Considering going water

[zmaster]

I am heavily considering water cooling my rig. Now im not new to air cooling, but since i have never used water cooled setups, i would like to hear your opinions first.

I'm gonna start small.

Thermaltake Big water 735

http://www.thermaltake.com/product/Liguid/DIY/cl-w0075/cl-w0075.asp

Would you consider this a good beginners setup?

 

[MoonglumWoW]

I have water cooling on most of my computers, including some servers that run 24/7. This was very necessary because I had 5 desktops in the same room and couldn't talk on the phone for all the noise. Water cooling kept everything cool and dramatically lowered the noise.

My own personal recommendation would be to consider a kit that was external, like the Corsair Nautilas or the more expensive Koolance ExOS-2 kits. This keeps the components from cramping the inside of your case while making maintenance much easier.

One thing to be aware of is that water cooling eliminates much of the airflow that other components still need. Make sure you water cool things like your chipset and video card or leave adequate fans to move sufficient air through the case.


ps. I use Koolance PC2-C midtower cases for my desktops, a Koolance ExOS-AL for a dual Opteron 250/dual GeForce 7900GTX workstation, and PC2-650 full tower/PC2-C for my dual AthlonMP servers. I got most of the PC2-C cases from eBay or refurbished from Koolance.com or Infotechnow.com for under $100 (but the water blocks are purchased separately).

 

[zmaster]

with regards to the space inside the case, i have plenty. Thermaltake armor is the case i use

 

[motorbikeking1]

i dont think it would be worth it, air cooling is cheap and is becoming much more powerfull with less noise! as long as you have good airflow in your case and a good hsf then air cooling should be good enough, unless your in a situation like moonglum were wc would be MUCH better.

 

[JEDIYoda]

Water IMO is where it is at if you need to radically o/c a vid card...but in everyday use the higher end heatsink....such as ther ThermalRights...Zalmans the Tuniq and the Scythe are all very very good and comparable to most low end water units!

 

[VinDSL]

Originally posted by: MoonglumWoW
My own personal recommendation would be to consider a kit that was external, like the... Koolance ExOS-2 kits...

Heh! I love those things!!!

If I ever go back to a 'normal' case, that will be the reason...

Anyway, to answer your question directly, no, I would NOT go the PigWater route. I've read too many posts by ppl suffering whore's remorse for buying those things. They don't work very good. And, to make them work good, you have to start upgrading the components. Pretty soon, you end up replacing the whole thing with what you should have bought in the first place, you know?

Spend the money and dive into a ExOS-2!

*edit*

Check out the pics in this thread. Sexy, yes???

 

[ThePiston]

i think i'm going to go with water. i've had it in the past and i can tell you, a silent PC (or d4mn near) is the only way to go. when you turn on your pc and no sound comes out of it, it's like breathing fresh air or the first time. only needed if you are into megaclocking really though... stock systems can still go near-silent with the latest huge heatsinks like Scythe Infinity which can run passively on a stock system. I thought about paying $125 for 3 heatsinks for CPU. GPU and NB, but why? to add even more fans to my system? nah, i'll pay the $350 for complete silence. Water plus a few 10 cent resistors on my case fans and i can hear the birds outside.

 

[mrzed]

Let's see,

CPU's are getting cooler
Fans are getting bigger
Heatsinks are getting bigger and full of heatpipes
A top-end tower heatsink can outperform many H2O systems at a fraction of the cost
Most watercooled systems still need fans, usually no quieter than the best aircooled systems

Downsides to water: cost, complexity, maintenance
Upsides to water: Performance (only for extreme overclocking and overvolting IMO)

Water is really a truly extreme hobbyist niche at this point. Much more than it was 5 years ago, when the first 100W CPU's were struggling with tiny heatsinks and an 80mm CPU fan was considered huge. The only truly good reason to go water is "I want to." If that applies to you, go for it, have fun, hope you like it. If you are looking for good reasons to do it, you should probably stick with air.

 

[Smartazz]

Originally posted by: MoonglumWoW
I have water cooling on most of my computers, including some servers that run 24/7. This was very necessary because I had 5 desktops in the same room and couldn't talk on the phone for all the noise. Water cooling kept everything cool and dramatically lowered the noise.

