Is it worth watercooling Phenom 2's?

[Wiggy McShades]

So back in the day when i water cooled my original phenom (not a phenom 2), it didn't overclock better at all unlike my socket 775 system that saw some pretty good gains. So now i have an phenom 2 x3 720 and I'm wondering if its worth spending the money on a water cooling setup for this cpu. What about if i purchased a 955 or 965 (when released) would those benefit more from being water cooled? Currently I'm using a TRUE with 2 fans.

[m411b]

The cooler you keep a 955 the higher it will scale! I would venture to say the same about the 720.

[G0ldBr1ck]

I water cooled a 940 back in Jan. and was only able to gain a questionable ~50Mhz over good Air. Havent taken the time since then but I would assume that its about the same story with AM3 Phenom 2's. I dont think your realy gonna see much gain over air cooling until your cooling below ambient temps.

[crazydiamond]

the colder the better, i know gotvoltage's loop gains some serious mhz over air, but i think the gains from a true push/pull wouldnt be too great going to a single rad loop

[Sparky]

Water is just.... cooler

I already had it so I used it.

[zanzabar]

Water is just.... cooler

I already had it so I used it.

same here, im not sure if it clocks better but to cool my 720 i with my pa120.2, mcp355 w/ top and dtekv2 i only needed my sanaces at 800rpm and it never went over 40c on the core even right below 4ghz and with wcg it was loading at about 28c. with similar settings on a zalman 9500 it loaded at 63 with about the same ambiants of 75f. and i think that liquid on the NB/PWM on the gd70 would help alot but there are no good blocks

[SoulsCollective]

From my experience, most Phenom IIs I've worked with have topped out of their own accord long before they were hitting thermal barriers, meaning I'd say you don't "need" WC in the same sense that an i7 "needs" WC to allow it to reach full potential.

However, WC is always > air for cooling:noise ratio, so you'd be able to get the same level of cooling with a water loop with 800rpm fans that you would otherwise get out of, say, a TRUE with 1,600rpm fans (estimates only here). Not sure if that's an issue for you, and really, if I didn't already have the capacity to WC a Phenom II chip, or just needed a new block to do so (which would cost less than the cost of a good air cooler), I wouldn't consider it all worth the cost of setting up an entire new loop.

[cbjaust]

From my experience, most Phenom IIs I've worked with have topped out of their own accord long before they were hitting thermal barriers, meaning I'd say you don't "need" WC in the same sense that an i7 "needs" WC to allow it to reach full potential.

However, WC is always > air for cooling:noise ratio, so you'd be able to get the same level of cooling with a water loop with 800rpm fans that you would otherwise get out of, say, a TRUE with 1,600rpm fans (estimates only here). Not sure if that's an issue for you, and really, if I didn't already have the capacity to WC a Phenom II chip, or just needed a new block to do so (which would cost less than the cost of a good air cooler), I wouldn't consider it all worth the cost of setting up an entire new loop.

Yeah, I reckon that's a fair call.

same here, im not sure if it clocks better but to cool my 720 i with my pa120.2, mcp355 w/ top and dtekv2 i only needed my sanaces at 800rpm and it never went over 40c on the core even right below 4ghz and with wcg it was loading at about 28c. with similar settings on a zalman 9500 it loaded at 63 with about the same ambiants of 75f. and i think that liquid on the NB/PWM on the gd70 would help alot but there are no good blocks

because Zalman 9500 = fail

Cheers

[shazza]

I can't answer the question as to whether it's "worth cooling the Phenom II," cause I'm just not that experienced when it comes to the overclocking advantages. What I can say is, it's very easy to water cool the PII processors. You don't have to spend a fortune on the "best" water block or the "beastly" radiators. You can use lower end (aka cheaper, but still good performing) water blocks and radiators and end up with a very nice system. I've used no-name radiators and blocks on my 955 setup and am seeing temps less than 40 degrees when the rig is crunching 24/7. This is with low speed fans, so noise is also quite acceptable.

