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Boreas question

2K views 8 replies 3 participants last post by  BlackHoleSun 
#1 ·
Although I know lots of people look down on CoolIt stuff, the reviews seem to be pretty positive. My question is on the Boreas chiller and where I should place it in my loop. Currently my WC loop isn't cooling as well as I'd hope it would, so I wanted to move up to more extreme cooling especially since I am going Nehalem, and by the looks of it they run pretty hot when Overclocked.

I have all 1/2" tubing in my loop right now, but the barbs on the Boreas are 1/4" and can't be changed. How bad will my flow be if I place reducers right after the chiller heading into my loop?

Also I plan to put it up high in the case to let the heat be extracted using the top fan of my case. What kind of temps should I expect?
 
#3 ·
the unit is absolute junk. for the same price you could get a custom built phase water chiller and get -30's for a temp with ease. that coolit boreas would barily get you below room temp. the fact that it isn't even insulated proves that it is not designed to go far below ambient temp whitch tecs are designed to do. personaly if i was you i would get someome on the forums to build a custom phase or tec water chiller. a $500 custom tec chiller will hit -10. heck even for that price a direct die phase unit for your cpu and save your watercooling only for you gpu woudn't be a half bad idea for the price.
 
#4 ·
I do not have the Boreas and did not want to give you inaccurate info, but since noone has answered i will try take an educated guess.
first tell me what will you be trying to cool (your post is confusing cause you're talking about your current loop, but in your sig you have a i7 coming in)? i.e. if you're going to cool the cpu in your sig, i would honestly reconsider, and i will explain why. For 500-600$ (the price of a boreas you could buy a core i7 920 (which in every case i've seen on any x58 mobo overclocks to 3.8-4G prime stable easily on a high end air cooler) and a new x58 mobo. You would have to sell your current cpu and mobo to get a DDR3 kit (they sell for as cheap as 150$ for 3x1g) and an air cooler (preferably thermalright TRUE). and check out the latest review of GTA4- 920 i7 stock performs on par or better then a dual core OCed to 4G.

If the boreas unit is for the 'coming soon rig', i would also try to stay away from this unit because my ongoing tec based build is more powerful then the boreas unit and somewhat struggles with the 920. Also like i previosly said most 920s OC to 3.8-4 (without turbo mode and with hHT enabled) easily on good air and gain VERY little from better cooling : with a 920 you are mostly QPI bus limited, and the QPI max is about 215 if you're very lucky. stable 24/7 qpi would be about 190-200 regardless of extra cooling (920 max multi is 20, 21 with turbo mode on but drops back to 20 with load).

If you want the boreas for dedicated gpu cooling, then watercooling a 4780 and spending over 600 on cooling is pointless, just get a 4780x2.

Well you get the idea...
Other then that according to the reviews i have read the unit can actually provide some temp drop compared to a decent wc setup (i heard ~10C) on an good rig. Most importantly remember that 920 is not limited by cooling, you're better off spending the extra cash to get a 965.

Bottom line: i would advise against the boreas unless u're getting a high end gpu, as gpus tend to respond good to cooling (OC better) compared to the 920.
 
#5 ·
teatchme,

First off thanks for all the info! I am going to be upgrading to an i7 920 and by the looks of the overclocking thread they are reaching some high temps. I guess that the CooIt isn't really worth it, but my current loop isn't cooling my cpu to well (Coretemp reads ~45 idle temps, which Seems way too high).

I might just go with better fans, or switch my rad for a Thermochill and run low dBA fans because I like the whole quiet thing. Can I cool CPU and two GPUs on one PA120.3?
 
#6 ·
I have a 920 ocd to 4g, and i have read many threads on i7 overclocking, especially on i7 and 920 in particular. With high end air cooler and high cfm (loud fans) preferably in push-pull you could have a stable cpu at 3.8-4. if you're like me and noise bothers you then your best bet is WC, and i find i get best results (noise/performance) when i run low cfm fans in push pull on the radiator (i have tested many quiete fans : silenx -junk, enermax twister- not up to the claims, etc, and so far the quietest are noctua and my personal favourite Schyte sflex). Well the pa 120.3 according to some reviews performs almost as good as gtx480 so you've got one of the best rads out there, but i would have to know which gpu will you run in the loop. But like i previously said 920 benefits very little from cooling, so running it at 60C load or 80C would not matter, but on the other hand this cpu when ocd dumps ALOT of heat in the loop and that can really affect your gpu cooling. If you're limited to one rad i would run the i7 on air cooling and watercool the gpus, as gpu overclocking would benefit from a 20-30C drop unlike the 920. But remember it would also depend on your cpu, some people manage to get it 4g prime stable at 1.28Vcore, some need 1.38-1.4, and that i cannot predict. if you get a chip with sub 1.3V 4g then aircooling is fine, but not more (unless you run some crazy 200cmf fans on your cooler).
Your pa 120.3 would handle a 920 and 2 gpus but what really matters is what you gain from it in terms of extra mhz, temps and is it woth the hassle of spending alot of money and effort when it yields no results. I am taking a guess here once again, but i would say you could get over 10C drop for the gpus and the cpu with that rad and low cfm fans, but youre better off running that cpu in a separate loop. if I was in your shoues, depending on my budget i would get a separate loop with a 120x240 rad for the 920 or aircool it and run the gpus on the 120.3.
 
#8 ·
deffinetly would, and quiete nicely. But i would advise you to wait just a bit and grab a 55nm version of 260gtx (should run cooler and faster)

Edit: it depends on few other things, like your ambient temp and how high you want to overclock, but i am quiete sure it can handle 2 260 gtx (my older tri sli 8800 Ultra rig was cooled, gpu loop, by 3 120mm rads and i got temps in the 60s at load, but with stock cooling i would get 80s and up). It is with 2 280s that i would expect to run into trouble.
 
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