Here’s my test setup:
- Abit NF7-S v2.0 mobo
- AMD XP-2100 AIUHB
- 2x512MB sticks of Buffalo PC3700 RAM, Dual-Channel (Winbond BH-5 chips)
- ATI Radeon 9700pro
- Western Digital Special Edition 120GB hard drive
- Leadtek TV2000XP TV card, Lite-On CD-RW, floppy
- 450W PSU
- In addition to the watercooling, I also have 2x80mm exhaust fans 7v-modded
To test, I measured idle and load temps of the CPU via the NF7-S thermosistor at stock speeds, and max overclock speeds. The max stable overclock speeds I reached with the CPU is 215FSBx10.5 for 2.26GHz, 1.85vCore, and 1.7vdd (chipset voltage). To test the GPU performance, I simply overclocked my 9700pro to the max, and gauged stability by looping 3D Mark 2003 for several hours.
CPU & Chipset Performance
The results for the CPU were quite surprising – I didn’t expect the kit to perform this well! I’ve used this chip for a while, it tops out around 2.3GHz no matter what (and I previously had this on what many would consider a higher-end watercooling setup). The difference in idle temps from 12v testing to 7v testing are most likely due to AS3 settle in and potentially lower ambient temps, but notice at stock
speeds there is hardly any difference at all! Very nice, considering the noise drop from 12v to 7v is significant. It goes from somewhat noisy to near silent. At OC levels the difference between 12v and 7v mode are more noticeable, but at only 3C at load this is not a very large difference. Personally, I’d sacrifice a few MHz to run near silent.
Video Performance
Video performance was less spectacular most likely due to the fact that I did not remove the 9700pro shim. This leaves a small gap between the GPU and waterblock, thus reducing performance. For 3D Mark 2001 I was able to get the card to 380/335, and with 3D Mark 2003 I was only able to get it to 350/335. Judging from the results of the CPU blocks, I would say that there is much more cooling potential here than I extracted from the system.
If you don’t mind removing the shim, or if you use an nVidia card, then this shouldn’t be an issue for you. With the shim removed I’ve heard reports of 400MHz+ on the GPU core with this kit, but of course all results will vary from system to system.
