• 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.

Is watercooling still better than air cooling?

S

SickBeast

Lifer
I'm wondering why people still use watercooling when you can get a $30 heatsink that will match the temperatures obtained with watercooling.

I'm referring specifically to the Xigmatek heatsink (the one that is the same as the OCZ Vendetta 2). I was reading that it can keep a C2Q at around 44C under full load. Can watercooling really do much better that this?

Also, isn't a fan that spins 600rpm alot quieter than a water pump plus a radiator fan?

I'm sorry if this thread upsets you aigomorla. Please explain your passion for the water. 🙂

:beer:






This thread has much misinformation in it. As aigomorla pointed out to me all the relevant info was pointed out early on. It's becoming a troll-type thread and no longer has any value. It's locked.


esquared
Anandtech Senior Moderator
 
A good waterpump, when the loop is properly bled, is virtually silent, and the radiator fans could spin at 600 rpms if you would care for so.

But the truth is, watercooling can dissipate upwards of 500W for a single loop. With the Core i7, at 130W TDP at stock, I doubt any air cooler could beat a good silent watercooling loop.

Also, for GPU's like the GTX 280, I doubt an air cooler could beat a good full-cover block.
 
Air cooling is certainly more cost effective and easier when moving your computer around or on the road. If you aren't moving the computer much, and you don't mind spending a lot extra for minimal thermal gains, then it may be worth it. I consider myself pretty hardcore with cpu hardware though, and I'm not considering water at this point.
 
Originally posted by: SickBeast
I'm wondering why people still use watercooling when you can get a $30 heatsink that will match the temperatures obtained with watercooling.



:beer:
Click to expand...

heh... ready for some smackass? 😛

J/k


explain how your gonna pull air temps like this?

http://i125.photobucket.com/al...73/aigomorla/Final.jpg

http://i125.photobucket.com/al...igomorla/OCCTFinal.jpg

http://i125.photobucket.com/al...3/aigomorla/Wprime.jpg

no way can air ever match water. Where you hearing this? Its a PHYSICAL impossiblilty for AIR to ever MATCH water.

Infact ask people with good watersetups if they will ever go back. 90% of the time its NO.

People with good setups, and not crappy ThermalTake or Zalwish or any low ball kit setup designed for bling, get good temps. And they get spoiled by these temps.

Only down side of water is its obnoxiously expensive price tag, and as you go to the upper tier, the smaller returns associated with that higher cost.

Water isnt for everyone. Its more ment for the people that no long think there computer is a tool but more of a hobby.

oh and no worries, if you have questions with water, ask. As i said its not for everone, i dont go off recomending it to people that are conflicted about.

Most of the people i help have already crossed that line and want water. I never push someone across that line.
 
heh... ready for some smackass? 😛

J/k


explain how your gonna pull air temps like this?
Click to expand...

Hmmm...sorry but those temps are not really all that much better than what I'm getting (only about 3c better) with my q6600 at 3.2Ghz. Granted, I'm only at 3.2 vs your almost 3.7 but then again you have a 45nm chip. I'm just not seeing the value in this proposition.

 
Originally posted by: Ratman6161
heh... ready for some smackass? 😛

J/k


explain how your gonna pull air temps like this?
Click to expand...

Hmmm...sorry but those temps are not really all that much better than what I'm getting (only about 3c better) with my q6600 at 3.2Ghz. Granted, I'm only at 3.2 vs your almost 3.7 but then again you have a 45nm chip. I'm just not seeing the value in this proposition.
Click to expand...

How loud is your air setup?

3.2 vs 3.7 is a HUGE difference in clock speed (65nm to 45nm hardly made a difference in temperature).

That's not a valid comparison.
 
Originally posted by: Ratman6161
heh... ready for some smackass? 😛

J/k


explain how your gonna pull air temps like this?
Click to expand...

Hmmm...sorry but those temps are not really all that much better than what I'm getting (only about 3c better) with my q6600 at 3.2Ghz. Granted, I'm only at 3.2 vs your almost 3.7 but then again you have a 45nm chip. I'm just not seeing the value in this proposition.
Click to expand...

are you looking at my i7?

you cant cross compare platofrms. Also my ambients are probably higher then yours.

I7 is uber hot.

