The_Dude

is it worth the 100 or so bucks that you have to shell out?

anyone here have water cooling and notice a drastic drop in temperature?


and how about the "cool factor" of having water cooling, is it worth it?

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dudemac

yes water cooling is good for keeping the temp low. However, why do you need the temp low should be your first question.

For a purpose are just because?

Problems with water cooling are pump failure, cooling failure, and worst of all condensation or leakage.

If you are gonna over clock your chip, you do need some type of cooling, rather fan for heat management or water or nitrogen system for exteame cooling.

Either way do not be surprized if you burn out a chip or 2 before getting it just right.

Good luck

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The Bolshevist

Water? Near a computer?

Maybe you should set it beside an airconditioner. Might be safer.
(By the way, I am serious. Really.)

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dudemac

Todays pre packed water cooling systems are very reliable, not the rubber hose and hot glue of old.

But yes there are still risks

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yakimushi

Condensation is not an issue with water cooling. You have to go sub-zero and even with water cooling you'll never get below ambient room temp. Phase change coolers do have issues with condensation, but only the hardcore are willing to shell $300 for the case and system.

Pump failure is LOW. If you buy a decent pump you are buying a piece of hardware that was designed to run for years without being turned off. They only have one moving part anyways, so the risk of failure is decreased even further.

Leakage can be an issue, but a well built system negates this problem as well. Every time I do mainenance on my H20 system I run it outside the case for 24 hours to assure no leaks are there. I also use fuel line clamps around all the hoses to decrease the chance of leaks. So far, never had a leak.

If you do plan on overclocking, look at all your options first. Intel chips do very well on just air cooling, AMD chips typically need water (for big OC's). Nitrogen isn't even an option. At best a nitrogen system can be cooled for half an hour. After that, the nitrogen must be replenished.

I don't overclock that much, I went with water cooling for two reasons: the challenge of the project and noise control. Water pumps are nearly silent, inside a case they are. I have a 120mm fan on top my radiator, this too is very very quiet. Because the CPU heat is being moved directly outside the case, I can run my case fans at lower speeds (7v).

Don't worry about burning up chips. If you don't do your homework then yeah, its a possibility. But overall its not a huge risk, I've had four different processors under my waterblock and all of them lived to tell the tale.

To sum it up, watercooling can be a very fun project, though do be prepared to sink around $100 or more. Its even more fun if you build the system from scratch, like I did, but do your research first. HardOCP (ww.hardforums.com) has a great forum on cooling, I suggest you check it out.

Also, feel free to IM or PM me with any questions, I'm not an expert but I've got hands on experience.

bermuDa

$100 is a low estimate for a good wc system; I certainly wouldn't trust a whole kit worth that much.

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The_Dude

i looked it up on pricewatch and that's what i found.

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human

Most of your stuff was good, but this isn't exactly correct. Condensation happens at all sorts of temperatures. If you don't believe me, next time it's 30+(C, about 88F or so I think?) out and pretty humid, put a glass of cold water/beer out. Within a couple of minutes there will be a lot of condensation on the outside of the glass. That said though, if you're not cooling the water below ambiant in any way, then no, it won't be an issue.

Soggybagel

The_Dude. If you really plan on gonig water cooling don't get the cheapest kit you can find. You'll end up farking your computer. Overall though if you aren't overclocking I wouldn't really recomend water cooling as there is more things that could really go wrong and you still have to maintain.

Another thing is if you "LAN GAME" don't do it. Portability is pretty low if you get one of these installed.

As far as that AC idea goes...its alright but don't have AC cooled air blowing in directly. Just a cool air temp is better idea because you can actually get condensation doing that.

Vanquish

$100 for a water kit would mean that kit is shit sorry to say. Most cheaper water cooling kits get there ass handed to them by a high end heatsink and a good hsf. The only real advantage of a watercooling setup (if your not an overclocker) that I can see is that it would create a lot less noise and still do a good job.

There is a very good review of a watercooling solution here
http://www6.tomshardware.com/cpu/20030616/index.html

I agree with Soggy, in the case of watercooling, you should always look for a good one no matter the price. Expect to pay a lot for a good one too. The kit I priced up here in Canada would run me around $550 CDN soo around $300 US. Now that was a full setup with HDD coolers, and a good Vid Card cooler.

Scott

They're absolutely right about the prices on watercooling kits. The first, and only one for that matter, I bought cost me just over 100 dollars. Was called iceberg.. needless to say it was a piece of junk. Basicly I got the same cooling from it that I would from a facorty HSF, but just no noise. It was not worth the money. If you're planning on getting one, be VERY sure it's a good one and ask others who have experience before you purchase it. Something I wish I would have done at the time. From what I have read in the past, some of the best watercooling systems there are come from www.dangerden.com. I'd suggest you have a look there and if you have any real specific water cooling questions that the TFP posters can't answer, http://www.amdforums.com/forumdisplay.php?forumid=35 is a great place to get it answered.

Scott

yakimushi

Yeah, what Scott said. I use a Danger Den waterblock and the craftsmanship is very high.

The first one they sent me had copper shavings in it (I could see em through the clear lucite top) so I emailed them some pics and they replaced it without question.

What I like about Danger Den is that they make their own product so you're dealing directly with the supplier.

shakran

I build computers for friends/family/friendsoffriends. . .i usually do one about every two weeks. I've built computers with ultra-power-everything in 'em and have never had the need to watercool. Were I to overclock 'em, I'd probably need to switch over (I NEVER overclock a computer i build for someone else - - - I try to avoid having to be tech support if possible for my computers If you're not overclocking, just go with fans.

Or, if fans aren't working for you, try a fridge case instead. You can get 'em for $150 or so. . .they're basically a case built into a refrigerator.

bermuDa

I had a danger den maze 2-2c in my 2nd watercooling system, and found that it had a hole just under the lid that leaked. I emailed them about it and they sent me an identical block... with the SAME DEFECT! I coated it in silicone and wrapped it in electrical tape to prevent it from leaking.

A few weeks later I came home to the smell of fried processor. Something tripped the power cord for my pump, and my peltiers heated up the waterblock enough to melt the solder holding the top of the block on. The solder would've dripped onto my video card hadn't i wrapped the block in electrical tape. I emailed dangerden and they responded asking for more information about what happened. I wrote a page long description of exactly what happened, and they NEVER responded. I sent many more emails [all very civil], and none of them were answered. I took my grief to my favorite tech forums, and found a lot of other people had been screwed by dangerden in one form or another.

In short, buy Swiftech. Their products and customer service are far superior to any other company I've dealt with, especially dangerden.

note: don't let this horror story daunt you, it's more a reason to not use peltiers than to not watercool; although my overheat-protection software should've shut the computer off in time, it either wasn't turned on or wasn't working... and I paid for it with a motherboard, processor, network card and 3 sticks of memory.

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Dredd2099

just to quiet things down = water cooling
if ur thinkin of O/Cing = look sumplace else
my short answer

JStrider

human the water cooling wouldnt be the same as a glass of cold water... it would be the same as ambient temperature or warmer... when its about 80 deg F in my room my water cooling water is always at like 110 deg F there isnt going to be any condensation onto a warmer then ambient surface...

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