is watercooling really all that good?

[spazo]

I'm interested in building a pc but only if its quiet. By quiet, I mean laptop noise levels or lower. Will watercooling provide me with that kind of silence? But I've also heard that watercooling requires lots of maintenance and can someone elaborate on that?

Or is it better to just get a quiet case like that Lian Li PC6070?

 

[Dman877]

Water cooling CAN be quiet and still have good performance but setting it up is a lot of work. For maintainance, water cooling isn't any more difficult then air cooling. Just need to clean dust off the radiator and refill the system every few months as water dissappears (its an xfiles thing, any leak-proof water cooling system looses water slowly). If you design the system right, refilling it is easy.

As for quiet, you can do quiet air-cooing in just about any case. Just need to pick and choose components.

If you do go water, consult a lot of sources about setup, you need to isolate the pump very well to eliminate vibrations. Radiator vs inlne, shrouds on the radiator , tube diameter, etc there's a lot to think about.

 

[caboob]

EXOS watercooler...easy to set up, tidy package and very quiet at low and mid fan speed. With their formulated water, it should only need to be flushed and filled once a year.

 

[1sikbITCH]

If you are just straight watercooling your chip, gpu, and northbridge, you will generally see a few degrees improvement here and there, but no major gains. I am pretty sure you can't get below ambient temps.

If you REALLY want to get the most out of watercooling, you need to watercool a Peltier. That is the only way to get below ambient temps, outside of phase cooling (see Vapochill). With the Peltier being WC'ed you're talking Minus Degrees Celcius with insane voltages and overclocks. Not for the timid or casual pc enthusiast

Unfortunately, I know this stuff only from having read a million articles My peltier still sits in the drawer awaiting the purchase of the rest of the watercooling parts, and the power supply to run it.

 

[1sikbITCH]

Bah he said quiet.

Who knows, all the articles I read are perfectly quiet

 

[hahher]

how often do leaks develop?

 

[SickBeast]

IMO water and computers just don't mix.

 

[nitromullet]

If you are just straight watercooling your chip, gpu, and northbridge, you will generally see a few degrees improvement here and there, but no major gains. I am pretty sure you can't get below ambient temps.

Are you sure, or just pretty sure..?

Edit: sorry, forgot the smiley, all in good fun

 

[0roo0roo]

psu still makes noise unless u get a fanless one. watercooling silence depends on pump/size of radiator/quality/size of fans. its a bit of a chore.

 

[Nebor]

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo
psu still makes noise unless u get a fanless one. watercooling silence depends on pump/size of radiator/quality/size of fans. its a bit of a chore.

It's much harder to make a quiet water cooled system than a quiet air cooled system.

 

[RaiderJ]

I watercooled my CPU, northbridge, and GPU, and my system couldn't be quieter. I hooked all my fans up to a baybus, and just run it at 7.5V most of the time. I have a small reservoir, so I check it once a week or so, and keep a film canister of extra fluid to fill it up if it needs it. A bigger reservoir would of course make that much less of a problem.

If you are just going for quiet, I'd stick with air-cooling. You have to pick components a little more carefully, and a baybus would be a must (or voltage mod). There are tons of heatsinks with low-noise fans, and other solutions for video cards and the like. Plus, water-cooling can get expensive.

What are the specs on the PC you want to build? I'm sure people here can advise on some quiet components for about whatever you're looking to build.

 

[Tango57]

Originally posted by: nitromullet

If you are just straight watercooling your chip, gpu, and northbridge, you will generally see a few degrees improvement here and there, but no major gains. I am pretty sure you can't get below ambient temps.

Are you sure, or just pretty sure..?

Edit: sorry, forgot the smiley, all in good fun

lol, well for diehard coolers, that's actually one drawback of watercooling...you're limited by the fact that watercooled components cannot reach temps any lower than whatever your ambient case temp is unless you go with some type of phase change cooling (peltier, prometia, etc.) instead. in terms of noise levels, i think you would certainly notice a difference in quietness between a watercooled system and an aircooled system. there is some noise production though since watercooling still employs the use of radiator or heatercore fans but if you watercool your cpu, gpu and chipset, that's already 3 less fans you have to deal with. in terms of leaks, i think they rarely occur in a well maintained system with good quality parts. for me, noise isn't really a big issue. i kinda like the hum of my computer's fans. the steady humming noise kinda helps put me to sleep at night, but that's just me. :beer:

 

[Schadenfroh]

is their anything you can use besides water that wont cause the components to fry? like mineral oil or something?

