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In The End, Is Water Cooling Worth it?

A

adurkee

Member
I am getting the impression that water cooling kits are easy to install; but difficult to maintain. I would like to try water cooling; however is water cooling worth it considering the amount of maintenance that it requires over air cooling?
 
I have one (a watercooling setup) and like it for testing the limits of a chip but not for everyday use. I dont trust them enough to leave them on 24/7.
 
For that reason, I've been reticent about trying it. I've had an ongoing investigation -- a window-shopping habit -- to watch for compromises or hybrid systems that employ TEC. Apparently, the TT SubZero4G was something of a failure for the price, because resellers that once offered the gadget at $90 to $120 have discontinued it.

I was thinking along the lines of using TEC with a more elaborate heatpipe cooler. What that entails is a regulation of the fan and the TEC to maintain temperatures at some level -- preferably a level that stays above the dew-point with the condensation problem. Not exactly an easy project even for the "enthusiast."

Now I find that there is a company called Wintsch Labs producing a "Dominator-Pro" CPU water-block with a TEC cooler. Swiftech is selling a tiny device that uses TEC to refrigerate water somewhere in your water lines; one would imagine that it would allow eliminating a radiator from your configuration. Have to look into that more.

But the point is, with these sorts of solutions, as with AseTek Vapo-Chill, you begin to complicate your life with "heater-coil" and neoprene-gasket devices designed to mitigate condensation.

Suppose you use air-cooling to over-clock a 3-Ghz system to 3.6 -- or even 3.75. How important is it to you to get such a system to 3.9 or 4.0 for the additional cost and trouble? At least with a straight-forward water-cooling system that only goes as far as "water-at-room-temperature", you don't add other variables in the equation, you still need a fan for the radiator but not four or five fans pushing air through your case. And from what I've heard, there really isn't THAT much maintenance to worry about.

Even so, I wouldn't feel that easy about leaving a couple-grand's worth of equipment home alone with a water-cooling rig running. But that may be just a psychological thing. With air-cooling, you could lose a fan in your power-supply and really burn things up, or your CPU fan could conceivably go on the fritz and -- MAYBE -- your CPU would shut down (depending on your original choices and configuration).

What's the probability of failure, or equivalently, the MTBF for a water-pump as opposed to a CPU fan?
 
For that reason, I've been reticent about trying it. I've had an ongoing investigation -- a window-shopping habit -- to watch for compromises or hybrid systems that employ TEC. Apparently, the TT SubZero4G was something of a failure for the price, because resellers that once offered the gadget at $90 to $120 have discontinued it.

I was thinking along the lines of using TEC with a more elaborate heatpipe cooler. What that entails is a regulation of the fan and the TEC to maintain temperatures at some level -- preferably a level that stays above the dew-point with the condensation problem. Not exactly an easy project even for the "enthusiast."

Now I find that there is a company called Wintsch Labs producing a "Dominator-Pro" CPU water-block with a TEC cooler. Swiftech is selling a tiny device that uses TEC to refrigerate water somewhere in your water lines; one would imagine that it would allow eliminating a radiator from your configuration. Have to look into that more.

But the point is, with these sorts of solutions, as with AseTek Vapo-Chill, you begin to complicate your life with "heater-coil" and neoprene-gasket devices designed to mitigate condensation.

Suppose you use air-cooling to over-clock a 3-Ghz system to 3.6 -- or even 3.75. How important is it to you to get such a system to 3.9 or 4.0 for the additional cost and trouble? At least with a straight-forward water-cooling system that only goes as far as "water-at-room-temperature", you don't add other variables in the equation, you still need a fan for the radiator but not four or five fans pushing air through your case. And from what I've heard, there really isn't THAT much maintenance to worry about.

Even so, I wouldn't feel that easy about leaving a couple-grand's worth of equipment home alone with a water-cooling rig running. But that may be just a psychological thing. With air-cooling, you could lose a fan in your power-supply and really burn things up, or your CPU fan could conceivably go on the fritz and -- MAYBE -- your CPU would shut down (depending on your original choices and configuration).

