water cooling or not?

[karolpl2004]

hi,
i wanna do some overclocking on my new mobo when it arrives in a few days. i wanna oc my processor and my graphics card. now i dont know what would be a good cooling source. my current heatsink is http://www.maxcooler.com/noname325.html . should i stick with it and get a vga silencer for my ati all in wonder 9800pro, or should i get water cooling. i thought this was a good deal on one. http://cgi.ebay.com/EverCool-Water-...ryZ80150QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem is it any good? should i even attempt to oc? im pretty new to ocing.

 

[SyK1]

get the water cooling its much quiter and much more effective then your current cooler

 

[spectre440]

definantly water cooling.
even the low-end water cooling "kits" like the ones thermaltake or vantec or even gigabyte offer are all very good for begginers and they'll all outperform almost any type of aircooling.

 

[trog100]

so with water cooling u have a block attached to the chip u wanna cool.. water then takes heat from the chip to a "radiator" which is then cooled by a fan which blows "air" thru it..

with air cooling u have a block which is attached to the chip u wanna cool.. heat pipes then take heat to a "radiator" which is then cooled by a fan which blows "air" thru it..

so what the difference ?????

the difference is only in the remote "radiator".. cos its remote it can be bigger.. it can also be outside your case..

the new heat pipe design so called air coolers also allow a bigger remote "radiator" in the sense it can be raised up away from the mobo.. they aslo allow a bigger quiter fan..

so what we call water cooling is really remote air cooling and isnt by definition better or quiter then the modern generation of heat pipe things we call air coolers..

dont get me wrong here.. water cooling can be better than air cooling cos the raditor can be as big as u want it to be.. but dont assume that water cooling is better cos it isnt always.. the bottom line is that its air and a fan doing the actual cooling whatever system u use..

not counting fifty gallon fish tanks supplying the water and such here.. he he he..

trog

 

[CjStaal]

water cooling pwns the shit out of air cooling

 

[Sasqui]

water cooling pwns the shit out of air cooling

Agreed - been through both. The kit you are looking at has a very good price point. Do a google seach for what you are interested in. Here's one review of the previous "201" model:

http://www.overclockers.com/articles953/

The eBay price seems good. MAKE SURE you can fit both radiators and everything else in your case.

 

[trog100]

"CONCLUSIONS"

I would suggest that consumers considering this unit plan to run it with the base unit fan at its lowest setting. The external fan on the second radiator appears to be an effective balance between noise and performance.

Inside a case, airflow around the base unit will definitely impact performance. The higher the air temp inside the case, the higher CPU/GPU temps. In addition, there may be an adverse impact with recirculated warm air around the base unit.

Once purchased, I would not consider this kit particularly upgradeable - the small fittings throughout the kit's components precludes effective replacement with components featuring larger fittings.

This is NOT what I would consider a "performance kit", but for someone looking for an "all-in-one" mid-level solution, it's an OK choice."

thats apart from the fact that in a case with couple of cdrom drives either side to restrict its airflow it wont do as well as the test suggest.. it also makes no attempt to cool the power mosphets and bits around the cpu.. no attempt to cool the grfx cards memory.. in short its nowhere near as good or as quiet as decent a zalman air cooler and artic vga cooler.. and it costs more..

looks pretty thow and is good value for money for a water cooler.. especially if u really do believe the crap about water always being better than air.. he he he..

trog

 

[karolpl2004]

ok. i see what you guys are saying. now just to make sure if i should upgrade let me tell you what my case is like right now. i have one fan on the back (blowing in), one fan one the side (blowing in), one fan on the top (blowing out), and one fan on top of heatsink. My heatsink its the ZALMAN CNPS3100+ COPPER FLOWER HEATSINK. my temperature inside the case is a steady 81°F (~27.22°C). should i still switch?

 

[CjStaal]

switch, you'll get the tempdown to 5c and like 15c workload
Use the one I have (check sys specs)

 

[trog100]

i have a zalman Zalman CNPS9500-LED Aero Flower cpu cooler..

two fans on the back blowing in.. both running volted down and slow..

one fan on the side blowing in.. very volted down about six volts and running very slow..

600 watt power supply big fan running slow to exhaust case heat..

open fan hole in the top of case no fan fitted..

artic vga silencer fitted to the ati x850 xt pe overclocked grfx card.. 550/600 this exhausts card heat out of the back of the case..

my case at the moment is 25c.. my room ambient is 24c.. if anyone can get their case to less than 1c over room ambient please let me know..

cpu amd 64 3700 at 2.8 gig.. 600 mhz overclock runs at about 50c under load..

grfx card runs at about 50c under load as well..

the whole lot runs near silent and there aint a drop of water within twenty feet of it..

i could knock about 3c off all temps simply by speeding up the fans.. but there isnt any need to.. i got pissed off with computers that sound like aircon units..

there also isnt anything in my case that feels more than slightly warm to the touch..