 

[1sikbITCH]

Mineral water has metals in it that make the water more conductive, so I imagine mineral oil do too. A common suggestion is distilled water, which will have no metals and is less conductive than tap water or ionized water.

And Nitromullet, every time I say I am definately "sure" about something in this forum, I am invariably incorrect

 

[bluewall21]

If you have the cash, you could buy Zalman's noiseless case.

But watercooling is mostly just extra cash, it does warrant some advantages, though.

 

[Tango57]

Originally posted by: Schadenfroh
is their anything you can use besides water that wont cause the components to fry? like mineral oil or something?

no unfortunately not. distilled water is recommended because of the aforementioned reasons and it is not as corrosive as other fluids which contain additives, etc.. mineral oil has additives and a higher viscosity which would impede flow. in a watercooled system you need high flow rates to acheive a better cooling effect. interestingly though, there was a linked article i came across in another forum where scientists are experimenting with a new type of fluid or some form of water that has all the properties of water but is entirely non-conductive. i think they bathed some electronic equipement in the fluid and it wasn't damaged at all.

 

[Acanthus]

Total immersion systems are gaining popularity recently, where you have a leakproof case filled with mineral oil, and drives are near the top of the case away from the fluid. Then the fluid is arbitrarily cooled by pelts + fans or pelts + water or phase change.

The supercooled fluid is then circulated throughout the case and over a large passive heatsink on the cpu/cpu/northbridge/southbridge and insane overclocking is possible.

 

[Chaotic42]

Originally posted by: 1sikbITCH
I am pretty sure you can't get below ambient temps.

You'd need some kind of refridgeration, which gets into the evils of condensation and huge power use.

 

[Pauli]

Yeah, why the heck would anyone want lower than ambient temps? That's just crazy. You really don't want to deal with condensation.

 

[0roo0roo]

Originally posted by: bluewall21
If you have the cash, you could buy Zalman's noiseless case.

But watercooling is mostly just extra cash, it does warrant some advantages, though.

http://www.voodoopc.com/systems/f50.aspx

badass

and yea, to really truely cool everything with water is a pain. do they even make heatblocks for harddrives? i know they do for gpu's, but thats more pain...

 

[White Widow]

Well, I know I'm a month+ late jumping in here, but I've been watercooling for about 8 years, and the first thing I will tell you is that it is a pain in the ass. It's fun, but still a project if you want anything decent. Most people who go with a WC setup - and stick with it - do so because htey enjoy the hobby aspect of it. If you're looking for a cool. quiet system, then stick with air. You can get a nice big heatsink that's designed for use with a 92mm fan (like the Swiftech MCX series) and get very good cooling and low noise. If you don't mind spending another $20 then you can buy sound-insulating foam and mount it inside your case. It makes a noticable difference, but add's to the case temp a few degrees.

 

[chilled]

Originally posted by: White Widow
Well, I know I'm a month+ late jumping in here, but I've been watercooling for about 8 years, and the first thing I will tell you is that it is a pain in the ass.

You watercooled PCs of the 1996 era? That would have been the original Pentium! How far did you get it???

Sorry to add top an outdated post, but I couldn't help it.

 

[caz67]

I personally wouldn't risk the money ive spent on my PC , with a water rig.

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: Tango57

Originally posted by: nitromullet

If you are just straight watercooling your chip, gpu, and northbridge, you will generally see a few degrees improvement here and there, but no major gains. I am pretty sure you can't get below ambient temps.

Are you sure, or just pretty sure..?

Edit: sorry, forgot the smiley, all in good fun

lol, well for diehard coolers, that's actually one drawback of watercooling...you're limited by the fact that watercooled components cannot reach temps any lower than whatever your ambient case temp is unless you go with some type of phase change cooling (peltier, prometia, etc.) instead.

Unless you've found a good way around the laws of thermodynamics, no cooling system without a heat pump (such as a peltier or a phase change system, or watercooling with chilled water) can get below ambient.

 

[Terrax]

Has anyone heard of using regular alcohol ( 70% ) to fill the resevoir? The cooling properties may be more efficient. Plus, a leak may not damage the components. The only concern would be the tubing.