- Feb 2, 2005
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WATER COOLING 101
This is an introductory guide to water cooling for the enthusiast who just don’t want to screw with air cooling any longer
Table of Contents
I. Introduction
II. Basic Parts
1) CPU block
2) Pump
3) GPU block
4) Radiator/heater core
5) Tubing
6) Additives
7) Reservoir
8) Fans
9) Other parts
III. Other important information / Tips
IV. Conclusion
Section 1
The basic concept of water cooling is to find a medium that can handle and transport heat more efficiently than air. Water has a very good ability to retain heat, in the mean time stay in a liquid form. Meaning, as long as we can circulate cool water to the hot parts (CPU, gpu, and myself) we can cool it down more efficiently than air.
Section 2
Here are the basic parts needed for a water cooling system
1) CPU block
The CPU block is one of the most important part of the loop. This is the gateway where the water cools down the CPU. The basic concept of this “block” is a medium in which the water can run from one end to another taking the heat away from the CPU. Obviously the block goes on top of the CPU so that there is optimal heat transfer. This might sound like a simple idea, but the world of block design is crazy and very complicated. To uncomplicated things, there are usually two forms of CPU blocks.
Non-Impingent blocks: these blocks are less restrictive; most of these designs are simple. The water basically flows from one end of the block to another with the addition of some fins which cause turbulence (more water movement = more heat displacement). With the current onset of multi-core CPUs, the size of the hotspot on the IHS is much greater, this causes the Non-Impingent blocks to perform better under these conditions because they provide a great area of cooling. An example would be the Swiftech Apogee or Dtek Fusion.
Impingent Blocks: The impingent blocks should only be bought in pair with a very powerful pump. The basic concept of this block is to shoot the incoming stream of water into many small, powerful jets. These jets are shot at the base, which were drilled so that every jet meets a small pocket. These pockets are so thin; some of them are 1mm thick. This causes major turbulence and quick removal of heat from the CPU. These blocks are better paired with older single core processors in which the hot spot is smaller. Example: Swiftech Storm, Dtek Mp-05
2) Pump
The pump is again a very crucial factor in the setup loop. The pump obviously moves the water, but there are very different kinds of pumps. The two main categories are 12v pumps or AC pumps
12v pumps
These pumps are the ones that can be powered by a 12v power supply (aka your own). These pumps are small and fit in most cases. Delivering great performance and not eating up a lot of power, these pumps are definitely great contenders in the world of water cooling. Some of these pumps are
DD Laing D5
Danger Den DDC2
The DDC2, a newer revision with a 18w motor has proven to be one of the best pumps that watercooling has seen. It has a small footprint as well as high head pressure while producing less heat.
AC pumps
These pumps cannot be connected directly to your powersupply so you need to either remember to flick it on everytime you turn on your computer, or buy a relay switch. These pumps are mostly marine pumps that people found to have a good head pressure vs heat dump ratio. the Iwakis are popular amongst the extreme water cooling community. Older Eheim models were popular, but now outdated performance wise and should not be purchaced.
Examples
Iwaki MD-20rZ
Eheim 1048
3) GPU block
This block is optional, but I would recommend it if you want better overall performance, or you have one of those hot potatoes on your board. These blocks should be less restrictive then your CPU block.
Examples
Danger Den Maze 4
Swiftech MCW60
4) Chipset Block
With the new Core2s on the market, some northbridges do get very hot. Remember that the northbridge requires only a little bit of cooling to create a lot of OC headroom. Generally speaking, air cooling is sufficient, but if you watercool the northbridge then find a very unrestrictive block. Other than the northbridge, don't bother cooling any other chipset including the southbridge as it will not help your OC at all.
5) Other blocks
HDD blocks, RAM blocks, or MOFSET blocks are usually added for looks and not performance, cooling these devices do not give you higher OC.
Radiator/ Heater Core
This is the sweet spot of your system. All the heat that you have required from the loop has to be released here. There are couple options
Radiators – Watercooling companies now mostly offer two lines of radiators, one line optimized for high air flow and high noise, the other line, a more recent one is optimized for low air flow and low noise. As watercooling developed, people found that it was too loud to have 100+ cfm fans screaming all the time, so companies like Thermochill developed the PA series of radiators to give great performance with low air flow
High air flow radiators:
Black Ice Extreme series
Thermochill HE series
Low air flow radiators
Black Ice Pro series
Thermochill PA series
Swiftech MCQ series
Heater cores – these are the cheaper (but NOT less performance) option. You might need some moding skills here. Heater cores are designed for cars so that when hot water runs through these things, the fan blowing on them can transfer the heat to the passengers. These things work exactly the same way as the radiators, but a LOT cheaper.
Tubing
Tubing is a part of the loop most people over look. But this just may be the Achilles heal of your rig. The purpose of the tubing is to transfer the water from one location to another. Sounds simple huh? Well if you use regular plastic tubing, it’ll leak and deteriorate very fast. I would recommend Tygon Tubing. (These things will break down when you grandson dies). There are other options such as clearflex, primoflex, but just stay away from the very cheap and bad quality plastic tubing.
