To celebrate a good run during Forum Wars 07, I've decided to cannibalize the Striker Extreme box and convert it to a watercooled, P5K Premium, Q6600 build. I'll be using a recently acquired Quad 6600 G0 stepping chip. I ran the chip on air for a week and was surprised how much cooler it runs than the QX6700 -- a good 7 - 10C lower.

I'm using 1/2" Tygon throughout; an EK-150 reservoir, Thermochill PA120.3 fan rad, Petra modified Laing high flow pump, D-Tek Fuzion CPU waterblock, EK northbridge wb and two Alphacool BigNG fan controllers.

Formerly known as the kitchen table:



Leak -*test*-('"):



VERY fast pump:



Business end of the Thermochill with rad, shroud and fans installed. The radiator will be installed Friday after I get the new Dremel set.

I love it, you've seen the light going with that P5K but.... X38 should be here mid September (Around my birthday, so it'll be a happy one for me) I might have to lash out.

Here is where all those hard learned lessons pay off. Ought to be a very fast, cool running rig. I've found that for cutting rad vents a jigsaw with metal cutting blade works best. lot's of straight lines are the jigsaws forte. Then finish with the dremel and a stepped hole cutting bit for the screw holes.

X38 will be an interesting chipset but I bet prices will around $300 for a long while. DDR3 support is native but there should b some boards that run DDR2 i would guess as DDR3 is a long way from being worthwhile. Also, a lot of the new space on the huge chip is for extra PCIe2 lanes which aren't needed by even the fas-*test*-('") cards to date.

Memory speed on a DDR2 variant will be the saving grace here but if it is no better than the P35 then I'll go P35 and save the $130.

Great stuff, Jason! You've become AI's most experienced wc'ing builder.

Regarding the winter FWs - which boards will be strongest in March and how viable DD3 will be is too hard too see right now. Maybe by the end of January it will be clear.

Very nice Jason. That will be such a great performer for many to follow. I'm starting to fill my newegg cart now.

One of the half dozen P5K flavors is DDR3. I have yet to see a positive review of DDR3 RAM. I'm sure it will get their eventually, but isn't ready for prime time at this point in time.

The Bearlake chipset looks interesting, but until DDR3 prices come down and performance distinguishes it from DDR2's best in class, I'll sit tight.

I agree. Maybe around building time for the winter FWS it will have better performance than top DD2. But, probably more expensive still.

I just got this Team RAM, so it is DDR2 for Merc for awhile. I have been reading on the X38 and I am not convinced it will be the ultimate O/Cer. X38 is the 975 replacement and the P35 is the 965 replacement if I understand correctly. The 38 brings in the next gen hardware like DDR3 and PCIe2 but I personally don't care about any of that right now. Just want a speedy chipset so it will be interesting to see how the 38 clocks. We should know in a month.

I would guess DDR3 will have the same growing pains that DDR2 had, slower or equal to DDR at twice the cost initially and then, in a year or so, they will be equal and DDR2 will begin to disappear from the scene. It all hinges on how fast x38 is with DDR2 for me and supposedly a few boards will have both DDR3 and DDR2 slots.

If a p35 comes up for sale used I'll probably grab it and then decide if I go q6600 G0 or e6850.

In the next scene, we pan over to David who has a P5K that he might sell.

Action!

OS installation went smoothly then, rather abruptly, yet another XFX video card crapped out. This time, no leak -- EK waterblock and surrounding blocks are fine. I ordered a BFG OC card as a backup while this one goes into the shop. Either the EK block or the vid card is screwy. I'm not sure which. One more mishap like this and I'm permanently retiring the EK GPU blocks. What a time consuming and $$$ PITA.

The only learning curve on this build was adjusting to the stiffness and weight of the 1/2" Tygon used. In the previous build, I used 1/2" running to and from pumps and the triple rad; 3/8" Tygon was used everywhere else.

I learned that one challenge presented by 1/2" Tygon is the sheer weight and rigidity of the tubing can unseat barbs. When I was running the leak -*test*-('"), there were two small leaks created by this -- one northbridge and one GPU barb. I caught the leaks right away -- before the fluid could reach VRAM on the vid card. Moreover, as this was a leak -*test*-('"), the motherboard wasn't hot/hooked up to the PSU. What tiny moisture managed to hit the vid card was thoroughly dried with a hair dryer.

I go to pains to ensure barbs are anchored and triple check them; regardless, it takes very, very little torque to loosen these barbs. Here, the weight of the heavy tubing was enough -- as the tubes shifted, the barbs rotated with them.

These small things can sneak up on people, so wanted to make a note here.

Intel wanted X38 to be a DDR3 only platform, but have ultimately left it up to the manufacturers who do intend releasing DDR2 versions The X38 chipset has an IHS on it because I've heard it gets hotter than the 9th circle of hell when pushed..I have a good feeling about it.

You guys are simply gonna have to stop talking about P5K's before I have to buy one...sheesh.
Lookin good so far Jason.

I read that they put the IHS on because the thing has grown so large. due to all the PCIe lanes, it needs the support. http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2007/06/05/in...ipset_has_ihs/1 Real interesting is the Extreme Tuning capability. Supposedly set BIOS from Windows through a utility. http://www.overclock3d.net/news.php?/cpu_m...uning_utility/1

I realize heat and computing capacity go hand in hand. Really, though, at what point do they start focusing on reworking the architecture to reduce heat. It's reaching the point where the heat threatens to compromise performance gains of the new chipset design.

The chipsets run hot only relative to earlier chipsets . Remember the NF4 was a "roasting hot" chip in its day. Compared to a GPU or CPU they are very cool running. A decent HS and fan is enough to cool them but manufacturers are addicted to the heatpipe technology and that is where I think the problem is. Heatpipes hit the scene big on the A8N SLI Premium and should have died with that board as heat output has gone up drastically since the NF4 and passive coolers are at their limits at stock much less with overclocked and overvolted chipsets.