Is liquid cooling any good?

Most modern CPUs have the capability to report their temperature --
shows up in bios stats.

Seems to me as measured by CPU self report, liquid cooling, which
costs over two hundred dollars, does not get you anything markedly
better than air cooling, which costs about forty dollars.

Has anyone obtained worthwhile benefits from liquid cooling?

Seems to me that ninety percent of cooling is getting good thermal
contact between the heat sink and the CPU, and the rest is merely a
detail.

Of course liquid cooling will give you some benefits on the disk
drives, but you have to space the disk drives, and if you spaced them,
you would get some decent air cooling without doing anything special.

quieter
handles more heat
more fun

--
______
From Adam Webb,
Nick: Overlag
www.tacticalgamer.com


"James A. Donald" wrote in message
m...
Most modern CPUs have the capability to report their temperature --
shows up in bios stats.

Seems to me as measured by CPU self report, liquid cooling, which
costs over two hundred dollars, does not get you anything markedly
better than air cooling, which costs about forty dollars.

Has anyone obtained worthwhile benefits from liquid cooling?

Seems to me that ninety percent of cooling is getting good thermal
contact between the heat sink and the CPU, and the rest is merely a
detail.

Of course liquid cooling will give you some benefits on the disk
drives, but you have to space the disk drives, and if you spaced them,
you would get some decent air cooling without doing anything special.

"James A. Donald" wrote in message
m...
Most modern CPUs have the capability to report their temperature --
shows up in bios stats.

Seems to me as measured by CPU self report, liquid cooling, which
costs over two hundred dollars, does not get you anything markedly
better than air cooling, which costs about forty dollars.

Has anyone obtained worthwhile benefits from liquid cooling?

Seems to me that ninety percent of cooling is getting good thermal
contact between the heat sink and the CPU, and the rest is merely a
detail.

Of course liquid cooling will give you some benefits on the disk
drives, but you have to space the disk drives, and if you spaced them,
you would get some decent air cooling without doing anything special.

Yeah good for a extra couple hundred MHz's.

Hank

--
*****Replace 'NOSPAM' with 'btinternet' in the reply address*****
"Hank" wrote in message
gy.com...

"James A. Donald" wrote in message

Yeah good for a extra couple hundred MHz's.

Hank

In my experience this is not so...I've used both high end air cooling
(SLK900u with ducted 120mm fan) and high spec water cooling. My temperatures
are about the same either way as is my overclocking limit.
Water used to have a definite edge but with the latest air cooled heatsinks
the difference is little or nothing. Remember water cooling ultimatly uses
air to cool anyway...the water is just a way to transport the heat from 'A'
to 'B' (unless you use a total loss system).
There is also the argument that water cooling is quieter...this may be true
to some extent but you can still achieve a quiet air cooled system by using
a large slow spinning fan and a duct.
As proof of the above, I'm running a Barton 2500+ at 2500MHz with 2.06
Vcore, aircooled, right now...my temp as I type is 36C and it only rises to
48C under Prime 95 torture test...Plus its not too noisy. I've yet to see a
water cooled system do significantly better.

Yeah good for a extra couple hundred MHz's.

Hank

In my experience this is not so...I've used both high end air cooling
(SLK900u with ducted 120mm fan) and high spec water cooling. My
temperatures
are about the same either way as is my overclocking limit.
Water used to have a definite edge but with the latest air cooled
heatsinks
the difference is little or nothing.

ok.... two setups different cooling setups, exact same system

Barton 2500
A7N8X
PC3200 ram (cheap stuff at 2-3-3-8)
Coolers = Alpha heatsink with 80mm fan or Atlantis waterblock and Radiator

Max OC Water:
2400 @ 1.8volts
2300 @ 1.7volts (used 24/7 for 3 months)

Max OC Air
2000 @ 1.7volts unstable
2000 @ 1.8volts unstable
1900 @ 1.7volts unstable
1900 @ 1.8volts, and still might have to back down, im still testing it atm.

