OCZ Vendetta 2 on Q6600 G0

[dadi_oh]

Just ordered a Vendetta 2 to mount on a Q6600 G0 that I just ordered. These will go on a P5Q Pro motherboard once everything arrives. Will mount with MX-2 compound since I have it. I have two of the original Vendettas installed on an E8400 and an E8200 and they do a fine job. The Q6600 puts out a LOT more heat however so I decided to go a little bigger this time. I plan to OC the Q6600 (duh) and I have a fair bit of experience with my main rig which also has a Q6600 G0 but that one is under water.

So I have a couple of questions...

1) If I do manage to get this G0 up to 3.6GHz in the 1.45V range what temps would you expect I could get assuming a case ambient of about 31C? (I like to run my case fans on low for quietness).

2) Do you think I should order the backplate kit for this thing to get rid of the annoying pushpins? They sell for about $9CDN so seems like it is worth it the very first time I reseat the heatsink.

3) The P5Q Pro uses the ASUS heatpipe on the northbridge up to the fins over the FETS. I have a couple of those optional fans that clip on the fins but it warns you that it is for watercooled setups only. I assume they are worried it will block airflow coming off the main CPU heatsink? Would you recommend I install it anyways? (I assume I will need to bump NB voltage and I'm not sure how hot the P45 chip runs).

Any other general comments or advice is appreciated.

 

[CStylen]

1. I've never used that cooler, but I would expect temps between 49 - 68C at those volts on air

2. Definately get the backplate, it provides better contact with the chip

3. You could always test the temps with and without the optional fans...I would say do not use them though

 

[Jakl]

1) 1.45 you should be around 30 idle to 50 load.. just try to keep under 50*C and your Fine, MAX temp is 72*C I believe... My Q6600 I keep it around 30*C , its at 1.45v @ 4ghz

2) Not required, but if you have money for it , go for it.

3) Unfortunately I am not entirely sure if you need to install it... It shouldnt block the air flow, but keep the air flow in one general flow in one direction, but I dont think I have seen anyone installed them when they went WC

 

[dadi_oh]

1) 1.45 you should be around 30 idle to 50 load.. just try to keep under 50*C and your Fine, MAX temp is 72*C I believe... My Q6600 I keep it around 30*C , its at 1.45v @ 4ghz

2) Not required, but if you have money for it , go for it.

3) Unfortunately I am not entirely sure if you need to install it... It shouldnt block the air flow, but keep the air flow in one general flow in one direction, but I dont think I have seen anyone installed them when they went WC

I assume the 50 load is CPU case temp? The cores run about 5C hotter than that. I tend to just look at core temps and I am OK with keeping them in the under 60C range for myself.

One thought on the backplate is that it may help distibute the load across the back of the motherboard. With the pushpins the load is entirely on the 4 points. With the backplate the load is across the surface of the backplate and should help control warping. At least that is how it works in my head The heatsink weighs about 600 grams and is tall so that is quite a mechanical leverage.

I did use one of those ASUS fans in my watercooled Q6600 setup before I watercooled my Northbridge. Did make a difference but that was without an aircooled heatsink in front of it.

I can run the experiments myself anyways. I have an IR temp probe so I can measure surface temp of the NB heatsink befor and after.

 

[AddSub]

I ran a Vendetta 2 on my old Q6600 @ 1.4185V and later on I ran the same cooler on my Q6700 at 1.45V. With Q6700 @ 1.45V @ 3.7GHz I was getting 43C-44C max after an hour or two in Crysis. (I had Everest hardware monitoring and stress-testing module running and logging min-avg-max temps.). In Prime 95 small FFT's it would jump up to low 60s after few hours. However, I never saw it go above mid 40s in every day max-load situations like gaming, occasional encoding, compiling, and similar. It idled at room temperature most of the time, 19C to 23C usually. I was using Arctic Silver 5 with it. (Both with Q6600 and Q6700). Hope that info helps.

 

[dadi_oh]

I ran a Vendetta 2 on my old Q6600 @ 1.4185V and later on I ran the same cooler on my Q6700 at 1.45V. With Q6700 @ 1.45V @ 3.7GHz I was getting 43C-44C max after an hour or two in Crysis. (I had Everest hardware monitoring and stress-testing module running and logging min-avg-max temps.). In Prime 95 small FFT's it would jump up to low 60s after few hours. However, I never saw it go above mid 40s in every day max-load situations like gaming, occasional encoding, compiling, and similar. It idled at room temperature most of the time, 19C to 23C usually. I was using Arctic Silver 5 with it. (Both with Q6600 and Q6700). Hope that info helps.

So it sounds like the heatsink will allow OC into the 3.6GHz territory. Depends on the CPU of course. Will be interesting to see what VID I end up with.

 

[AddSub]

So it sounds like the heatsink will allow OC into the 3.6GHz territory. Depends on the CPU of course. Will be interesting to see what VID I end up with.

Oh, quite probably. HDT based coolers are very efficient. I would have kept my Vendetta 2 since I was so impressed with it, but I couldn't get my hands on a LGA1366 kit for it. Also, I think Vendetta 2 has a small base surface area, so it wouldn't have fully covered the much larger IHS of i7 CPU. So I sold it along with the rest of my LGA775 stuff. If OCZ ever releases HDT based Vendetta 3 for LGA1366, with larger base surface area, I will be all over it.

Also, I had the cooler facing up and pushing the air through the top exhaust fans. Here is an old photo of my Vendetta 2 and my old LGA775 setup. I had to mount it like that since the massive NB cooler and fan were blocking sideways placement. It would have been a 1C or 2C cooler if it wasn't pulling hot air from NB heatsink and back of the video card.

I also had (still have actually) 7 case fans, so airflow was great. You have to make sure the air flowing across the heatsink surface is as cool as possible. Here is the photo of my current setup: