120mm liquid cooling system upgrade for the 9600KF @ 5Ghz

[Vayra86]

it's a sleeper. I have known since the beginning this would not be a cut and dry type deal and a lot of effort would have to be put in to prove reliability and stay within thermal margins.

I anticipated about a 10-15 minute clean up and tidying up for this machine last night. However, it was more than two hours in total fiddling around with the PSU wiring etc, so didnt get to do much in the way of reliability testing/overclocking but I threw this one together for ya'll to see I aint playin

Thats a pretty nasty vcore for that frequency without HT. This one is definitely going to take some tweaking to get your target.

 

[storm-chaser]

Where's the 5.5 GHz overclock? I'll even settle for 5.25 GHz. Good luck on testing out far you can push it.

The memory is now working properly in XMP mode @ 4133 Mhz, I just had to reseat it.

I will try for 5.2 but don't hold your breath … For that we will likely need the second alphacool radiator, which I will order when I get back from my hiking trip in VT.

Thats a pretty nasty vcore for that frequency without HT. This one is definitely going to take some tweaking to get your target.

Yeah that's just MSI overkill, its "core boost" and it will come down hopefully depending on torture test results.

I am still working on PWM and dialing the fans / pump speed. Hence I don't mind running a slightly higher Vcore than needed.

Where's the 5.5 GHz overclock? I'll even settle for 5.25 GHz. Good luck on testing out far you can push it. u

Also you should go back and re-read the thread. Never once was 5.5GHz a target for this rig. If you want to see 5.5 on a coffee lake chip get in touch with @Arctucas

I am thinking I should be able to do slightly more than before (w/ MSI air cooler) in terms of peak clock speed. So for that, I am hoping for 5.4GHz...

Thats a pretty nasty vcore for that frequency without HT. This one is definitely going to take some tweaking to get your target.

and actually, the voltage is not much different than many other coffee lake chips at the same freq

The Noctua fans are incredibly quiet. Wow. Hands down the quietest 120 mm fans I've ever used. It's difficult to tell if the rig is powered on, to give you an idea. Noctua definitely has me sold on their methods and understanding. They know what they are doing.

Now that we have 5.0GHz dialed in I am going to power down, put the side cover on and see if I can still hold those clock speeds with the case all buttoned up.

Ratcheted up to 5100 MHz CPU + 4900 MHz ring, and 4133 c19 on the memory front. We are getting there.

OT, but I just have to say, the sound quality from this board is insane. I have a pretty good THX audio system and I can already tell it's far superior than most boards in the same class. It's certainly the best sounding board I've ever owned.

Going to RMA the board tomorrow. I am getting some BSODs and other odd behavior and this is really limiting my overclocking abilities... plus even at stock speeds it BSODs from time to time. So hopefully the replacement from MSI is solid and hopefully its a later revision. In other words, my best effort overclock will have to wait until the RMA is complete and I get a new board in here.

Where's the 5.5 GHz overclock? I'll even settle for 5.25 GHz. Good luck on testing out far you can push it.

Now that you mention it, I should go ahead and pull out all the stops and see what I can do for max frequency. When the new motherboard arrives, I will give it a go.

I know the chip Is capable of 5.5GHzz, I just don't have enough cooling to make that work.

 

[biffzinker]

Now that you mention it, I should go ahead and pull out all the stops and see what I can do for max frequency. When the new motherboard arrives, I will give it a go.

I know the chip Is capable of 5.5GHzz, I just don't have enough cooling to make that work.

I would of been impressed to see you pull it off. Anyways I should of made it known to you I wasn’t actually being serious. Sorry for the misunderstanding.

 

[storm-chaser]

I would of been impressed to see you pull it off. Anyways I should of made it known to you I wasn’t actually being serious. Sorry for the misunderstanding.

It's okay I tend to take things a little to literal and sometimes it's difficult to measure tone or inflection in normal forum communication.

