So with watercooling...

[Xatrix]

You only use the fans on the radiator and the PSU?

 

[kamranziadar]

Fan on the Radiator

 

[gotensan01]

My rad fan draws in outside air and blows warmed up (but relatively cool air) onto other components like BGA ram on vid card. Then I have the 80mm case fan in back and PSU fan to exhaust. I will be adding another 80mm fan for additional exhaust as well.

 

[iamtrout]

IF your radiator fits inside the case, you can use gotensan01's layout. If your radiator is too damn big and your case too damn small, you're going to have to mount radiator outside and make sure your graphics card, mosfets, and ram are getting ventilation, which means a few case fans. A case that incorporates 120mm fans is a godsend. Don't understand why more of them don't use 120mm fans for silence and efficiency though. I imagine stupidity, bad design, and an inability to incorporate the obvious.

 

[skene]

The somewhat unintuitive thing about fans on a radiator is that you should use them to pull air through the radiator instead of blowing it through. You should also have your fan an inch or so away from the radiator. Both of these are to eliminate dead spots in the air flow and create an even distribution of air going across the radiator to increase efficiency.

 

[0roo0roo]

with a shroud of course

 

[Xatrix]

Yeah gotcha on the shroud part, been reading up on how this works.

I am still debating the use of watercooling.

1. it looks damn cool
2. gives me something to work on
3. better performance

but

1. never done before so worries me
2. high maintainence?
3. risky for a noob like me

 

[skene]

It's fun stuff to play around with. There are tons of sites out there detailing how to set one up in a reliable and worry free way. I eventualy got rid of mine mostly because it was a pain in the ass whenever I wanted to move my computer. I never bothered to set it up with the radiator inside the case or anything fancy, so it was just sitting behind it with tubes going inside.

Just use a bit of common sense when setting it up, like run the pumps for a couple hours before turning on the computer to make sure you get rid of all leaks and you should be fine. I'm tempted to go back to water cooling, but I've got a very small case and don't feel like finding a smaller radiator or a larger case for now.

 

[iamtrout]

When I first started watercooling about three years ago I was a bit worried, but nothing has ever died in my computer that was water-related. There was one time when I spilled a whole lot of water on top of the graphics card from being clumsy, but I just let the water dry off for a few days and everything was good to go afterwards (the computer was turned off at the time of spillage).

It is not high maintainance. As long as you have the right additives, no growth should occur and nothing needs to be maintained. If you decide to add something to the loop, however, like a new block, set aside a whole day of downtime to be safe so that you can carefully bleed the system, slice up some tubing, add the waterblock, make sure it fits, refill, and leak test.

How much of a n00b are you? How many computers have you built? Do you still think mounting a regular HSF is hard? If you're scared, get a more experienced friend to help you, or ask us on anandtech, procooling, or overclockers for help 🙂

 

[Xatrix]

Originally posted by: iamtrout
When I first started watercooling about three years ago I was a bit worried, but nothing has ever died in my computer that was water-related. There was one time when I spilled a whole lot of water on top of the graphics card from being clumsy, but I just let the water dry off for a few days and everything was good to go afterwards (the computer was turned off at the time of spillage).

It is not high maintainance. As long as you have the right additives, no growth should occur and nothing needs to be maintained. If you decide to add something to the loop, however, like a new block, set aside a whole day of downtime to be safe so that you can carefully bleed the system, slice up some tubing, add the waterblock, make sure it fits, refill, and leak test.

How much of a n00b are you? How many computers have you built? Do you still think mounting a regular HSF is hard? If you're scared, get a more experienced friend to help you, or ask us on anandtech, procooling, or overclockers for help 🙂

Never built a computer from scratch, although I've done a lot of stuff on my own. Hmmm never mounted a HSF either. So in terms of building goes I am a noob, but I'm hardly a computer noob hehe.