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Thinking of going water

zmaster

Senior member
The way i have my rig out now, i have spent over 100e on air cooling. So im thinking of scraping it all and going water. At the moment i get 27C idle on my processor (3000+ s754) and 35 full load. My GPU (6600GT) hits 39C idle and 56C full load. Any water cooling that you guys can recommend that will give me better results. As i said, Im new to the whole water thing so any advice or liks is greatly appreciated.


Thanx,
Zmaster
 
Why go water when you dont overclock. You already have excellent temps. I dont thing going lower will help in anyway. Except it may be a little quieter.
 
Originally posted by: hatim
Why go water when you dont overclock. You already have excellent temps. I dont thing going lower will help in anyway. Except it may be a little quieter.

Overclocking isn't the only viable reason for going water. As to whether the OP will get lower temps depends on a few other factors.

 
Your getting pretty good temperatures already. Depending on your room/ambient temperature I'd say you probably won't see cooler temps with WCing. Only reasons I see for you to get WCing is if you overclock and want cooler temperatures OR if your current cooling is too loud.
 
I don't see why you need to go with water when you already have those temps. They're close to my water temps! What air cooling stuff do you use?
 
unless you want to go with silence such as with a passive resorator type cooling it seems like throwing money away. beyond a certain point you are just masturbating when it comes to cooling. the cpu doesn't run faster or better. its rated to last something like 15 years with stock cooling..are you really going to keep it that long?
 
To answer the question, I do overclock. And the air cooling i have rite now is tt sonic tower on the CPU with some powerful 2x12cm fans and around 7 case fans. Added with the tt giant 3 on my gpu it can get pretty loud. Thats the reason i decided to go water. Any recommendations as in links etc?
 
Watercooling can get lower temps. It can also get less noise. With knowledge and care, it can get both.

As to overclocking, with the A64 chips it seems that there's not a lot high-end air can't do which water can. To go the extra step you need phase-change or peltiers. Having said that, water does have the potential to cool as well as high-end air while making a lot less noise. Water will take the heat to a much bigger area (a radiator) which can be cooled by a bigger, slower-revving (and thus quieter) fan. Or if the rad is big enough and of the right type, it can even be cooled passively. OTOH, aggressive air cooling with powerful fans can pull temps down to within a few degrees of ambient. This is not likely to increase your overclock, but maybe the length of your ePenis.

If you want to do it, do it. "Because it's there" is a perfectly valid reason in my book.

For waterblocks, think Swiftech and Danger Den. Widely available (can get good bargains on used blocks) and great performers. For pumps, Eheim, Hydor, Liang-li (is that the name? can't remember), Swiftech and more are popular. You can use any aquarium water pump though. You're looking for head pressure rather than flow rate, the more waterblocks you have or the more restrictive the design, the more head pressure you need for your pump.

For tubing, pick 3/8" or 1/2" ID. Won't make more than a couple of degrees difference. Try not to interchange between them too much though. Avoid sharp bends and right-angles, they kill flow. Tygon and vinyl tubing are recommended. Tygon is more expensive but also more durable. Try to stay away from cheap, clear plastic Home Depot specials. They may split, kink or leak.

For radiators, try Black Ice Pro or Black Ice Extreme (BIP or BIX). You can also get a heatercore from a car, although you have to add the hose barbs yourself. If you're interested, go to the Hardforums and look up "2Fresh". He sells pre-modded heatercores at very reasonable prices, paints them to your specifications and can also hook you up with other accessories.

Low-flow, quiet fans don't cope well with a rad more than 1" thick. Definitely use a shroud, less noise and better airflow.

Don't forget to add something to the water to kill bacteria and prevent corrosion. Antifreeze, Zerex additives, water wetter etc. are all good.

Good sites for watercooling info, don't forget the forums:

www.overclockers.com
www.xtremesystems.org
www.hardocp.com
www.procooling.com
 
IMO, i would rather stick with air for the peace of mind...too many risks with water. Water+Electronics=%#@$!
 
He wants to go with water.

Your temps are good. What water will do for you is:

1) Less noise
2) Less fluctuation between idle and load temperatures (also means less thermal stress and extended component life)
3) Greater cooling capacity - you can throw extra waterblocks, peltiers and so on into a watercooling loop. There's no way any aircooling can work with a peltier

Your rig says you have a 120mm fan and 7 "extra fans". You also probably have high-end heatsinks with powerful fans. This system is probably noisy. The biggest reason for you to go to water is that you can have the same cooling capacity and have it be virtually silent (BIP radiator and Nexus fans will be inaudible at 1m, especially with a little case damping).
 
Originally posted by: Fresh Daemon
He wants to go with water.

Your temps are good. What water will do for you is:

1) Less noise
2) Less fluctuation between idle and load temperatures (also means less thermal stress and extended component life)
3) Greater cooling capacity - you can throw extra waterblocks, peltiers and so on into a watercooling loop. There's no way any aircooling can work with a peltier

Your rig says you have a 120mm fan and 7 "extra fans". You also probably have high-end heatsinks with powerful fans. This system is probably noisy. The biggest reason for you to go to water is that you can have the same cooling capacity and have it be virtually silent (BIP radiator and Nexus fans will be inaudible at 1m, especially with a little case damping).

Well said.

4. You'll be able to run your box in very warm ambient temps. My AC went out on the warmest day of the year so far. My room ambient hit 106 degrees and I was able to play Republic Commando without any problems whatsoever.

 
Originally posted by: zmaster
To answer the question, I do overclock. And the air cooling i have rite now is tt sonic tower on the CPU with some powerful 2x12cm fans and around 7 case fans. Added with the tt giant 3 on my gpu it can get pretty loud. Thats the reason i decided to go water. Any recommendations as in links etc?


you really need a better case. no air cooling "needs" 7 fans. sounds like you are just making a lot of noise for no reason with all the air not going where it needs to. and your cpu is overclocked? how much? i'd suggest getting the sonata or p180 or whatever to begin with. a solid foundation is required for silence, and it sounds like you don't have it. only reason to have a load of case fans is if you have some massive raptor 1+0 raid setup with some other madness. go to silentpcreview.com it doesn't matter how much you silent your cpuif the rest of your case/fans are loud.

there are plenty of very nice air coolers now. huge heatpipe ladden things that give you bang for buck..relative silence and no danger of leakage or such maintenance worries. going for silence you need the foundation of a good case/ psu. going for overclocking you need enough of an overclock that it blows away the cost of simply buying a new faster chip sooner ro later😛
 
My room ambient hit 106 degrees and I was able to play Republic Commando without any problems whatsoever.

Buddy, if my room ambient ever hit 106 degrees I'd be playing "let's go to the mall and sit in the air conditioning" with the "phone every HVAC tech in Yellow Pages until you find a guy who'll come out the same day" mod installed.

there are plenty of very nice air coolers now.

With his temps I'm pretty certain he already has one of those very nice air coolers. He's not satisfied with it and wants to go with water. I'm not trying to be a jerk, but perhaps we can help him achieve what he wants to rather than what he doesn't?
 
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