I think we all should take a different approach on how we view our cooling temps. First we all know that the ambient temperature has a direct affect on case/cpu temperatures. When I read at different sites that John Doe tested this setup or that setup and recommends this or that cooling setup what is the public really to believe. Different rigs are going to report different temps. Even the same rig in the same environment is going to report different temps.
To really know how good a system is cooling we all should be looking at the differential between the ambient and the CPU temperatures. Who really cares if the cpu is at 34c, this is controlled by ambient temps. What these sites should be reporting when testing water blocks, fans, and radiators is the difference between the two items above. I came across a site (
http://www.ipkonfig.com/Reviews/Misc/Blizzard-Z4/) last week that was giving this complete water-cooling system a great score for cooling the CPU, but then I noticed that the ambient temps were 18c that’s 64.7 degrees. Who keeps their computer room this cool? Further more that’s a 15.5c differential. My air-cooling system does a better job at lowering the differential than this water-cooling system. Here in Arizona during the summer were lucky if we can keep our home below 25.6c and then if you tack on the 15.5c differential that’s 41.1c CPU temps. In my book this is not a good water-cooling system. I wrote to the site mentioned above and told the person that his review is very misleading because of the ambient temps he tested at. I am happy to say he made an adjustment at the conclusion of his article and now says, (Further, overall temperature load/idle is highly dependent on the internal case cooling and room temperature.)
The bottom line we should be looking at how affective does the water-cooling system remove the heat and bring the CPU temps as close to the ambient as possible. The differential number is what the product testers should be reporting…..
I am still building my water-cooling system and I hope to close the differential gap so that my ambient/cpu you temps have a differential of 8-10c. I have included a photo. It’s slowly coming together. Trying to decide to use PUSH/PULL fans or just a PULLING fan first.