Water Cooling concerns

[imgod2u]

I am considering water cooling once I put my new P4 system together. I was hoping on reaching the 3 GHz mark with a Northwood 2.0 (150 MHz FSB) on an Asus P4T-E (has the 2/4 AGP/PCI dividers and the 3x memory multiplier). The thing I'm most baffled about is water cooling. Now I would like to avoid paying $200 for a kit and would like to build one myself. I can do some welding and turn the stock P4 chipset into one big water block, and attach some hoses (that usually comes with a water cooling kit but can be bought separately) to it. My concerns are:

1. What about condensations? If water inside is cold and the temperature outside the block is hot, wouldn't that mean fog will begin to leak through? Is there any way to avoid this?

2. The radiator. I currently have a Coolermaster ATC-201 and would like to avoid cutting holes in it if possible, is there any way I could passively cool the water from inside my case?

3. If it turns out I have to use a radiator, how loud would it be?

4. How much power would a pump and a radiator suck up?

5. How do I prevent condensation around the water resevour? I heard that was the easiest way to go for water cooling.

Thanks in advance!

 

[meaty]

I would get a little transmission radiator from pepboys or somewhere. (thats what i did)
They dont take power cept for the fans you should put on them.
Also I would plug the pump in seperate from the psu.


My water cooling dayz where fun but I woudlnt do it again.
I choped up a case & it made upgrades a hastle.

 

[imgod2u]

Any advice on condensation?

 

[FatMan42]

I'm no water-cooling expert (but it does sound fun) - but this much is common sense. You won't get condensation, as the coolant is never going to go below room temperature. Not unless you're using a water chiller or a peltier device as well. People often refer to condensation issues with water cooling because they're using it with peltiers. Peltiers do go below room temp, so they'll cause condensation.

 

[imgod2u]

I'm worried about near the CPU in which the water block will have a much higher temperature surrounding it than the water.

 

[imgod2u]

P.S. I'm only considering building my own water cooling kit because I think it may be cheaper. If anyone could suggest a good water cooling kit for below $120 (and preferably a place online that I could buy it) I'd greatly appreciate it.

 

[WarCon]

The air you are using to cool the water is ambient air (room temp). Condensation only forms on items that are cooler than the surrounding air. I am no meteorologist, but I believe airs ability to hold moisture is directly affected by temperature. Warm air can hold more moisture than cold. That why cold things release the water from the saturated air. Or something like that..................

 

[Richardito]

In my experience if you are not going to use a chiller and/or a peltier watercooling would be a waste of time. You need to transfer the heat quickly to the CPU (peltier), if not your CPU will see high temperatures. The first watercooling kit I installed rewarded me with a locked computer. After a couple of restart and monitoring MBM I noticed how the temps went up exponenetially until the computer locked @ about 70ºC. I needed a peltier...

 

[WarCon]

My watercooler fit inside my case. I have a Enlight 7237, but it required modification. I had to cut out the front of the inside chassis to fit my radiator (it should be getting as cool of air as possible). I also drilled out the front panel holes (and added more) so that the radiator had freely flowing air. I cut a blowhole and had an additional 80mm fan on the back for exhaust. I was very please with it. I managed to get a troublesome 1ghz chip (got a bad week of the AXIAR) up to 1466, (highest overclock thats stable, I don't run there because that makes me put my vcore to 2.1 and its really starts to warm the chip up then and that worries me enough to not continuously run it at that. But this chip in the same mobo, would only do 1.33ghz with an Alpha PAL6035 with the black label delta fan (7000 rpm). It ran at 49-53C (full load) with that combo and ducting I had made for it to be also getting additional draw from the rear exhaust fan.

As soon as I installed my watercooler it was getting temperatures in the (35-39), with the same exact load, but I was now running at 1.43ghz. It was significantly guieter than the delta fan, which actually just plain annoyed me.

 

[imgod2u]

Well, I'm not talking about condensation in the hose or anything. I'm talking about right around the CPU area, where the air is significantly hotter than the water. Wouldn't condensation occur then? I mean, if the air surrounding the water block is hot (even though ambient temperature in the whole case isn't), wouldn't it cause the water inside the water block to loose moisture? Anyway, I'm considering a water cooled computer because I'm planning on overclocking my a P4 Northwood, seeing toms results with 3 GHz, I figure I could at least pull off 2.6 GHz.

 

[WarCon]

No, I never have any issues with condensation. Besides your waterblock won't get hot (or even very warm) if your watercooler is working well.