Cooling problem...

[Sub]

ok so i have my jeantech visco.. which is gay for drawing in cool air :S since i'ts not really pushed in as such.. which annoyed me but still anyway. i was getting idle temps around the 44 mark water cooled and was thinking something really stupid was going on :( and was gettin rather miffed.. considering my room is freezin and the case temp was about 32... i was gettin quite annoyed.
however after having figer probed everything the passive (stupid lite version mobo) northbridge was rather toasty, hmm thats a little annoying. so i grabbed an 80mm fan and placed it rather gently atop the 9800 to blow air onto the heatsink. since i had a spare 3 pin thing from the rear fan control i put it onto that so it's not loud.. and hey presto.. idle 35 load 45.. case 23?! OMG! no wonder i was gettin mad!? this to me seems a little daft.. but im a little worried about just poppin it on top of my gfx card.. theres no metal or contacts or anything so it shud be fine right? until i fashion a holding arm or something. anyhow. any suggestions on better but still quiet northbridge coolers? or shud i just stick a northbridge block in and do it that way? in which case what would you suggest for an innovatek kit? the fan is ok for now and it's not causing any problems sound or contact wise but it is annoying i have to stick an 80mm fan in there when it's water cooled lol
cheers in advance for advice...

[brumster]

Hold on, I'm missing something here.

So, you case/ambient temp is 23 deg C (how's this measured?)

Where is the rad?

Is it sucking air in, or blowing air out, of the case?

Anyway, your CPU is idling at 44 deg C (again, according to what measurement? Motherboard measurement?)

You put an 80mm fan blowing over your northbridge, because it was a bit warm, and that's reduced your CPU temp to 35 idle?!?! Eh?! I agree, that doesn't make any sense whatsoever.

[Sub]

yup i know totaly confused myself.. totaly.. they are all mobo temps.. i believe case before was 32. the rad is at top of case, blowing air out.

and after putting a lil fan in to blow on the northbridge.. case temp is now at 23 and cpu at 35.. im .. more than a little confused..
all temps were from mobo..
that said the northbridge before was quite hot.. not overly but alot warmer than i was expecting it to be.
anyhow.. any blocks i cud stick in the system to get rid of that heat from the case from northy?
and brumster hows that reference :P i finish college this friday lol i needs it :P

[brumster]

Reference being done right now ;)

Well, since you've venting all your inner (relatively warm) air out through the rad, you're sort of pre-warming all your cooling air - not ideal. I wonder if maybe the hot air from out your PSU is getting sucked straight through the rad which, on top of the extra warming power of your northbridge, isn't helping.

If you're only getting 44deg C idle with just a CPU block, then sticking a northbridge block on isn't going to help - it'll only make matters worse. If the case is really running at 32 deg C, then I would imagine the CPU should ideally be around the 34 to 36 at idle (mine certainly is). With your rad setup, I guess it's only fair that it be a little worse... maybe 44 is about right given your ambient temperature and setup.

Of course, your temp sensors could always be completely inaccurate ;) stranger things have happened!

Cheers,
Dan

[brumster]

Had a thought - how about quickly flipping the rotation of the fans on the rad round (just wire them up back to front) and see if that has any positive effect?

[conan]

I don't know which mobo you have but I had a similar experience when water cooling my Asus A7N8X. After lots of work with temp probes and finger poking I came to the conclusion that the NB fan was actually blowing difused air over the temp probe for the CPU. I can't guarantee this 100% but thats the only thing I could come up with.

[Sub]

yea i was thinking that.. but the cpu temp probe is cut off from all outside "air interference" since i know it's directly under the chip, inside the socket in the middle.. still not complaining.
the psu kicks plenty of heat out so i dno. but im pleased with my 10 degree or thereabouts temp decrease with just stitting an 80mm on the graphics card to blow on the nb fan :) so thats cool..

dya think changing my circuit from
(pump - Cpu - Gpu - Rad - Res - Pump)
to something like
(pump - rad - cpu - gpu - res - pump) or even
(res - rad - cpu - gpu - pump - res)
would make much of a difference? or shud i keep it pump to cpu?

[Sub]

anyone? :(

[brumster]

I doubt it - the circuit is a circuit full stop, I don't really believe there's much to be had by putting the rad one side of the cooling blocks or another.

EDIT : I believe it affects pressure drops depending upon components and that might have a knock-on effect on temperatures. I guess it depends on which component is the more restrictive flow-wise.

[tremble]

What motherboard are you running? Have you checked for any known problems with the bios temperature readings? I've had to use a beta bios on my board cos the standard bios had a known problem that the temps were being recorded 5-10c higher than their actual temps.

[Sub]

MSI K7N2 Delta-L i've not heard anything about problems