watercooling newcomer needs help

[necrosaro]

I finished setting up my first watercooling rig, but it's showing even worse results than the generic HSF that came with the CPU.

Here's what I'm using:
1/2" silicone tubing & fittings all around
Eheim 1250 pump running in-line
small plastic reservoir
blackice extreme radiator
quiet slim JMC fan pushing air through
panaflo L1A pulling air through
dangerden maze-2 w/arctic allumina paste (w/o peltier).

Athlon XP 1800+ 1.53mhz in an antec sx840 case (400w power supply) on an Asus a7m266 mobo (had to hot flash the bios to get it to work)

According to Asus Probe, the system runs at 52C without any intensive applications. I know the temp reading on the probe is horribly innacurate, but even the stock heatsink ran far less than 50 according to the probe, IIRC.

I tightened the bolts on the waterblock as hard as I could, but it didn't help the temps at all. Am I doing something completely wrong, or forgetting something, or are temps this high normal for a non-peltier cooled setup?
Some things I intend to do are making ducts for the radiator fans and reversing the flow direction (right now it's pump > res > block > rad > pump, from what I've read that might be backwards), but I have a feeling that these won't affect the temperatures significantly. I feel like I'm missing something. Does anyone have any advice?

[Xel]

Your waterblock probably isn't properly seated on the CPU. Try checking the water temps to see if the water is actually absorbing some of the heat. Also, I'd recommend using Artic Silver 3 thermal paste.

It rocks.

[gmat]

Check your tubing for pinches. You may have no water flow.
Also, check your thermal paste. With *thick* paste such as AS you must put a thin layer. And by thin, i mean nearly transparent. Use a razor blade to spread it evenly.
A good thing to do is to avoid putting anything on your CPU. Make sure your core is clean.
Then put a thin coating of thermal paste under your WB. Spread it with a razor blade until you cant go further.
This is a real source of problems with near-solid thermal pastes such as Artic Silver.
Finally check the airflow coming through your rad. Where does it come from, is it hot or cold ? It should be cold, actually nearly at room temp.
With your config you should get very good cooling performance.

[resago]

a pic of your radiator setup would help.

[Brians256]

I totally agree. Check your water temp coming out of the waterblock, check to see that the radiator is not hot (the fans should keep it near ambient), and take a look at the imprint that the CPU leaves on your waterblock. It should leave a rectangular imprint with only a thin smear of thermal grease left.

[Brad]

also, remember with air cooling you have secondary air paths because of the powerful fan, which lowers your in socket thermistor's temps, of course watercooling doesn't have a fan there.

I'd check how high you can overclock before and after, and see what the differance is

[Lonely Raven]

I agree with brad. I've backed up most of my watercooling rigs
with a 120mm running at 7v across the caps on the system board
and gotten major drops in all temps. Your Milage My Vary.

[necrosaro]

Thanks guys for your thoughts.
The air coming through the radiator feels cool. Taking off one of the 120mm fans doesn't make a difference in temperature, but taking both off makes the temp go up.
Considering I don't have access to a digital camera or a digital thermometer (ordered one back in nov but there was a problem with shipping and it's now in UPS limbo), I guess I can't really do anything at this point to pinpoint the problem.
From what I gather, most of you are saying that it might not be problem with the cooling setup itself, just with the Asus probe? Would running a fan across the motherboard's 'caps' (capacitors?) actually help reduce the cpu's temperature, or just the reported temperature? And how much of a difference is 'major'?
What temps should I be expecting (aim for) with this kind of setup?

[gmat]

Asus probe reports high temps, but this does not explain why you're getting higher temps than an air-cooled setup.
You should get something between 30°C and 40°C depending on the ambient temperature.
Again, make sure you don't have a pinched tube and try to remount your waterblock with less thermal paste, using the technique described above.

[decodeddiesel]

gmat, when there is air flowing past/through the socket it is "artificially" cooling the socket probe. Meaning when you air cool and have a fan on top of your heatsink that is that close to the socket it creates air flow across the probe and can really mess up temp readings. From what I have heard the Asus probe can be the worse with this false reading. This would explain the better air cooler temps. Personally I give the socket temps little or no credance as they can and often are grossly inaccurate.

[necrosaro]

Thanks again.
I took one of the two 120mm fans on my radiator and just stuffed it in my case so it was pointing in the general direction of the motherboard. This took the asus probe readings down to about 43-44C for the CPU and 29-30C for the motherboard (the motherboard was at around 35C before). At least now I know that my setup isn't as inefficient as I originally suspected.

There are no tube pinches (i made sure of this when I routed the tubes), but I'll try using less TIM and reseating the waterblock. I wasn't quite sure how much was needed, but it sounds like it might help to use a lot less. I used a credit card last time, next time I'll use a razor blade and apply it to the waterblock instead of the CPU.
Is there any watercooling FAQ available? All I've been able to find are 'articles' of people setting up their own machines or making their own stuff, 'reviews' of products, and message boards. If there isn't a FAQ I would be willing to create one, because a centralized document with detailed, specific answers to these kinds of questions would seem useful.

I guess I'll have to get my hands on a digital thermometer to get some accurate feedback before I fine-tune my setup.

Now my next question is, would this 120mm fan cooling of the socket probes actually make any difference regarding the stability of my system (ie, is it helpful for anything other than displaying a lower temp)? Also, is the motherboard probe as unreliable as the cpu probe?

[decodeddiesel]

http://www.arcticsilver.com gives some good advise one applying AS or anyother thermal paste. As to a watercooling FAQ the pro/forums is about as close as you can get.