What's the probability of failure, or equivalently, the MTBF for a water-pump as opposed to a CPU fan?
 
Maintain? What is that? If an H2O system is set up right the first time with the right components and additives(anti-corrsive, anti-growth), then the system should be maintenance free. Yes, installation has gotten eaiser. But as with everything, even air cooling requires maintenance (compressed air fighting off dust bunnies the size of golf balls). And water cooling isn't just for over-clocking. Many people go H2O for a quieter rig. If you want to try it, do so. I did, and gald I did so.
 
What about case temps?
Surely water will lower case temps too if you have the radiator outside the case?

So you have cooler CPU + cooler case = cooler everything + lower noise.
Where's the bad part?
I'm looking at a basic unit for the CPU, mine gets ~50 under load, and my case starts to heat up too. I'm giving it serious consideration.
 
Originally posted by: Lonyo
What about case temps?
Surely water will lower case temps too if you have the radiator outside the case?

So you have cooler CPU + cooler case = cooler everything + lower noise.
Where's the bad part?
I'm looking at a basic unit for the CPU, mine gets ~50 under load, and my case starts to heat up too. I'm giving it serious consideration.
Click to expand...

Are you looking for high cooling at low db?? I am, and it looks like I'm almost there. I'm using air cooling, not liquid, since I'm not ready to drop that amount just yet. Plus, I'm a little nervous about having fluids inside my case, at least at this time. I'd want to use the liquid that won't short out my system IF there's a leak...
 
you can always get deionized it doesnt really have any electrical dischrage to it but not worth it in my opinion because it's expensive. As with water cooling the most dangerous part is having the pump go out and if you install your parts correctly there shouldn't be a problem. Most of the time when leaks occur are when people tighten to NPT part of the barb connector too tightly and it ends up either cracking their reservoir or causing it to leak. Most radiator if not all raditor are built to last, why do you suppose automobile have radiators mounted in front and constantly taking a beating year round. It's all within the installation🙂 i'm confident enough that my system wont leak or go out on me and was with any water cooling loop I suggest that you test it out for atleast 3+ days to make sure there aren't any leaks before isntalling it into a system.

and to answer your question my answer is yes watercooling is far superior any heatsink+fan has to offer without sacrafcing noise that sounds like you're walking through an aircondition unit. My tempertures dropped 15-20°C and on load the temp never jumps above 3-5°C even when overclocked or upping the vcore on my cpu.
 
Akira34 said: Plus, I'm a little nervous about having fluids inside my case, at least at this time. I'd want to use the liquid that won't short out my system IF there's a leak...
Click to expand...

I know exactly how you feel. In many ways, it makes sense to try water-cooling, but you've conditioned yourself to keep your cup of coffee away from your PC.

Idleuser seems to be reporting the conclusions of a profound epiphany. In Fahrenheit degrees, his cooling keeps his load temperature about 4F lower than mine (at this time . . . but wait until I've made a few more modifications . . . . and even the (currently low) noise level will drop again).

Something tells me that power consumption can also be significantly lower with water-cooling, although you still need at least one fan in addition to the pump.

Here's another thought, however. It's still one more thing you have to show care and attention to when you get inside your box to "do something" and you already feel like there's enough to occupy your instinct for caution. 🙂
 
Right now, my processor is about 20F above ambient... I'm looking to reduce that, but I'm still going to stick with air cooling for now. I MIGHT give it a shot later, as the weather warms up, if the air cooling solution doesn't hack it. With the liquid cooling, I'll self-impose enough safties to ensure that I don't have issues.
 
Has anyone ever found reason or observation that departs from the idea that both idle and load temperatures rise linearly with room-temperature and for the most part -- degree for degree? Or that this assumption is different between water and air-cooling?
 
