Probably a repeat q, but why water-cool?

[my-republic]

What is it with water-cooling? Why bother with all of that stuff? My buddy told me that he was going to take the plunge (i guess that is a pun) and go with water cooling his box. I think i insulted him by accident. I started asking him about the importance of water cooling and his first response was stability and overclocking. I told him my box was thermally stable (w/ stock heatsink) and overclocking has a marginal savings at best when compared to just buying a faster processor. And the marginal savings are negated by the cost of the water-cooling stuff. Anyway, i am really hoping to hit a nerve with anyone out there who may have a different perspective and can educate me on the reason (r-e-a-s-o-n) for water-cooling.

[the xenon]

gives u something todo as well as braging rights and makes ur box insides look cool...:r

[my-republic]

Is that it? Seriously, l hope this is a good forum for my question. Why spend all that money on a water-cooling system when it seems like most of the companies do not seem very sure of their products. I contacted one company (i don't want to bash anyone here so i will refrain from naming them specifically), and they told me that performance was unique to what you had and how it was setup. So, this begs the question... what are you selling? By that i mean, if you are selling it for looks and conversation-starters, why then advertise some level of performance that does not apply (btw, this company has in my opinion the ugliest device)? This is a wierd phenomenon. But, i guess most new ventures start that way. Someone looking at an invention, saying to themselves, "why would you do that." Anyway, i am simply trying to understand reasoning behind spending money to complicate a simple solution. I hope someone can answer my question before i get too bored with trying to understand this. Thanks in advance.)-|

[cuelebre]

I'm gonna try to help you but don't expect an answer to your question.
Why would you pay $400 for a video card????
Why woud you pay $ 200 for a case with no PS???

I guess you get it or not....and it seams you don't.

[The Lodge]

Money to burn? :confused:

[my-republic]

Originally posted by cuelebre
I'm gonna try to help you but don't expect an answer to your question.
Why would you pay $400 for a video card????
Why woud you pay $ 200 for a case with no PS???

I guess you get it or not....and it seams you don't.


So what you are inferring is that there are those that will pay big $$ for a maginal (if any) performance gain (overclocking?) or stability improvement (temperature stability?). What is the difference between a $400 video card and a $200 video card? If you game, maybe you see a frame rate increase. But how much of an increase? It varies i am sure. This could go around in circles. Maybe i should try a poll.

[Midknyte]

water is a much better conductor of heat than air. typically, water cooled systems are quieter than ones with air cooling, since it takes more fans to equal the cooling power of water.

[cuelebre]

Originally posted by my-republic
So what you are inferring is that there are those that will pay big $$ for a maginal (if any) performance gain (overclocking?) or stability improvement (temperature stability?). What is the difference between a $400 video card and a $200 video card? If you game, maybe you see a frame rate increase. But how much of an increase? It varies i am sure. This could go around in circles. Maybe i should try a poll.


Every system is diferent and not all users needs o preferences are the same, some may think it's needed and others may want it.

That's for the user to decide, not for anyone to judge.

[DozerLYP]

water is heat conducor 10x more then air. my AMD 64 FX51 is between 94f and 99f in a room that is verry hot due to 4 System is running in there with big windows facing south, and i live in south Florida. i don't have a termomater in the room, but when i open the door in the after noon, i pretty sure it is hotter in the room then my CPU is...

[The Lodge]

With a good water cooling kit you can give your chip much more voltage and be in a safe temperature range. More volts equal more MHz up to a certain point. Some times a setup can handle a certain oc, but it's the temps that are causing the instability problems. Chips may run at high temps but not be stable. I've read of people having stable systems, but as soon as it hit x degrees it craped out. Introduce a good water cooling kit and you may solve your problem.

[Vampiel]

The main reason's for watercooling is so you can overclock it more, and it's quiter, while still being cool, but at a price.

[Happy Joe]

A couple of years ago (before we had good heatsinks) water was the preferred metnod of cooling for extreme overclockers (this is where its reputation came from).
Today a good watercooling system (there are a few bummers out there) can give slightly better cooling. Most systems only give equivalent cooling with less noise (some don't even keep up with air cooling). If you are going to run peltiers (solid state refrigeration) you need a truly excellent watercooling setup to get rid of the high heat levels (air just won't do it).
I have run both at different times and, for me (at the moderate overclocks that I run) air is less hassel.
The "look at me" glow-in-the-dark wizzbang crowd do it for the looks. A few people do it for performance. Some people just do it to have it (whether it works or not).
Enjoy!

[my-republic]

Originally posted by Happy Joe
...The "look at me" glow-in-the-dark wizzbang crowd do it for the looks. A few people do it for performance. Some people just do it to have it (whether it works or not).
Enjoy!

I suppose that is the basis for this market. The "hey look at this" mentality. I have been looking at the manufacturers of these water-blocks and there is some wierd **** out there! I have seen the actual part you mount onto the processor up as high as $300 made from silver and even one that is gold plated!!! Gold plated??!! It seems that this market is fairly large judging by the number of different manufacturers out there. They all have wierd names too. I put a link below for that gold plated deal. People really spend a lot of money to get into this stuff. Later.

link to gruntville.com (http://www.gruntville.com/kingofthehill.php) :rolleyes:

[SLX]

I have a watercooling system, it was alot of trouble to build and cost me a bit more than I desired. However I built it out of parts that I purchased at a local hardware store, (execpt water blocks), and it runs and looks great. Yes I could have went and bought another processor that was faster but as a hobby I enjoyed putting it together; it kind of let me use my artistic abillity.

[leprechaun_40]

I'm not into O/Cing, but I'd like to try it because it's quieter and water can carry much more heat than air. The cooler I can run my machine even at stock clocking the better it'll run and the longer and more stable it'll be.

[my-republic]

Originally posted by leprechaun_40
I'm not into O/Cing, but I'd like to try it because it's quieter and water can carry much more heat than air. The cooler I can run my machine even at stock clocking the better it'll run and the longer and more stable it'll be.

I'm curious... what would you choose and spend for such a system?

[leprechaun_40]

Considering I just spent aroun $1500 for a new system another 3-4 hundred ( quite possibly less) wouldn'be be unreasonable. I think by doing it myself I'd save a large portion of that cash though. The water blocks are readily available and a reasonably sized heater core even new isn't very much.

[Midknyte]

Remember that you need to maintain a water cooled system. You can't just build it and forget it. You need to keep the water/coolant filled to the proper amount. you should also do periodic purges of the entire system. If you are lazy like me, that's one advantage of air cooling over water.

Silver is a better thermal conductor than copper, but gold is worse than copper.

[leprechaun_40]

That's true, you have to keep up with a bit more maintainance however, done properly you have to clean out the dust from fans and everything else with air cooling, so there, I'd say it's a toss up.;)

I'd probably use brass blocks as they are less prone to corrosion than aluminum and conduct heat well. The heater core would be brass if available. If you design the system properly, draining and filling would be easy. But there again you have to build it right to begin with.:t

[Tweb]

Another good thing 'bout water cooling vs air is the heat is not recirculated in the case, lowering case temps.

[Magua]

Unless your friend is doing it primarily for the noise, make sure he gets a quality water cooling setup. Cheaper water cooling systems are on par with your standard air cooled system. Better ones, however, can significantly improve your cooling capabilities, and therefor your overclocking ability.