Watercooling - Anyone familar with it? :)

dudeami · 07-03-2010, 07:49 PM #1

I was wondering if anyone was familiar with watercooling, and what are some good options on the market.

I have read up on it a bit, but when it comes to choosing the parts for the water cooling, and the specifics, I'm absolutely dumb founded. My computer I will be building shortly is:

Intel Core i7 920
ATI HD 5850 x2 (Crossfire)
Asus P6T Motherboard

Well, thats atleast everything I want cooling for ^^ Also, my house does not have air conditioning, which is one of the main reasons why I want this (90F+ isn't the top conditions for a computer :p).

Anyways, which external systems are good at transferring heat for around ~$400 (Excluding blocks and hose and the like). Also, how should I approach this, and if your really helpful, mind giving me some tips on what I should look for?

Any help with this would be great, cause I want to maximize the performance of the water cooling, and possibly get a bit more performance out of the cards. Also, any links to info on the subject would be great ^^

Thanks!
-Kris

obscured · 07-03-2010, 08:07 PM #2

You know water cooling is not very effective if you house/room is hot because it uses the ambient air to dissipate the heat. That would mean you have have to go the chilled h2o route. There are some guides (google it) on which parts works best. I have never built a h2o unit because good air cooling has always did a good job for me. Component manufacturers like SwiftTech is one of the few preferred vendor of water cooling components. A built water cooling system is better then a all in one unit but a all in one unit is more user friendly.

dudeami · 07-03-2010, 08:18 PM #3

Thanks for the info ^^ I'll look into chilled water for it, and I'll continue looking around. Also, is koolance pretty good? I also wasn't planning on an all in one kit, which is why I'm having such trouble. I guess I'll just keep looking around.

obscured · (This post was last modified: 07-03-2010, 08:28 PM by obscured.)

Koolance is a good component supplier for water cooling also. Chilled h20 is a lot more complexed. Good Luck.

**NaturalViolence** · 07-04-2010, 04:25 AM #5

Quote:You know water cooling is not very effective if you house/room is hot because it uses the ambient air to dissipate the heat.

So does air cooling, passive cooling, thermoelectric cooling, and every other method of cooling your cpu. If heat isn't dissipated into ambient air then where the hell is it supposed to go!?! All types of cooling transfer heat energy from the cpu into the air, the only difference is how.

Koolance and swiftech are both good brands. If you have never played around with water cooling before I suggest you buy a kit for your first time instead of arranging a parts list from scratch. I have some experience with water cooling despite the fact that my current setup is air cooled. I'll post more info when I get a chance.

obscured · 07-04-2010, 06:40 AM #6

(07-04-2010, 04:25 AM)NaturalViolence Wrote:
Quote:You know water cooling is not very effective if you house/room is hot because it uses the ambient air to dissipate the heat.

So does air cooling, passive cooling, thermoelectric cooling, and every other method of cooling your cpu. If heat isn't dissipated into ambient air then where the hell is it supposed to go!?! All types of cooling transfer heat energy from the cpu into the air, the only difference is how.

Did you even understand that I was trying to tell him that going to h2o wont make a big difference if his room is hot because he mentioned he doesn't have air conditioning? Why, the hell are you telling me that heat dissipate into air with all the other cooling when I just said that? Thats why I recommended chilled h2o if that was a problem. Read and think.

**NaturalViolence** · 07-04-2010, 08:25 AM #7

Perhaps you did not mean to say it that way. The way you phrased your sentence implied that only water cooled systems dissipate heat into air.

And actually being in a hot area gives you more reason to switch to liquid cooling. Especially if you are using a large reservoir. Air coolers tend to be affected by ambient temperature a lot more than liquid cooled rigs because they don't have as much thermal mass (all that water can hold a lot of thermal energy). As for chilled h2o, I would never recommend that to someone who is new to water cooling. But that's just my opinion, I don't have any experience with chilled h2o.

iPack · 07-04-2010, 08:31 AM #8

What about liquid nitrogen?

**NaturalViolence** · (This post was last modified: 07-04-2010, 08:36 AM by NaturalViolence.)

....are you insane? Liquid nitrogen is ridiculously expensive and can only be used for short term cooling. I would advise that in a hot area you try and make the reservoir as big as possible. My cousin used a 50 gallon trash can which he got at walmart for less than $20 as a reservoir and the system never gets more than 1-2 C higher than ambient. Combine that with a good pump and waterblock and you have an excellent system on the cheap. And if your reservoir is that big you don't even really need a radiator.

dudeami · (This post was last modified: 07-04-2010, 09:06 AM by dudeami.)

Well, a 50 gallon trash can is out of my league, but chilled water and liquid nitrogen seem to be just for setting benchmarks for the most part. I read up that CPUs like a 5C, 10C tops DT, and GPUs can stand a 15C, 20C tops DT. I might look into a big reservoir with a good set of radiators. I also plan on two loops now Smile

Edit: Also, it might not be as effective as it could be during the summer, but during the cold winters it should be wonderful Smile

I read alot of people turn down their overclocks during the summer for this reason. Another reason I love winter :p