Coolit Boreas - trying to carry on where CornerJack left off

[SteveRo]

So basically what I see is a 7c improvement when using the Boreas over your LC setup in your first screen shot. As a suggestion, if your going to show a screen shot, take the shot while your under load to show temps, not after you've stoped Prime 95. I wish they had a away of intergrating some LC on the TEC's hot side instead of relying on air. I think that would allow the biggest performance increase while maintianing silence. If Coolit had an option for that with the Boreas, I'd probably jump all over one.

Appreciate the time and effort, I've been looking at these units pretty close lately, and your thread has helped alot.

andtyc

Yes, boreas was better by ~7C when at 4ghz and vcore at just over 1.4V.
Move up to 4.43ghz (ht off) and 1.55 vcore and custom water catches up to the boreas.
I plan to tinker some more -
1. replace coolit block with gtz
2. then - add feser quad and higher speed pump

[NeedMoMegaHurtZ]

SteveRo - @4GHz HT on, does the Boreas need 100 % fan / cooling to keep up with the thermal load? The screenshot say 40% but that is @ idle .

Looking forward to your "tinkering" tests

[demonkevy666]

rge,

Yes, I think your assessment may be correct.

I still plan to try to put the feser quad in the loop and collect the data.
boreas - block - feser quad - ST 355 with XSPC top - boreas.
I am expecting no more than 1-2C improvement because that is all that my coolant is currently running over ambient.
I may not even get that because I will be reducing my flow rate due to going from 1/2 inch to 1/4 inch barbs (boreas constraint).
Going from the coolit block to the GTZ block might help.

I agree that adding more active cooling would be the ticket to lower temps.
Adding another boreas in series would probably do it but I nor my wallet are ready for that just yet.
Could two boreas in series get us to 0 C water temps?
How much of an additional overclock would that get us?
I would expect max oc prime stable 4.4 to 4.5 maybe 4.55 ht on.

doesn't velocity ever come in to play ever in these loop????

sure there is add pressure, heat dump form pump and also head pressure change.

but there is also restrictive blocks that can change that too

1 GPM still go's threw 1/4 tube. but it go's faster then it would go threw the 1/2" tube.

[SteveRo]

SteveRo - @4GHz HT on, does the Boreas need 100 % fan / cooling to keep up with the thermal load? The screenshot say 40% but that is @ idle .

Looking forward to your "tinkering" tests

I need just over 1.4v for 4ghz ht on and this is well within the boreas's abilities.
I will check again but I remember the fans being relatively quiet.

[SteveRo]

needmoremegahurtz -

ok so I reran this but looking back at your question - I don't think I answered it.

I ran at 4ghz ht on at 1.406v but I had the target coolant temp set to 17C.
That resulted in what you see below.
If I raise the coolant temp in the mtec s/w the fans drop way off but the cpu temp goes up as well.
How about this - what max cpu temp do you want to run at or what max fan speed do you want- I can control either one of these.
You can run temps very high with i7.
I have run this i7 at 11+ hours prime stable with very high temps - 97C - stayed stable the whole time, screen shot attach (this example on air - noctua).

[SteveRo]

OK so lets replace the coolit block with a ST GTZ and while we're at it lets also replace the the coolit pump with a high head pressure ST mcp 355 with xspc top.
This looks a bit weird because of the need to use reducers to get to the boreas 1/4 inch barbs, but it leak tested fine.
The only hard thing was getting the boreas stock clamps off of the tecs!
It took some work but I finally got them off.

[NeedMoMegaHurtZ]

Thanks taking the time to check that out for me SteveRo, combined with all the other info you posted , that answers my questions about how well this unit can handle the heat load . Looking foward to your tweaking/mod testing results!

Cheers

[SteveRo]

ok - looks like the gtz block and/or the higher head pressure pump makes for an improvement!

Three screen shots -

1. custom water - feser quad, GTZ block (no active cooling) at 4ghz, ht on (same as shown previously)
2. stock boreas/4ghz ht on - boreas flat out (same as shown previously)
3. lastly boreas with gtz block and ST MCP 355 pump with xspc top - 4ghz ht on (new!).

