Water Cooling Questions

[FiberoN]

I was interested in getting water cooling for the computer I'm going to build but I am still a bit skeptical about spending the cash for it instead of a Thermalright SP-94. I'm planning on buying a 3.4C and OC'ing. I know I can OC pretty good with the heatsink but I want to explore the possibilities of a water cooled system. I am looking at the Corsair HydroCool200 or a Swiftech system. I would like for anyone that has had experiences with water cooling, if they can please tell me if it's worth it or just too hard to maintain, any bad experiences etc.

Thanks

 

[Dman877]

Water cooling is great, it's efficient and quieter for the same or better performance you'll get with air cooling. However, choosing components and how you set it up is very important. Secondly, there's a lot of work involved. Third, it costs much more. Typically, a high performance water cooled system will NOT oc a whole lot more then an air cooled system, you are still using passive (greater then ambient temps) cooling after all. With new Prescot cpu's, air cooling is becoming a bit less attractive but hopefully the prescot isn't the model for the future.

Personally, I wouldn't bother setting up a water cooling system unles you know you are going to keep your current system for a long time or you are able to easily upgrade it. With most upgrades you'll just need new chip/cpu blocks but with btx around the corner who knows.

I have built 2 water cooling systems using stuff from dangerden.com (expensive but quality stuff) and used a koolance tower and personally, I don't think water cooling is worth the trouble. If you like building and modding things though, its a good experience.

 

[FiberoN]

hmm Yeah I think I can OC pretty good with the heatsink and I don't think I need any more than that. Although I think it would be fun, like you said, it would be hard to maintain, expensive, and just the thought of water running in my pc that cost so much kinda bothers me a little. Thanks a lot

 

[CaiNaM]

imo the biggest benefit of liquid cooling is not heat reduction, but noise reduction.. you can get similar temps from air cooled solutions, however you have to deal with fan noise. you can buy a moderately priced "mainstream" kit which may not work any better than air cooled system, but is much quieter... and then of course there's the coolness factor of liquid cooling

 

[wacki]

Originally posted by: CaiNaM
imo the biggest benefit of liquid cooling is not heat reduction, but noise reduction.. you can get similar temps from air cooled solutions, however you have to deal with fan noise. you can buy a moderately priced "mainstream" kit which may not work any better than air cooled system, but is much quieter... and then of course there's the coolness factor of liquid cooling

One more bonus for liquid.

In grad school, I had several computers in my room, and my room was always much hotter than the rest of the house. So I hung the radiator out of the window. Whalla!! No heat buildup in my room. It was very nice.

But for most people, it's noise or coolness factors only.

 

[Tango57]

if you go the watercooling route, you should consider installing the radiator outside of the case to reduce heat buildup within the case and a non-submersible pump which will reduce heat buildup within the water itself.

 

[smahoney]

I have the Corsair Hydrocool - very quiet, works great and took about an hour to install. I run a little over 3.6GHz with a 2.8GHz chip. 840MHz OC with a $180 CPU. Kit cost 205 shipping included and came with everything but the distilled water which is only about a buck anyway.

 

[noxipoo]

check out ocforums.com watercooling forum, you will learn a lot more

 

[Nebor]

Just so you guys know, water cooling is not silent. My air cooled rig is quieter than pretty much any water cooling rig. The Zalman Reserator may change that though...