Watercooling the chipset, neccesary?

[Raul-7]

I finally got my hands on a Rampage III Extreme [it looks even better in person]. I'm having second thoughts about watercooling the chipset for two reasons; a) I like the stock heatsink design and (b) its expensive. Is it worth in the long run? Will it make the board last longer?

[Vetalar]

IMHO main factor of LC modern boards (6-7W PCH and sub100W mainstream CPUs) is BLING! on this particular board x58 - 24.1W (Tcase - 100*C) and ICH10 - 4.5w (tcase-105*C) and i assume 10% of CPU wattage on VRM (i don't exactly know effectivnes of VRM on this board). LC of board components IMHO if You want go for 4.5+GHz on CPU since powerdraw rises dramatically with clocks and especially voltage. in other cases - adequate airflow is more than sufficient.


and some round-up from skinnee

[aerial]

for looks only (same as ram water blocks)

[Erklat]

for looks only (same as ram water blocks)

Chances are his airflow is already at a loss, so there's a chance this won't hold up. I experienced VRM@100+° with this in the sig and it
is nothing to be wished for. Did I buy it for looks? No, that came in a package with my main issue solved.

[aerial]

The thing is, not every water cooling setup must have bad airflow. Another thing - these elements can be that warm (specs), they reach similar temps on air cooling. To be fair same question can be said about gpu loops, getting core to 40 C for example gives you nothing but the nice temp, so if you cool gpu, why not cool VRM to that temperature.
In my opinion, only component that needs water cooling for actual lower temperature (that benifits in oc) is cpu. Liquid cooling gpu is for getting rid of loud heatsink (temps could be same as stock, it has no impact on oc and not enough impact on card life span to be justified (you replace it sooner)). Other elements, chipsets, voltage section on motherboard, ram, as long as is cooler passively doesn't need water cooling (because it already is silent, and temperatures are within specs anyway).
Getting full set of water blocks isn't a bad thing, just main role of it is "bling" not performance.

[Utnorris]

If you are overclocking and do not have good airflow across the MB, then yes. 1366 VRM's, NB and SB all got very hot since they were connected and the VRM's can get quite toasty. I had the RE3 and I water cooled it because the VRM's would get so hot you couldn't touch them and temps on the NB would get into the 60-70c range. Yes, the waterblock adds bling, but on an x58 MB, it will allow you to push the system to it's max. On the 1155 MB's it is not even remotely necessary, not sure about the 2011 boards, but I would imagine they are like the 1155 boards and do not need it.

[Erklat]

I had the RE3 and I water cooled it because the VRM's would get so hot you couldn't touch them

Half of my board was scorching hawt then. Not only I couldn't touch the heatsink, but the backpanel was also burning.
Now when I think about it I had all kind of strange issues with USB devices which have reduced themselves if not completely gone since then.

[Raul-7]

Thanks everyone.

I knew watercooling any chipset after the X58 was merely for looks, but even the NB on my current board runs really hot (ie. 60-70C)! I guess I need to stop being a cheap git and buy the block for it.

[Utnorris]

For a RE3 you can usually find a used block for under a $100, just check the major FS sections, i.e. here, hardforum, overclock.net, EVGA, Anandtech and a few others.

[Raul-7]

For a RE3 you can usually find a used block for under a $100, just check the major FS sections, i.e. here, hardforum, overclock.net, EVGA, Anandtech and a few others.

I cannot access the FS here.

I'm picky as well, I only like the EK Nickel/Acetal.