My own personal recommendation would be to consider a kit that was external, like the Corsair Nautilas or the more expensive Koolance ExOS-2 kits. This keeps the components from cramping the inside of your case while making maintenance much easier.

One thing to be aware of is that water cooling eliminates much of the airflow that other components still need. Make sure you water cool things like your chipset and video card or leave adequate fans to move sufficient air through the case.


ps. I use Koolance PC2-C midtower cases for my desktops, a Koolance ExOS-AL for a dual Opteron 250/dual GeForce 7900GTX workstation, and PC2-650 full tower/PC2-C for my dual AthlonMP servers. I got most of the PC2-C cases from eBay or refurbished from Koolance.com or Infotechnow.com for under $100 (but the water blocks are purchased separately).

If I rebuild my system I will definatly consider getting a Koolance. I'm going to need this computer to be dead quiet for the near future.

 

[aigomorla]

Originally posted by: mrzed
Let's see,
A top-end tower heatsink can outperform many H2O systems at a fraction of the cost
Most watercooled systems still need fans, usually no quieter than the best aircooled systems

Downsides to water: cost, complexity, maintenance
Upsides to water: Performance (only for extreme overclocking and overvolting IMO)

Water is really a truly extreme hobbyist niche at this point. Much more than it was 5 years ago, when the first 100W CPU's were struggling with tiny heatsinks and an 80mm CPU fan was considered huge. The only truly good reason to go water is "I want to." If that applies to you, go for it, have fun, hope you like it. If you are looking for good reasons to do it, you should probably stick with air.

My reason on why i went water

Need i say more?

Coretemp reads 18.2C YES this is CORETEMP and not Mobo Temp
7900GTs are nice and chilly reading at 28 28 <--- i think the highest MAX ive ever seen these cards go up to is around 41C, but thats with RHDBIRL blah however u spell it, and Orthos running at the same time


Id like to see Air get close to those temps without having a perm air conditioner straped in front


And if ur going TT for water, STOP. and head straight back to AIR. the tuniq tower will pwn the bigwater series any day of the week.

If you want a starting kit, get something around swiftech 220 APEX. That would be a greater starter kit.

Peace

 

[mrzed]

Low temps alone are no good reason IMO. It's the performance and stability of a system that matters. As long as the CPU and GPU stay comfortable, I see no reason to be concerned with having the lowest possible temps, as long as things are well within spec and stable. It's not like heavy OCers are planning on keeping the chips for 20 years.

As a hobby I have no problem with watercooling. If it makes it fun, go for it, but spending an extra $250 and much time to enable another small performance increase is not something that is easy to justify in pure value terms. That's why I think of it as a niche extreme thing.

So to the OP I would say, if you think you'll have fun with it, go for it. Consider WC an entertainment expense or a hobby. As a value proposition it makes no sense (unless you value very highly having the max performance for benchmarks etc).

 

[theangel24]

noise and temps are the reasons to go with water vs air. that and you ahve to be pretty good with cable management. If u ahve anything smaller than a large mid-tower case, i'd say don't go with with water. your case is already gonna be so full of wires that u won't have room to swish hoses around.

just remember that you still need air cooling. i'm assuming u're gonna oc, since otherwise there's no real point to getting water as you can just get a really low rpm air and practically not hear it. your mobo's gonna run hot, and depending on your mobo the NB might be difficult to put a block on (my asus p5n32-e if i wanted to, i'd have to bend or break that cooling pipe).

also if u go for externals, just remember that those outside pumps and radiators are NOT quiet. they're actually pretty freakin loud. their saving grace is that you can shove it into almost anywhere that you have enuf hose length for. it'll be kinda like an ac unit.

but if u wanna do some extreme OC, water is the way to go. I can't push my e6600 past 3.6 atm without it protesting severely.

 

[zmaster]

with regards to a case, i have a thermaltake armor. it is quite roomy at that.

 

[Noubourne]

That is a crap water kit. Go to Petrastech and buy a quality pre-built kit. Otherwise don't bother.

Water is WAY more efficient at cooling than air. It will get you higher overclocks. It's also 6x as expensive. A good air setup is usually about $50, and a good water setup is about $300.

