Water Cooling Setup

[myrgo_31]

Hi. As some of you guys might know me, I'm thinking about a Pentium D 920 processor. Now, 2.8 Ghz on each core might not seem like enough (will be a bottleneck compared to my X1900XT), so I'm thinking about overclocking it right when I get it. I just asked a friend and he said that I'm better off building a water cooling setup rather than just getting something to place on my processor. So, with that in mind, how would a person go about building such a setup?

[rspassey]

Well, I personally think the Pent D 920 will be powerful enough not to validate voiding warranties and OverClocking. The point of OCing is not necessarily to OC an already powerful CPU, but to buy a cheaper and less powerful one and OC till it reachs the same performance of a more expensive CPU. If you still think yo u want to Overclock, then you have to pay close attention to temperatures. The better the cooling, the more you can safely overclock - and water cooling will easily keep temperatures low enough to get an awesomee OC. There are watercooling kits, but they are much more expensive. Someone with more OC and watercooling experience will be able to give more advice, but I personally don't see a need to Overclock that CPU.

[myrgo_31]

well it just sounded like that with (and im thinking about 2 GB of memory over 1 GB) 2 GB of memory and the X1900XT video card, my CPU would be a bit of a bottleneck at 2.8 Ghz... it didnt really sound that fast, but I guess it would be a better idea to see how fast the CPU is at first then if it is slow, the i can do an overclock.

[glc]

Gee - AMD has processors that run at 2.4 GHz that absolutely scream. Remember the 9xx Presler is new core technology. You cannot go by the actual GHz speeds any more.

[Big_Dog]

I'm just finishing up my first WC'd rig, I don't want to discourage you, but based on my experience alone, its not cheap, and its not something you slap in a case and away you go. I have a cheap dummy rig I use for testing parts on my bench. You will need to test your WC set-up for several hours on an unpowered rig, outside of any case. It literally takes hours to remove all the air from my set-up, and just for example when I did put all this stuff in my case, I found I had to re-route and lengthen one hose, so I'm draining, filling, bleeding and checking for leaks all over again. Because I was new to water cooling I went with a complete kit and added a block for my GPU, extra tubing, old school hose clamps etc., probably close to $300. I had my 3200+ at just over 2.5G on better-than-stock air, and haven't started pushing it. Like I said, I'm just finishing up. For me, it seemed intimidating at first, the risk of damaging expensive computer parts and all. I would say if your happy with the noise level and can get a good stable OC on air, I would save the money.

[enhanced08]

Water is the way to go if you want stable temps. My water cooling setup sucks! Its the thermaltake bigwater kit and its only a few degrees cooler than my stock cooler was on air! I have modified it by adding a second radiator and fan which brought temps down a bit.

My advice for a water setup is to do a custom job and stay away from kits. You will spend less and get more with a custom setup.

As far as to OC or not, if it was mine.... I would. those 920's seem to be nice OC'ers... Most all I have seen hit 4Ghz easy!

[glc]

The real question is - WHY do you want to overclock it? If you just want a faster computer, it's cheaper and more stable to just buy a faster processor to begin with. Overclocking is a hobby.

[David M]

I agree with glc. It is a hobby but a fun hobby at that. The watercooling will cost you more money than if you paid the same money towards a faster CPU. I only watercool because it is fun and it also makes for a much quieter computer. I have an FX-57 up to 3.15GHz....fun fun fun. :)