I'm just bummed the board is junk -- but in the mean time, I can still actually use the computer for the most part, and now will be testing with the side cover on.
Here is a video of the rig with pump at full RPM --- seems to be able to move a good bit of water, it's powerful and quiet.. even at max RPM. Almost therapeutic if you ask me! Sounds like a small waterfall, I definitely like it (but it will not need to be run at that level, even for OCing)

Link to short video in measuring sound at idle:

The camera I took this video with as a pretty good, high quality microphone in it, so what you here is pretty much it... ie. almost no fan noise AT ALL....and believe it or not, the only thing you can hear, even if you are right next to it, is the water basically getting injected into the first reservoir and hitting the front cover. I should probably put a baffle inside the res, or switch ports in case I need to run the pump motor at full speed... Obviously the pump can be toned down via PWM to the point where you don't hear the waterfall at all, and you can still overclock fairly easily in that configuration. Impressed, to say the least. BTW no leaks in the cooling system, all good to go.

Anyway, the Noctua fans are incredible. Such a good purchase. It's almost like they defy the laws of our universe because they are so silent. To give you an idea of relative performance in motion - they have no rival when it comes to performance blended with sound. It is easily the quietest and moves the largest volume of air out of any 120 mm I've ever worked with before. So this is going back about 10 years and hundreds of 120 mm fans along the way. This one is the best, bar none. For example. with the CPU pegged at an all core turbo of 4.3GHz in a torture test I can disable smart fan and PWM for kicks and still keep temps down to sufficient levels for the duration of the test. Meaning, even in a torture test and keeping this static, baseline speed of 700 rpm, the temps never go about 125*F... very impressive!

Im referring to the NF-A12x25 PWM (generally used for radiators and CPU heatsinks)

I have another couple Noctua "case" fans to test. And Im going to do that right now. One is a 120mm Chromax NF-F12 PWM and the other is a 120 mm IndustrialPPC that basically sits right atop the water block and memory. So the industrial fan is spec'd to .3A and 3.6W and 3000 RPM. That's a serious fan if you didn't already know. To give an idea of the power differential, just take a look at the first one I mentioned, the chromax 120, which is spec'd at .03A and .6W

Here are some baseline ambient open case #s:

 

[biffzinker]

Using three CPUs to prevent the graphics card from sagging? That’s something I wouldn’t of thought of doing.

Also I hear a waterfall as well. Don’t know what else to tell you other than I’ve thought of a custom water cooling loop but I’d rather not risk a leak damaging hardware. I did try a Corsair AIO 120mm on my former Ryzen 2600X.

 

[Vayra86]

It's okay I tend to take things a little to literal and sometimes it's difficult to measure tone or inflection in normal forum communication.

I'm just bummed the board is junk -- but in the mean time, I can still actually use the computer for the most part, and now will be testing with the side cover on.
Here is a video of the rig with pump at full RPM --- seems to be able to move a good bit of water, it's powerful and quiet.. even at max RPM. Almost therapeutic if you ask me! Sounds like a small waterfall, I definitely like it (but it will not need to be run at that level, even for OCing)

Link to short video in measuring sound at idle:

The camera I took this video with as a pretty good, high quality microphone in it, so what you here is pretty much it... ie. almost no fan noise AT ALL....and believe it or not, the only thing you can hear, even if you are right next to it, is the water basically getting injected into the first reservoir and hitting the front cover. I should probably put a baffle inside the res, or switch ports in case I need to run the pump motor at full speed... Obviously the pump can be toned down via PWM to the point where you don't hear the waterfall at all, and you can still overclock fairly easily in that configuration. Impressed, to say the least. BTW no leaks in the cooling system, all good to go.

Anyway, the Noctua fans are incredible. Such a good purchase. It's almost like they defy the laws of our universe because they are so silent. To give you an idea of relative performance in motion - they have no rival when it comes to performance blended with sound. It is easily the quietest and moves the largest volume of air out of any 120 mm I've ever worked with before. So this is going back about 10 years and hundreds of 120 mm fans along the way. This one is the best, bar none. For example. with the CPU pegged at an all core turbo of 4.3GHz in a torture test I can disable smart fan and PWM for kicks and still keep temps down to sufficient levels for the duration of the test. Meaning, even in a torture test and keeping this static, baseline speed of 700 rpm, the temps never go about 125*F... very impressive!

