Late February 2022, cooling characteristics are still around the same, a bit less as I no longer use push fans on the Extreme radiator as they block access to the top of the mobo. Delta T is 51C at 100%, 45.5C at typical high load. That is with a Ryzen 9 3900X 12-Core in an X470 Crosshair Wifi.
Trying it with my old 1700 8 core CPU, how did this compare? For the high load, Handbrake dvd conversion test, the typical CPU temperature was 37C, an amazing delta T of 13C, but taking a very noticeable three times longer, 220 minutes rather than the 63 minutes with the 3900X. The delta T with the 100% soak test is only 11C, I find it difficult to understand how it can be lower.
I interpret that as it is looking as if things are moving towards the latest (lower power and cheaper) 65W 8 core becoming almost as fast as my 105W 12 core. Those ultra low delta T could eventually become practical reality.
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I waited until the new year for the latest upkeep work and tests, so that it would be around the time of an annual check and clean-up.
The biggest change, apart from removing the top push fans, was cleaning and redoing the Conductonaut thermal compound.
When I used thermal paste I cleaned the surfaces with turps or white spirit until they were visibly clean, then added fresh compound, with turps to soften it and help spread it around. With Conductonaut I get the same performance as with thermal paste plus turps, suggesting that there might be some flaw in my watercooling to CPU interface. I might look into that a year from now, things are okay enough as is.
With liquid metal conductonaut I am discovering that I need to clean it with Isopropyl alcohol and that visually clean is not good enough. To get the thermal compound to spread easily I needed the surfaces to be visibly clean, but then clean it further with a rubber ‘ink grade’ eraser, with a further rinse with isopropyl. The test as if the compound spreads easily. I had first found that it could take a few minutes to get the metal compound to start to spread, metal compound seemed difficult to apply, like this it went on easier, but there is still no improvement in thermal performance.
As a system tidy up I changed my GPU from a heavy Strix GTX 960 to a choice of two low profile, low weight, low power GPU, a Radeon Pro WX 3100 and a Nvidia T400. In a linux system I prefer the T400, simpler to adjust, but if I accept a GPU temp in the mid 40’s then no problem with either.
I also changed the motherboard to an X470 Crosshair Wifi, from a Asus TUF Gaming X570-Plus Wifi. Better BIOS and heavier heatsinks, at the cost of the GPU operating as x8 rather than x16 and only 6 SATA sockets.
I have still been occasionally looking for a pump/reservoir that is a plug in replacement for my Extreme, though my original reservoir is running okay, just not pretty. With forthcoming price rises in England, I do not expect to be spending on cooling and computing for a while. If an Extreme reservoir became available just now I would hold back.