Basic questions about a water cooling system:

[KangGax331]

I'm planning a huge upgrade sometime in late 2003, but I want to purchase the water cooling system before that.

I have a few questions about it's operation:

1). I'm planning on having a Prescott Pentium 4 (I'm assuming that with the .09 micron design, it won't run particularly hot), a Springdale motherboard, a GeForceFX (whichever one is better by that time), and 3 7200 RPM hard drives in a RAID-0 array. I'd like to water cool all of these with the same system, and my question is, will the performance of the entire cooling system be degraded because I'm cooling a lot of parts i.e., could I overclock my processor just as high as I would if it were the only thing being cooling?

2). Are there any additives to just basic distilled water I should put in?

3). I read somewhere that because the contact plates are very smooth with an Innovatek system (what I'm planning on purchasing), that Arctic Silver III thermal paste should not be used. Is there any truth to this statement?

4). Would have 2 fans, one on each side of the heat exchanger, increase the performance of the cooling system at all?

Thank you all for your time and consideration.

 

[Match]

1) Yes, having more components to cool might lower your overclock for two reasons:
A. More components means more heat being put into the cooling system. This means that for two similar systems, one cooling just a processor and one cooling other stuff as well, the system cooling more stuff will have a higher water temperature. If the water temperature is higher, then you won't be able to cool the processor as well (obviously) and you may not be able to get as good an overclock.
B. With more components, you have more tubing for the water to travel through. This means more resistance so the water would travel slower and cool less. You would need a more powerful pump to compensate for the added resistance.

2) Yes. You should put in something called "water wetter." It inhibits corrosion when different metals are used in the same system, copper and aluminum for example. It can be purchased online or in an auto parts store I believe.

3) mmm.... yes and no. I'm not familiar with that system, but if the plates are very smooth then it could probably function quite well if you don't use AS3. If you put a thick layer of AS3 on, it will actually serve as an insulator and inhibit heat transfer. But, if you apply it properly in a paper thin layer then it should provide a small amount of benifit. The micronized silver particles suspended in AS3 will fill the microscopic imperfections in the heatsink. I highly doubt a consumer level product would be so smooth as to not benefit from this. The key is to apply it thinly and evenly.

4) Yes, but probably not much. If you have the money, room, and don't mind the added noise, it can help. The reason is that fans have an ideal CFM that they can output, but this is without any obstructions to the airflow nearby. As soon as you put the fan up against the radiator, it has to do more work to push/pull the air through the radiator. This slows down the air speed a bit. If you have two fans in series like you described, they can share the work and come closer to achieving their rated CFM. Using two fans will help, but I don't know how much.