Watercooling

[Confusednewbie1552]

First of all is water cooling cooler or 4 fans?

Second of all is it easy to setup water cooling?

Third is it reliable? Like is there a 5% chance that the water would leak and short circut my whole system?

Would anyone reccomend watercooling, any good news with it or bad news?

 

[LIVAN]

I got a original Koolance, better than any fan out there. Now they got even better stuff.


www.koolance.com

 

[Confusednewbie1552]

Ok, can people answer the questions above though?

 

[NewBlackDak]

Cooling capacity depends on many factors including pump flow, radiator, and air-flow through the radiator. Is it cooler? Could be, could not be. Depends on what you choose. My temps are almost identical. Difference is before my PC had 4 screaming fans in it. Now it has 2 120mm's, and you can't hear it at all more than 2 ft away.

Again ease of setup depends on the person and the components you choose. The hardest part on a DIY kit is figuring out where/how you'll mount your pump and heatercore. If your case is small it makes it more difficult, but can still be managable.

On reliability, if you use quality press-in fittings, or hose camps you should never have a leak. Most hobby pumps are designed to run 4-5 years, so that shouldn't be a problem.

Your question is too general and broad. That's like saying, "Are cars fast?" Yeh, some are and some aren't.

 

[Confusednewbie1552]

ok thank you. I guess i'll have to look at kits and see if tey're easy/cool. anyyway thanks.

 

[pelikan]

You may enjoy doing some reading at Overclockers watercooling forum.
Watercooling will give you lower temps.
It is easy to set up if you have basic mechanical skills.
Watercooling is just as reliable as air cooling is set up correctly.
Watercooling is great if you want to use high vcore, enjoy building stuff, and want a higher overclock than air.
A Danger Den TDX cpu block, Swiftech 12V pump, Chevette heatercore, 10' of 1/2" clearflex 60 tubing, and some hose clamps will set you up with very high performance.
If you don't enjoy building stuff then high-end air cooling (a good thermalright heatsink and medium powered fan) will get you an overclock about 200MHz lower than watercooling.

 

[Tsunami982]

Question 1: In ALMOST all situations, watercooling is much better at cooling than any number of fans. the only exception would be maybe the worst watercooling setup vs the best air cooling setup.

Question 2: Watercooling is relatively simple to set up. its a LOT more time consuming than slapping a heatsink/fan on but its well worth it in the end. if you are really concerned about difficulty try out a koolance system, it was my first water setup and it was pretty simple.

Question 3: IT CAN BE VERY RELIABLE. it all depends on your equipment and how you set it up. always do the 24hour leak test (especially if youve never set one up before). if you use decent equipment and did it all correctly it is very reliable. there is always a chance that it might still leak but i think (if you set it up correctly and leak tested) not much more likely than the fan on you heatsink crapping out.

watercooling is good stuff. once you do it youll never go back to air cooling. the cooling is insane and even at near silent levels it cools very adequately. if you are looking for silent i recommend aquarius 2, its not powerful but it cools better than almost all air and is quiet. if you want power go dangerden or swiftech (DD is better IMO). koolance is in the middle and is all most people will need. if youve been overclocking with air you wont believe the difference when you start with water.

 

[ROJAS]

I am running 2 Koolance systems at home. My first from April 2003 is a PC2-601 case and I've had no problems. My second case is a PC2-650 case that I've been running for 2 weeks. It's been fun and quiet with the water-cooled cases. A little expensive but worth the hassles of 4 to 6 fans and the noise. All the overclockers are always changeing their cpu fans for heat reduction with water, none.

 

[Confusednewbie1552]

Ok i'll check that site out and I'll also check out the koolance. I'll be overclocking a bit but I'd like it to be silent. Anyway thanks everyone that pretty much answers all my questions about watercooling. If something comes up i'll let you guys now =)

 

[0roo0roo]

http://www.dangerden.com/mall/Radiators/thermochill.asp

 

[HardWarrior]

Originally posted by: Confusednewbie1552
First of all is water cooling cooler or 4 fans?

Second of all is it easy to setup water cooling?

Third is it reliable? Like is there a 5% chance that the water would leak and short circut my whole system?

Would anyone reccomend watercooling, any good news with it or bad news?

1. Water, and you might want to use 4 fans on your res.

2. It depends on you doing your homework before you try to implement it. But no, it isn't brain surgery.

3. If you have the right parts and test the setup BEFORE you bolt it in, it's reliable.

4 Yes, I'd recommend it. The good news is that it works well. The bad news is that you HAVE to have an eye for detail and don't mind maintaining the system.

 

[0roo0roo]

Originally posted by: Confusednewbie1552
Ok i'll check that site out and I'll also check out the koolance. I'll be overclocking a bit but I'd like it to be silent. Anyway thanks everyone that pretty much answers all my questions about watercooling. If something comes up i'll let you guys now =)

ah u want silence. check silentpcreview.com and its forums. from what i've gleaned so far from forums/reviews, koolance is for err to be harsh..n00bs or just overclockers who don't care about noise, since they are just not built for silence. your better off with a resorator in that case. or if u really are hardcore about silence and extreme overclocking with massive gpu power... dangerden asetek or thermochill 120mm radiators... several with low rpm 120mm fans alone or in series. u can hide the radiators where they will have a less direct noise path to your ears.

