Water cooling - how much noise in reality?

[arcas]

Hi. I'm looking to take the plunge into alternative cooling and right now I'm leaning towards water cooling. My main motivation is noise: For the past 4 or 5 years, have a 120mm fan hacked onto my main box. I've swapped fans a few times and have settled on a Panaflow rated at 39db and I've finally decided that even 39db is too loud.

How much noise does a decent water-cooling/radiator setup make? I've seen radiators with multiple 92mm fans or a 120mm fan. Now, as far fans go, my Panaflow is one of the quieter 120mm fans available so it seems to me that if I go with a 120mm radiator setup, I won't gain much in terms of quiet.

Do people normally attach PWM speed controllers to their radiator fans?

 

[HardWarrior]

If you want better perfomance with air you have to use bigger, noisier fans. Water works a lot like air in this respect. Depending on how many things you want to cool, you can have a fairly quiet system.

 

[Ackmed]

Ive had several watercooled systems. They can be virtually silent, so extremely loud. Ive always hooked up my fans to a baybus. Getting a larger rad is one way to keep the noise down. Yes you will have to use 2x120mm's, but running them at 5v is very quiet.

Check my sig for my latest watercooled setup.

 

[0roo0roo]

no fans, get the zalman resorator

 

[HardWarrior]

VERY nice and neat Ackmed. :thumbsup:

 

[Ackmed]

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo
no fans, get the zalman resorator

Also, not much cooling.

Thanks, HardWarrior.

 

[Granorense]

Your rig is nice but, you still have lots of 80 mm fan in there.

 

[HardWarrior]

80mm fans don't stop a box from being nice.

 

[0roo0roo]

Originally posted by: Ackmed

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo
no fans, get the zalman resorator

Also, not much cooling.

Thanks, HardWarrior.

compared to what? the review i saw had it neck and neck with a normal water system. the resorator is gigantic, which is why it works.

 

[Ackmed]

Originally posted by: Granorense
Your rig is nice but, you still have lots of 80 mm fan in there.

What is wrong with 80mm fans? They are Panaflo 47cfm fans, very high quality. I dont keep them on high, but if needed to, they can push some serious air.

 

[Nebor]

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo
no fans, get the zalman resorator

My thoughts exactly.

 

[HardWarrior]

Nothing wrong with them. Some people just forget that this isn't about snobbery. I saw a REALLY nasty thread at INA once, it lasted almost a week. Name-calling, all manner of online spew. The reason for this dust-up? Some people had case lights and other thought case lights were stupid.

 

[HardWarrior]

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo

Originally posted by: Ackmed

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo
no fans, get the zalman resorator

Also, not much cooling.

Thanks, HardWarrior.

compared to what? the review i saw had it neck and neck with a normal water system. the resorator is gigantic, which is why it works.

That's strange. The two reviews I read (here and at nordicware) mentioned that it's comparable to the best forced-air solutions but didn't quite match fan assisted water-cooling systems in terms of performance.

 

[Sokratz]

Lets put it this way, my roomate and I run nearly identical performing systems. He's on air, i'm on water and he's up in the loft with vaulted cielings. When he opens his door, I can hear it anywhere in the house and need to turn up the tv... My sound is restricted entirely to my room and is a lower blowing sound instead of a whine.

 

[Nebor]

Originally posted by: HardWarrior

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo

Originally posted by: Ackmed

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo
no fans, get the zalman resorator

Also, not much cooling.

Thanks, HardWarrior.

compared to what? the review i saw had it neck and neck with a normal water system. the resorator is gigantic, which is why it works.

That's strange. The two reviews I read (here and at nordicware) mentioned that it's comparable to the best forced-air solutions but didn't quite match fan assisted water-cooling systems in terms of performance.

I wonder why it can't match fan assisted water cooling systems? We'll probably never figure that one out.

I'm probably getting one, it performs better than my present air cooling, and is quieter.

 

[HardWarrior]

Originally posted by: Nebor

Originally posted by: HardWarrior

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo

Originally posted by: Ackmed

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo
no fans, get the zalman resorator

Also, not much cooling.

Thanks, HardWarrior.

compared to what? the review i saw had it neck and neck with a normal water system. the resorator is gigantic, which is why it works.

That's strange. The two reviews I read (here and at nordicware) mentioned that it's comparable to the best forced-air solutions but didn't quite match fan assisted water-cooling systems in terms of performance.

I wonder why it can't match fan assisted water cooling systems? We'll probably never figure that one out.

I'm probably getting one, it performs better than my present air cooling, and is quieter.

I saw an Apple Cube once that used convection cooling. It worked REAL good. This is the same type of cooling used by the Res 1. Maybe it's a design issue, maybe the unit doesn't get hot enough or the stock pump doesn't have enough head pressure.

From what I've read, it's dead quiet. You have to hold the bottom of the housing just to FEEL the pump running. If quiet is important, the Res 1 is the way to go.