If you want to see Q6600, B3 temps, here:
http://i125.photobucket.com/al...73/aigomorla/CM690.jpg

Here is a G0 temp:
http://i125.photobucket.com/al.../aigomorla/Temps-2.jpg

Try uping your voltage to mine and see what happens.
 
and you could lie about your ambient temps too so....

EDIT: lucky for me, i have a desktop (not computer desktop) thermometer that has a humidity temp reading too
 
Originally posted by: BTRY B 529th FA BN
and you could lie about your ambient temps too so....
Click to expand...

thats why i busted the last pic.

that was taken at 15C ambients. :rofl:

incase someone wants to IGNORE how important ambients are.
 
yeah, i think if i sell of the 8400 machine i'll take the pic with my digital camera with the thermometer in the pic with my tests and validations....
 
to make you guys understand it simple.

Pretend a h2o setup is like a heat pipe cooler.

We got the pipes with fluid inside like heat pipes. Only we have MUCH wider heat pipes.

Then we got a block like the cold plate on a heat pipe cooler.

The uber big difference is the Volumn of water vs heat pipe fluid, and also the heat exchanger.

While most air sinks can only support 1x120mm fan,

Please tell me how you expect to put a heat exchanger this big ontop of your CPU?

http://i125.photobucket.com/al...aigomorla/IMG_0935.jpg

Sufrace area of disipation + the ability to transfer heat somewhere else and expell it outside.

Also the fact water picks up heat better then air.

You guys see now why i say its a physics impossibility for air to ever match a good water setup.
 
I don't think there's any comparing water to air temperature wise, as aigo has shown 😉

There are a few reasons there aren't more enthusiasts running water. Mostly, price. A Xigmatek or CCF in a tower full of high speed 120mm fans will cost you maybe $75-100 at most. As such, air is a lot more cooling capacity for the dollar. Air is also simpler to setup and maintain, while being lighter and more mobile (Some WC rigs have the rad not mounted solidly to the case, making it more difficult to move).

Also (and this is mostly speculation) WC rigs are a bit more complicated to tinker around with. If you need to do anything major, you have to drain the system. If you're messing around inside, you have to be careful not to loosen a hose. I would assume WC to be less "neat" looking, at least to cable management types. It's a bit harder to route tubing to be out of the way and neat (at least, without introducing unneeded bends in your loop which increase resistance and lower cooling capacity)

I'm not so convinced on the WC being quietest scenario however. Unless I'm mistaken, most of the WC setups that are getting amazing temps like aigo's have a high speed pump, a few 120's on the radiator, sometimes even dual rads. Yeah there are setups out there with a super quiet pump, fanless rad, but those rigs aren't getting quite the same results(are they? I may be wrong here). I would wager that my rig running fully passive minus the GPU fan would be as quiet or quieter than a quiet WC'd rig, while still getting quite good temps
 
but if you are like me and your room temps get around 85f in the summer, then yeah, water it is

EDIT: o and btw, my h20 setup will be an exception to the neat "tend to be"
 
Originally posted by: BTRY B 529th FA BN
but if you are like me and your room temps get around 85f in the summer, then yeah, water it is

EDIT: o and btw, my h20 setup will be an exception to the neat "tend to be"
Click to expand...

No WC loop can really be "neat" in my book. You just can't run a bunch of 1/2" tubing as neatly as you can regular wiring
 
Originally posted by: yh125d
Originally posted by: BTRY B 529th FA BN
but if you are like me and your room temps get around 85f in the summer, then yeah, water it is

EDIT: o and btw, my h20 setup will be an exception to the neat "tend to be"
Click to expand...

No WC loop can really be "neat" in my book. You just can't run a bunch of 1/2" tubing as neatly as you can regular wiring
Click to expand...

don't believe "You just can't run a bunch of 1/2" tubing as neatly as you can regular wiring" i mean don't kid yourself
 
Originally posted by: yh125d
Originally posted by: BTRY B 529th FA BN
but if you are like me and your room temps get around 85f in the summer, then yeah, water it is

EDIT: o and btw, my h20 setup will be an exception to the neat "tend to be"
Click to expand...

No WC loop can really be "neat" in my book. You just can't run a bunch of 1/2" tubing as neatly as you can regular wiring
Click to expand...

I wholly disagree. It doesn't have to end up looking like an octopus. You can have a simple loop running Pump/RES to CPU to Radiator. There's nothing disorganized and complicated about that.

Since we are comparing CPU thermals that would be all you would need to compare to a air cooled heatsink.
 