 

[Confusednewbie1552]

ok this is what I might overclock

A 3500 into a 3800 or a 3400 to a 3700

A 6800 GT into a 6800 Ultra

And maybe overclock a little on ram, not sure much about the ram though.

Would I need watercooling to keep it cool and silent or can i get 4 fans to keep it cool and silent. If I need fans what fans should I use?

 

[Confusednewbie1552]

Bump

 

[HardWarrior]

Originally posted by: Confusednewbie1552

Would I need watercooling to keep it cool and silent or can i get 4 fans to keep it cool and silent. If I need fans what fans should I use?

This depends on how you want to do it. Research both options and get an idea of the pros and cons. I was satisified with air, but frankly water is quieter AND more efficient. If you have the time, resources and PATIENCE to deal with water it's worth it. As far as fans, I would suggest Pabst or Panaflo.

 

[Confusednewbie1552]

I would't like to open up my comp everyday. Every week MAYBE. I'd like every month though.

 

[HardWarrior]

Originally posted by: Confusednewbie1552
I would't like to open up my comp everyday. Every week MAYBE. I'd like every month though.

You mean for maintenance of water? Once you get it in it isn't bad at all. You don't have the constant accumulation of dust on your HS to deal with, which slowly decreases performance. That's a big plus. If you mix your coolant right you can go for about six months, or more, without having to fool with that either.

 

[Ackmed]

Only ignorance would have you believe you need to open your case every day, or even every week.

 

[Confusednewbie1552]

ok, how do I know when my watercooling would need new coolant. Would like some software say processor is getting hotter or what? So how many times do I have to maintain the water cooling? Like once every month, twice every year, etc.

 

[Confusednewbie1552]

bump

 

[HardWarrior]

Dude, don't take this the wrong way, but instead of bumping why don't you hit google and try the answer some of the questions for yourself? If you need to have your hand held every step of the way you should just stay with air.

 

[akira34]

Originally posted by: HardWarrior
Dude, don't take this the wrong way, but instead of bumping why don't you hit google and try the answer some of the questions for yourself? If you need to have your hand held every step of the way you should just stay with air.

Agreed there... I'm researching my own liquid/water cooling options at this time... Both of the ones I'm thinking of have parts that go outside of the case (for the radiator/heat transfer devices) that have easy to check (visual/glance) ways to see how the flow is going or fluid level. Both items will run about $200 for the complete kit, so it's not so much the price difference as which one I like the way it works better.

As for monitoring the temps of your system, there's more than a few tools to do that. The most common (among those in the know) is motherboard monitor (MBM5). You could use other software, but it looks like MBM5 is the slimmest one of them with a system tray item to tell you the temps.

Any halfway decent mobo will turn itself off before things get too hot to do damage. I know that both Gigabyte and MSI boards have this function in them (in the bios) so most other brands should too. If you don't know how to check that, at least learn how BEFORE you really think about liquid cooling and overcocking your system.

BTW, overcocking an athlon64 to the points you were posting really isn't worth it. The processor is so damned fast as it stands at default speeds that overclocking those is pointless. I have the 3400+ and it simply kicks ass all over the place. The 3200+ is close to it in performance so oc'ing a 3400+ to 3700+ speeds is a waste. You're ONLY talking about ~200MHz there, not even worth talking about.

 

[HardWarrior]

Originally posted by: akira34

Originally posted by: HardWarrior
Dude, don't take this the wrong way, but instead of bumping why don't you hit google and try the answer some of the questions for yourself? If you need to have your hand held every step of the way you should just stay with air.

Agreed there... I'm researching my own liquid/water cooling options at this time... Both of the ones I'm thinking of have parts that go outside of the case (for the radiator/heat transfer devices) that have easy to check (visual/glance) ways to see how the flow is going or fluid level. Both items will run about $200 for the complete kit, so it's not so much the price difference as which one I like the way it works better.

You go akira! :thumbsup: I considered a kit during my research, but frankly I'm glad I went with selected parts, at least this time. I got it just the way I wanted, self-contained, high-performance and damned attractive. Even my wife thinks it looks cool. :shocked:

 

[akira34]

Originally posted by: HardWarrior
You go akira! :thumbsup: I considered a kit during my research, but frankly I'm glad I went with selected parts, at least this time. I got it just the way I wanted, self-contained, high-performance and damned attractive. Even my wife thinks it looks cool. :shocked:

ALWAYS a good idea to please the woman... Makes your life a hell of a lot easier.

The reason I'M going with the kit is that I don't want to make sure I get each and every part that I need, that they all match up properly, that I get the correct length (and diameter) lines and all the other stuff... Plus, one of the kits (maybe both) have sealing ends on the lines that will make things easier when I update the system hardware. I'm trying to see if I can install an additional tank for the one I'm probably going to go with. That way, there's more fluid to go around, and should (if anything) improve the cooling efficiency of the unit. I have other modifications in mind, but I'm going to wait on those for later.