newbe.. how fast should my liquid cooler work

[HandyPandy]

I have just purchased AMD athlon 64 X2 4200+ Dual Core with hyper transport
gigabyte mother board:
GIGABYTE GA-M55SLI-S4 NVIDIA NFORCE4 SLI CHIPSET SOCKET AM2 PLATFORM

coolermaster aquagate mini R80 cooling system:
here is the link:
http://www.coolermaster.com/index.ph...ini+R80+/+R120

there is a screw behind which I can use to adjust fan speed. how fast should it
spin. I have it in the middle now.
can I overcool the processor?

i-cool utility from gigabyte does not seem to work. it only shows 100% power usage and 47%noise. I looked and it said on the website that i-cool is only for intel chips. 945 in particular.

I don't think the cooler has any thermostat to measure processor temperature. is there any way to roughly adjust the speed. when it's at max it's kind of loud. when it's on min speed I am afraid AMD will over heat and blow up.

Thanks.

[AngryAlpaca]

You can't overcool the processor.
It'll shut down automatically if it overheats.

[BGP Spook]

Sorry, couldn't resist.

Originally Posted by AngryAlpaca

You can't overcool the processor.

Technically, all processors have minimum operating temperatures, which are usually bellow 0 C. Also, look up "the cold bug."

Although, for the subject of typical water cooling it is reasonable to say what you did.


At OP:
What do you mean by "...there is a screw behind..."?

Is it on the motherboard?

Regardless, download the latest version of Speedfan if you want and load it up. It won't tell you anything more useful than if your CPU is burning itself to death or not, as it's precision is likely to be + 10 degrees C. So if it is reading 60 C or higher there is a problem, otherwise don't worry. Also, everything(BIOS, drivers, etcetera) is up-to-date.

Technically, it should be possible to control the fan speed based on the relative temperature. Although, I suspect it won't be worth the trouble.

In the mean time, leave it at the mid-level or turn it up to however loud you can stand. It should be fine.

Do come back and tell us how it goes.

[HandyPandy]

so I installed speedfan 4.31
readings:



blue arrows keep changing to green check signs. I assume it means ok and
blue arrow means cooling. when I maxed the cooling adjastment screw. temperatures went down 3C on average. except temp 2 which remained -52.
the screw is on a separate insert. there is an insert like on any video card or sound card. but except video and audio outputs there is a small screw. the screw looks like a regular resistor like they use in volume adjastment.

the interesting thing is that at max Fan 2 rpm is 2800 but on medium it's 24000 rpm. but my temp 1 changed to 44C and red arrow pointing up appeared. So I'll just keep it on max I guess.

does liquid cooling really help. I mean my average cooler. i've seen the phase change coolers etc. I thought AMDs overheat that's why I got this liquid cooling system.

[BGP Spook]

Speedfan picks up a lot of sensors that aren't necessarily working so there are always some junk readings. (Temp2, likely Fan1, and maybe Fan3)


The picture you took tells me you weren't stressing your processors so the temps reported aren't that useful.

Do you have prime95?

If not get it and run two instances, one for each core, let them run for a couple of minutes while you watch the numbers and see which temps elevate. Also fiddle with the fan speed and see which ones move.

Temp1 is probably your NorthBridge.
Temp3 is probably your case temp. (the temperature inside your computer case)
The Core temp is probably your CPU.

All you need to watch for is to keep the temperature readings from exceeding ~60C. Any other use of the readings is futile since the temperature probes being used are too inaccurate.

[HandyPandy]

thanks.
sorry I had final week.

I haven't used prime. but I used gigabytes. software called
easy tune 5. temp was 35C.

I have a question. my gigabyte GA-M55SLI-S4 has temperature
sensors. is there a way to make CPU cooler increase it's rpm in repsonce
to temperature. for example I set max temp 35C and if it's over that the
cooler will start working faster.

thanks.

