Overclock test

In our overclocking tests I continued to raise the FSB and stress the processor until S&M either caused the system to freeze or reboot. The amount of heat Corsair's COOL dissipated allowed me to push the frequency beyond 2.7GHz, while concurrently raising Vcore to 1.550 + 113% or 1.72Vcore.

In the screenshot below the system is running IDLE overclocked at 250FSB/2750MHz under 1.72 vcore.



For our final screenshot once again running overclocked at 250FSB/2750MHz under full LOAD at 1.72Vcore.




Test Summary



I was pleasantly surprised with the overclocking head-room afforded me using the Corsair COOL H20 system. The kit allowed me to run stable up to 2750MHz at 1.72 vcore. Taking into account the Althon64 is a completely different animal from the Pentium 4 where CPU architecture is concerned; a 550MHz overclock is most promising.

Any P4, from the Socket 478 Northwood to LGA775 Prescott would be an exceptionally rare poor performer if it were to max out at just 550MHz above default speed. Yet one must remember Intel's seemingly unlimited headroom is actually indicative of its controversial pipeline depth and speed vs AMD's "Brainiac" engineering approach. This is the P4's Achilles Heel as pointed out in Van's Hardware articles.

Today we've experienced some excellent performance and as the screen-shot below indicates, there's even more headroom. I chose not to push the processor further due to my fear of damaging mosfets and as yet unresolved issues specific to the DFI LAN party nF4 UT.



Temps at this speed are obviously conducive to further overclocking; in fact the only issue holding me back was HDD file corruption which prevented me from entering the Windows XP splash screen. There was no problem booting and posting beyond 270FSB were it not for the repeated file corruption which can be circumvented running Windows 2000 and/or installing an ATA HDD and adjusting PIO modes. That, however; is another article all together.


Conclusion

Corsair's COOL offers excellent water cooling performance, virtually noiseless operation, reliability, and outstanding value. I must commend the memory maker on their selection of water cooling components which come together to create a cohesive H20 system. This product is another recent release from Corsair such as their XPERT series memory exemplifying their desire to meet the need's of the budding overclocker as well as anyone wanting to improve the performance of their PC. What impressed me most about COOL is the price, Cool can be found through PriceGrabber under 200.00 USD. Given the value I can find no Con's in my assessment of this product. I must confess this is one case in which the semantics behind the moniker "COOL" are well deserved! A Must Have recommendation is in order.

I'd like to thank Anna K. and Robert P. at Corsair for their cooperation.

Questions/Comments: forum thread