1.5 year rig upgrade.

[Rob_W_]

Ok, so rig is one and a half years old now and has had numerous tweak's ( good and bad ) but I now feel the need to give it a boost.
Funds do not allow for new upgrades yet, so initially I have a few areas where I think a big difference can be made,
my i7 6700k I have for a very short period had at 4.7 air cooled but temps too high so running now at 4.3 ( temps high in realbench but not in game) , so I am looking at water cooling, I feel with the right cooler I could go further than 4.7 with the cpu ( silicone lottery winner?) but I am not sure weather to go for nzxt kraken, ekwb 360 or a custom loop and include the gpu.
I have 2 x 8mb gskill trident Z ddr4 3400, this I have been able to run at 3600 when I had cpu at 4.7 but now I can only get it to 3200 so I think with the right settings this again could run higher. (I have another matched set of same mem sat in box since new as cant run them together, moment of madness purchase error)
never tried to oc gpu (not really felt the need to) .
Also De Lidding the cpu is very appealing especially with the right cooling unit.
had a lot of help in the past from Nate/Chino its reassuring to see your still around guys.
I would welcome any comments or suggestions so thanks in advance
Rob.
ps probably 12 months before full upgrade.:(

[xeromist]

Well, keep in mind that a full custom loop can be quite expensive and if you are planning a full upgrade in the next year then you may need to replace blocks when you do. If you just want to hold over until a full upgrade then something like the EK kit is probably your best choice. That way you have everything you need now and you have a starting point for a full custom loop later.

[kkn]

if you want to go the cheap way on "WC" you can do the AIO coolers like corsairs H100 or some others.
and if you are going the custom way it will cost you, just like X said.
you need the case for it, you need good air flow, for each OC'd component you need 2 fan slots of radiator surface.

[Korth]

Your Dark Rock Advanced cooler is not meant for extreme cooling, it's meant for extremely quiet cooling. The Dark Rock PRO 3 cooler is much beefier (and has two beefier fans).

But beyond bequiet there's bigger and beastlier air coolers: Noctua NH-D15, Cryorig R1 Ultimate, Thermalright Silver Arrow Extreme, Raijintek TISIS, several others. Note that some of these huge air coolers perform much better after upgrading the (usually not so great) fans and thermal paste they come with, the reviews/comparisons are always based on "out of the box" components but better is often possible (for a price).

And your Carbide 600C case is not the optimum choice for cooling. Huge air cooler obstructs the front-to-back airflow, CPU might run a bit cooler but GPU cards above it wouldn't. AIO wouldn't obstruct airflow but a (140mm) rear rad would again obstruct airflow while I have doubts about how much heat a front or bottom rad could force out of the chassis (vs how much heat fan airflow and convection would suck back in). I think a different chassis would be a better choice, especially for custom watercooling.

It's clear that your CPU can run ~4.7GHz but you keep it at ~4.3GHz because you don't want your chassis to be a furnace. So I would upgrade cooling and/or chassis first, address the known problem, before upgrading anything else. A new de-lidded i7-7700K would run faster, of course, but I suspect it will hit the same heat wall as your existing parts.

[davemon50]

I use a rear double thick 120mm rad with dual fans, and have found using the right case with great airflow characteristics it works well for the system. I have rarely run it at over low speed so it remains quiet. The caution is, depending on where your MoBo has the memory slots located, it blocks some of the chips, such that chip height is incompatible for tall profiles, Corsair Dominators for example. I use low profile RAM heat sinks for that reason. My last build had only 2mm clearance between the RAM and the radiator. I run XMP "out of the box" though and don't tweak extreme like you are proposing.

[Nate152]

Hi Rob

A custom loop will depend on your budget, I suppose you could do a 5.25" bay res/pump combo if you wanted something like that with a 360 rad. Your case has 2 x 5.25" bays and they have single and dual bay res/pump combos.

As an example here is a single 5.25 bay res/pump combo from Koolance.

http://koolance.com/rp-985-reservoir-and-pump

I probably wouldn't liquid cool your ROG Strix 980 Ti, the only way I would liquid cool it is if it's thermal throttling with the fans at 100% and I'm pretty sure it's not. But if you want it quieter by all means go for it.

The cheapest route would be to get a good aio liquid cpu cooler and there are plenty to choose from.

Question: Do you have the cpu voltage on auto or set manually ?

[Rob_W_]

Hi guys,
Thanks for the comments and some interesting observations, of wich sways me toward an aio unit for CPU only, the GPU has no heat problems, it was just a case of if I had gone for custom loop it seemed right to cool everything I could with it.
With an aio yes it would allow more front to back airflow and there is room in the base for 2 X 140mm or 3 X 120mm fans, I must admit the Dark rock cooler almost touches the back of the GPU and two memory sticks so aio should increase airflow generally inside the case.
Future upgrade I will look at a complete new build, reason being heck just because I can!!
**Nate152 CPU voltage is on auto ,*
I tried all sorts to get mem to run at its 3.400 rating, the only setting I could get it to run on stable was enabling XMP profile but that put clock at 102.4 and temps up in the 90s.
Don't get me wrong! Rig is running great and does everything I want nice and stable, as it should but I have more fun with it when OCing, yes I have this thing about temperatures due to in the 80s I overcooked a £450 GPU and set the smoke alarm off. Lol
Conclusion, aio unit and then some fun OC.*

[Nate152]

Try setting the cpu core/cache voltage manually, you should be able to get the voltage lower which will reduce temps.

For 4.3GHz try 1.15v - 1.20v.

We can try to get your ram at 3400MHz if you like. 🙂

[Rob_W_]

Hi Nate, tried 1.15v - 1.2v c ashes on boot up, took it up to 1.3 crashes loading Windows, for now I have put it back where it was as have to to go to France couple of weeks befor I can try again, in the meantime ordering the Nzxt x62 cooler and then see what it can do?
I do appreciate the help this forum gives, thanks.*

[Rob_W_]

Now I'm back and have swapped cooler ( went for nzxt kraken x62) did initial oc up to 4694GHz stress tested ok but started getting system crashes randomly,
now set oc to 4.5GHz and have mem at 3200, ( now able to game stable with no crashes) every time I use xmp I get instability detected, I have included bench and stress results, at idle and after tests. what do you think?
Ambient room temp app30deg (and that's with doors and window open, hotter outside lol)





took gpu up a notch as well, I am pretty confident cpu can go to 4.7GHz ? if, I can get the right settings :confused:
will be installing a few more fans to help cooling gpu and top of case (bit of a dead area due to inverted layout ), set rgb on the kraken to change colour with temps ( looks cool and at a glance I can see how hot she's running.