What advantages would water cooling really provide me?

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makari

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I've posted a couple times about looking into water cooling, got some good suggestions, and have been reading through all the manuals and guides I could find... it's all very interesting, but some of it got me thinking...

1. I do minor overclocks, but nothing extreme, no competitive overclocks or anything

2. I live in south central florida, high humidity and fairly high ambient temps (house is usually 74-75F), I know these things affect cooling, but have yet to see anything regarding how much and whether I should realistically lean towards water cool vs air cooled because of my location.

3. I keep reading reviews like http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/cpu-cooler-charts-2008,1779-20.html and find myself questioning whether or not water cooling will really have a significant benefit for me.

4. I planned on water cooling my current system first (because realistically I plan on buying a new one within a year or so anyways), so with that in mind, I figured I'd throw out some specs on what my planned new system will be so you have an idea of what my end goal of cooling is.

wanting to get a gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R revision 2, running an intel i7-950 w/ 8Gb RAM and a radeon 5970, with everything slightly overclocked, but nothing serious... now I will admit that fan noise has been an issue on my current system, but honestly I havent tried to fix this with any new air cooling solutions and I'm sure I could easily make this run quietly on air...

so... with all this in mind what are the realistic benefits (if any) of water cooling over air are for me... or if you feel like arguing the other side, what benefits (if any) does air cooling hold for me?

edit: just read through this article http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/cpu-cooler-charts-2008-part-2,1782-13.html which bodes well for water cooling in general, but again, with my situation, my location, and my planned hardware, would really appreciate input.
 
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makari

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its a 1366 i7 prolly 950

ok that still leaves me with my core question tho

all the good blocks for i7's seem to be low flow and I thought you shouldnt have multiple blocks on a loop with a low flow...

so would putting the i7 and the 5970 on the same loop be a problem?

what say you waffle? is your i7 block low flow?
 
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ortoklaz

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there is a lot you could do for good flow rate,head pressure.. basically-avoid restrictions (res,90deg. fittings,high restriction blocks,long tubing, unnecessary bands,etc) ;
http://www.overclockers.com/water-cooling-reservoir-theory-and-construction-guide/
dual or single loop it's your call,bottom line is if you plan super oc your card or crossfire+ over-volt,yes dual loop is the way to go here is something that should help;
http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=657523
 
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rubix_1011

rubix_1011

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Apparently, I missed a significant portion of this thread...good lord you guys...

1.) You won't get sub-ambient temps from watercooling. It's physically impossible when you don't have a way to cool the water below ambient temp such as in a WC loop.

2.) 1 pump per loop. If you don't have the flow to use a single loop, either get a different pump, or run 2 loops.

I run an MCP655, D-tek CPU block, two Swiftech MCW60 GPU blocks, two Swiftech MCR320 radiators and dual custom made reservoirs.

It really makes very little difference where each component is in the loop...you will see between 5-8C difference at any single point in the entire loop...if you are even able to determine that. And if so, your GPUs will still be running 30-40C cooler at load, regardless.
 
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makari

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I'm a little less worried about cost than I am about performance.

so if dual loop is the way to go for i7 + 5970 then so be it, my biggest concern with that actually is space and placement... I plan on using a coolermaster haf 932, which has an awesome top mount internal area for a 120.3 rad,

and back to a question I had before but never got answered I think... I'd imagine it's a bad idea but I figured I'd ask, would it get too hot or be a bad idea to "stack" rads... have the 120.3 internally mounted in the haf, and then mount another 120.3 externally over it?
 
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makari

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that is indeed pretty nifty,

do you use something like that? I'm curious how sturdy it is if i were to try to set a 75lb system on top of it I wouldn't want it wobbly
 
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Shadow703793

Shadow703793

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I'm curious how sturdy it is if i were to try to set a 75lb system on top of it I wouldn't want it wobbly
Click to expand...
I haven't used it but it is ~1/8" on the main supports. It's not some cheap Aluminium. If you DO like to mod, you can get some 80/20 and the needed brackets and make your self one.
See: http://www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&marketplaceID=ATVPDKIKX0DER&me=A1H481IPHNMK5K
With everything, it should only cost you about $50-80 to make a box like that MM Pedestal.
 
