New Setup and have a couple of questions

[TheGoofyOne]

Hello all, this is my first post here ar Xtreme Systems though I have been using this forum for months now researching on what to buy for my first water cooling setup.

I have just watercooled my Q9450 EVGA FTW 780i with a PrimoChill Typhoon III, a Swiftech GTZ and a bits power NB/SB waterblock this weekend finishing yesterday. The second half of my project will be to watercool three GTX260's and to utilize the second loop of my Typhoon III.

Here are my questions:

I also purchased a Zalman Fan Controller that has 4 temperature sensors. My question is how to best install the sensors. I was considering monitoring the CPU, NB, SB, and #1 Mosfet. When you take into consideration the size of the NB chip, the sensor will cover almost half of it. Same with the SB. Though there are 10 or 12 different VR's under my mosfet cooler, which one do I place the sensor on? And if I do it will cover 80% of that single VR. And though the sensor will cover only a small amount of the CPU, won't installing these sensors take away from the cooling of them respectively to the amount of real estate the sensor covers?

Second question. I was able to OC my MB/CPU to 1800 mghz usable and 1600 mghz stable on air with a Zalman 9700. I have been at 1600 mghz for over a year now with no issues. Now that I have the WC setup running I can't seem to even get 1600 mghz out of it without the mb resetting the bios to defaults. I'm wondering if it may be a PWM issue or the fact that I don't have NB fan connected any longer and that the cpu fan connector is connected to the fan controller and not a real fan.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I have taken pictures here and there and will post a complete mod post once I have the vid cards complete.

Thank you all for your help not only today but for weeks prior.

[TopFuel1471]

The MFC2, right? I used to use one.

You're not going to put the probe between the contact surfaces. Tape the probe to the side portion of the block. You want it as close to the heat source as possible without interfering with the contact.

[hellcamino]

TopFuel told you correctly on the sensor bit, the issue with stability that you have after water cooling now is probably your nb block being cranked down too tight. As I remember, the 780i's were pretty sensitive to the nb block being too tightly attached, try backing it off a little bit as long as it still seems to be making decent contact. If the board is bowed and the bowing lessens as you loosen the nb block then you are likely on the right track.

[TheGoofyOne]

Yes the MCF2. I chose it as it tells me what wattage my entire pc is using as well. Thank you for the temp sensor placement reply. I was thinking of putting it close. I'm glad my thoughts were on the right track and that I didn't install them between the contact surfaces. ;)

About the NB being too tight. I would have never thought of that. The kit comes with spacers that keep everything parallel to the board. Doesn't mean they are off a bit. I was thinking that it may be too loose and that it wasn't getting good contact but my MCP temp is 40 in the BIOS. And if it wasn't getting the best contact, why wouldn't it boot up cold well and then start giving me issues? Didn't make sense. I will be taking it all apart either tonight or tomorrow and installing the temp sensors and checking the tightness of the NB/SB block.

Looking at taking all this apart, I didn't think of draining it when I was purchasing everything. I didn't install a drain of any kind. Now I have to think of some way to get the fluid out of the system without taking a fitting or hose off and it leaking everywhere. Hindsight is 20/20.

Thank you for your thought and ideas. They are much appreciated.

[TheGoofyOne]

hellcamino, you were right. It was a nb/sb block issue. Thank you. I am running fine again and even did a quick overclock to 1833fsb at 3.66. Going to have to do some more research to go higher.

Any ideas on good w/c setup overclocking guides?. I know it gets harder the more you oc so i'm going to have to do some reading.

Again, thank you for your help.

[hellcamino]

Good to hear! As for overclocking of that board, I would suggest you stay somewhere near where you are now if you can get it stable. I toasted capacitors on 3 boards and had one memory controller fail using the evga 780i boards at around 1850 fsb with an x3360 (xeon equivalent of Q9550), dual cores seem to fare better at high fsb for daily use on the 780i's. I used the same cpu in an Asus P5Q Deluxe at 1900 fsb for almost a year afterward too so the chip itself was fine. Good luck!