[ridney]

it's not worth it, in my opinion, if all you want is the maximum overclock speed of your phenom II, i would estimate it could only get you a maximum increase of 100mhz, but then i also watercooled my x3 720 comming from a v8

[vengance_01]

Its not the best bang for your buck. Most PII's top out at 3.6-3.8 for daily 24/7 stable O/Cs. This can be done on air no problem even with moderate noise. W/Cing is fun and if you have the money, you will be able to squeeze that little bit more and reduce your noise output as well.

[hikaricloud]

the colder the better, i know gotvoltage's loop gains some serious mhz over air, but i think the gains from a true push/pull wouldnt be too great going to a single rad loop

Didn't know he had a water loop, that's interesting.

Personally, I don't think you'll see much to gain over air. I know I've hit 4.042ghz on a CCF, I think I can see some small gains with cooler ambient temps...

You will gain some speed, since the phenoms love cold, but over the 4ghz range, you won't see much. With my CCF, I get 3.7 stable just fine with good temps. My sig is a bit outdated, I've since bumped the voltage down to 1.525, and max load temps are more around 40c...I attempted 3.8, at 1.55v, but didn't get past 10 minutes of P95, and my temps were just dandy.

I think, if you're into benching, your best bet is to make the move to DICE or LN2. If you just want good regular overclocking or you're looking for a higher 24/7 clock, I don't think you'll find what you want in a water loop.

[Zeus]

There i was, thinking i had super high end watercooling, getting ~32ºC idle and ~40ºC load (Prime/Linpack) temps. :ROFL: Now i see you are all getting this kind of temps on water. I have to say i'm running 3.8GHz 24/7 with 1.365V.

I'd say not worth it, once you go watercooling you're addicted-- stay away from it.

[hikaricloud]

Running 3.8 with that low of a voltage? NICE. But getting around 40c at load with that voltage? That actually seems high for some reason. :\ Unless I'm completely missing something.

[Zeus]

Yup. Yeah 1.365V is nice but that is with LoadLine Calibration enabled so no Vdroop or even a slight raise in Vcore under load.

40ºC load high? eh...

I have ordered a HeatKiller 3.0 LT so i'm hoping for a little lower temps, i've gotta say i have a fullcover videoblock in the same loop as well that won't be helping to get temps down.

This is in a 21ºC ambient with my YateLoons DSL turned down to 50-75% speed with the fancontroller.

Hope that puts things in perspective or is it still high?

edit: I see you guys gettin 40ºC load but you have triple cores. Quads generate more heat!

[Daveburt714]

So back in the day when i water cooled my original phenom (not a phenom 2), it didn't overclock better at all unlike my socket 775 system that saw some pretty good gains. So now i have an phenom 2 x3 720 and I'm wondering if its worth spending the money on a water cooling setup for this cpu. What about if i purchased a 955 or 965 (when released) would those benefit more from being water cooled? Currently I'm using a TRUE with 2 fans.

Hey Wiggy, if your using a TRUE w/2 fans the most you'd probably get from water would be 1-200Mhz on the CPU Core...

It seems like PHII's do OK until they hit ~53c load or 1.575 Vcore (YMMV)...
If you can push close to those limits on air you won't see much improvement by going to water...

I remember you from the 9600 days... The PhII's are MUCH better chips, but they still don't like to run high temps.

Have fun, and Good Luck!

[hikaricloud]

edit: I see you guys gettin 40ºC load but you have triple cores. Quads generate more heat!

Fair enough, I didn't think about that. :P My bad.

[Cyben]

I just switched from a SunBeam air cooler to the Apogee GTZ.
I couldn't get any more MHZ - 3900.
With WaterCooling, I can leave my computer at 3.9 mhz and at 1.5 v all the time. It stays cool.
It's my first WC system and I like it.
I'm glad I did it.

[iandh]

Yes and no, you can get a decent Phenom II to 3.8 on air, and 3.9 on water. The only good thing about water is that for any given clock you can run lower voltage with water because cooling off PII's increases their stability.

It's kind of a tossup. I personally wouldn't set up a loop just for a PII, kind of a waste of money IMO when a near silent $36 Mugen II can take the chip easily as high, and keep load temps well under 50C.

The chips do behave well though liquid cooled, so if you have a desire to set up a loop for your entire system, I'd say go for it.

[gOtVoltage]

YEs ,,

The key thing is do you really need it?

If your going for max Oc like i do and like to play with Voltage then yes .