If you're just going to water for the sake of water, then don't bother. If you want to push 1.7v through your C2D and get 4Ghz, then water (or TEC) is your only option.

Anyone who says air cools just as good as water probably thinks the world is flat.

 

[zmaster]

got it today. thanx for all your input folks

 

[aigomorla]

Originally posted by: Noubourne
That is a crap water kit. Go to Petrastech and buy a quality pre-built kit. Otherwise don't bother.

Water is WAY more efficient at cooling than air. It will get you higher overclocks. It's also 6x as expensive. A good air setup is usually about $50, and a good water setup is about $300.

If you're just going to water for the sake of water, then don't bother. If you want to push 1.7v through your C2D and get 4Ghz, then water (or TEC) is your only option.

Anyone who says air cools just as good as water probably thinks the world is flat.

Wow i actually agree with you for once.

 

[JEDIYoda]

Originally posted by: aigomorla

Originally posted by: Noubourne
That is a crap water kit. Go to Petrastech and buy a quality pre-built kit. Otherwise don't bother.

Water is WAY more efficient at cooling than air. It will get you higher overclocks. It's also 6x as expensive. A good air setup is usually about $50, and a good water setup is about $300.

If you're just going to water for the sake of water, then don't bother. If you want to push 1.7v through your C2D and get 4Ghz, then water (or TEC) is your only option.

Anyone who says air cools just as good as water probably thinks the world is flat.

Wow i actually agree with you for once.

If your not going to invest in a water cooling system and your just going to get one of those premade water coolers that several companies make you are better off going air cooling!

But if your going to do water right and invest in a good water setup then go for it. But it is not a cheap proposition if you fo it correctly!!

 

[aigomorla]

Originally posted by: JEDIYoda

Originally posted by: aigomorla

Originally posted by: Noubourne
That is a crap water kit. Go to Petrastech and buy a quality pre-built kit. Otherwise don't bother.

Water is WAY more efficient at cooling than air. It will get you higher overclocks. It's also 6x as expensive. A good air setup is usually about $50, and a good water setup is about $300.

If you're just going to water for the sake of water, then don't bother. If you want to push 1.7v through your C2D and get 4Ghz, then water (or TEC) is your only option.

Anyone who says air cools just as good as water probably thinks the world is flat.

Wow i actually agree with you for once.

If your not going to invest in a water cooling system and your just going to get one of those premade water coolers that several companies make you are better off going air cooling!

But if your going to do water right and invest in a good water setup then go for it. But it is not a cheap proposition if you fo it correctly!!

i think the overall value of my kit is in the 300 ranges for my temps. My QX's value is probably near the 500 ranges since it uses nicer parts. The radiator itself was almost 150 with tax and ship. Each of my pumps are probably 100 with the mod tops.

Basically the only cheap waterkit id trust is the corsair nautilus 500. or a kit at petratech.com

 

[JEDIYoda]

Originally posted by: aigomorla

Originally posted by: JEDIYoda

Originally posted by: aigomorla

Originally posted by: Noubourne
That is a crap water kit. Go to Petrastech and buy a quality pre-built kit. Otherwise don't bother.

Water is WAY more efficient at cooling than air. It will get you higher overclocks. It's also 6x as expensive. A good air setup is usually about $50, and a good water setup is about $300.

If you're just going to water for the sake of water, then don't bother. If you want to push 1.7v through your C2D and get 4Ghz, then water (or TEC) is your only option.

Anyone who says air cools just as good as water probably thinks the world is flat.

Wow i actually agree with you for once.

If your not going to invest in a water cooling system and your just going to get one of those premade water coolers that several companies make you are better off going air cooling!

But if your going to do water right and invest in a good water setup then go for it. But it is not a cheap proposition if you fo it correctly!!

i think the overall value of my kit is in the 300 ranges for my temps. My QX's value is probably near the 500 ranges since it uses nicer parts. The radiator itself was almost 150 with tax and ship. Each of my pumps are probably 100 with the mod tops.

Basically the only cheap waterkit id trust is the corsair nautilus 500. or a kit at petratech.com

exactly!