Swamp cooling

[Ventrik]

I live in Florida, this is important to mention as even though it's November and 8 o'clock at night. It's about 80+ degrees inside my house. It doesn't cool here, and gets worse during the summer time. I've even run the AC at 60F and it still be over 95 degrees inside.

I'm going to be building a rig that is going to have to run in these temps, but whats worse is I will be producing 3d shorts. For college projects and such forth. My biggest issue is I will need to do this without water of phase cooling.

I was looking at the NZXT Lexa S but I'm not sure what I should do about heatsinks and if I should put a custom north/south heat sink on or use a mobo with them already built in? As well as a sink for the CPU itself. I've seen some very nice ones, but they are so huge I'm not sure it they even fit after I put fans on them, ram in the ram slots and an ATI 5770...

The mobo I'm looking at is this

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...591&CatId=4296

I'd be getting an AMD Phenom II X3 720.

I'm just looking for the best I can do with a student budget. Or is water cooling a better option that's affordable now? I just want something with a longer life span than 6 months without breaking the bank.

[x88x]

Welcome to TBCS!

The mosfet coolers on that MBB look fine, but for that heat, definitely get an aftermarket NB cooler. I got this one a while back, and it worked great. For the CPU, make sure you get a really good HS/F; check out some of these for one in your price range. What exactly is your "student budget"? Additionally, if you get a dedicated graphics card, you should seriously consider getting an aftermarket cooler for it too. Whatever route you take, the most important thing will be to make sure that air flows over everything; and operating in those temps, that it flows fast and hard. I have no personal experience with the Lexa, but there are several people around who do...I'm sure they'll be along eventually

[Ventrik]

My student budget hasn't been named just yet, but my goal is to get the tower for about 800. I may just get an ATI 48XX instead of the 5000 series.

I picked theLexa S case because of it's good stock fans. They are about as good as the Yate Loons I would have replaced them with. I'm thinking about putting a Delta MegaFast for one of the intakes. Just put it on a speed controller. If there is a better case I can get that looks decent I'm all for it as long as it's sub 100 bucks.

As for that chip-set is there a comparability chart? I had for it to not fit, and it shouldn't be an issue to remove the stock ones correct? I've never actually replaced stock parts on a computer. Last time I built a rig "modding" wasn't a term.

How is the 120eXtreme? Ives read some good things about it--and that it doesn't fit in a lot of cases. It's also next to my ram, I'd still like to be able to fit ram into all the slots if needed.

As fir modding the GPU if that's the case I already know what HS/fan I'd put onto it.

Is lapping your sinks really needed? It seems like a time consumer but if it's a big difference I'll be glad to do it.

// Edit

In fact here are the links to the CPU and GPU coolers.

http://www.frozencpu.com/products/56...0c14s881#blank

http://www.frozencpu.com/products/94...40c21s65#blank

They should fit side by side with enough clearing. I just make sure both fans are blowing the same way haha.

[Kayin]

Since I wrote the Lexa S review, I have a bit to say on this.

X3 720 runs hella cool, even OCed. I'm in AL, I'm sharing your misery. Mine is a beast.

The Lexa S is great, but if you run air you may wanna reverse the top fans and find a way to put them on the outside. SRSly. They interfered with my Scythe Mugen and the MegaShadow I'm reviewing.

Speaking of, that's the one to go with. Pick up an AMD mounting kit and a good fan, and it's all you'll need. It's great, seriously.

[x88x]

For the GPU cooler you linked, make sure you get a cooler for the actual chip too, since that cooler is just for the voltage regulators. Also, that's for a 4870/4890, so if you get a different card, make sure you get the right cooler for it.

There's no chart (to my knowledge) for NB cooler size stuff, partially because it depends on so many different elements; mainly to location of the chip on the MBB and the location of the GPU. The one I linked you won't be any taller than your stock one, but since it's solid copper, it'll pull heat off better, and it has a fan, so it can actually get rid of the heat.

