And finally.... My system has arrived...

[DMB2000uk]

I agree with martini, avoid the 'cheap' watercooling kits. If that means that you have to stick with air then so be it.

You are also correct that with your current temps, there isn't much headroom for overclocking. The idle temps while warm, aren't the limiting factor, the limiting factor will be the high load temps. The most you should aim for is 60oC on load, and you are nearly at that now anyway.

You might be able to get away with a little bit of overclocking provided that you don't have to increase the voltage on the CPU. Try out Graysky's minimising Vcore's guide to see if you can run the CPU with less vcore than is set by the auto voltage. As if you can drop the voltage you will be reducing the heat.

Dan

[bandieramonte]

Really? I did not know that the Thermaltake Big Water Se is not a good CPU water cooler. Well I'll then stick with the GeminiII, and see what room I got for overclocking using Graysky's overclocking guide. Right now, at full Prime95 load, my CPU reaches the peak of 57C, and it's very close to the 60C threshold you recommended. So I think I got very little overclocking potential here. Anyways I'll try, if this holds true, then I will have to invest in lowering the ambient temp. I could just buy a small air conditioning machine pointing towards the case's air inputs. Perhaps this could help the GeminiII receive cooler air and cool the Q6600 better or something?

......It's not fair to overclock in a warm isolated place like here!

[ibleet]

You can overclock it some as long as you don't increase voltage. A Q6600 will typically run at stock (2.4Ghz) at much lower voltage that it is initially set at. My son has one that was set to 1.35v at stock. I under-volted it to 1.15v and it ran prime stable. That was good news when it came time to overclock. We took it all the way to 3.2Ghz with voltage still at 1.35v and the temps didn't increase more than a few degrees.

After I confirmed that it was stable at the stock voltage, I went into the bios and turned speedstep back on. That allowed it to run much cooler when idle, or using 2D applications, and the hottest core ran around 60c when under full load. He is using an Arctic Cooler Freezer 7 pro and the room temp is 72F.

If you're not comfortable with those temps, then just leave it at stock and under-volt it and it will run cooler for you.

[martini161]

I agree with martini, avoid the 'cheap' watercooling kits. If that means that you have to stick with air then so be it.

You are also correct that with your current temps, there isn't much headroom for overclocking. The idle temps while warm, aren't the limiting factor, the limiting factor will be the high load temps. The most you should aim for is 60oC on load, and you are nearly at that now anyway.

You might be able to get away with a little bit of overclocking provided that you don't have to increase the voltage on the CPU. Try out Graysky's minimising Vcore's guide to see if you can run the CPU with less vcore than is set by the auto voltage. As if you can drop the voltage you will be reducing the heat.

Dan

even if i am a bit of a hypocrite my entire lcs with all the stuff ive added along the way only set me back around 150

[bandieramonte]

Well, my processor's temps rise to 57C at full load having the Vcore at 1.27V. If I rise it to 1.35V to achieve the 3.2 Ghz overclocking, it's very probable that at full load the temps would surpass the 60C threshold. But I will give it a try measuring the temps at all times to see what happens. If the temps reach dangerous levels then I will only have two choices: underclock or air conditioning = more money to spend. This I will have to decide. But it would be a shame to leave the Q6600 at low clocks, wasting the SLI potential too, and I would have to completely forget about playing Crysis at high settings TWIMTBP.

Thanks for the advice, and everyone else here too. I will be overclocking in the next few days trying all the tips from Graysky's overclocking guide, which lasts some time. Who knows, maybe I could reach a prime95 stable 3.2 Ghz overclock with a Vcore lesser than 1.35V....

[vicaphit]

I am running my Q6600 at 3Ghz with a vcore of 1.35, runs at around upper 40s idle and near 60s load for Crysis on Very high settings. This is with the stock cooler.

[DMB2000uk]

I am running my Q6600 at 3Ghz with a vcore of 1.35, runs at around upper 40s idle and near 60s load for Crysis on Very high settings. This is with the stock cooler.

You should turn on speed step and C1E in the bios. Then set windows power settings to something like "portable/laptop". This will enable speedstep and give you better idle temps and use less power when the system isn't doing much.

Dan

[vicaphit]

Yeah, I was going to turn speedstep back on last night but I was defragmenting so I couldn't do a restart at the time. I will check out power settings as well.

This won't hinder performance in-game will it? Or will the processor draw enough power even with power settings lowered?