Additives
Even though the water you use for your loop is “distilled” water. There are still many minerals and junk in there that will eat your loop away. So you need to put additives in your loop. These additives usually serve these three purposes
1) Kill off algae
2) Reduce Corrosion
3) Reduce freezing point(for water chillers)
There are many options here, but I would recommend water wetter, zerex, or some of the fluids sold by Danger Den, or other cooling stores. There’s a more comprehensive article in ProCooling that deals with the chemical elements of the additives.
Reservoirs
There are usually two types of reservoirs, one is the typical reservoir, one is the T line
-Reservoirs:
Pros: Easy bleeding (getting rid of all the air bubbles in your loop)
(Usually) holds more water and creates a bigger buffer
More water near the pump increases performance
Cons: bulky at times, and takes up a good amount of space (5 ¼ inch drive)
-T lines
Pros: space saving
Cons: VERY long to bleed your system.
The selection of your reservoir or T line doesn’t really matter, make sure it is placed close and above the pump to let gravity feed the pump.
Fans
There are many choices of fans out there, but if you're using a high air flow radiator, make sure you get a fan with 100+ cfm. If you have a low air flow radiator, the radiator itself will not performance drastically better if you increase the air flow above 80 or 100 cfm. So, if you have a low air flow radiator, get fans that are quiet, push a decent amount of air and have good air pressure.
Other important information/Tips
1) If the radiator or heater core is too big, build a rad box that would house all of your components.
2) The best place to put your reservoir is at the highest point on the loop, but I like it next to my pump.
3) If you have a big enough case, go for the reservoir and save some of your precious time, bleeding with a T line is said to be 100x slower.
4) As a rule of thumb when buying pumps, head pressure is much more important information than gph, because all gph tells you is that when the pump is pumping with little or nor resistance, how much it will pump. But adding a couple blocks, more tubing and what not, some cheap pumps that have good gph ratings will dramatically under-perform.
5) You should not use an impingent block if you are not rating about 9 or 10 ft of head pressure for your pump.
6) Make sure you use a clamp of some sort to make sure the fittings don’t’ leak in your system.
7) Avoid 90 degree or any other tight turns in your loop
8) Double, or even triple your work and leak test for 24 hours before you put the loop in your rig, because one mistake can prove fatal for your computer.
One Lowe</font color=red>
WATER COOLING 101
This is an introductory guide to water cooling for the enthusiast who just don’t want to screw with air cooling any longer
Table of Contents
I. Introduction
II. Basic Parts
1) CPU block
2) Pump
3) GPU block
4) Radiator/heater core
5) Tubing
6) Additives
7) Reservoir
8) Fans
9) Other parts
III. Other important information / Tips
IV. Conclusion
Section 1
The basic concept of water cooling is to find a medium that can handle and transport heat more efficiently than air. Water has a very good ability to retain heat, in the mean time stay in a liquid form. Meaning, as long as we can circulate cool water to the hot parts (CPU, gpu, and myself) we can cool it down more efficiently than air.
Section 2
Here are the basic parts needed for a water cooling system
1) CPU block
The CPU block is one of the most important part of the loop. This is the gateway where the water cools down the CPU. The basic concept of this “block” is a medium in which the water can run from one end to another taking the heat away from the CPU. Obviously the block goes on top of the CPU so that there is optimal heat transfer. This might sound like a simple idea, but the world of block design is crazy and very complicated. To uncomplicated things, there are usually two forms of CPU blocks.
Non-Impingent blocks: these blocks are less restrictive; most of these designs are simple. The water basically flows from one end of the block to another with the addition of some fins which cause turbulence (more water movement = more heat displacement). With the current onset of multi-core CPUs, the size of the hotspot on the IHS is much greater, this causes the Non-Impingent blocks to perform better under these conditions because they provide a great area of cooling. An example would be the Swiftech Apogee or Dtek Fusion.
Impingent Blocks: The impingent blocks should only be bought in pair with a very powerful pump. The basic concept of this block is to shoot the incoming stream of water into many small, powerful jets. These jets are shot at the base, which were drilled so that every jet meets a small pocket. These pockets are so thin; some of them are 1mm thick. This causes major turbulence and quick removal of heat from the CPU. These blocks are better paired with older single core processors in which the hot spot is smaller. Example: Swiftech Storm, Dtek Mp-05
2) Pump
The pump is again a very crucial factor in the setup loop. The pump obviously moves the water, but there are very different kinds of pumps. The two main categories are 12v pumps or AC pumps
12v pumps
These pumps are the ones that can be powered by a 12v power supply (aka your own). These pumps are small and fit in most cases. Delivering great performance and not eating up a lot of power, these pumps are definitely great contenders in the world of water cooling. Some of these pumps are
DD Laing D5
Danger Den DDC2
The DDC2, a newer revision with a 18w motor has proven to be one of the best pumps that watercooling has seen. It has a small footprint as well as high head pressure while producing less heat.
