CPU water blocks roundup

**Moonman** · 04-09-2013, 05:40 PM

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**Moonman** · 04-09-2013, 05:48 PM

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**~~AMDforME~~** · 04-09-2013, 09:37 PM

Nice effort. Thanks for sharing. One thing to be careful about with graphs is that they can visually exaggerate the results. As an example from your test data, with the exception of the Phobya UC-1 LT, there is only an ~3C delta spread in H2O temp from all of the water blocks tested. Depending on what graph range is used, it will alter the appearance of the minute changes in actual water block performance.

I realize that some folks mistakenly believe a 1C change is a big deal but in the big scheme of life 3C is a very small range for CPU/GPU thermal cooling. By that I mean that pretty much any of the water blocks tested would work just fine even for extreme overclocking as 1C-3C isn't going to significantly impact system performance, i.e. you are highly unlikely to be able to achieve a meaningful increase in CPU clockspeed via a 1C-3C CPU temp change. That being said people should be able to pick anyone of these water blocks except the Phobya UC-1 LT and be pretty happy with the results.

As you noted the results are based on the pump that you used, your lines, rads, fans, ambient temp, etc. and the results might and probably would vary with other layouts. That is important for folks to understand and is precisely why with a very narrow differential between these water blocks, they all can be considered a worthy option for any system except perhaps the UC-1 LT.

**Moonman** · 04-10-2013, 01:16 AM

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**tiborrr** · 04-10-2013, 01:20 AM

Excellent work there buddy

**bundymania** · 04-10-2013, 05:58 AM

Thanks for testing !

**Martinm210** · 04-10-2013, 09:02 PM

Really nice work. You should post this up in the Water Cooling forum if you haven't already. Look forward to your 3770 results as well.

Bravo!

**Moonman** · 04-11-2013, 06:43 AM

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**Martinm210** · 04-11-2013, 11:05 AM

You may want to verify between MX-2 batches that you are getting the same result as before with one of the previously tested blocks. I have seen enough difference between two tubes to cause problems. Always try to make sure I have plenty to finish a whole round anymore.

**Moonman** · 04-12-2013, 04:01 AM

Thanks for heads up. Now I'll test all with the second MX-2 but I'll also check for the differences bewteen both batches.

**prava** · 04-12-2013, 04:33 AM

Wow, the 3770 is a very hot cpu, 10?C difference from the 2500k...

**Moonman** · 04-15-2013, 03:20 AM

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**stren** · 04-15-2013, 06:46 AM

Nice work - I love to see correlation so it's good to know that my 380/supremacy results look similar and that your ivy results look similar to st0ned's from what I remember. Your Phobya block seems terrible on every socket though. Mine performed essentially the same as the 380 on a 3930K but yours is 6C worse than the 380 block. It seems high to just be manufacturing variance. Maybe we should trade phobya blocks and see whether things change.

+1 for posting in the water cooling section, I don't really check out here lol.

**tiborrr** · 04-15-2013, 07:05 AM

@stren: It has already been posted in the water cooling section, last week IIRC, maybe it needs a bump? http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...blocks-roundup

**darckhart** · 04-16-2013, 05:26 AM

great charts! thanks for testing! i just removed my ek supreme hf last weekend and toyed around with the idea of replacing it with something newer, but had no idea what. your post was quite timely and actually tells me i dont really need to swap anything. =)

**Moonman** · 04-20-2013, 10:47 AM

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**Utroz** · 04-20-2013, 04:49 PM

Ivy bridge has a smaller thermal footprint (the area the heat comes from is smaller) and how the waterblock spreads the heat throughout its cooling area effects the results significantly. Another factor is the Sandybridge cpu's have solder for TIM and Ivybridge has paste for the TIM (the interface from the die to the heat-spreader). These reasons are the bigger parts of why Sandybridge and Sandbridge-E cpu's tend to have different results from Ivy bridge cpus. I am highly interested in Ivybridge-E or even Ivybridge-EX (if you hit the megabucks) and Haswell results when they become available. Also I would be interested in seeing a regular Ivybridge cpu with the heatspreader removed or with better thermal paste. Nice work man, keep it up..

**Moonman** · 04-21-2013, 01:05 PM

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**Kenjiwing** · 04-22-2013, 12:29 PM

Would be awesome if you could do some lg 1366 tests :O

**tiborrr** · 04-23-2013, 11:46 PM

Thanks Moonman! If you wish I can lend you my pressure drop / flow rate testing equipment.

**Moonman** · 04-25-2013, 02:48 AM

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**liberato87** · 04-26-2013, 03:43 PM

well done!
thank you

**zalbard** · 04-26-2013, 04:23 PM

I see you tried rotating Koolance 370... What would you say is the best orientation for 3770k?

With inlet and outlet parallel to RAM, or orthogonal? Thanks.