The boreas may not have been flat out, it might have provide even lower coolant temps.
I left the mtec s/w at the same 18C setting for valid comparison to #2 above.
Condensation will become more of a concern as I go lower.
I have conformal coated the board, luberexed the socket, applied silicone rubber around the socket but no gaskets - frosty king not yet applied.

[flak-spammer]

Nice...I wonder what a comparable cost of doing this with homemade TEC hardware would be. Those are quite respectable temps especially since I have heard that i7s run quite hot with HT on.

[SteveRo]

So, I am a bit more pleased now, by going to the custom boreas I am -12C from my previous water set up.
So this is at 4ghz and vcore of just over 1.4v.
Next up - higher speed and higher v's.

[msgclb]

The Boreas Forum has answers to some of our questions.

Threads in Forum : Boreas MTEC Chiller


Guide to Replacing Boreas Water Pump?

Question:
Can someone write up a simple step by step guide to replacing the water pump on my Boreas?

I assume since I may lose some liquid, I will have to refill it a bit before sealing it back up. What coolant is recommended to top off with?

Thanks

Answer

If you want to know how to replace the pump click the link above.

Answer to coolant

"refill the system w/ a mixture of distilled h2o & prestone low tox (like 5:1) use a fill syringe to add the mixture"

Pump question

Question
I have a DD12V-D5 Pump Variable Speed. Can I use this pump, if I set it at speed 1 or 2?

Answer

That should be fine. The flow rate for the pump CoolIT uses and can sell you is around 55 Gal/h. You just want to avoid setting the flow too high so you give the coolant enough time to shed heat before being recycled.

What coolant to use?

Question
I just wondered if one are going for a barebone Boreas or i want to modify it, what is the preffered coolant to use? Cant i get hold of the CoolIt coolant that originally is used?

Answer

Click the link to read the answer.

Recommended flow rate for the Boreas bar bone unit

Question
Just wondering if any one could tell me what the recommended flow rate is for the Boreas. ie. what is the flow rate of the standard pump that comes with the complete kit.

Also is it possible to get the chiller with 1/2 inch barbs.

Answer

Unfortunately, the Boreas Barebones unit only comes with 1/4 inch barbs.

The necessary flow rate is not very fast as our pumps (which are designed to be efficient in these applications) are around 3.5L/min.

Question
So would the Swiftech MCP655 be okay with this unit or I lose out in performance due to the swiftech pumps high flow rate which is approximately 20L/min?

Answers
20 L/min seems a bit extreme.

Since all of Cool It Systems chiller units use 1/4" ID tubing, there is a possibility the pump would generate a lot of head pressure; could blow a line off, though I never seen it happen.

IMO, I would use Swiftech 350 or 355. The head pressure is enough that you shouldn't blow a line, and yet enough to tack on a bunch of other FHE's or Radiators without losing a lot of flow.

swiftech 350 = 7.33 l/min
swiftech 355 = 7.56 l/min

Although both of these units are great products I am not convinced that a doubling of the flow rate would deliver the optimum heat removal that the Boreas unit was designed for. You got to remember not only would you be doubling the system flow in the system the pressure in the FHE's be increased even further because of the smaller inlet and outlet barb resulting in even a greater flow speed in the FHE's. Without going into the flow VS thermal efficiency calculations of the proposed system loop it would be advantageous to contact the tech support folks and get their recommendations for a pump as I am certain that the have tested many and have the pertinent data available at hand.

In leiu of getting a pump from coolit ..... IMO I would suggest the Danger Den - DDC-12V REV3.2 18W.

admin
Increasing the flow rate by double or so should have little effect on temperatures and performance. As long as you do not push the pressure up too high (above 30psi or so) everything should still work. We do recommend our pump and you can certainly purchase the Bare Bone unit with one of our pumps by contacting our sales guys directly, but any of the lower flow pumps mentioned earlier should be perfectly fine for the unit.

[SteveRo]

Nice...I wonder what a comparable cost of doing this with homemade TEC hardware would be. Those are quite respectable temps especially since I have heard that i7s run quite hot with HT on.