AC pumps
These pumps cannot be connected directly to your powersupply so you need to either remember to flick it on everytime you turn on your computer, or buy a relay switch. These pumps are mostly marine pumps that people found to have a good head pressure vs heat dump ratio. the Iwakis are popular amongst the extreme water cooling community. Older Eheim models were popular, but now outdated performance wise and should not be purchaced.
Examples
Iwaki MD-20rZ
Eheim 1048
3) GPU block
This block is optional, but I would recommend it if you want better overall performance, or you have one of those hot potatoes on your board. These blocks should be less restrictive then your CPU block.
Examples
Danger Den Maze 4
Swiftech MCW60
4) Chipset Block
With the new Core2s on the market, some northbridges do get very hot. Remember that the northbridge requires only a little bit of cooling to create a lot of OC headroom. Generally speaking, air cooling is sufficient, but if you watercool the northbridge then find a very unrestrictive block. Other than the northbridge, don't bother cooling any other chipset including the southbridge as it will not help your OC at all.
5) Other blocks
HDD blocks, RAM blocks, or MOFSET blocks are usually added for looks and not performance, cooling these devices do not give you higher OC.
Radiator/ Heater Core
This is the sweet spot of your system. All the heat that you have required from the loop has to be released here. There are couple options
Radiators – Watercooling companies now mostly offer two lines of radiators, one line optimized for high air flow and high noise, the other line, a more recent one is optimized for low air flow and low noise. As watercooling developed, people found that it was too loud to have 100+ cfm fans screaming all the time, so companies like Thermochill developed the PA series of radiators to give great performance with low air flow
High air flow radiators:
Black Ice Extreme series
Thermochill HE series
Low air flow radiators
Black Ice Pro series
Thermochill PA series
Swiftech MCQ series
Heater cores – these are the cheaper (but NOT less performance) option. You might need some moding skills here. Heater cores are designed for cars so that when hot water runs through these things, the fan blowing on them can transfer the heat to the passengers. These things work exactly the same way as the radiators, but a LOT cheaper.
Tubing
Tubing is a part of the loop most people over look. But this just may be the Achilles heal of your rig. The purpose of the tubing is to transfer the water from one location to another. Sounds simple huh? Well if you use regular plastic tubing, it’ll leak and deteriorate very fast. I would recommend Tygon Tubing. (These things will break down when you grandson dies). There are other options such as clearflex, primoflex, but just stay away from the very cheap and bad quality plastic tubing.
Additives
Even though the water you use for your loop is “distilled” water. There are still many minerals and junk in there that will eat your loop away. So you need to put additives in your loop. These additives usually serve these three purposes
1) Kill off algae
2) Reduce Corrosion
3) Reduce freezing point(for water chillers)
There are many options here, but I would recommend water wetter, zerex, or some of the fluids sold by Danger Den, or other cooling stores. There’s a more comprehensive article in ProCooling that deals with the chemical elements of the additives.
Reservoirs
There are usually two types of reservoirs, one is the typical reservoir, one is the T line
-Reservoirs:
Pros: Easy bleeding (getting rid of all the air bubbles in your loop)
(Usually) holds more water and creates a bigger buffer
More water near the pump increases performance
Cons: bulky at times, and takes up a good amount of space (5 ¼ inch drive)
-T lines
Pros: space saving
Cons: VERY long to bleed your system.
The selection of your reservoir or T line doesn’t really matter, make sure it is placed close and above the pump to let gravity feed the pump.
Fans
There are many choices of fans out there, but if you're using a high air flow radiator, make sure you get a fan with 100+ cfm. If you have a low air flow radiator, the radiator itself will not performance drastically better if you increase the air flow above 80 or 100 cfm. So, if you have a low air flow radiator, get fans that are quiet, push a decent amount of air and have good air pressure.
Other important information/Tips
1) If the radiator or heater core is too big, build a rad box that would house all of your components.
2) The best place to put your reservoir is at the highest point on the loop, but I like it next to my pump.
3) If you have a big enough case, go for the reservoir and save some of your precious time, bleeding with a T line is said to be 100x slower.
4) As a rule of thumb when buying pumps, head pressure is much more important information than gph, because all gph tells you is that when the pump is pumping with little or nor resistance, how much it will pump. But adding a couple blocks, more tubing and what not, some cheap pumps that have good gph ratings will dramatically under-perform.
5) You should not use an impingent block if you are not rating about 9 or 10 ft of head pressure for your pump.
6) Make sure you use a clamp of some sort to make sure the fittings don’t’ leak in your system.
7) Avoid 90 degree or any other tight turns in your loop
8) Double, or even triple your work and leak test for 24 hours before you put the loop in your rig, because one mistake can prove fatal for your computer.
One Lowe</font color=red>
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