I have a question about this... what is an accurate ambient temp reading? According to my monitoring utility, my ambient is always 20-25 c while my CPU is 40-50 depending on idle/full load and fan speeds. Is this normal? also, my GPU temp reading (in the nVidia control panel) says my ambient is 30-35, not 20-25... which is right? Do those sound too warm? Too cold? Just curious...

-spike
 
My nVidia control panel gives the same ambient temps as MBM5 does. What utility are YOU using to monitor temps?? Keep in mind, depending on where inside your system the readings are taken could make for differnet readings. I believe mine are pretty close to each other, which could account for the same temp readings. Of course, with different hardware, you can get a wide range of results...
 
Try MotherBoard Monitor 5... See what it gives you for results... Of course, it COULD be (as I mentioned) that the mobo and video card get their ambient reads from different areas. I suppose it's possible to have that much of a spread between the two, but only if they are spread fairly wide apart.
 
Originally posted by: Idleuser
you can always get deionized it doesnt really have any electrical dischrage to it but not worth it in my opinion because it's expensive. As with water cooling the most dangerous part is having the pump go out and if you install your parts correctly there shouldn't be a problem. Most of the time when leaks occur are when people tighten to NPT part of the barb connector too tightly and it ends up either cracking their reservoir or causing it to leak. Most radiator if not all raditor are built to last, why do you suppose automobile have radiators mounted in front and constantly taking a beating year round. It's all within the installation🙂 i'm confident enough that my system wont leak or go out on me and was with any water cooling loop I suggest that you test it out for atleast 3+ days to make sure there aren't any leaks before isntalling it into a system.

and to answer your question my answer is yes watercooling is far superior any heatsink+fan has to offer without sacrafcing noise that sounds like you're walking through an aircondition unit. My tempertures dropped 15-20°C and on load the temp never jumps above 3-5°C even when overclocked or upping the vcore on my cpu.
Click to expand...

Using deionized water is a BAd idea, it pulls off particles from its surroundings, like your hoses and radiator, making them slightly more prone to leaks, and re-ionizing the water all at the same time.
 
i've been using (don't laugh) an aquarius II liquid cooling system for the past year. i run my 2.8C @ 3.45 on stock voltage in a big antec case with temps of 33C idle/38C load at 29C ambient. it's quiet but i do have to top it off about once a month. it's good for what it does, replacing a hsf solution with a much quieter one. i'm going to try a 3.0e and o/c which runs considerably hotter and have decided to get a "real" liquid cooling kit. i've spent the past couple of days researching different items and have pretty much decided on a danger den tdk custom kit and use a swiftech radbox with a thermaltake 120mm adjustible fan. the way i look at it is if liquid cooling's good enuff for some of the $5000.00+ boutique gaming rigs and if it's installed properly, you should have a nice quiet, high performance cooling solution.
 
I figured I'd add to the discussion about temperatures and noise.

With the stock cooling solution, I was getting ~50C idle/~58C load at stock speeds with my 3200+. Once I moved to my WC setup, I'm OCing by 200 MHz with temps at ~38C idle/~45 load. So yes, the relative increase in temps is linear, but at a much lower overall level. The thermal diode that came with my setup reports the temperatures that my waterblock on the CPU reaches, which is typically 28C idle (relatively close to room temp) and 31-32C load. It's worth it to note that my GPU idles around ~30C and doesn't go above 60C no matter what I throw at it, especially when it used to get to 80-90C under load before I put a waterblock on it.

My particular setup is probably a little louder than most WC systems, especially when it's running on "performance" mode when it sounds like a small air conditioner, while it sounds like a louder-than-normal PSU at its default setting. Other setups, especially custom ones or ones where 120mm fans are used, are typically not heard over the PSU (assuming its not fanless). All in all, my case is much more quiet now that I've taken out the CPU and GPU HSFs and that 5 year old 7200 drive I had in there.

In the end I can wholeheartedly recommend it if you can afford a watercooling solution and want to squeeze some extra performance out of your components. My only regret is that I didn't wait a few more months for Koolance to release their modified Lian-Li case. That thing is HOT. 😉
 
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