soooo... my answer would have to be.. dont convert.. cos there isnt any need to.. decent air cooling is plenty good enough.. if u do convert make sure u have something blowing on your motherboard in the cpu/memory area.. and the memory on your grfx card.. cos all these bits will run hotter going with the water system u pointed out..

course "everyone knows" water is better than air so i am probably wasteing my time trying to point out that it isnt always..

it used to be.. but air coolers have gotten better and water coolers have gotten cheaper.. to the point that some of em are a total waste of time.. they sell these things on the basis of what "everybody knows"... he he he

trog

 

[CjStaal]

*sighs* Whatever you say trog, keep dreaming in that little world of yours

 

[trog100]

okay then dude i have taken the trouble to try and explain just why water cooling isnt always better than air..

so instead of making silly one-liner "sigh" comments.. how about u telling us just why water cooling is always better then air..

in truth i dont think u know do u.. u just keep spouting the mantra..

trog

 

[Sasqui]

okay then dude i have taken the trouble to try and explain just why water cooling isnt always better than air..

so instead of making silly one-liner "sigh" comments.. how about u telling us just why water cooling is always better then air..

in truth i dont think u know do u.. u just keep spouting the mantra..

trog

Before I got my Koolance case, I counted 11 fans in my computer that made me quiver at the whine - it even bugged me when I heard it while folding laundary in the basement, a floor below. I now have 6 fans and the loudest thing is and IBM deskstar drive... just last week I was so sick of the noise from the ATI GTO card fan, I finally put the GPU waterblock on it. My CPU at FSB = 247 runs idle at 50f , 11c (I don't beleive that as it's almost 68f in the house)... the GPU idles at 30c, 47c max laod. The computer is happier, I'm happer and the water just keeps going round and round. I'd never go back - the two most HOT components CPU and GPU are sending the heat into water and exhausting it out of the top of the case, not into it, like most air cooled setups do. I've done air many times (5-6 motherboards), I've done water a few (two motherboards, three GPUS) - I'll never go back.

The caveat is that you have to be smart, dilligent and love to tinker.

 

[karolpl2004]

ok im convinced. which one, Titan TWC-A04 or Evercool WC-202 ?

 

[CjStaal]

Corsair COOL water cooling setup... my temps are <20c and I'm in a hot enviorment... you are getting <20c with air so I would suggest you get fluid that does not freeze at 0c... a good liquid is http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1537267&CatId=1055
EDIT: Plus its non-conductive and has a freezing point of -40c :-D

 

[karolpl2004]

how often does the coolant need to be drained and replaced?

 

[CjStaal]

Havent needed to yet

 

[trog100]

being as its imposssible with normal water cooling to get the cooling medium (water) below case or room ambient temperature why the hell would u need antifreeze.. folks who live in igloos not counting of course..

sasqui.. i agree entirely with your sentiments.. i can only say that i achieved exactly the same results useing decent air coolers and decent software fan control for all fans.. the noisiest thing on my computer now is also the 250 gig external USB hardrive sat next to it.. luckily it does have an off switch..

i spose we both must have cracked it when the noisiest thing we have is a bloody hardrive..

noise apart.. these two link make the point that water dosnt beat the crap out of air..

http://www.overclockers.com/articles1211/ air

http://www.overclockers.com/articles953/ water

in these two cases it seems air beat the crap out of water..

the whole water air arguement is a bloody silly one when it ultmately ends up with a fan or fans blowing air that ends up doing the actual cooling in either system..


trog

 

[karolpl2004]

... i dunno what to say... i wanna get something rel quiet and i want to be able to do some ocing.... but which system do i get?

 

[breakfromyou]

i have the gigabyte 3d galaxy kit...its pretty nice. it was like half the price of the corsair water setup.

i finally broke 40c on load the other day, with lots of vcore at 2.85 GHz. fan was on low.

a good thing about this setup is when it runs too low on water, itll shut down for you. i dont think all water cooling kits do that...makes it take a while to get the air out of the system. the 120mm fan for the radiator is pretty quiet. my system isn't that quiet...i have a really noisy 80mm fan on the side.

id recommend it.

that evercool kit seems crappy.

 

[karolpl2004]

its nice but it dont fit my processor, i think ill get the titan

 

[breakfromyou]

you could always get a different cpu waterblock...

most people tell you to build your own water cooling setup. it usually works out better.

 

[CjStaal]

Yeah it does really, www.frozencpu.com has everything you need I would go with 3/8"Inner Diameter tubing since that way its easier to get the radiator outside the case (1/2"ID tubing can't fit thru pci slot)

 

[karolpl2004]

i dont really have the money to build it myself. i only got like $120

 

[breakfromyou]

Yeah it does really, www.frozencpu.com has everything you need I would go with 3/8"Inner Diameter tubing since that way its easier to get the radiator outside the case (1/2"ID tubing can't fit thru pci slot)

if you squeeze it a little it will :x

i have my water tubes in the bigger vertical space next to the pci slots...it has a cover, but i took it off because of that.