Video Card and Cooling inputs?

[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!

[Seminole]

I was thinking about water cooling for my new rig. After I checked a lot of sources I was told that with water cooling one could only expect around a 5 degree difference. Not that much.

So, I went with fan cooling and so far so good. Nvida cards.

[Phrozin]

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!

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

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.

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

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.

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

[Kloef]

My point stands you aren't accurately describing watercooling or it's parts & implementation & are giving out information from a "scared of liquid in my P/C" viewpoint.

Ehm,thats your conclusion,based on absolutely nothing whatsoever.

Air cooled systems need more than the one or two fans needed by a watercooled system

Depends on what fans you buy...some have incredible qualities..

And please read the first post,this guy wants to know if he should buy watercooling just for his GPU,and maybe install it for any future upgrades...well i say wait untill you know what you are going to buy,cause not everything will fitt,different bridges,ATX or BTX...you could get into trouble..so i advise him to stick with what works under all circumstances,air coolers.. and its the cheapest solution for this particular problem..

You like watercooling,i dont..i think its just more parts the manufacturers can sell you to make a profit(most brands sell water and air cooling,so no discussion there) and i concluded that i personally think its not worth the trouble personally so nobody has to agree with me,or quote my whole freaking post just to prove something...want real cooling?go for phase cooling!!

We cool now??





BTW nice rigs systemlord!

[Kloef]

Btw i was wondering if anyone uses a coolant from the industry...i use coolant to cool my machinetools,and you can stick your arm in it mid-summer and it will feel like a fridge,i mean it has great heat dissipation qualities...just wondering why i never came to do that..

if your talking about what is needed for proper cooling then water cooling is overkill, unless you overclock to a systems extreme limits then air cooling is completely fine. now many people convince themselves they need it when in fact they just want it and can use air but choose not to.

water cooling has a wow that looks cool factor that people use to justify using it but both work great.

water cooling has a faster thermal transfer of heat because of the fact that its liquid where air doesnt have the same speed but it still efficiently removes all the heat that is being generated.

as for the comment "Air cooled systems need more than the one or two fans needed by a watercooled system"

i have a q6600 quad core, 4gb ddr2 ram, 8800gt 512mb video passively cooled, coolermaster centurian case with only one 120mm rear exhaust fan plus the power supply fan and thats it. i can play any game maxed out and never get above warm. my power supply never gets hot enough to even speed up the fan so believe what you want and do what you want but your doing it because you want to not because you need to.

i cant tell you how many systems i saw in melt down because of a tiny leak in the hose or fitting somewhere. water cooling is best left to those who push equipt. to the frying point and those who wont just close the side cover and not think about it again. its a system you need to monitor, think of it like cutting the grass, check hoses, connections, and fluid levels at least once a week.

water cooling is very very good IF you take care of it, its not for joe average.

anyway this is subsim so lets get back to the game. the thread poster has heard enough to make up his own mind so this ford vs chevy arguement is pointless.

[Phrozin]

Originally Posted by Kloef

Btw i was wondering if anyone uses a coolant from the industry...i use coolant to cool my machinetools,and you can stick your arm in it mid-summer and it will feel like a fridge,i mean it has great heat dissipation qualities...just wondering why i never came to do that..

I had tried one once upon a time, about 6 weeks into it the tubes started leaking due to the corrosion. I switched back to water and alcohol in a 10:1 ratio. I tried other ratios, but found that an 8:1 - 11:1 ratio worked best.

Joe

[Defiance]

Built gawd knows how many h2o rigs

From scrapyard heater matrix's to expensive rads from cooling places

Noticed a max of 2-3c difference in all i've tested with different rads

Went from air in the early 90's to h2o then to home-made phase change then back to air and now currently back being addicted to h2o lol

All cooling options have their ups n downsides, Water really can be extremely quiet as stated, Air also can be but you may have to trade noise for slightly less cooling (i mean things run a bit warmer)

People today panic if vidcard temps go to 70c or so, when in fact the gpu's are good for higher than this by a fair bit, Same goes for cpu's

For a quick re-entry back into watercooling i got a kit, Does what it says on the tin and was decently priced

If buying your own individual bits, Like anything start at the cooling point (the block) then consider the layout/run of piping and the diam best suited and also the pump (over many years i've tested variables and found the most tweakable part of a watercooling is the pump), If you have a fast gusher of a pump the water will pass over the hot area (block) and not absorb as much energy/heat as it otherwise could, Then again if the pump is too slow the coolant gets saturated with energy/heat much more than needed

Also throw into this the rad size/efficency/flowrate etc etc then also the CFM of fan/s needed and it fast becomes a juggling act

I doubt anyone will ever make/create the ultimate watercooling system as the variables are too variable

But for me i would say go with water and enjoy lower temps with less noise

Now for kicks and really low temps look into phase-change, This is fun he he

No doubt you'll enjoy doing a watercooled rig

OT: Brenjen, What was/is your nick in AH ???

[Mush Martin]

[Brenjen]

Originally Posted by Defiance

OT: Brenjen, What was/is your nick in AH ???

Same as here, Brenjen. I got bored after two or three years & quit about a year ago. I flew Knight & was in "Satans Playmates" - good group of people right there.