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Originally Posted by Systemlord
Water cooling isn't the answer, a better airflowing computer case is. The second most costly component during my new computer build last June 07 was the computer case, $330 dollars for a computer case does seem like alot. When you get the same temperatures inside a case as you do outside the case with a bunch of fans, thats awesome! I'm running an 8800GTX and these are supposed to run HOT, it idles at 52C and never go's above 68C max load. What case do you own? Mid size PC case are not enough for todays gaming systems in my opinion!
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I agree. My old computer has been using a Sapphire X800 GTO (DDR3) over clocked to 530/1230 since 4/16/2006. It's still running on the stock cooler and will sometimes hit 54º C under load. The 9600 Pro I had before that was water cooled and yes the temps dropped by a good margin, but when I switched to my new case (back in 06) my air temps were only 2º hotter then water. So flow is everything.
Some believe that a negative chassis pressure will cut down on dust but increase heat, some believe that a positive chassis pressure will increase dust, but maintained will lower temps. Personally I suggest getting a case with some 120MM fans and go from there. Some of the newer cases (mid to "oh my god, I just spent an arm and a leg") have chassis access cutouts for water cooling anyway. I've done phase change, TEC, water, and air cooling. the only one that I saw enough of a drop in temps to justify the price was phase change, but be ready to blow $2000.00 to $3000.00 USD's for a well setup phase change chassis.
Seriously, look into bigger fans with low RPM and higher CFM and if that doesn't get you where you want to be then start putting together a water tower.
here is an example of a case with water inlets.
Newegg
another one
Newegg
Water cooling sites:
http://www.xoxide.com/
http://www.dangerden.com/store/ who couldn't by something from a store by the name of Danger Den!! (Seriously, they've been around awhile)
Water cooling guide:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...r-pc,1573.html
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Originally Posted by Brenjen
Air cooled systems need more than the one or two fans needed by a watercooled system; which by the way can be set on low RPM by a fan controller where air cooled systems can't without suffering heat soak.
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provided you have the time you can get an air cooled case down to 1 or 2 fans, course they are huge fans (120mm being the smallest 250 being the biggest I've seen so far), but your point about not being scared of water is correct, people should not be scared of water as long as they pressure check the system for at least 24 hours (48 is better) without any components installed. Personally if I had the money and time to do it again, I'd go phase change again, but my divorce is making sure I can't do that
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Originally Posted by Brenjen
I've read plenty of fear mongering about water cooling & the truth is it can be affordable & can't be beaten by any air cooling option out there. You fail to give any logic for the fear you're imparting, heater core....not some "cheap throw-away part" but rather identical in form & function to the P/C radiators & at 1/15th the cost. Water inside a P/C, corrosion, cost etc. are all stock, off the shelf bullet points for people who fear water cooling. Would I say it's over-kill to put water cooling on an average system? I'd say yes without hesitation; but that's not the question & I'll leave it at that.
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Affordable... yes, 100%, can't be beaten? no it can't because if it's just water cooling with no TEC or fridge then it can only cool to the ambient temp and no lower, while air's theoretical limit is the same, but I've never seen it reached. I have seen it get close though. My current comp, is running 3 120mm fans (2 case, 1 CPU) and it runs nicely and quietly, my old system (the x800 GTO system) runs 5 80MM fans and cools very well too. Course I used a smoke machine to find hot spots and dead zones which alot of people wont.
I've done 3 water setups, 1 junkyard material (worked really well i might add.), a koolance (worked well, high price, not as good as the junkyard setup), and a tower. The tower by far worked the best, and because no fans where used in my setup, it was as quite as a church on Tuesday at 1:00 AM. (beat any air cooled rig in the noise/degree race for sure)
Only thing I would suggest is to change the water once a year and never use anything but distilled water so you don't get the calcium, zinc, and all the other metal deposits on your tubes and impellers.
bottom line is this, if a person wants a cool system without spending alot of time, water can do it. If you want air cooling, you can still do it, but you are going to spend some time and going to extremes (smoke machine) to get there. If you want to be the only kid on the block with a sweet setup and you have bottomless pockets, go phase change. a truly fan-less system is really hard to make, you have hard drives, ram, northbridge, southbrige, cpu, gpu, power supply caps, and converters. That's alot of tubing, and even a good deal of fabrication, so no matter what most will always have fans in their computer.
And just to (edit* through) throw it out there, if you want to go phase change I suggest the prometeia
systems. you can check them out here: FrozenCPU
kk, sorry for the long post,
Joe