• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

Air Cooling Vs Watercooling

E

entropy1982

Golden Member
Hey guys, I've been looking into buying a system and have everything planned out except the exact type of cooling i will be using.

Here is the planned system:

AMD Athlon X2 4200+ or 3800+
DFI LANPARTY UT nF4 Ultra-D Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra ATX AMD Motherboard
2X Crucial Ballistix 1GB 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Unbuffered DDR 500 (PC 4000) System Memory
OCZ Powerstream 520W
ANTEC P180 Case
2X Hitachi SATA 2 250GB drives
nvidia 7800GTX
PVR
UPS
Already ordered 2Xcooldrive 6 hard drive coolers

If i would go with aircooling i would probably go for zalman 9500, and i might buy another fan for the front of my case (probably panaflo)

Now I would like to know the main differences between air cooling and water cooling in terms of how much of a thermal advantage i would gain and where (gpu,cpu,etc) and also the price differences. Also is it worth buying a kit or building your own watercooling kit?

Thanks
 
You want quality parts. Some kits use quality/high end parts while others suck.

The 9500 should rival most low end watercooling systems but won't hold a candle to true water cooling systems.

If you're going to watercool and overclock, get the X2 3800+

Your CPU temps should drop >5C if you get a good watercooling systems.
GPU temps will probably be >10C lower.

You cannot watercool your NB easily.
It's a waste of flow and money to cool your hard drive and other stuff..
 
Main difference between air cooling and water cooling is that air uses fans to cool and water uses fans as well. With some help from water. 😉

I don't know how many degrees you'll actually lose between water and air, but I lost a good 10 degrees in CPU load temps by switching from an XP-90 + Panaflo to my current CPU setup. And a good 15 degrees switching from my NV Silencer 5 to my current video setup.

Price difference? Well the 9500 is suppose to retail at what 70 bucks? If you went with air I'd recommend something more economic, like an XP120 or a Zalman 7700, which are both 40 - 50 bucks. Watercooling starts at around 100 for a cheapy kit to 300 for something like what I have.

As for what to buy, I always recommend building your own setup. Although there are some kits out there that are good, nothing beats being able to pick and choose, mix and match for what best suits your needs.

Before you go ahead and buy an expensive watercooling setup, it is highly recommended that you read a lot more into watercooling. Do a lot of research, from how watercooling works to what water you're going to use, and make sure you have a plan before going through. The worst is when you get all your parts and you find out something doesn't fit.
 
I see, ok a couple of questions:
First of all, what is an NB? hehe
2. Can you suggest some kits, or parts from which to put together a kit.
3. Is it better to put together my own?
 
Originally posted by: Mrvile
Main difference between air cooling and water cooling is that air uses fans to cool and water uses fans as well. With some help from water. 😉

I don't know how many degrees you'll actually lose between water and air, but I lost a good 10 degrees in CPU load temps by switching from an XP-90 + Panaflo to my current CPU setup. And a good 15 degrees switching from my NV Silencer 5 to my current video setup.

Price difference? Well the 9500 is suppose to retail at what 70 bucks? If you went with air I'd recommend something more economic, like an XP120 or a Zalman 7700, which are both 40 - 50 bucks. Watercooling starts at around 100 for a cheapy kit to 300 for something like what I have.

As for what to buy, I always recommend building your own setup. Although there are some kits out there that are good, nothing beats being able to pick and choose, mix and match for what best suits your needs.

Before you go ahead and buy an expensive watercooling setup, it is highly recommended that you read a lot more into watercooling. Do a lot of research, from how watercooling works to what water you're going to use, and make sure you have a plan before going through. The worst is when you get all your parts and you find out something doesn't fit.
Click to expand...



Ah thanks, sounds good. How much more of an overclock do you think i might be able to get. I understand it's almost impossible to give exact numbers. But lets say the 3800 can get 2.5 on air (with xp90) ... how much can i get on water from it with a good kit like yours?

Also can you watercool ram (i hear people saying ballistix can get hot at high voltages)
 
I don't really agree with Kensai...something like number 2 is way out of hand. And his kit looks alright, but for the radiator I just say get what fits in your case. There aren't a lot of people that can fit a Blick Ice Pro3 in their case, so just get a much smaller Black Ice Xtreme (what I have) if you can't fit it.

Kensai @ 30ppd? Impressive.
 
Originally posted by: Mrvile
I don't really agree with Kensai...something like number 2 is way out of hand. And his kit looks alright, but for the radiator I just say get what fits in your case. There aren't a lot of people that can fit a Blick Ice Pro3 in their case, so just get a much smaller Black Ice Xtreme (what I have) if you can't fit it.

Kensai @ 30ppd? Impressive.
Click to expand...

He asked for a quality kit, I gave him one.. I knew there was a good Swifttech kit around with a Storm G4 but I couldn't find it. A double rad could be almost as good but for silence, a triple rad is one of the better options.

31ppd. 😉
 
Originally posted by: entropy1982
hmmmmmm is p180 still the best case to get? considering there would be no sound anyway with water 🙂
Click to expand...

The P180 is a pretty good case but you'd most likely be limited to a single or dual rad.

There will still be sound in a water cooling setup. There's the pump and the fans on the rad.
Plus the noise of the PSU, opticals, hard drives.
 
You could always leap for the Lian Li v2100B and a triple rad. Maybe a PSU like the Seasonic S-12 500W or 600W.. The Antec Phantom 500W is pretty silent and effective too.

The D-5 is a quiet pump, my preffered choice.

Samsung SpinPoint drives are also essential in a silent system but the Seagate 7200.8's are pretty okay too.

You'll either want to control the NB fan or change it out for a quieter system.
 
Originally posted by: entropy1982
Is there something that would better suit me?
Click to expand...

Well if you're going to be overclocking, no. Overclocking and sound will always go together.

My current setup is almost as loud as my previous air setup, just to let you know.
 
Originally posted by: Mrvile
Originally posted by: entropy1982
Is there something that would better suit me?
Click to expand...

Well if you're going to be overclocking, no. Overclocking and sound will always go together.

My current setup is almost as loud as my previous air setup, just to let you know.
Click to expand...

Wow really? I always thought water was quieter
 
Originally posted by: entropy1982
So can anyone answer how much more of an overclock i'd be able to achieve? 🙂
Click to expand...

I don't know about X2s...but sadly I wasn't able to clock much higher. I could hit 2.6ghz on air, switching to water only brought me to about 2.7ghz. The thing about Winchesters is that they're easy to clock high but once you hit their limit on air, that's probably their chip limit, so water won't bring them any higher. Again, I don't know about X2s.
 
It still depends on which CPU.. With a good clocking X2, you should hit 2.7GHz-2.8GHz pretty easily. Maybe even higher, but everything depends on the CPU.
 
Low air = 0$ (stock stuff)
Mid range = 30$
High end air = 60$+

Pretend kit = 60-99$ (I doubt these ones work)
Low end = 100-150$
Decent = 200-300$.
High end = 300-450$
Extremely crazy = ~300$ with some funky modded parts.

Phase change = >1000$
Cascade = >1000$ per unit in the cascade.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top