Vapo Ls

[blueforce]

I was thinking about getting a vapo but i am wandering now if there would be any compatability problems running below zero I ahve heard that some motherboards are incompatable with it ect. also obviously £500 is a lot to spend on cooling and I am pretty sure i could spend it in other ways. So:
*Is it worth it??
*What kind of o/c can I expect
*Is there a better £500 upgrade i should do instead.

Specs of current pc:
3Ghz P4 Prescott S478
Lanpary PRO875B
OCZ Gold PC4000 2x256mb
HIS x800 pro
:mad: 40gb DM +8 :mad:

[cool_dude]

dont take this offensive - but if i were you if youve got money for a vapo ls.... then upgrade your cpu and mobo (possbily gfx if it isnt pci-e) and then get yourself watercooling with the ££ left over.

[jellybeard999]

2nd hand Mach1 = £120 or so (if you can find one)
Lian-Li PC6x = £80
Alu to make panels look like lian li ;) = £ ?

Then either keep your gear, or sell some of it off and do whatever upgrade you fancy...

[mr-white]

motherboards, processors, gfx etc dont have a problem with the temps, its the condensation you need to worry about. having temps that below ambient you need to insulate everything including the pins on the cpu with grease. you can pick one up second hand cheap, then have it regassed to lower temps and add a second suction line so you can cool your cpu and mobo or gfx as well. it is quite expensive but if you have the hardware you can see massive increase with overclocking.

MW

[blueforce]

dont take this offensive - but if i were you if youve got money for a vapo ls.... then upgrade your cpu and mobo (possbily gfx if it isnt pci-e) and then get yourself watercooling with the ££ left over.

What kind of hardware do you think would be best for future upgrades etc.

[cool_dude]

sorry for the late reply!

Erm, id say maybe a 3000/3200 venice and a dfi ultra-d, along with a 6600GT/X800XT/Pro. Then get yourself watercooling, or a new case and watercooling - depending on ur budget.

[Stocky]

Surely the 2x256 should be replaced with 2x512 for the most significant performance boost?

I personally would say that there is no need to upgrade a 3GHz Prescott yet, you could invest in superior cooling and overclock it leading to a not far from top notch system. :D

I would recommend a Prometeia, but a MkII over the old MkI. extremeprometeia forums is the place to find out about phase change cooling, if you're interested in that route. :)

Your X800 Pro may be oveclockable to XT/XT PE ;) if its a pro VIVO, so that may be worth looking into.

[brumster]

Some motherboards can't quite figure out negative temperature figures, like on my MSI board, and so get very confused when the head hits sub-zero temperatures - it basically rolls around on the register and suddenly thinks the temperature is 255 deg C :)

Of course it's not, but if you're got the auto-shutdown feature turned on in your BIOS, your PC suddenly turns itself off pretty pronto as it fears the chip is melting it's way through your floorboards.

That's the only issue I've discovered, and it's completely solvable by just turning off the auto-shutdown feature (provided you can). It does mean, however, that you can't get accurate core temperatures off your motherboard - but some provide a BIOS patch to sort that.

ABit have a good track record with Vapo units.

I've got Vapo-Li up to 2.8GHz, and I'm fairly sure it's only the memory that's holding it back now. That's about a 25% o/c. Whether you think that's worth £500 I'll leave you to answer ;)

[blueforce]

thanks for all your comments i also thaught my my memory was holding me back, what memory would you advise i have heard that its better to get 512 sticks because the 1gb ones are slower?

Whether you think that's worth £500 I'll leave you to answer

^^^ pretty much sums up my thaughts, brumster you have a vapo do you think its worth the money???
I suppose no matter what system you have getting a vapo is bound to be "For the love not the money" if you see what i mean. :p ;)

[brumster]

Is it worth it? Seriously, honestly, no, I don't think so.

Firstly, I didn't pay new money for it - I got it second hand. At new prices, they are daftly expensive ;)

Secondly, you've got to have bleeding edge kit to put under one of the things to make them worthwhile. Look at me - I've got a FX53 under it, but already there's probably FX55s and Pentium-Ms running on water that'll outperform it. And no-one's going to spend all that money on phase-change and then put a Sempron under it, are they :p ?!

Now, don't get me wrong, it's a showpiece for me, so I'm not into it for the most ultimate clock speed and I don't begrudge the money on it.

As with all these things, it's the law of diminishing returns - to get that last 5% extra speed out of your FX55/P4EE/etc you end up spending a disproportionate amount of cash to do it.

[blueforce]

okay so lets say i decide not to get the vapo ls do i have any good possible upgrades staying with my p4??? :confused:

[brumster]

Well, interestingly, you're pretty much identical in spec to my main workstation I use (except it's an only 3.06/533 Northy). I've yet to find a current game that doesn't play on it at high graphic detail - so I guess a question is, why upgrade? Is it running slow for you?

[blueforce]

I was just toying with ideas to see what would be the best upgrades i could make. But yes you do have a good point becuase i am happy with what i have currently.

[brumster]

I'd say save your money, then, until the next great technology is out and you can't live with your current system. It's how I've got the mileage out of mine - almost 3 years now, bar a graphics card upgrade last year ;)