Water cooling vs. Liquid Cooling - Loops vs. AIO's - Discuss!!

[rubix_1011]

I'd like to gauge the overall forum consensus and impressions around what you all think about when I say the term 'Watercooling'. Please vote and use the thread itself for discussions.

Thanks!

 

[C12Friedman]

"Other" since I consider both to be "water cooling", while I doubt the ability of AIO's to perform as well as a custom loop, I still prefer their capabilities to air. Plus, it was an AIO that gave me the confidence to go to custom loops

 

[rubix_1011]

No other votes? Interesting.

 

[EK_Derick]

Full loop 😉

 

[rubix_1011]

I concur. BTW, liking the EK nickel block I have running on my GTX 770.

 

[Ellis_D]

using a radiator is nothing more than fancy air-cooling. Now this is REAL liquid cooling.

 

[rubix_1011]

That's oil submersion (based on the embedded image URL) and it's not nearly as beneficial as you'd think. Oil has a lower specific heat and lower thermal conductivity than water and isn't as effective at cooling. This is why your car is watercooled and not oil cooled.

Also, how do you propose to get rid of any heat the oil is currently absorbing in that system?

Here is a snippet of the watercooling sticky:

Generalized Watercooling Theory


Watercooling is based on the set of principles that water is proportionally better than air to conduct heat away from a heat source based on conduction, or the direct contact of a heated source and a cooling source to transfer heat energy rather than convection, otherwise known as thermal conductivity. The ability of a substance to directly absorb heat energy is considered it's specific heat; in this case, the ability of heat directly absorbed by water and the required energy to raise overall temperatures by 1°C. While convection takes place with normal air coolers to provide the ability for air to absorb dissipated heat from the cooler, watercooling also employs this concept to some degree. Once the water absorbs heat energy via conduction from the blocks, it then transfers that through tubing to radiators cooled by fans. The difference is that a larger amount of heat energy is able to be absorbed and moved at any given time with a water loop due to pump flow forcing turbulent water through the radiator tubes while the radiator provides greater surface area to conduct heat energy from the water to the radiator and then into the air. The process is more efficient at transferring, displacing and dissipating excess heat energy based on the delta-T of the loop design. In short, the ability of water's excellent specific heat allow it to absorb heat much more quickly and efficiently from a source of heat (as well as also dissipating that heat back to a cooling source for dissipation) so it can also transport far more of that absorbed energy due to the thermal capacity of it as a medium away from heat sources to be expelled elsewhere.


Thermal Conductivity of Common Cooling Mediums (@~20°C; W/mK)
Higher values are better

Water...............................................0.610
Mineral Oil........................................0.162
Alcohol(Ethyl, Isopropyl, Buytl)...........0.161-0.200
Ethylene Glycol..................................0.258
Air...................................................0.0257


Specific Heat of Common Cooling Mediums (@~20°C;kJ/kg.K)
Higher values are better

Water...............................................4.19
Air...................................................1.00
Mineral Oil........................................1.67
Copper.............................................0.093
Ethylene glycol..................................2.36


There are a lot of discussions around mineral oil submersion cooling, and while this is a watercooling forum, it often gets brought up as a topic. That being said, here is a link to a maintained index of mineral oil discussions that either have originated in this forum or referenced as one of those discussions.

Mineral Oil Q/A Links

 

[4Ryan6]

I have to choose "Other" when I think of water cooling, as my water cooling is not your everyday setup! My initial water cooling goals were totally for CPU overclocking and I tried many combinations beginning with traditional heat pipe air coolers to advanced air cooling using radiators and coolant replacing the heat pipe cooling function.

I have always been after the highest possible stable CPU overclock I could possibly run but when Intels Sandy Bridge CPUs arrived on the scene, they proved to be quite hot when 5ghz was approached, and even though many reached 5ghz on air cooling the long term temperatures for a stable system were higher than I was comfortable with, using the heat pipe air cooling, so the quest began for cooler CPU load temperatures.

My first steps back into water cooling were very disappointing as the radiators I was using just did not give me what I was looking for going to water cooling, but at the time money to invest into water cooling was seriously limited, and I did what a lot of us do and started with a kit, which was my first lesson in what not to do!

Water cooling kits are enticing because they are cheaper, and fall into the category of water cooling for dummies, it's simple to assemble if you have any mechanical skills at all, but they are cheaper for a good reason, they do not contain the highest company brand performance line of their products!

Most kits have a couple of quality high cooling performance kit elements mixed with not so much! (But most do not discover this until after the fact, as every part of my original kit investment has either failed, been given away, or re-purposed.)

Is that the company's fault that sold the kit? No absolutely not! They're in it to make money simple as that, it was not their fault I chose what I did!

It was my fault, I bought it, another lesson learned the hard way, and this is a perfect place to insert a link to "Tom's Hardware Watercooling Sticky v2.0".
Thanks to rubix_1011 for all his collaborative work he invested in the sticky, and to all those that helped him in his earlier endeavors!

Learn first, and then do!

My water cooling today is a result of many frustrating, failed, and try again, and again, and again, which eventually led to successful experiments trying to find a cooling solution for a 5ghz overclocked CPU, yielding very acceptable load stress temperatures, and a solid 24/7 stable daily overclock well within comfortable longevity temperatures.

The CPU cooling journey has gone from water cooling with ice in a cooler, to the active peltier chilled water cooling I am running today.

I do use radiator water cooling to cool my graphics, yielding game load temperatures approximately half of what the stock air coolers do, and that has worked out very well!

My 5ghz CPU overclock goal was met with every Sandy Bridge CPU I owned, 2500K, 2550K, and 2700K, and has continued to cool my Ivy Bridge 3770K at 5ghz 24/7 overclock as well, and the 3770K has not been delidded!

So when I think of 'Watercooling', it is all about overclocking cooling performance!