Off-topic questions about watercooling.

[Dratsab]

Hey guys I have been an enthusiast since the p3 500mhz era when I first discovered you could get free speed by just fiddling with the bios.

However I have never taken the plunge with water cooling.
I belonged to the camp of " just buying a faster processor with the money I was going to spend on water cooling".

SO here are my questions.

1) why are water blocks more expensive then air coolers, they have less material and therefore should cost less overall to produce.

2) If someone just encased a decent air cooler with water proof material and created two outlets for water to go in and out, effectively turning it into a humongous water block, will it be more efficient than current water blocks. Air coolers have larger surface area and by changing the heat dissipation material to water from air wont it be a lot more efficient?

3) Can a reservoir for a water cooling setup be used as a fish tank for more tropical fish (of course such a setup would require filters and less flow resistive equipment ). Free warmth for the fish.

4) Can one loop be used for more one PC , daisy chained?

 

[BrightCandle]

1) why are water blocks more expensive then air coolers, they have less material and therefore should cost less overall to produce.

Because they made of copper and the machining inside of the copper is incredibly precise to produce the absolute maximum flow rate and surface area possible to give maximum cooling. Find some pictures of an open HK 3.0 for example, they are a thing of beauty and precision engineering.

2) If someone just encased a decent air cooler with water proof material and created two outlets for water to go in and out, effectively turning it into a humongous water block, will it be more efficient than current water blocks. Air coolers have larger surface area and by changing the heat dissipation material to water from air wont it be a lot more efficient?

Nope for a few reasons. The first is that because the water is so much better at removing heat you really don't need all the surface area, it would actually go to waste as the heat would mostly be removed at the bottom. Secondly the heatsink would most likely be made of aluminium and that is a recipe for disaster in a water loop as it will cause corrosion. Thirdly it wouldn't force the water over and into the heated area very efficiently as it would take the easier route through rather than all of it flowing as fast as possible over the hot bit.

Most water blocks cool in about a 1.5x1.5 cm area and they can remove in excess of 250 W of heat no problem. But in that area is an enormous amount of pins and fins all carefully designed to ensue maximum transfer.

3) Can a reservoir for a water cooling setup be used as a fish tank for more tropical fish (of course such a setup would require filters and less flow resistive equipment ). Free warmth for the fish.

Due to the fine engineering inside of the waterblocks you don't want any form of material flowing through the water or it will block the pins and clog up the system. But more importantly have you noticed that most water loops flow at 3L/minute or more? Just think about that for a second and what a fish would be swimming against to avoid getting sucked into the pump, its like a tornado inside a reservoir not a gentle stream.

4) Can one loop be used for more one PC , daisy chained?

Given a good enough pump and enough cooling. But its cheaper and more efficient to have each system have its own loop unless your doing something really clever like using the earths natural temperature to cool the water in a massive hole in your backyard. But then you need to worry about pressure and ensuring the high pressure loop is reduced as it goes into your PC loop.

The pumps that are used aren't very high powered, they don't push the water far because they don't need to.

 

[OVerLoRDI]

4) Can one loop be used for more one PC , daisy chained?

BrightCandle got the other questions, but I'll elaborate on this one.

It isn't just that typical watercooling pumps aren't powerful enough it is also the pressure limitations of the blocks, barbs, and clamps. Slap a really powerful industrial pump and sure, your pump will be powerful enough but your blocks/barbs/clampse would likely leak/explode. The plastic/acrylic top on GPU blocks may crack and leak. O-rings would fail, etc. Basically typical water cooling hardware can't handle the pressure required for really long loops like you are asking about.