This compares well to other experiences with my other setups for instance:

XP2100 @ 2133mhz with water
and only 1560 with air (yup, thats right below stock..... granted its
sitting a 70c with some silent cooler)

or

XP1700 @ 1800mhz with water
and only 1533mhz with air (another Alpha)

my temp as I type is 36C and it only rises to
48C under Prime 95 torture test...Plus its not too noisy. I've yet to see
a
water cooled system do significantly better.

the above Barton 2500 setup had a max temp of 39c at full load while at
2300mhz with the watercooling, its now sitting at a toasty 49c at 1900mhz.
Temps are "high" due to using onboard probe and typical Asus high temp
readings.....

atm im using my Athlon 64 with its stock cooler plus 4 case fans its nice a
cool but relatively noisy. Since i dont think im going to get over 210fsb
which im stuck at now, watercooling wont bring me anything other than
silence...which is why i cant wait for the latest Swiftech 5002 to reach
England.....Cant wait for the silence again
--
______
From Adam Webb,
Nick: Overlag
www.tacticalgamer.com

I can only refer to my experience...And that is that I'm running faster
(2500MGHz), higher voltage (2.06V) and the same peak temps (48C) as your
water cooling....but I'm on air !!!!. My air cooling cost a fraction of what
a decent water rig would cost and took a fraction of the time to fit....Also
other than blowing out dust from time to time it's maintenance free. It's
also not noisy because I use a 120mm fan at 3000-3500rpm.
Here's a screen shot: http://mysite.freeserve.com/abz_piper/2507.jpg


--
*****Replace 'NOSPAM' with 'btinternet' in the reply address*****
"Adam Webb" wrote in message
...
Yeah good for a extra couple hundred MHz's.

Hank

In my experience this is not so...I've used both high end air cooling
(SLK900u with ducted 120mm fan) and high spec water cooling. My
temperatures
are about the same either way as is my overclocking limit.
Water used to have a definite edge but with the latest air cooled
heatsinks
the difference is little or nothing.

ok.... two setups different cooling setups, exact same system

Barton 2500
A7N8X
PC3200 ram (cheap stuff at 2-3-3-8)
Coolers = Alpha heatsink with 80mm fan or Atlantis waterblock and Radiator

Max OC Water:
2400 @ 1.8volts
2300 @ 1.7volts (used 24/7 for 3 months)

Max OC Air
2000 @ 1.7volts unstable
2000 @ 1.8volts unstable
1900 @ 1.7volts unstable
1900 @ 1.8volts, and still might have to back down, im still testing it
atm.

This compares well to other experiences with my other setups for instance:

XP2100 @ 2133mhz with water
and only 1560 with air (yup, thats right below stock..... granted its
sitting a 70c with some silent cooler)

or

XP1700 @ 1800mhz with water
and only 1533mhz with air (another Alpha)

my temp as I type is 36C and it only rises to
48C under Prime 95 torture test...Plus its not too noisy. I've yet to
see
a
water cooled system do significantly better.

the above Barton 2500 setup had a max temp of 39c at full load while at
2300mhz with the watercooling, its now sitting at a toasty 49c at 1900mhz.
Temps are "high" due to using onboard probe and typical Asus high temp
readings.....

atm im using my Athlon 64 with its stock cooler plus 4 case fans its nice
a
cool but relatively noisy. Since i dont think im going to get over 210fsb
which im stuck at now, watercooling wont bring me anything other than
silence...which is why i cant wait for the latest Swiftech 5002 to reach
England.....Cant wait for the silence again
--
______
From Adam Webb,
Nick: Overlag
www.tacticalgamer.com

I can only refer to my experience...And that is that I'm running faster
(2500MGHz), higher voltage (2.06V) and the same peak temps (48C) as your
water cooling....but I'm on air !!!!.

same temp? thats 10c higher........

