Worth buying a water cooling system?

[X-Ifist]

Im using atm 2 8800 gts 512mb(not in sli) and they are getting overheated after 3-4 houers dualboxing 3 chars.

Is it worth buying a good water cooling system or just get a new case whit some extra fans?

[xss]

I would say more fans, h20 cooling is great if you are overclocking ect...

but if your not doing any of that and just want to keep the system cool go with a box with more fans.

[cdcd]

dunno I think a good box with many fans is just as good as water.

plus a few downfalls with water is

1. have to change the water and flush system every year
2. a leak can fry your computer and it wont take much
3. makes the pc that much harder to work on

but a good h2o system will in the end keep the parts cooler

[Nitro]

Be sure to double check the fans in your current box.

Do they all run strong? (all fans are not created equal, some have a much higher CFM than others, be careful you dont buy one that is too loud :P )

Do they have a common flow, moving air into one part of thebox, through it, then out the other side?

Do you have a fan that directly crosses your GPU, CPU and Harddrives?



I have seen aot of builds where just one fan in the wrong direction made the box 10+ degrees hotter.

[X-Ifist]

The extra time i have to spend on it wont be a problem, and if im lucky im will get some de ionzided warm leading water from work so leaks wont be a problem.

But will it be worth using 300 bucks to remove the noise?

And how mutch water would it take to fill it up?

[-silencer-]

I would say more fans, h20 cooling is great if you are overclocking ect...

but if your not doing any of that and just want to keep the system cool go with a box with more fans.
Water has more advantages than just better overclocking.. you can set up an extremely efficient watercooling system that is dead silent, yet provides much better temperatures to your components. Checking for leaks is a good idea, but deionized water is $0.99/gallon at the grocery store and when mixed 50/50 with car coolant, is non-conductive, non-corrosive, and anti-algae. It's a little more maintenance than air cooling, but silence is golden.

[Coltimar]

Water + Electronics = the release of the magic smoke. If you are any sort of tech you know that EVERYTHING runs on magic smoke.

[Mukade]

I'm using a Zalman Reserator-XT with the pump upgraded to a Laing DDC Ultra 18w, along with Aqua-Computer blocks on my 2x 8800 GTS 512s, an Apogee GTX waterblock on the Q9550 CPU, and I even had water cooled RAM until I had to use all 4 slots to get to 8GB (funny thing is, I'm not overclocking anything, might when things get a bit older/are worth a bit less). Being in Europe makes water cooling a lot easier, because there are a lot of purpose made components available from Germany (GFX blocks and coolants especially).

If you go liquid cooling don't use water, get a proper coolant made for watercooling computers. You have to be absolutely sure your coolant can't conduct electricity (at least enough that it won't affect PC components). Car coolants have additives to reduce corrosion where several metals are used in the coolant loop, which goes some way to reducing conductivity, but they don't go as far as purpose made PC coolants. Your water may start off deionised, but when it's spending months in contact with copper/aluminium waterblocks, copper radiators, and brass fittings, it picks up a lot of metal ions and becomes more conductive over time. After several months of use I had a leak that resulted in my GFX card being covered in fluorescent pink coolant for several days, whilst running (the window on my comp is on the far side of it, so I've no idea how long for). Guess what, it still works. There's solid gunk that collects in the bottom of my reservoir, and that is the fancy stuff in the coolant binding onto the metal ions so they can't conduct.

It sure is a royal pain upgrading or adding components to something with a coolant loop in it. It took me at leat 3 hours to add a second graphics card, and probably the same when I added the RAM. The CPU at least is easier, as I don't have to drain the loop because it just unscrews and is on enough hose to swing out of the way.


If you decide to stick with fans, make sure the case has positive pressure (more fans blowing air into it, than sucking air out). Because the fans on graphics cards have to fit into the small space of card slots, they are very limited in their ability to shift air, or work against a pressure gradient. If you have a lot of fans sucking air out of the case, then chances are the airflow throught the GFX card's coolers will be reduced. Positive pressure on the other hand increases flow through the GFX cards.

[Bovidae]

^THIS^

is what makes these forums awesome.

Thank you.

[-silencer-]

Mukade -

Got any links on the "PC Specific Cooling" ? Pictures of your rig?

Your "leak without damage" story makes me want to watercool my 5+ PCs. :D
Check the watercooling components I've got in my system build thread in my sig. Much of it is German. :)
Feser 480 radiator = German
Feser coolant = German
EK Waterblocks = German
I'll be ordering EK full-cover waterblocks when DX11 videocards are out.. more from Germany. Watercooling has definitely been more popular in Europe than the USA for years..

[Shaitan256]

Watercooling has definitely been more popular in Europe than the USA for years..

Maybe that's because americans have usually a weak PC and a Next(ok nothing next about it) Gen Console (Don't need to upgrade these) Just heard it in the NoobToob Gaming Podcast from NoobToob.Com , don't know if it's true.

What components do you exactly need for those, and how much $ should it cost at least to be silent, and what to be effective? Just curious^^

[-silencer-]

Watercooling has definitely been more popular in Europe than the USA for years..

Maybe that's because americans have usually a weak PC and a Next(ok nothing next about it) Gen Console (Don't need to upgrade these) Just heard it in the NoobToob Gaming Podcast from NoobToob.Com , don't know if it's true.

What components do you exactly need for those, and how much $ should it cost at least to be silent, and what to be effective? Just curious^^
At a minimum, a cpu waterblock, gpu waterblock, water pump, radiator, tubing, 120mm fans, and a fan controller. You don't *need* a reservoir, but it makes it much easier. The key for silence and good cooling is the largest radiator you can buy (either afford or fit inside/outside your case), and some anti-vibration pad/gel for your water pump. There are various price levels for all of these components.. and the radiator (4x120mm) will likely be the most expensive. The Feser TFC X-changer 480 (4x120mm fans) that I bought was $169 without the fans at petrastechshop.com. Smaller radiators will require higher rpm fans to do the same amount of cooling, and this is where noise comes in. As for choosing a radiator model, you want lower fins per inch, so lower rpm fans perform well - this is what makes the Feser TFC radiators work so well with lower rpm fans. The 2x120mm Feser is around $100-110.

[moosejaw]

There are some really nice oil/tranny coolers for race use that have threaded fittings and mounts for 12vdc fans. Companies like spearco and griffin make all shapes and sizes for crazy water cooling desires.

I swear some of these water cooling radiators I see are just overpriced heater cores. :(