[martini161]

[bandieramonte]

An additional fact about my system:

I replaced the GeminiII cooler with the stock cooler, and the temps at idle are just the same, 39C, but in this case I did not even used the AS5, but the thermal paste that came with the stock cooler... It seems as if the stock cooler can perform better...
Then it seems that this can't be an ambient temp issue. It's supposed that the GeminiII, according to many reviews I have seen, must perform at least 7C better. I have re installed the GeminiII twice and no results, even with AS5. Please, don't tell me that the GeminiII is defective because in this place it's impossible to replace it..

I will re install the GeminiII once again right now and see...

[martini161]

An additional fact about my system:

I replaced the GeminiII cooler with the stock cooler, and the temps at idle are just the same, 39C, but in this case I did not even used the AS5, but the thermal paste that came with the stock cooler... It seems as if the stock cooler can perform better...
Then it seems that this can't be an ambient temp issue. It's supposed that the GeminiII, according to many reviews I have seen, must perform at least 7C better. I have re installed the GeminiII twice and no results, even with AS5. Please, don't tell me that the GeminiII is defective because in this place it's impossible to replace it..

I will re install the GeminiII once again right now and see...

all these times when you were installing and unistaling the cooler, what were you using to clean the CPU and the heatsink?

[bandieramonte]

I always followed AS5 website's instructions. I cleaned the CPU Cooler and the CPU using with high-purity isopropyl alcohol together with lint free cloth and small swabs. I cleaned till the color of the cloth remained white, meaning no more residual material was left. Then I just followed the rest of the instructions from their website regarding proper application of AS5 etc etc.

I'm kind of confused here.

[DMB2000uk]

Maybe the problem isn't with the mounting of the cooler, but the fans that you have used.

Which ones have you got, and what are their rated specs (i.e. airflow etc)?

Dan

[bandieramonte]

The two fans that I'm using are in the link:
http://www.amazon.com/Coolermaster-R4-L ... =de_a_smtd

Product Features and Technical Details
Product Features

* Fan size - 120 x 120 x 25mm
* Voltage (Volt) - 12V DC
* Current (Ampere) - 0.16 A+-10%
* Input (Watt) - 1.92W+-10%
* Speed (R.P.M.) - 1200 R.P.M.+-10%

Technical Details

* Fan Type: Case Fan
* Fan Speed: 1800 RPM
* Noise Level: 22 dBA
* Air Flow: 17.74 CFM
* Static Pressure: 1.70 mmH2O
* Bearing Type: Sleeve
* Voltage: 12 V
* Current: 0.16 A
* Connector(s): 3-Pin
* Fan Dimensions: 120 x 120 x 25 mm

But the product specifications that appear right on the box are:

Speed (R.P.M.) : 1200 +- 10%
Air Flow (CFM) : 39.77 CFM

which are differing from the CFM and RPM details of the previous specifications (Amazon's specifications)

[DMB2000uk]

There you have it, the fans do not have a very high CFM rating; which is the amount of air (in cubic feet per minute) that it moves.

To get the performance of the Gemini up to scratch you are going to have to get some faster fans.

What kind of availability do you have on fans over there? And if you need suggestions on what fans to look for, tell us if the noise the fan makes is an issue.

Dan

[bandieramonte]

Really? The fans may be the issue? Well the noise is not an issue, I just want a good overclocking potential here.

Fortunately, I have a good availability of fans here, so good that I don't have idea on which to choose. There are fans with much more CFM than others, while there are fans with much more RPM than others. In this case, what should I look for? Highest CFM or highest RPM? Or perhaps the one which has the highest on both?

For example, the fan with the highest CFM here is this one http://www.aerocooler.com/shop.cart?act ... =FANECSF12 , having 80 CFM, while it only has 2000RPM.
The fan with highest RPM here has 5400 RPM (the vendor does not detail the fan's brand nor its CFM, I just know it has the highest RPM)

For which one should I aim now?

[Jakey The Avatar]

You would want the highest CFM with the lowest RPM.

CFM = How much air gets moved through your system.

RPM = How fast the fan spins to move the air.

Higher RPM = More noise.
Lower RPM = Less Noise.

*edit*

You also need to make sure that you have the right amount of air coming in and going out of the system.
Check out this link for some of the basics. Xoxide.com

[DMB2000uk]

Woops, I must confess that I missed your statement about the specs differing on the box of the fans and only saw the quoted amazon one. So the fans aren't as slow as I thought. But you should still gain performance from getting higher CFM fans.

Dan

[DMB2000uk]

I like the look of this one:

http://www.aerocooler.com/shop.cart?act ... FANSC38122

If two of them are too loud at 12v, then you should be able to undervolt them to 7v and still get decent airflow.

Dan

[martini161]

dont worry about highest rpm, just go for highest CFM. also make sure all your fans are blowing in the right direction