Originally posted by: krnmastersgt
Aigo, mind telling me your thoughts on a set-up like this then? Mineral oil ftw? Beats watercooling temps if I'm not mistaken 😛
Click to expand...

nope it doesnt

mineral oil is a poor medium compared to regular water.
 
Originally posted by: yh125d
Originally posted by: BTRY B 529th FA BN
but if you are like me and your room temps get around 85f in the summer, then yeah, water it is

EDIT: o and btw, my h20 setup will be an exception to the neat "tend to be"
Click to expand...

No WC loop can really be "neat" in my book. You just can't run a bunch of 1/2" tubing as neatly as you can regular wiring
Click to expand...

http://i125.photobucket.com/al...aigomorla/IMG_1088.jpg

http://i125.photobucket.com/al...aigomorla/IMG_0862.jpg

http://i125.photobucket.com/al...aigomorla/IMG_0721.jpg

http://i125.photobucket.com/al...aigomorla/IMG_0161.jpg

who cares about neat when the term sexy comes to play now?
 
You cannot call the murderbox not 'neat' MURDERBOX

The price point was the original problem I had with water, but I now have 2 awesome watercooling systems and I can't have enough of it. I'm addicted to being Aigo'd and I only go air when it's a simple system build or when money is tight.
 
You know what aigomorla, I'm not even going to argue with you because you are a serious watercooling fanatic and you actually take it far enough that I respect you for pushing the envelope.

That said, I refuse to see the usefulness in the setup. As others have said, you can come within a few degrees of a watercooling setup, and I'm willing to bet that a good air cooler will beat out a cheap watercooling setup hands down in every way. Your system, aigomorla, is probably the highest-end watercooling setup that exists. I accept that what you have will beat any air cooler out there.

Really, the fact remains that a big enough heatsink will be able to match or beat watercooling. The only thing is that the HSF would probably have to fill an entire super tower case or even protrude beyond it to match what aigomorla has.
 
Well I spent $300 just to watercool my computer because it was something I had never done before. The process was fun and I like my rig, but I really don't know if I will continue to watercool in the future because of the huge pricetag. Sure the WC performs a bit better and I can turn my fans way down, but now that there are $30 dollar xigmateks that perform close to the mark, spending 10x less is a big lure.

And just for the record, aigo's watercooling setup is nice but definitely not the highest end one out there 😉
 
Originally posted by: SickBeast
You know what aigomorla, I'm not even going to argue with you because you are a serious watercooling fanatic and you actually take it far enough that I respect you for pushing the envelope.

That said, I refuse to see the usefulness in the setup. As others have said, you can come within a few degrees of a watercooling setup, and I'm willing to bet that a good air cooler will beat out a cheap watercooling setup hands down in every way. Your system, aigomorla, is probably the highest-end watercooling setup that exists. I accept that what you have will beat any air cooler out there.

Really, the fact remains that a big enough heatsink will be able to match or beat watercooling. The only thing is that the HSF would probably have to fill an entire super tower case or even protrude beyond it to match what aigomorla has.
Click to expand...

I think the delta between a WC rig and aircooling is more than you're thinking. Aigo is keeping a 3.7gHz i7 lashed to 60-62c loaded(very impressive!). Now, my air setup is damn near as good as it gets (Xigmatek, AS5, 2x 80CFM 120's push/pull, two big close-proximity case fans exhausting all that air with another on the side supplying fresh 55-60F ambient air) and my measly e7200 at 1.32 vcore is getting close to 50c loaded while putting out probably 1/3 to 1/4 the heat as aigo's i7 needing to be taken away. I would wager that that i7 on an air setup like mine would be well into the 70s (80s maybe?).


And a note on the neat part, I think it's impossible for a WC setup to be *as* neat as air, if for no other reason than theres just more components to worry about. Although the Murderbox (sweet box, I hadn't seen it before) and some other WC setups we've seen on AT have definitely shown us that WC can be neat. Personally I don't care about neatness, I'm all performance oriented. Everything fits inside my case, and my case is plenty pretty, so I'm happy 🙂. Sadly, my performance orientation also comes with a budget limitation, or else I would probably be running with water right now 😉
 
well, yeah, i'v seen alot of "messy looking "h20 systems; i only have a cpu block & when I'm done installing the chip and get the last tube connected i'll show you a pic or two of how neat they can really be 😀
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top