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Under extreme conditions, just how cool can liquid cooling keep my PC.

Ice_Dragon

Senior member
I want to talk hypothetically here. Suppose I get the best gaming rig money can buy and I want to run the latest games under the absolute best settings; full HD, GTX 570 (as an example) etc. etc. the whole works.

How cool can I run my machine? 20 degrees Celsius? 15? 10?
 
Some old stats near the ambients your asking:
stats.png


however your probably freak out on the price tag, (the cooling gear alone probably costs as much as the parts) + size of the machine:

IMG_0835.jpg


replace the cpu with a Sandy-E tho and a X79 board ... 😉
 
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Well you figure a top of the line Mac is in the upper $2,000-$3,000 range so how much are we looking at total?

$4,000? $5,000?

Just saying if I want the best of the best.

Your information helped a lot. It's awesome that a system is capable of running that cool.
 
I think you need to look into cooling concepts a bit more. You say 10C, but that 50F, which is unrealistic for normal room temperatures. The true measure of a system is the difference between the CPU/GPU/chip temperature and the ambient temperature. A poor stock air cooler on a 470GTX will run at 90C while the room may be at 20C. This is a 70C difference in the air coming into the case and the temperature of the GPU. Even with the best water cooling in the world, we aren't going to get below 20C.

Liquid cooling allows for a large contact area with air because it allows the user to place the heat exchanger anywhere they please. This allows for larger coolers to be used. The water is simply the medium which transfers the heat to the water/air heat exchanger.

This is a key concept to understand. Unless you chill your water somewhere in your loop, you aren't going to get sub-room temperatures.

EDIT: To answer your question haha... A good liquid cooling system will cost nothing near the price of a Mac Pro (these top out at 5K.) You can get a high quality full loop with GPU, CPU, and even chipset block with radiator, pump, reservoir, control panel, fittings, tubing, additives, and fans for around $500-600. Buying all the most expensive gear doesn't always give you the best results. It really depends on the build. You need to consider getting a watercooling designed case such as the Corsair 800D or a modified Lian-Li. These range from 160 (HAF X) to 500+ (Some Lian Li's).

This is only for the cooling gear and case. You then buy all the computer components you need such as the CPU, GPU, PSU, RAM, HDD, disk drives, mobo, etc. A great combo would be 2600k, 580gtx, 8GB ram, Z68 mother board, etc. This will run around 1,200-1,500. So for right at 2-2.5K for a top of the line liquid cooled system from scratch.
 
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haha, nice comeback 🙂

Wouldn't peltiers get temps at or below ambient? I've never personally used one, but back when I overclocked (~2000) I dreamed of having a peltier/watercooling setup...
 
haha, nice comeback 🙂

Wouldn't peltiers get temps at or below ambient? I've never personally used one, but back when I overclocked (~2000) I dreamed of having a peltier/watercooling setup...

Very much so, but you better have means to dissipate the added heat difference between ambient and the cold side of the peltier AND the inefficiencies in the peltier. They run at around 5-10% efficiency, so we are talking about a lot of waste heat. Even the smaller ones are 100W-200W, that is a lot of extra load on the system. Only hobbyists need apply 🙂
 
cost of POWER ON TEC IS TOO MUCH!!

It takes too much power to run a TEC!! its not efficient unless u scale tec's and u majorly downvolt them on a PWM controller.
Problem is finding a high powered PWM controller which could potentially handle up to 15-20amps....

😛

TEC's need at least 200W to pull good wattage.. anything less then that, and your close to undershooting the tec pull.

TEC's are not magic heat sponges.. they are like mini trucks which move heat from one side to the other.

If the other side is saturated, and no more heat can be moved, you can cook what the tec is trying to cool.
 
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