Water cooling

[carlito77]

Hi guys,

Just wanted to get your input on water cooling systems. I am considering on getting/building a computer but read many forums that say that water/liquid cooling is too much trouble in terms of maintenance. Those of you that have liquid cooling systems. is it really worth the effort?

 

[dma0991]

For the temps and silence you're getting, it is well worth the trouble. As far as maintenance goes, it isn't that hard if you've done your homework. I'm using the highest grade distilled that I could find and silver coil, simplifies maintenance by a lot and I don't have to spend extra on specialized coolants every time I drain the loop.

Good quality tubing or colored helps as well, you get none of the mess that plasticizer sticks to the tubing. Other than that except for the occasional refill which may take months for me, it is as simple as it gets. But be warned, it is addictive. :sneaky:

 

[Blain]

Unless you're doing crazy OCing, stick with good quality air cooling.
Looking at air cooling as a total system is much better than simply buying the best benchmarked HS.

 

[BrightCandle]

Watercooling at most will bring 100-200 Mhz. It will only bring that advantage when you are thermally limited on a CPU/GPU. Overclocking basically tops out on either voltage or heat and watercooling can certainly help with the later a little bit.

Mainly it brings quiet top level of overclocks 24/7 with a well specified loop. Conversely it costs a lot and if you change anything that is in the loop or that is under a pipe it takes hours instead of minutes like you are used to with air because it all has to come apart and be at least partially drained and then refilled and tested for leaks before you can start up again.

Changing a Graphics card that is watercooled costs a lot extra. Its not something people realise but GPU blocks at £70 each if you have 2 of them really puts a damper on upgrading to the latest and greatests, not least because in my experience removing the heatsink and fitting a water block takes about 3 hours for a GPU.

 

[Blain]

Mainly it brings quiet top level of overclocks 24/7 with a well specified loop.

Unless you have a large volume of water to disipate heat, the modern water cooling systems still use at least one fan for the radiator.

🙂 This Guy has the right idea about quiet, whole system water cooling.
It might cost a bit more than off mass produced, off the self, cutesy water cooling kits.

 

[BrightCandle]

Unless you have a large volume of water to disipate heat, the modern water cooling systems still use at least one fan for the radiator.

They do, but you can run them at 800rpm which is near on silent. A HDD is much louder.

 

[OVerLoRDI]

Watercooling to get higher overclocks, really isn't a good idea. Watercooling for fun, silence, and lower temps, can be worth it. It all depends on how much you value fun.

Also your specific application is important to consider as well. Watercooling an IB or SB? Not usually worth it. Watercooling a SB-E? That is a big chip that makes a lot of heat, water can be a great application for that chip. GPUs are usually a great fit for watercooling, especially if you have 2 or more GPUs in your machine.

So tell us about your system. What are you looking to cool? What kind of case do you have? Do you value performance, silence, or looks the most?

 

[OVerLoRDI]

Unless you have a large volume of water to disipate heat, the modern water cooling systems still use at least one fan for the radiator.

🙂 This Guy has the right idea about quiet, whole system water cooling.
It might cost a bit more than off mass produced, off the self, cutesy water cooling kits.

Ha, that is a cool read.

I have seen some nifty projects like that. One of my favorites was one guy using his bitcoin rig (2x 5970s) to heat his bathroom floor. Definitely a cool application and made his wife happy. Few man/nerd projects have that bonus.

 

[danjw]

It all depends on how much you value fun.

Well that assumes he enjoys tinkering with a computer. That said, and a sense of accomplishment when you have it all up and running can be priceless for some, and meaningless for others. For me, I am the former, but not everyone is that way.