Im referring to the NF-A12x25 PWM (generally used for radiators and CPU heatsinks)

I have another couple Noctua "case" fans to test. And Im going to do that right now. One is a 120mm Chromax NF-F12 PWM and the other is a 120 mm IndustrialPPC that basically sits right atop the water block and memory. So the industrial fan is spec'd to .3A and 3.6W and 3000 RPM. That's a serious fan if you didn't already know. To give an idea of the power differential, just take a look at the first one I mentioned, the chromax 120, which is spec'd at .03A and .6W

Here are some baseline ambient open case #s:

View attachment 165140

Well for tinkering a 1.4V core is just fine but if you want any sort of 24/7 out of this, I'd refrain from running that voltage all the time. Comparing to other OC results is good for OC results Doesn't say much about normal usage. Backing down to 5.0 and 1.38 is certainly already the better option, most likely, and I'm sure you can drop it another 0.01V at least. If you could get 5.0 with 1.35/1.36 you've got a very tight OC - and some headroom in temp or voltage should you want it.

Fingers crossed the new board is not a dud this time

 

[storm-chaser]

Using three CPUs to prevent the graphics card from sagging? That’s something I wouldn’t of thought of doing.

Also I hear a waterfall as well. Don’t know what else to tell you other than I’ve thought of a custom water cooling loop but I’d rather not risk a leak damaging hardware. I did try a Corsair AIO 120mm on my former Ryzen 2600X.

Yup! "repurposed" some old LGA 775 chips for the task lol. Never thought I'd be using some spare E7500s to shim the graphics card. Main reason for the shim is to keep distance between fans and bottom of case. I have about 1/2" at the moment....

And the primary PCI-e slot is dead, that's why the GPU is so low.

This is the nerve center
(just messing around with filters)


I especially like the offset from each tube





75Hz gaming monitors 1080p. Desktop and all my systems are as close to the wall as possible for usable wifi







Full house



I like the third monitor because I can put youtube or anything else going on that I will come back to later


This is the space for the 80mm cooler from Alphacool. It's going to be tight but I think I can make it work



The 5700 XT is a beast, it's huge. But it's also one of the most quiet GPUs and it's a spectacular performer when gaming.




Remember guys. This mad max thing is only temporary (although I do think it looks good if you apply creative license to your computer builds). It's going to look really good with the metal "cage" welded over to the side panel that will cover both front fans. Remember, case is getting a new paintjob on the entire chassis.




Can you tell I'm a fan of MSI? Of course! You got to represent.





Warning: *Heads will explode*

We have a stable 5.0GHz ladies and gentlemen...



I was having some problems with the motherboard earlier which were preventing me from getting a decent overclock dialed in. Happy to report those issues have been resolved. We can now get down to the important quest of overclocking. And I'm only getting started.

This was actually straight forward enough once I tuned my fans and pump via PWM. There are a total of four 120 mm Noctua fans in this machine. It's rock solid stable at 5.0 GHz, which was my predicted outcome since day one... (and make no mistake, I will make another effort to push it harder from here and go for 5.1 or 5.2)

Next thing to do is test some intensive games and see how that goes. The rig is exceptionally quiet for most everything until you really push it hard. I'm literally two feet away from it and its still difficult to pick up on the standard noise of a rotating fan. Because they (the fans) are all spinning around 500 rpm at idle and ramp up from there. This is by far the most quiet machine I've ever built and ironically the highest clocked machine at that! And I've built a number of PCs using sound dampening material. I have to thank Noctua their absolute genius in consistently crafting the best fans money can buy. I will never buy anything other than Noctua going forward.

Now keep in mind, this 1 hour test run was done with the case sealed. Meaning all side panels in place. Believe it or not, putting the side cover on actually reduced motherboard temps by about 2*F

Where's the 5.5 GHz overclock? I'll even settle for 5.25 GHz. Good luck on testing out far you can push it.

