Water Cooling Project - Was it Worth it?: page 6

Step by Step Water Cooling Project

Was it Worth it?:

Alright, I want to remind you why we decided to start this project to start with. We had our 2.6c Pentium4 it it was kicking along quite impressively with just the stock cooler, but temperatures were insanely high. We were reaching 3.5GHz but at the cost of CPU temperatures reaching just over 160deg F. So now that we've gone thru the trouble and mess of water cooling this system, did it help? Was it worth it? Let's take a look at what we attained at the same speed on the same system.

System Specs:

• ABIT IS7 Motherboard
• Intel 2.6c Pentium4 CPU
• Corsair TWINX 2x256MB PC3200 Ram

I could go on listing the rest of the specs, but you're already aware of the cooling and the rest is pretty irrelevant in judging CPU temperatures.

To maximize the CPU temp we started up folding@home, ran several loops of Unreal Tourny benchmark, then looped 3dMark01 for three runs. The CPU was set to 3.512GHz (170x13) with the voltage at 1.7v. The room temp was 77deg F + or - .4deg for all testing. We recorded the maximum temperatures achieved.

Now one thing to bare in mind is that our "air cooling" was the stock P4 cooler that Intel shipped with the 2.6c, but there's no denying that this performance is more than impressive.

The 3.512GHz was the maximum stable speed we were able to achieve with this CPU using the air cooler. Now let's see if we gained any extra stable speed from this project..

While we didn't set any new records, we did gain a bit of stable speed by going to water cooling. The most important thing we gained is that we brought the temperatures down to a point where I wouldn't hesitate for a second to run this CPU at that speed daily. As a matter of fact, since I've completed this project I've had the CPU at 3.576GHz non-stop for two weeks folding the whole time, mixing in gaming, and general PC use. Never once did the temperature go over 130deg F and not once did I get a lockup. That's EXACTLY what I was hoping to achieve with this project. A highly overclocked, stable for everyday use PC.

Kit versus Self Built:

There are a plethora of water cooling "kits" being sold by a lot of companies, so you may be wondering why I bothered assembling my own parts and pieces. The main reason is that most of the kits on the market come with tiny tubing and relatively weak pumps. Finding 1/4" inside diameter tubing in kits is common and we simply wanted to go with the higher flow 1/2" inside diameter tubing. We were also able to pick and choose our water block, going with a high quality all copper block, which again isn't a lock with a kit.

The bottom line is that we were able to assemble a water cooling system using the parts that WE wanted, that suited our application and case perfectly. With a kit it's a crapshoot for the most part. And the money difference? Most kits on the market run anywhere from USD$99 to USD$200, with the norm being about $USD150. For every part we used (minus the case and PSU with you have to buy anyway) we came in at just under USD$170. That's cheaper than the higher priced models and only slightly higher than the standard price for a kit, and remember, we used all quality parts that WE picked.

There are a lot of great kit systems out there that come with great instructions, so they may very well be exactly the thing you need. For us, we are happy with our decision to build our own, so that decision is up to you.

Closing Thoughts:

To be quite honest I will say that doing this project is the most fun I've had modding in quite a while. Nothing was horribly hard, yet the return on the work performed was great.

Water cooling still isn't for everybody, but it's becoming more and more common in today's enthusiast community. The idea of adding water to your PC is at first a little intimidating because if you mess it up, your PC is toast. That said, in a stardard air cooler you're in a pretty bad boat should a fan fail or you improperly mount your heat sink. Is there more risk involved when using a water cooling solution? Yes. But like just about everything else in life, if you take your time and do it the right way you should be straight. Make absolutely certain to perform leak tests every step of the way, use quality components, and you should be well on your way.

We took a CPU that has massive potential, and we were able to realize all of that potential while keeping our temperatures very respectable. I'm more than happy with our 2.6c cruising along at just under 3.6Ghz. :)

That pretty much wraps this up. Hopefully this article either gave you the courage to give water cooling a shot. With results that exceed anything possible by even the best air coolers on the market I know it's at least tempting.

A HUGE thanks to the vendors that hooked us up. Not only did they help us out but I also go to these companies personally for my own needs, so I can't make a stronger claim than that. Cooltechnica, Sidewinder, Xoxide, and Xtreme Tek Werks are all companies that thru good prices and stellar service have earned your business no doubt.

Parting Shots:

Here's just a few more images of the system..

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