 

[Cheetah8799]

A coworker of mine has an internal water cooling system. Great setup, but has 7 fans, and is WAY louder than my air cooled rig.

I personally hate noise, so I mod my case pretty heavily and have fans all over. They are routed through my fanbus, and thus are really quiet, and keep the system very cool.

I honestly don't think water cooling is really worth it unless you really want to push the OC envelope. The noise improvement isn't really there in my opinion. A good Thermalright or Zalman heatsink will solve the cpu heat issue, and a couple extra intake/exhaust fans keep the rest of the parts cool. Also a VGA Silencer on the video card works wonders with both heat/ocing and noise.

 

[Nebor]

Originally posted by: Cheetah8799
A coworker of mine has an internal water cooling system. Great setup, but has 7 fans, and is WAY louder than my air cooled rig.

I personally hate noise, so I mod my case pretty heavily and have fans all over. They are routed through my fanbus, and thus are really quiet, and keep the system very cool.

I honestly don't think water cooling is really worth it unless you really want to push the OC envelope. The noise improvement isn't really there in my opinion. A good Thermalright or Zalman heatsink will solve the cpu heat issue, and a couple extra intake/exhaust fans keep the rest of the parts cool. Also a VGA Silencer on the video card works wonders with both heat/ocing and noise.

You just named about 5 fans. A water cooled system w/ the Reserator can be ran with just 1 fan, the one in your power supply. And for me, that's a Panaflo L1A connected to a fanbus. I find the my Zalman 7000Cu to be obnoxious even at 5v.... at 12v, it's horrible.

 

[arcas]

In fact, I have] thought about getting something like the Reserator (or somehow building my own). Since it's so expensive, though, I'm waiting for more guinnea pigs^W^Werr...people to test it.

I suspect that a passive radiator like this will perform better if it's located in an area where there is still adequate passive air flow. If you stick it under a desk or in a corner where the air is relatively stagnant, I'm guessing it won't perform as well.

 

[Nebor]

Originally posted by: arcas
In fact, I have] thought about getting something like the Reserator (or somehow building my own). Since it's so expensive, though, I'm waiting for more guinnea pigs^W^Werr...people to test it.

I suspect that a passive radiator like this will perform better if it's located in an area where there is still adequate passive air flow. If you stick it under a desk or in a corner where the air is relatively stagnant, I'm guessing it won't perform as well.

That's true. The same is true for the Zalman fanless case.

 

[HardWarrior]

Originally posted by: Nebor

Originally posted by: arcas
In fact, I have] thought about getting something like the Reserator (or somehow building my own). Since it's so expensive, though, I'm waiting for more guinnea pigs^W^Werr...people to test it.

I suspect that a passive radiator like this will perform better if it's located in an area where there is still adequate passive air flow. If you stick it under a desk or in a corner where the air is relatively stagnant, I'm guessing it won't perform as well.

That's true. The same is true for the Zalman fanless case.

The $1200 fanless case? :shocked:

 

[Nebor]

Originally posted by: HardWarrior

Originally posted by: Nebor

Originally posted by: arcas
In fact, I have] thought about getting something like the Reserator (or somehow building my own). Since it's so expensive, though, I'm waiting for more guinnea pigs^W^Werr...people to test it.

I suspect that a passive radiator like this will perform better if it's located in an area where there is still adequate passive air flow. If you stick it under a desk or in a corner where the air is relatively stagnant, I'm guessing it won't perform as well.

That's true. The same is true for the Zalman fanless case.

The $1200 fanless case? :shocked:

Yeah... what a freakin waste. There are cheaper better ways to go fanless... Like this water setup. With a fanless power supply. I'd just worry about my HDs getting toasty, but you'd have the same concern in the Zalman case w/o fans.

 

[HardWarrior]

Originally posted by: Nebor

Originally posted by: HardWarrior

Originally posted by: Nebor

Originally posted by: arcas
In fact, I have] thought about getting something like the Reserator (or somehow building my own). Since it's so expensive, though, I'm waiting for more guinnea pigs^W^Werr...people to test it.

I suspect that a passive radiator like this will perform better if it's located in an area where there is still adequate passive air flow. If you stick it under a desk or in a corner where the air is relatively stagnant, I'm guessing it won't perform as well.

That's true. The same is true for the Zalman fanless case.

The $1200 fanless case? :shocked:

Yeah... what a freakin waste. There are cheaper better ways to go fanless... Like this water setup. With a fanless power supply. I'd just worry about my HDs getting toasty, but you'd have the same concern in the Zalman case w/o fans.

Come one Nebor, at the very least that baby is a kickass status symbol for the noise averse! I wish I could justify buying one. Consdering the over-time thermal load it manages, it must be a marvel of engineering.

 

[arcas]

If you can afford $1200 for a case, you can probably afford to convert a closet into a NOC where noise isn't a problem anymore. Cut a hole in the wall and mount a custom wall plate with your I/O ports and put your monitor and desk on the other side of the wall where it's nice and quiet