water cooling

Rob Williams

Editor-in-Chief
Staff member
Moderator
Kougar said:
Well I'm all for creative engineering that works! But really... 1/2 of a single degree?

I couldn't agree more. There's a point when the effort isn't reasonable given the gain, and this is a perfect example.

Psi* said:
I wonder if there is a Xeon equivalent to the hexa-cores?

I'm not sure it's worth worrying about. Both the Xeon and Core i9 Gulftown's should be out at around the same time (if not the same day), and the Xeon will either be the same price but much slower, or the same speed and twice as expensive.
 

Psi*

Tech Monkey
into the rebuild, update, & re-use

I finally dug the pump out of a WC system that I have been using for ... 7 years ... really. Well, when did the Athlon MP come out? This is a dual socket iWill MPX2 motherboard. I had completely forgotten what pump was in the system. Its an Eheim 1048 & I'm pretty happy with that.

I'm pulling things apart & checking thread/fitting sizes. I'm debating tubing size for the new system. This old system had 1/4". No idea why I used something so small. The case has no brand on it, but it is full size. As I read about using 1/2" tubing, the disadvantage to it is the large bend radius it requires but these cases (I have 2) have a huge amount of room so I don't see that as an issue.

This old system uses plastic compression fittings which are pretty cheap. I think the complication will be getting the correct thread tubing fittings for the old parts ... I guess that is just the radiator & pump. Although I do have the older Swiftech MCRES reservoir; each part requires more study that I want to put into it but considering the economy that we have been in I am not as ready to throw $$ at something new just for convenience as I used to. The currently available barbed fittings on the market look to be pretty decent now, especially the ones that Swiftech is offering; but, need to figure out what fits into this pump.

I like the idea of 1/2" tubing not so much for fluid flow resistance, but just for the fluid volume. I don't have a scientific reason for it tho. My logic is that if i don't like the cooling I can get with the 2X120 fans pushing into the radiator that i have now, I can add 1 or 2 fans to pull.

Thinking back to putting these old systems together, assembly was not that big of a deal. Finding the right parts was & that is where I am now again.

So, just throwing this out for flames or even uncontentious comments ... FLAMES are okay and I encourage!!! They do get one to think about things, if with an edge. :eek::confused:
 

Psi*

Tech Monkey
So some day a recent customer will actually pay me ... very large check. Kind of irrelevant when you have had *nothing* for a month. But I think I will get this on Friday this week barring snail mail screw ups & delays this time of year. Hopefully this will happen before all of that nonesense really starts.

The point of this is that I will be building up a new system. An I7-920 is only item that I can say for certain at the moment.
I am pretty sure that it will have 12 GB RAM.
I am pretty sure that I will get an ASUS m/b.
I am pretty sure about the Seasonice X650 Gold ... assuming they can found when I actually can order!!! :(
Windows 7 Home Premium ... not completely tested per my primary s/w vendor, but so far they have heard no complaints from those that have already switched.
And a bunch of other things;) which I'll post here as things proceed. I'll take pix of what is getting dismantled & what gets built back up. But, don't hold your breath as i was supposed to have been paid a couple of weeks ago. This time I am talking with the accounting department manager. In the past I have sent *her* a Cheesecake Factory cheese cake,:D so I think I will see a check this week!!! :D
 

Rob Williams

Editor-in-Chief
Staff member
Moderator
Good to hear about the progress man! I agree on the 12GB of RAM, because after all, this is going to be a workstation, and the ASUS motherboard is a good choice as well (not that I favor anyone, but ASUS makes quality boards). I'm looking forward to all the pictures and progress updates :D

Psi* said:
This time I am talking with the accounting department manager. In the past I have sent *her* a Cheesecake Factory cheese cake, so I think I will see a check this week!!!

Hmm, I never thought to try that trick out before!
 

Psi*

Tech Monkey
Yes ... you don't send flowers. Too personal & suggests that you might want to think about picking out baby names. :eek:

Near Valentines Day I have sent cookie bouquets. :cool: Both items allow and encourage distribution to the department. Both cost near $100 ... but worth it.:)

So I am having some vacillation with the exact motherboard. There are getting to be ample number of detailed OC recipes for particular m/b. The ASUS Rampage II Extreme is interesting because it is so automatic and is quite appealing. On the other hand, P6T variations seem to have the ability to OC equally with just more verve on the OC-ers part.