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rofl_my_waffle

rofl_my_waffle

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My i7 block is the Switchtech XT. I belive it is high flow.
The 5970 is using the EK full cover block.
MCP 655 pump and 3x120 Feser Xchanger with 3x Gentle Typhoons.

It really depends on what you want for an overclock. If a 4Ghz i7 is your wish then a single rad is enough.

I can overclock my i7 to 4.2Ghz @1.33v if I wanted but im happy with 4Ghz @ 1.26v. I didn't think the extra voltage was worth it. I like my computer cool (not the core temp but my overall room)

Crazy overclocks can get really hot in the summer. Im on the second floor of the house so AC doesn't blast up here as good. With high overclocks, the computer produces more heat than the AC can cool and it gets a sweaty 30C ambient. A couple months ago I was doing 3.6Ghz at 1.12v
 
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4Ryan6

4Ryan6

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Then there is absolutely no reason for you to water cool your system, with the high performance air coolers available today they will even be overkill for you.

Water Cooling is great as long as everything that's supposed to be running keeps running, like your water pump that circulates the water.

Even if both my fans die on my Cooler Master Hyper 212+, there's enough airflow through my case that the CPU will not burn up because of the heat pipe design, now how do I know that's the truth, because I just turned my fans off to type this to you.

What happens when your water pump fails, if you don't have a backup, you're dead in the water, and even if you have a backup how much time does changing it out take, have you investigated that?

I can change both my 120mm fans on my Cooler Master Hyper 212+ in about 15 minutes by the way the cooling fans are still turned off while I'm typing this the temp has only increased by 2c so far, that is even surprising me!

What turned me against water cooling, was 3 pump failures, and a leak, the leak got into my PCI-E slot and the coolant additive corroded the tiny contact fingers inside the slot, so just in case keep some CRC QD Electronic Cleaner on hand, you can get it from just about any Auto Parts store, it will clean that type corrosion off to factory shine, and its the only thing probably on this planet that can get down in that slot without damaging it.

Plus plan for pretty much an entire days work installing a seriously good water cooling system, well that's my 2 cents, and with my cooling fans off and only the case airflow I'm at 34c.

By the way my machine is overclocked to 4.2G, an AMD 965 BE CPU, ambient room temperature is 23c, well maybe this has given you something else to think about, I just turned my CPU cooling fans back on, try that with a dead water pump, have a good one! Ryan
 
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rubix_1011

rubix_1011

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^I'd completely agree to the majority of your post. It isn't for most people, yet there seems to be this ambiguous market for 'beginner's watercooling kits' and 'self-contained' WC (see: H50/70).

What kind of pumps were you using that failed? I haven't had a pump fail in almost 8 years of watercooling, 5+ with the same MCP655. I'm not saying it doesn't happen, because it does...and with respectable components in some cases...if it works now, it can always stop later.

For someone not overclocking, not willing to maintain the hardware and someone not really a 'do-it-yourselfer', watercooling isn't something I'd recommend. If you aren't willing to accept the risks in addition to the rewards, its easier to stay safe and go with a good air cooler.

Good points, just curious on the pump failures...that really sucks.
 
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4Ryan6

4Ryan6

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They were Asetek pumps and at the time supposedly the best of the best, the entire system was around the $450.00 mark, triple radiator 6 120mm cooling fans, it was a sweet setup while it was working, if you guys haven't had any pump failures at all, I'd say you're extremely fortunate.

But nothing lasts forever.
 
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4Ryan6

4Ryan6

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It was about 6+ yrs ago maybe, I'm sure products have seriously improved in that time period, but for me the past damage is done, so you guys water cool on, I'm getting very satisfactory results on air cooling.

And as far as the OP is concerned if he isn't going to overclock anymore than he has said he was, why should he even be considering water cooling?
 
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makari

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I'm considering it partially out of interest and curiousity...

and partially because I hate hearing my fans wind up when a game kicks on a cinematic or when i get a ton of effects happen on screen... the quiet factor is pretty big for me...

I am reading better and better things about some interesting air cooling options I didn't know were available, I may try them first, still tossing around ideas..


btw... air cooling wise what all can be done to assist in cooling the gpu?
 
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