[Captain Slug]

Originally Posted by HandyPandy

I have a question. my gigabyte GA-M55SLI-S4 has temperature
sensors. is there a way to make CPU cooler increase it's rpm in repsonce
to temperature. for example I set max temp 35C and if it's over that the
cooler will start working faster.

Yes. You can check the BIOS for fan speed settings or use software. Gigabyte has their own proprietary program but Speedfan and others can be configured to do the same thing.

Before doing that you'll have to turn the fan speed rheostat on the fan all the way up.

[HandyPandy]

I installed latest easy tune 5

this is the mother board I have
http://www.gigabyte-usa.com/Products...e=GA-M55SLI-S4

enabled all fan controls in bios. I set cpu fan at 25% when cpu is at 20C. and 100% (like it was before) when cpu is at 60C. but the fan is stil working on maximum even though my cpu is at 28C now. how can I
make my computer slow the fan down when cpu is around 27-33C.
thanks.



Edit: ok the noise comes from System fan. I reduced it by adjusting the knob in the back.
what's the relationship between system fan and cpu fan.
what does system fan usually do. is it the one that cools the radiator?
so for example if my processor is very hot and cpu fan is working at 100% and the temperature
is stil high --> system fan will increase it's rpm to cool liqiud in radiator faster
do I understand things right?
is there a software to adjust system fan just like it was possible to adjust
cpu fan?
thanks.

[jaydee]

Most motherboards will have at least 2 (3pin) fan connectors on them for fans. One marked CPU and the other marked System (some boards have more than 1 system fan connector). The system fan is for air flow through the case. The CPU fan is for the fan on the CPU.

Make sure your radiator fan is connected to the CPU fan connector and the case fans are connected to the SYS fan connectors. Also the fans must have the 3rd RPM wire on it or the motherboard and all software will not be able to control the fan. If your fan only has 2 wires you will not be able to control them through the mobo or software.

[jaydee]

Here is a pic from your user manual.

[HandyPandy]

thanks jaydee.
I opened the case and looked how everything is connected.
so by the motherboard manual my cpu fan is connected to cpu fan.
the motherboard has 4 pin slot but my cpu wire uses only 3.

my radiator fan(in the back of computer) is connected to sys_fan slot. (near
cpu fan slot).

and my pwr_fan slot on the motherboard is not occupied.

I have total of 4 fans on my pc. so the rear one is sys fan I guess.
cpu fan is on the cpu. I have about 5 inch in diameter fan in the very front
in front of hard drives. this fan gets power from power supply directly.

there is also a little fan on the seethrough side, which also gets power directly
from power supply.

what am I missing to make cpu control work properly. I mean is there a software that will
control the speed of radiator fan in responce to cpu temperature.

thanks.

[Captain Slug]

First off

Originally Posted by HandyPandy

and 100% (like it was before) when cpu is at 60C.

60C is a very unhealthy temp to go beyond. I would set that to 45C instead

You need to plug the fan on the radiator into the CPU fan header.

The CPU fan is the one that is going to be varied by the CPU temperature settings so it needs to be the fan that actually affects the temperature of your CPU. That would be the fan on the radiator.

The Pump (the part that is mounted on your processor) should be plugged into your SYSTEM Fan header, or use the 4-pin adapter that came with the kit. This device does not have an RPM sensing line therefore you cannot alter it's speed through software. Turn it up to full speed as default.

If the fan on the Radiator doesn't seem to change speed with temperature you will need to do the following.

Go into your BIOS and check to see if you have a PWMOUT option. If you find it and then turn it on then you can use Speedfan can control your fans speeds rather than Gigabyte's program, but both will work. See
http://www.almico.com/forummotherboards.php?man=264

[jaydee]

Yeah, correction on my last post. Radiator fan to the CPU header. Make sure there are 3 wires coming out of your fans. The 3rd wire is the sensor/RPM wire. Without that the mobo has no idea how fast your fan is running and runs it at full speed.