just aren't as good for that as a standard block. If you plan to go quad any time soon, then I would dump the Freezone. If not, then you could stand to hang onto it for a while if you're happy with it. On your current setup, you're not going to see a big change in temps unless you decide to up the voltage on your CPU and overclock it more.

Idle temps really don't matter that much. TECs can idle lower because they're like a mini-refrigerator sitting on your processor, and a standard waterblock like mine just cycles water cooled by ambient air. So idle on a standard block will never be lower than your ambient temps.

However, most TEC snap-on coolers like the Freezone aren't as effective under a full load with lots of voltage as a standard waterblock is. They just can't dissipate the heat due to the small radiator and fan, among other things. You just don't see a lot of guys with heavy overclocks running them for that reason. And you see very few guys w/ quads running them because they can't dissipate the heat it puts out. Slawter saw this on his when he tried to cool his Kentsfield with it recently. Got worse temps than he did on air. And I just browsed through that Freezone thread over here and several other people had the same problem.

So you have to look at your situation and decide what's best. If you're at 1.5v or up, I would say go w/ a waterblock.