--
______
From Adam Webb,
Nick: Overlag
www.tacticalgamer.com

BigBadger wrote:
my temp as I type is 36C and it only rises to
48C under Prime 95 torture test...Plus its not too noisy. I've yet
to see a water cooled system do significantly better.

the above Barton 2500 setup had a max temp of 39c at full load while
at 2300mhz with the watercooling, its now sitting at a toasty 49c at
1900mhz. Temps are "high" due to using onboard probe and typical
Asus high temp readings.....

I can only refer to my experience...And that is that I'm running
faster (2500MGHz), higher voltage (2.06V) and the same peak temps
(48C) as your water cooling....but I'm on air !!!!.

In another post, BigBadger wrote:
however reported temps
can be misleading the temps temp i get from a probe touching the cpu
core are always 3 or 4 C cooler than MBM reports

You're comparing your socket temps to his die temps. Which means that any
comparison is completely stupid and irrelevant. That said, it's very
impressive that you got a Barton 2500 to 2500MHz on air. Many 2500's won't
do 2500 regardless of what they're cooled with. Do you have the three codes
(AXDA etc) on you by any chance?

[...]

--
Michael Brown
www.emboss.co.nz : OOS/RSI software and more
Add michael@ to emboss.co.nz - My inbox is always open

"Adam Webb" wrote in message ...
Yeah good for a extra couple hundred MHz's.

Hank

In my experience this is not so...I've used both high end air cooling
(SLK900u with ducted 120mm fan) and high spec water cooling. My
temperatures
are about the same either way as is my overclocking limit.
Water used to have a definite edge but with the latest air cooled
heatsinks
the difference is little or nothing.

ok.... two setups different cooling setups, exact same system

Barton 2500
A7N8X
PC3200 ram (cheap stuff at 2-3-3-8)
Coolers = Alpha heatsink with 80mm fan or Atlantis waterblock and Radiator

Max OC Water:
2400 @ 1.8volts
2300 @ 1.7volts (used 24/7 for 3 months)

Max OC Air
2000 @ 1.7volts unstable
2000 @ 1.8volts unstable
1900 @ 1.7volts unstable
1900 @ 1.8volts, and still might have to back down, im still testing it atm.

This compares well to other experiences with my other setups for instance:

XP2100 @ 2133mhz with water
and only 1560 with air (yup, thats right below stock..... granted its
sitting a 70c with some silent cooler)

or

XP1700 @ 1800mhz with water
and only 1533mhz with air (another Alpha)

my temp as I type is 36C and it only rises to
48C under Prime 95 torture test...Plus its not too noisy. I've yet to see
a
water cooled system do significantly better.

the above Barton 2500 setup had a max temp of 39c at full load while at
2300mhz with the watercooling, its now sitting at a toasty 49c at 1900mhz.
Temps are "high" due to using onboard probe and typical Asus high temp
readings.....

atm im using my Athlon 64 with its stock cooler plus 4 case fans its nice a
cool but relatively noisy. Since i dont think im going to get over 210fsb
which im stuck at now, watercooling wont bring me anything other than
silence...which is why i cant wait for the latest Swiftech 5002 to reach
England.....Cant wait for the silence again

I should heve read your post more thoroughly Adam....I see your
reported temps are indeed lower than mine....however reported temps
can be misleading the temps temp i get from a probe touching the cpu
core are always 3 or 4 C cooler than MBM reports..also if I drop down
to 1.8V / 2400MHz (which I can run no problem)I take the temps down by
a good 5 or 6 degrees. I'd be interested to see your temps at 2.06V.
I would still be confident that running the same speed and voltage
there would be nothing in it as far as temps are concerned...and as
far as getting an extra 200MHz overclock with water...I've yet to see
anyone running at 2700MHz with a water cooled XP2500+

far as getting an extra 200MHz overclock with water...I've yet to see
anyone running at 2700MHz with a water cooled XP2500+

and your the first aircooled 2500 @ 2500 ive seen

well done :-)
--
______
From Adam Webb,
Nick: Overlag
www.tacticalgamer.com