As for lapping, if done well (read, wet sanded up to at the very least 2000 grit), you can get a few C lower, but really it's not necessary, imo. Not to say you shouldn't do it; when I did mine I enjoyed it, and learned a lot. Plus, there's the satisfaction of being able to look at it and know that you improved it (And hey, that's why we're all here, right?)

[Ventrik]

@Kayin: The Scythe Mugen and the MegaShadow seem oversized. I can understand mounting on the external but... I've heard that the Noctua fans are great for moving air. What about their heatsinks? http://www.xoxide.com/noctua-nh-u12-cooler.html I'd end up buying their fans /anyway/. It's good to know that the Lexa S is a worthwhile investment!

@x88x: I'm not sure what GPU to be honest I'm going to get, right now it seems that the 4000 series and the 5000 series are about the same in price. And the 5000's are better (I'd hope). So I may just end up getting a Thermalright HR03 something. I'll get the one that has the right mounts for it. And use that VIZO-NBC-101 you suggested for the north, does it also fit for the south?

I've sanded other things into a mirror finish lapping seems to be the same thing. I'd just hate to put in more time than it's really worth. I'll end up doing it though. Do you lap the CPU back some as well? I'd the sink isn't perfect I doubt that the chip is perfect..?

[x88x]

The biggest benefit of the 5xxx series to the regular user is the DX11 support. There are other various architecture upgrades and stuff, but I don't remember them off the top of my head.

I've never lapped a CPU myself, but a friend of mine who is a total cooling nut lapped his, with pretty sweet results. IIRC, it just got him a few additional C, but get enough of those little boosts, and they add up. IIRC, he started with 800 grit paper, then worked his way up to 3000 grit, then went to newsprint, then plain toothpaste with a microfibre cloth or something (apparently plain toothpaste is equivalent to something like 4000+ grit paper). Of course, make sure you do all wet sanding, and make sure you have a perfectly flat, hard surface to do stuff on. Oh, and just keep in mind that lapping your CPU will definitely wave goodbye to any warranties you had on it. If you don't have any yet, I got my high-grit sandpaper off eBay (only place I could find it for a reasonable price). Look for places selling auto-body sandpaper.

[LiTHiUM0XiD3]

I've sanded other things into a mirror finish lapping seems to be the same thing. I'd just hate to put in more time than it's really worth. I'll end up doing it though. Do you lap the CPU back some as well? I'd the sink isn't perfect I doubt that the chip is perfect..?

u lap the HS and the CPU.... just be damn careful heh.... u know its funny... alota companies r lapping and polishin high end coolers in the production... and yet intel nor amd r smart enough to do so....
not even on their high end gamin cores..

[x88x]

u lap the HS and the CPU.... just be damn careful heh.... u know its funny... alota companies r lapping and polishin high end coolers in the production... and yet intel nor amd r smart enough to do so....
not even on their high end gamin cores..

The problem is that the portion of CPUs that end up with people who would care enough to want them to be lapped, is so small that it would be far more trouble than it would be worth, financially.

[Ventrik]

The problem is that the portion of CPUs that end up with people who would care enough to want them to be lapped, is so small that it would be far more trouble than it would be worth, financially.

The metal on a CPU is stamped into it's shape. It would have to be lapped after that which would require a large wet sander. The only way it would be worth the effort is to jack up the price on lapped CPUs by a minimum of 100 bucks. Whereas I put my lapping kit together for free as I do auto body work in a friends personal garage. I doubt you'd need to spend more then 10 to 15 bucks anyway for a complete kit anyway. So it's not even an option to upgrade factories with another section that could cost well over half a million at the very least. At that heatsinks are supposed to be lapped by the manufacture anyway and people lap it again afterwords so it would end up being the same situation.

I've got old PC parts that don't work, I'll lap those a few times until I get the hang of it.

How long should I run all these parts before doing all this after market stuff? I'd hate to void the warranty and find out an hour later it was a faulty part.