# AMD Water Cooling necessary?



## Simca (Jun 11, 2009)

Hello everyone. I've already tried looking through other threads about water cooling, but none are really direct tot he question I have.

First off, I'm running an AMD 3.2ghz Phenom II X4, 700w OCZ GameXStream PSU, Asus M4A79T Deluxe Motherboard, ATI Radeon 4870 Graphics Card, 4 GB of 1600 DDR3 Ram.

Now.. I'm looking to overclock some of my stuff, most importantly the CPU to 3.9 ghz.

I've heard it can run on air at 3.9, but is it really all that fine to run it at 3.9 on air? Will my system be running hot? I'm pretty sure it'll be running warm to say the least. I currently have 2 120mm fans in the case, plus a smaller 80mm fan in the front and the PSU fan on top of an aftermarket CPU cooler. I'm not sure if this is enough to make the shift from 3.2 ghz to 3.9.

Would you guys suggest watercooling for that? If so I'd probably overclock it higher than 3.9.

If watercooling is necessary, what would you suggest for my system? I'd like to keep the price fairly low if possible. I'm also...not the greatest at assembling. How hard/easy is it to set up watercooling by yourself? Would you suggest a professional do it?

Thanks in advance.


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## Warfare (Jun 21, 2008)

You could probably get away with air, but you will need a aftermarket cooler.. I will let someone else recommend one because I dont know much about AMd coolers


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## Simca (Jun 11, 2009)

Already got an aftermarket cooler on my CPU, that's taken care of, just wondering if air would sustain everything I have and hope to have.


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## forcifer (Nov 20, 2005)

what cooler do you have on it now? have you overclocked it yet? what are the current temperatures (both idle and load)? it is possible to get 4.0+ on air, but not every chip and every cooler is cut out for it


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## Simca (Jun 11, 2009)

Right now I have a ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 64 Pro 92mm CPU Cooler. I'll get you the temps as soon as my CPU comes in, nothing is overclocked so far.


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## forcifer (Nov 20, 2005)

alright well that should be good to 3.9. i would recommend getting a better air cooler instead of water cooling unless noise is a serious issue. in case you do, you will need to spend around 300-350


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## Simca (Jun 11, 2009)

After getting all set up and having my computer on for hours now, the temperature of the CPU is 47 degrees celcius and the motherboard is at 43 degrees celcius.


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## forcifer (Nov 20, 2005)

holy crap o.o what are you using to gauge the temps? what kind of thermal paste are you using? do you have any other case fans? what case do you have? sorry but that is way too high for an aftermarket cooler and even a stock cooler


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## Simca (Jun 11, 2009)

I think I found those temperatures in the BIOS...

I used Arctic Silver 5 Thermal compound..

What program do you suggest using to check out cpu temps etc...


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## Tumbleweed36 (May 14, 2005)

If those temps are when you first start up, you are way to high to consider overclocking at this time. Those temps for the rig when it is overclocked, are they????

First of all, you most likely need to change the thermal paste, second, we need to know what case fans, where located, and which direction are they blowing. Maybe we can get those temps down.


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## forcifer (Nov 20, 2005)

core temp works very well, i think its the best personally but others say speed fan. i have found speed fan to not work as well with newer components, but thats just from what i have done personally


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## Simca (Jun 11, 2009)

ugggggghhhh.... Core temp is showing my cpu running at 44-48 degrees celcius....

Cooling System
80mm Fans	2 x 80mm Blue LED fan
120mm Fans	1 x 120mm Rear fan
ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 64 Pro 92mm CPU Cooler

and the PSU fan if that counts?

Used Arctic Silver 5 Thermal paste.....

Starting to wonder if my CPU cooler is even working or if I didn't apply the paste right (or if it messed up and I took the CPU off the cooler when I failed to put the cooler on the first time).

ugghhh...

I turned the cpu cooler so that it blew towards the rear 120mm fan. They're right next to one another. should all be going out..


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## Simca (Jun 11, 2009)

I took the heat sink off, rubbed it down with rubbing alcohol (i didn't do this before). reapplied, even smoothened the paste out with a thin piece of cardboard (like a business card) and stuck it back in. Starting temps were 36 degrees Celcius, but that's simply gotta' be from it just starting up, as I'm looking at Core Temp, it's rising now to 40s which makes me believe given time it'll be back up to 47.

Tell me if I reapplied it incorrectly. I've seen some videos where people just put a blob on it and stick the heat sink on it (guess it smushes it and spreads it?)

What I did was evenly spread it throughout the entirety of the cpu in a decently thin coating. I hear people say less is more..well..it seems I put more than they did..is that bad...and is that really the reason for these high temps?

It's a solid 43 degrees celcius now after being on for 10 mins or so. 

Personally don't see that as an improvement seeing as how it was 46-7ish after being on for 48 hours. If it stays at 43 then I guess that's an improvement? But I'm thinking that's still high...this is so annoying...

[Edit: juggling from 41-44. Is it supposed to change so damn much? Wish it was more static.]


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## forcifer (Nov 20, 2005)

less is more, there should be about a BB sized blob or around half a rice grain sized blob. there are ways of not using any thermal paste also, but they take lots of time


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## Simca (Jun 11, 2009)

Well, I put a pea sized amount of arctic silver 5, but then I spread it around with a gloved finger and then a business card to smoothen it out all over the chip. Some videos didn't spread the paste out to the edges, but I did.

Maybe I put too much again?


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## forcifer (Nov 20, 2005)

yea, try about half of whatever you use last time. that is a bunch


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## Simca (Jun 11, 2009)

Reapplied it for the 3rd time now and I cannot possible make it thinner without ~not covering~ the entire surface area of the chip...so the thermal paste is not the problem.. it's gotta' be the case itself.


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## forcifer (Nov 20, 2005)

i usually dont spread it out and just let the weight of the heat sink do it, but what are the temps now?


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## Simca (Jun 11, 2009)

Basically the same.

Do PSU wires obstruct air flow?

Speedfan tells me the following:
Fan1: 2300RPM
Temp1: 43C
Temp2: 36C
Temp3: -128C
HD0: 31C
Core 44C


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## Simca (Jun 11, 2009)

Just got Everest which I'm gonna' keep. Seems to have everything I possibly need.

Here's a screenshot of my temps etc rather than writing it all down.

http://i703.photobucket.com/albums/ww39/AngelicFantasy/Screenshots/EverestTemps.png


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## forcifer (Nov 20, 2005)

something is wrong with your fans. where are they located? that is still on the high side...it will work, but is still pretty hot


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## Simca (Jun 11, 2009)

My fans are 80mm on the side 80 mm on the front and 120mm in the rear.

I don't know how to raise the fan speeds for any of my fans.


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## adrianparke2002 (Jun 4, 2009)

use thermal paste 
aftermarket cpu cooler
big psu fan
exaust fans"or fan"
intake fans
pci blower fan duel slot prefferable
clean the wiring up with some zip ties
use some round ide cables to make it neater and cooler 
bealive me all of this list will make it run seriously cool and smooth

:MASTER COOLER TECH BITS AND BYTES COMPUTER SYSTEMS VANCOUVER WASHINGTON:


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## forcifer (Nov 20, 2005)

hmm... that isnt that many i guess...still those are really high temps. would it be possible to put the 120mm fan in the front instead and move the 80mm to the back? water cooling may be in order or higher cfm fans. if you do want water cooling, how much would you be willing to spend?


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