High-end air?

Champ · Jul 3, 2010

So I really want to do a liquid-cooled setup for my next gaming rig. I shit you guys not, my folks keep it very hot. I recently had a PSU burn out from the hot temps and I've had a 360 and PS3 burn out. I can't put the actual temps to a number, but you break out in the kind of sweats where you are sweating from your sides and the undies are soaked :laugh:

With my last setup, the cooling wasn't too great to start will. I was thinking to jump to liquid cooling off the bat. I remember someone saying with liquid, like air, it only gets as cool as the ambient air. Is this correct? That new Nvidia case had me thinking if high-end air could cool 3-4 470s/480s, it should be more than enough for me.

DR.Death · Jul 3, 2010

yes because the rad can only give off so much heat to the sounding air

blkhogan · Jul 3, 2010

The cooler your ambient air, the more heat can be transfered away from your rig. Hot ambient air = more heat being held in the loop. Just setting a small fan next to your rig to move air will help some but not a lot. You need decent ambient temps for the transfer to take place.

theonedub · Jul 3, 2010

DR.Death said:
yes because the rad can only give off so much heat to the sounding air

I don't think that's the case. Just like air cooling the radiator is being cooled by the air the fans are pushing through it (at ambient temperature). So no matter how much airflow you have, how large your rad is, or how great the block is, you are only going to get as cool as the air that cools the rad- ambient temp.

Of course that's excluding chillers and TECs.

Champ · Jul 4, 2010

theonedub said:
I don't think that's the case. Just like air cooling the radiator is being cooled by the air the fans are pushing through it (at ambient temperature). So no matter how much airflow you have, how large your rad is, or how great the block is, you are only going to get as cool as the air that cools the rad- ambient temp.

Of course that's excluding chillers and TECs.

I'm not familiar with those. Care to fill me in?

overclocking101 · Jul 4, 2010

with chillers its like a air conditiong unit for your p water cooling setup, TEC is MUCH more dangerous and you would still need to cool down the HOTTER TEC using standard water cooling

Champ · Jul 4, 2010

overclocking101 said:
with chillers its like a air conditiong unit for your p water cooling setup, TEC is MUCH more dangerous and you would still need to cool down the HOTTER TEC using standard water cooling

Sorry, but I'm a little more lost :confused:

Deleted member 74752 · Jul 4, 2010

Here are two screens - One with a Dual Core and one with a Gulftown using TEC's...

Champ · Jul 4, 2010

twistedspark · Jul 5, 2010

You can only cool something to as low as the cooling medium's temperature (air temp in this case). So in air cooling, you can only bring the target (to be cooled) down to the temperature of the surrounding air. Air doesn't conduct heat very well either, so if you're in a high ambient temperature area you're not going to do too well without extremely good airflow (lots of noise and power consumption). Water conducts heat much better, but you're still limited by the temperature difference between the CPU/GPU and the ambient air. The greater the difference the better the cooling.

Moving into sub-ambient cooling you can achieve vastly greater cooling, but anytime you have something that's cooler than ambient temperatures you're subjected to water condensation. Then you have to insulate your electronic parts. Very involved, but also fun if you're into messing with hardware etc.

I'm surprised this forum doesn't seem to have a TEC/Peltier/phase-change section.
Read up on what's involved with this kind of thing at Extreme Overclocking:
Thermal Electric Cooling
Phase-change Cooling

Have fun!

Champ · Jul 5, 2010

I may join that site to get some advice. The temps me and my machines have to put up with are ridiculous.

de.das.dude · Jul 5, 2010

try keeping soaked sponges on the radiator(with some arrangements) and blowing on them with fans. that will make the water from the sponge evaporate and make the rad coler than ambient(upto 10-0C cooler can be achieved). a guy even made a refrigerator from this principle!!

TheMailMan78 · Jul 5, 2010

Check out an Corsair H50. I live in south Florida so I know all about hot ambients. I've been very happy with mine.

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High-end air?

Champ

DR.Death

blkhogan

theonedub

habe fidem

Champ

overclocking101

Champ

Deleted member 74752

Guest

Champ

twistedspark

Champ

de.das.dude

Pro Indian Modder

TheMailMan78

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