Getting closer! Just give me a little more time and I think I'll be able to get you that 5.25 result

Well for tinkering a 1.4V core is just fine but if you want any sort of 24/7 out of this, I'd refrain from running that voltage all the time. Comparing to other OC results is good for OC results Doesn't say much about normal usage. Backing down to 5.0 and 1.38 is certainly already the better option, most likely, and I'm sure you can drop it another 0.01V at least. If you could get 5.0 with 1.35/1.36 you've got a very tight OC - and some headroom in temp or voltage should you want it.

Fingers crossed the new board is not a dud this time

I didn't give up and was rewarded for my efforts... I made some progress on the motherboard after all. There was definitely a gremlin there.. But I think we have successfully exercised the demons and worked out all the kinks.

Now, I am going to post CPUz screenshots progressively, since the initial goal of a 5.0GHz stable overclock has been achieved, I can basically just have some fun from here on out and see how far we can get... So these runs do not have reliability in mind, they are strictly for kicks.

 

[Vayra86]

Yup! "repurposed" some old LGA 775 chips for the task lol. Never thought I'd be using some spare E7500s to shim the graphics card. Main reason for the shim is to keep distance between fans and bottom of case. I have about 1/2" at the moment....

And the primary PCI-e slot is dead, that's why the GPU is so low.

This is the nerve center
(just messing around with filters)


I especially like the offset from each tube





75Hz gaming monitors 1080p. Desktop and all my systems are as close to the wall as possible for usable wifi







Full house



I like the third monitor because I can put youtube or anything else going on that I will come back to later


This is the space for the 80mm cooler from Alphacool. It's going to be tight but I think I can make it work



The 5700 XT is a beast, it's huge. But it's also one of the most quiet GPUs and it's a spectacular performer when gaming.




Remember guys. This mad max thing is only temporary (although I do think it looks good if you apply creative license to your computer builds). It's going to look really good with the metal "cage" welded over to the side panel that will cover both front fans. Remember, case is getting a new paintjob on the entire chassis.




Can you tell I'm a fan of MSI? Of course! You got to represent.





Warning: *Heads will explode*

We have a stable 5.0GHz ladies and gentlemen...



I was having some problems with the motherboard earlier which were preventing me from getting a decent overclock dialed in. Happy to report those issues have been resolved. We can now get down to the important quest of overclocking. And I'm only getting started.

This was actually straight forward enough once I tuned my fans and pump via PWM. There are a total of four 120 mm Noctua fans in this machine. It's rock solid stable at 5.0 GHz, which was my predicted outcome since day one... (and make no mistake, I will make another effort to push it harder from here and go for 5.1 or 5.2)

Next thing to do is test some intensive games and see how that goes. The rig is exceptionally quiet for most everything until you really push it hard. I'm literally two feet away from it and its still difficult to pick up on the standard noise of a rotating fan. Because they (the fans) are all spinning around 500 rpm at idle and ramp up from there. This is by far the most quiet machine I've ever built and ironically the highest clocked machine at that! And I've built a number of PCs using sound dampening material. I have to thank Noctua their absolute genius in consistently crafting the best fans money can buy. I will never buy anything other than Noctua going forward.

Now keep in mind, this 1 hour test run was done with the case sealed. Meaning all side panels in place. Believe it or not, putting the side cover on actually reduced motherboard temps by about 2*F



Getting closer! Just give me a little more time and I think I'll be able to get you that 5.25 result




View attachment 165163


I didn't give up and was rewarded for my efforts... I made some progress on the motherboard after all. There was definitely a gremlin there.. But I think we have successfully exercised the demons and worked out all the kinks.

Now, I am going to post CPUz screenshots progressively, since the initial goal of a 5.0GHz stable overclock has been achieved, I can basically just have some fun from here on out and see how far we can get... So these runs do not have reliability in mind, they are strictly for kicks.

View attachment 165168

1.41 for 5.3 certainly isn't bad! Sweet! As is the ghetto cooling mod you got