Liquid Cooling For Beginners...

SpeedyG

SpeedyG

CAGiversary!
Hey all, was looking to finally cross into liquid cooling and was wondering what CAG's experiences with newer Liquid Cooling systems are.

Any advice for what to stay away from or lean towards would be helpful.
 
Unless you're going to do some extreme overclocking, water cooling just isn't worth it. Regular heatsinks and fans will do just fine for the everyday overclocking and cooling.
 
[quote name='SEH']Unless you're going to do some extreme overclocking, water cooling just isn't worth it. Regular heatsinks and fans will do just fine for the everyday overclocking and cooling.[/QUOTE]

Agreed.

Unless you live in a hot zone like AZ or Texas and have no AC.
 
As the two above said, not worth it unless extreme OC'n or live in hot area (or heck if the fan noise is bothering you enough).

Only reason I got my workstation watercooled was cause I had to run a desk fan on the side of it with the side panel of the case off and the fans made a lot of noise.

I don't know much about watercooling, but I do know don't buy the cheap shit with your computer on the line.
 
Like the others said: Don't bother unless you're OCing. Which begs to ask the question, why are you looking at it anyway? If it's out of random curiosity, then the cost and issues that could arrive aren't worth the benefits.
 
If you're thinking about switching because of the noise, try cleaning your PC first. My old PC used to be so loud that when I would talk on the phone, people on the other end could hear it. I took out the fans and heat sink and blew the layer of dust off, and after that, it was barely noticeable.
 
Stay away from water cooling all together unless you want to flex your e-peen on overclocking forums. Most high-end air coolers can do a fine job of overclocking with much less risk to your hardware.
 
Well to start with, My 8800 gt runs a touch too hot for my tastes and certainly too loud. And while I know the best air cooling solution for this is the passive heatsink from Arctic Cooling, I figured why not look around and see what's out there. Plus I thik some other cag's might be looking into this so there might as well be a thread to start it off.
 
For the amount of money you would put out for a decent watercooling setup you'll be able to go buy a new top of the line video card and still have some cash left over probably
 
[quote name='SpeedyG']Yup... but has anyone actually done it?[/QUOTE]

Back in 2003, I went with a water cooling system. At end of the quarter when I did numbers it did not balance out. I ended selling it and going back to heatsinks and fans.

My current case (and those that I will buy and create in the future) have natural cooling.

I picked this one up for $30 bucks at a local computer show.

f1fxnp.jpg

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you're not CGAing if you go lc
lc your looking at a good $500 to do it right + you can fry your stuff if it leaks. for that money you can just put some upgrades into your pc like a new case with good air flow, a new psu+ vid card.

i personally would try to get some more fans then some chipset/vid card fans and see how that works out. then look into a good case like a antec 1200

most the people with LC is for bragging rights as they just oc for fun. there is not much real use for those high ocs other than folding and maybe games like crysis. ive gotten my baby up to 4.2 before but i realized there was just no need to have it that high as it uses more electricity and all im doing is pretty much wow and hulu and some old steam games hehe
 
[quote name='Kevfactor']you're not CGAing if you go lc
lc your looking at a good $500 to do it right + you can fry your stuff if it leaks. for that money you can just put some upgrades into your pc like a new case with good air flow, a new psu+ vid card.

i personally would try to get some more fans then some chipset/vid card fans and see how that works out. then look into a good case like a antec 1200

most the people with LC is for bragging rights as they just oc for fun. there is not much real use for those high ocs other than folding and maybe games like crysis. ive gotten my baby up to 4.2 before but i realized there was just no need to have it that high as it uses more electricity and all im doing is pretty much wow and hulu and some old steam games hehe[/QUOTE]

To be honest, I don't think theirs much need to O'C any more. Unless you have OLD tech and ZERO money for upgrades or outright purchases (you can get a great computer for $200 these days) O'C is more, like Kev stated, bragging rights but with no real reason for it.

90% of all games out are streamlining their software to work on all kinds of configures. Direct X is even easy for programmers and game makers to use so very few games or software utilize O'C.

So in short you can go water cooling but you will be spending more for less.
 
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My old roomie had a nice OC system going. Biggest pain in the ass from what I've seen: Gotta top it off with a special coolant that's electronic-friendly, pain in the ass to install and cut tubes to length, and I think his system (which is an integrated Water-cooling/case) was around the $500 mark.

That being said, it was really quiet for what it is, and it tamed his old AMD Athlon extreme edition to notch. Also, he said that upgrading/adding on cooling blocks wasn't as big as an issue back then, but he said that an SLI setup was way more complicated that it's worth. He also said that when he sprung a leak, that the special non-conductive liquid really saved his ass when it hosed his dual 8800gt setup.

EDIT: Talked to him on aim, and he said to visit Xoxide for all your Water-cooling needs. I thought they wont out of business, but apparently the store/website was bought out by another company, so YMMV.

EDIT: One more link for those who needs it. HardOCP is filled with OCing enthusiast, and they have a fairly robust Forum dedicated to Water Cooling. Check it out. Also, it doesn't hurt to start here.
 
If you are really interested (in overclocking and tweaking as a hobby), its best to ask this question over at the HardOCP or EVGA forums.

Those people aren't posting insane folding@home numbers on "normal" systems, and a lot of them don't even game. They admittedly run SuperPI, P95, IBT, (synthetics) more than actual programs!

We all have our hobbies and that is theirs; join them.
 
Well, I went with air cooling on my Quad Q9450, and it worked well. I'm just using a TRUE heatsink, and a slow 120mm fan, and it's [email protected]. It's been running stable for a year and a half with zero problems. It's inside a full tower case, which is also running the quietest 120mm fans I could find available, so it's nearly dead silent. I did have to mount an additional fan over the motherboard to keep the ram and northbridge temperatures down. However, like the others have mentioned, head over to HardOCP, I'm a regular there, and it's a great community for computer hardware enthusiasts.
 
did it for a few years, wasnt worth the hassle. I had a pipe crack once and leak all over my HDDs, video card, and a bit on the mobo, for what its worth nothing shorted [distilled water with the additive] but what a friggan mess. Stuff doesnt have the most pleasant aroma either. I just reverted back to good ol' HSFs myself and couldnt happier. Likewise between the pump and radiator fans you will NOT be getting a quieter PC, that i promise you. You want quiet? Look at the passive cooling options that use huge heatsinks which also happen to be incredibly effective even when compared to a costly water cooling solution with its fans on turbo jet mode.

Likewise from my experience it sucks in hot and humid weather. It is only liquid through a radiator after all so your ambient temp matters a lot.
 
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