I don't want to figure up the total, I'm sure I wouldn't like the number.
I suspect I am getting close to the cost of going to phase.

[SteveRo]

msgclb

Thanks and yes, I had read most of these previously but they did not answer the majority of my questions.
AND - its more fun to tinker isn't it?

[msgclb]

needmoremegahurtz -
I have run this i7 at 11+ hours prime stable with very high temps - 97C - stayed stable the whole time, screen shot attach (this example on air - noctua).

Do you have a smoke detector in your closet?

msgclb

Thanks and yes, I had read most of these previously but it did not answer the majority of my questions.
AND - its more fun to tinker isn't it?

Tinkering is fun! I've been trying to figure out where I would put a Boreas as I don't have a spare closet!

[rge]

So, I am a bit more pleased now, by going to the custom boreas I am -12C from my previous water set up.
So this is at 4ghz and vcore of just over 1.4v.
Next up - higher speed and higher v's.

12C lower is a pretty good gain on i7's, interested to see what higher vcore does. again thanks for sharing

[SteveRo]

ok - so 4.43 ghz ht off, v's set to intel maximums (or at least as close as I can get to them on my mobo).

Three screen shots -

1. custom water - feser quad, GTZ block (no active cooling, same as shown previously)
2. stock boreas - boreas flat out (same as shown previously)
3. lastly boreas with gtz block and ST MCP 355 pump with xspc top - boreas flat out (new!).

For cases 2 and 3 above - the max observed coolant temp was 21C (via mtec controller).

[SteveRo]

Again there is an improvement - this time -5C compared to water, -6C compared to the stock boreas.
Not as much of an improvement as at 4ghz/1.4v (-12C) but still going in the right direction.

Looks like the mtec s/w is having a problem reading cpu temp.

[Vinas]

My god 86C on air things are getting toasty.

[THE JEW (RaVeN)]

Thanks for this. Interesting read.

[filmbot]

I don't understand the mix of unloaded and loaded screenshots. Doesn't really give a side by side comparison.

I'm not a big water guy but I think this thing could be fun to mod and work with. Adding all sorts of extras like you have.

[NeedMoMegaHurtZ]

I don't understand the mix of unloaded and loaded screenshots. Doesn't really give a side by side comparison.

You can draw some conclusions from looking at real temp's max temperature obtained during each run

[SteveRo]

Well for the life of me I can't seem to get 4.24 HT on to run under the boreas - not sure if it is the boreas or me.
Everything is the same except water traded out for boreas and a human operator.
It always reboots at 19-24 minutes into priming - four tries - max temps for each try was - 77, 78, 78, 79C.
Compare to - with water only -

OK - I figured out my problem at 4.24 HT on.
At this oc and v's, (or higher) every time prime small fft's start up the machine would reboot.
Never a blue screen just reboot.
I decided to put the boreas on it's own power supply and that fixed the problem!
You would have thought a coolmax 1200 would have been enough for everything but apparently not.
I was running a 9800gx2 - but just one and at stock - running 2 in quad sli should not have been a problem for the 1200 ps - what gives?.

[SteveRo]

OK, so now that I've got that fixed, here is another compare – high oc - ht on - high v’s - screen shots in this order –

1. 4.3 HT on under water (gtz block, feser quad, ST mcp 355), low multi high bclock - no active cooling
2. 4.3 HT on custom boreas (gtz block, ST mcp 355), low multi, high bclock
3. Lastly - 4.3 HT on - high multi, low bclock with just cpu v and cpu PLL high, all other v's at stock

[SteveRo]

So, again there is an improvement - this time -4C compared to water.

Not relevant to the boreas alone but then when changing to low bclock, high multi I can get the temps down another 4C.
I think the reason for this drop is more a result of lower v's needed - I suspect reducing qpi and mem volts might help also.

[HDCHOPPER]

would of loved to see the differance with just cpu block change & then with just the pump change with stock cpu block

if eye was to do any 1 thing to my little unit think it would be the cpu block

but thanks for all the tinkering ! it shows a lot ! been thinking of upgradeing to a boras or a OCZ Cryo Z