Water Cooling

CaptainPlanet!

CaptainPlanet!

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I'm sure these seem like very nooby questions to anyone who knows anything about watercooling their rig, and they are, mostly because I know next to nothing about the subject.

1. Does watercooling at all negate the need for fans?
2. Does the water ever need to be changed?
3. Does it need to be powered?
4. What are some good Watercooling setups? (kits, etc, not sure about the terminology)
5. Are these (setups, kits) case-specific, or will any standard ATX case do the job?
 
[quote name='CaptainPlanet!']I'm sure these seem like very nooby questions to anyone who knows anything about watercooling their rig, and they are, mostly because I know next to nothing about the subject.

1. Does watercooling at all negate the need for fans?
2. Does the water ever need to be changed?
3. Does it need to be powered?
4. What are some good Watercooling setups? (kits, etc, not sure about the terminology)
5. Are these (setups, kits) case-specific, or will any standard ATX case do the job?[/QUOTE]

1) Yes and no, depending on your setup. There may or may not be a fan on your radiator. At the very least however, you can significantly reduce the amount of fans on your case/inside your case.

2) It's highly recommended you change your water.

3) Yes.

4 & 5) Generally, some of the lower end kits aren't recommended. A good liquid cooling setup is typically fairly expensive ($300+). There are several different options out there:

  • Integrated into case (pre-existing setup)
  • External system
  • Internal systems

Generally, any case that features an external system (either additional or integrated) will cool better, since they have more space. You'll have to do some further research to find out what would work best for you.

In my opinion, I find water cooling just isn't worth the cost, since most of the time my stock coolers do a fairly decent job. Unless you like to overclock, I just don't think it's worth it. And if you're worried about noise, you could always just get a 45 or 65nm chip and run your fans at a slower speed.
 
Unless you have super insanely powered and OC'ed rig, as well as insanely deep pockets, I wouldn't worry about Water Cooling. It is expensive and really not needed except for some extreme cases.
 
[quote name='darthbudge']Unless you have super insanely powered and OC'ed rig, as well as insanely deep pockets, I wouldn't worry about Water Cooling. It is expensive and really not needed except for some extreme cases.[/quote]

QFT


Its just for show, yes it does really cool down your rig, but for most normal people an aftermarket cpu heatsink will do more than enough.
 
I've always been worried about leakage after a few years. As a guy who has tinkered with cars over the years, I know all pliable seals, hoses, gaskets, etc. eventually harden and shrink. And while a coolant leak on a car can be a problem, inside a PC it would be instantly devastating. I'd be on pins and needles listening to that stuff gurgling around my case.
 
The only reason I'm concerned about heat is the 150GB Raptor I want to put in my new rig, perhaps 2 in RAID. They run hot, and some say water cooling is required to keep the life of these drives past 6 months.

I'm not looking to get water cooling just to cool off my CPU, a heatsink does that well enough, its the 2 10k RPM drives I'm worried about.
 
[quote name='CaptainPlanet!']The only reason I'm concerned about heat is the 150GB Raptor I want to put in my new rig, perhaps 2 in RAID. They run hot, and some say water cooling is required to keep the life of these drives past 6 months.

I'm not looking to get water cooling just to cool off my CPU, a heatsink does that well enough, its the 2 10k RPM drives I'm worried about.[/QUOTE]

That's ridiculous. Yes, it's true that Raptors run hotter than most drivers and are slighly less reliable but if you think water cooling is necessary for the drives to survive past 6 months than you're mistaken.

Google released their HD data (and I'm sure you can guess I many HDs they used) about a year ago and they've said that while some manufactures are more reliable than others (they wouldn't say who), temperature seems to have to effect on HD life.

If you're really worried, pick up some HD cooling fans. They'll probably work just as well and only cost $10.
 
I agree with everything that has been said in this thread. I am very big into PC building, upgrading, tinkering, etc. Water-cooling is only for the extreme at heart. As the poster above me said, get some bay fans if you're really worried about your hard drives. That should be enough to bring the temps of your Raptors down.
 
I see I've gotten some rather passionate responses. Didn't realize water cooling was such an extreme thing, and I appreciate the feedback. It's a good thing I asked before dropping the extensive dough for something that's very unnecessary.
 
I asked this question a few months ago and pretty much agreed that you don't need to water cool unless your doing some seriously mad over clocking. Even the new dual/quad core chips allow you to safely step them up a bit without much heat increase.

Check out Tomshardware.com as they usually have guides to this stuff.
 
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