I see that the event of actually OC-ing a m/b with *a* processor occurs once ... well, over a week or 2 or 3 with most of the owner's time up front for the coarse tuning & the rest of the time running & waiting on burn-in software to try to crash it. My experience in the past is less than a week, with maybe a tweak down for stability a few weeks later.

There is great info for Gigabyte, but ASUS has treated me well. The other ASUS contender is the P6TD Deluxe V2. It is not the least expensive, but does have some other features that i like.

Then there is the appeal of the additional & convenient monitoring of actual voltages on the Rampage II m/b ... something that is in character for me. And, I will be plugging a hexa-core in when I can get my hands on one so OC-ing will be occur more than once.

I may also have a lab with Agilent test equipment in 1st qtr & would be fun as a side project to really take the pants off these computer systems. That is the result of removing the lottery& drama effects from self employment.
 

Psi*

Tech Monkey
What I will not be doing!

http://techrepublic.com.com/2346-10878_11-5717-1.html?tag=content;leftCol represents a ludicrous expense in fittings. The more fitting == more potentials for leaks not to mention the enormous matenance issues in all of that plumbing.

http://www.wired.com/gadgets/pcs/multimedia/2007/09/gallery_supercool_pcs NO! Goopy oil with PCBs ... NO! The oil screws up all dielectric constants & no idea what the effect is on the variety of PCB material is.

http://www.pugetsystems.com/blog/2009/03/04/building-a-16000-pc/ ... more money than brains. There are network distributed computing options. If that software did not offer it; then I am sure that a competitor does! Multi-threading has an overhead meaning that 16 cores is not twice as fast as 8 and there is severe roll off as the number of threads increase.

More to be added ...
 

Rob Williams

Editor-in-Chief
Staff member
Moderator
Psi* said:
Yes ... you don't send flowers. Too personal & suggests that you might want to think about picking out baby names.

Yes, that's for sure, haha. I know I've made the mistake of being "too personal" in the past, so you need to be careful. Cookie bouquet though... that's an interesting one. You have some great ideas, haha.

Psi* said:
So I am having some vacillation with the exact motherboard.

I have a hard time recommending an X58 motherboard, because truth be told, most all of them are great for overclocking. The biggest issue comes down to how hardcore you want to be about it, and to be honest, since you are using your PC for production/workstation use, I don't entirely believe that the Rampage II Extreme is the best fit, because that might overclock processors higher, but again, those same overclocks might not be 100% stable over the long-term.

I find that P6TD Deluxe intriguing, and up until now, I haven't even heard of it. It offers a robust phase solution (16+2), and has appropriate heatsinks, so overclocking shouldn't be too bad at all. It also supports TurboV, which is a nice feature for quick overclocking. To be honest, I'd almost have to recommend the P6X58D Premium that ASUS just launched, or wait until reviews start flowing out (I'm considering taking a look at it).

The reason I recommend it, though, is because like the others, it's a high-end board and boasts great overclocking capabilities, and has the latest version of the TurboV EVO overclocking tool which is quite nice. It has a 16+2 phase solution, a great layout, looks great, and supports USB 3.0 and S-ATA 3.0... two nice features. But again, since you are looking at really pushing the boundaries on overclocking, I am not sure it's the ideal board, although I'd be hard-pressed to see it perform any less than any other board you've mentioned.

Psi* said:
represents a ludicrous expense in fittings. The more fitting == more potentials for leaks not to mention the enormous matenance issues in all of that plumbing.

Whoa... that's intense! Seriously... mind-boggling amount of water-cooling in that machine. It might as well be dunked underwater!
 

Psi*

Tech Monkey
PC Water Coolant Chemistry Part 1 and PC Water Coolant Chemistry Part 2

I have been looking thru my own memory for months trying to find these articles ... finally occurred to me in the wee hours last night ... thought others drifting thru here would appreciate it. These are still pretty current with the products although there are another 1 or 2 PC cooling products that have since been introduced.

It boils;) down to never use just distilled water, but always start with distilled water ... and not demineralized water.
 
Top