Water cooling

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NiMiK

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I'm considering going with a water cooling setup for my pc but wasn't sure. I've read reviews on newegg and they're just too many mixed ratings. Anybody out there running a water cooling system? If so, how big of a difference do you see in temp compared to air cooling?
 
im with you on that i want to try it but i heard there are a few lines that un near the mobo and if something cases it to break it will kill every thing. but idk if thats true i havent tried it
 
There are a some pros and cons to water cooling. It can run quieter then air cooling, and keep the temperatures down easier.

If you take your time to setup the system and give it time to run without your actual system on to test for leaks, then random leaks are rare. If you use real hose clamps and not zip ties, proper sized fitting/tubing it goes pretty smoothly.

I did have a water cooling setup at one time but it's not necessary for the systems I usually run.

With the technology in air cooling now, it's hard to beat a good heatsink and fans. Either way you go, you can't cool lower then the ambient temps.

I don't Overclock my systems anymore, so I can't justify it for myself...
 
1) no, i don't. however i have helped set-up a water-cooling gig in a friends PC.
2) yes you will notice a difference. in both CPU temp and the difference in noise emitted, however and i know this may sound a bit odd, but your CPU does need to be reasonably hot in order to run efficiently. (anything in the 40's should be fine)

Sorry, but im going to have to use Celsius for this example (we're pretty strange over here in the UK) anything over 50 degrees consistently then water-cooling would be a good idea, but if you find that it's any lower (say mid 40's) then water cooling could take your CPU's temperature a little too low and it could, but not deffinitely, end up being counter-productive.

If you've got CPU monitor software that can tell you your core's temp then that's good. If you don't but you're pretty clued up on what parts have gone into your PC (in particular your motherboard make and model) then [ame="http://download.cnet.com/Motherboard-Monitor/3000-2086_4-10518386.html?tag=mncol"]Motherboard Monitor (click here for link)[/ame] should give you a fairly accurate idea of you CPU's temperature.
If you can 't use either of these methods; run your PC for a while and load up a few programs (IE/Firefox, TF2, iTunes/WMP) and have them running for ~20mins. then shut-down your PC, restart and go straight into your BIOS, you should find your CPU's temperature in there.

The reason i say load up and run some programs for while is that if you just run your PC and check then is that you won't be able to see the sort of temperatures your CPU is running under a high load.

Long post i know, but that should tell you all you need to find out if water-cooling is a good idea or not.
 
On igreen post , i didn't heard that low temp can cause counter-productive effect. Everyone will say (even techs) that the lowest your cpu is , the better he perform (like a car).
Ok , don't think to put your PC inside a freezer , you will might break it lol

About overclocking , i run a i7 920 at 3.5 Ghz (i know not high overclock but still) with air cooling at default fan speed and i got 28 degrees , so for me , i would find useless a water cooling system.

Ok , if you live in middle of sahara where temp reach 40 degrees outside , you should change it :)

if you talking to bring the cpu 2.6 to 4.6 or higher , you may been forced to change for something else than air cooling.
 
Last edited:
konig1 said:
On igreen post , i didn't heard that low temp can cause counter-productive effect. Everyone will say (even techs) that the lowest your cpu is , the better he perform (like a car).
Ok , don't think to put your PC inside a freezer , you will might break it lol
Click to expand...

you may be surprised how quickly freeze packs can cool down a boiling computer ;)
and the could was my get-out clause, so feel free to talk-away on that point.

yeh, my post wasn't entirely clear. it's not that lower temperatures cause a loss in performance, but that CPU's have an optimum operating temperature and it should really be 30's not 40's. my bad on that one lol.
from what we covered in electronics, i believe it's something to do with resistance in the tracks that varies with temperature (but that was a few years back so feel free to correct me on my dodgy memory)
 
Well hard to say which temp is the *best* but for sure dont go over 70.

From what i've seen on forums , there is no limit how low you cpu is. Even constructor manual doesn't specify the temps required.
 
Watercooling isn't really that great, I've used it before and I didn't have a difference in performance at all.
 
Did you use a kit, or custom build WC? Because some people on OCN says that performance is different went they went WC. They said WC is more better. But that's maybe In you own opinion. Sometimes people switch to WC because they dont like the fan noise.
 
Yeah, to be honest, watercooling isn't too much better than quality heatsink fans nowadays. You'll probably see around a 3-4C change. But again, you won't drop below the ambient temperature.

The only reason why I'd go water cooling is because it's much quieter and just aesthetics.
 
Well that's another point that I want to go with WC. Eliminate fan noise but cases and fans are generally pretty quiet. But, by going with a WC system, will my pc generate as much heat as it does now? The darn thing can warm up my room during winter but around this time, it's hell. If WC doesn't make a difference in that then I'd probably get some better fans like Zalman or something.
 
If you want to go HSF get the megatron, and if you have AMD get the mounting kit. The promel mega is the best cooler right now. Same for TRUE 120
 
Ok i have now built over 10 full water cooling systems . First kits suck , build it by hand custome. second its cooling solution is DISTILLED water and a non fungi/algie additive , this will not hurt your computer if it leaks its non conductive , the distilled water has no minerals therefor non conductive , now keep in mind if it leaks for weeks , you can warp your board but thats really it .Watercooling is efficient , and great it will lover your cooling at least 10c compaired to air no matter how nice the air cooling is . if you disagree you setit up wrong :P and if you want to have some help with water cooling / products i will be more than happy to help
 
Mineral Oil doesn't conduct electricity, most of the time they have some way of cooling the oil too.


So as long as the PSU, HDD and Cd-rom are out of the oil everything works fine. Notice he took the ran off his CPU heatsink and whatnot.
 
Okay ill elaborate on the CPU temperatures. Lower is almost always better, for instance the guys that overclocked the AMD Phenom II X4 were using liquid nitrogen to receive world records and i believe they were running like negative 150 celsius or something which is crazy. There is a TJ temperature point on most processors but your CPU will shut down before it reaches that, The max temperature really is around 70 degrees even though TJ is about 100 celsius. I am personally running 60 celsius top but it is still in the range of safe for my processor. It only this high because i overclocked it to 3.7 XD even if i lower it to like 3.5 or something the temps will greatly decrease to maybe like high 40-50 because i would require a lot less voltage.

Anyway, water cooling really isnt necessary these days on most systems, People are getting over 4.0 ghz easily on i7 systems with air cooling.

The probably most beast air cooler is the cooler master v10, thing looks insane and i want one badly.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103056&Tpk=cooler master v10
bit on the pricey side though haha
 
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