I want to water cool but.........

I need help to justify it. The biggest problem I see is that alot of people that have water cooling setups are running the same, if not alittle higher than my current temps.( in sig) I know some people are running cooler temps, but many are running a signifacant amount lower than my current temps for me to justify spending $100+ on a WC setup?

If I go water cooling I plan to get quality part to achieve the lowest temps possible. And noise isnt a issue either, I just want the coolest temps I can get without going too extreme. (I have no problem putting a Tornado on the Radiator if it make a big enough difference)


Iwould appreciate any opinions. And yes, Ive read the stickies and done research on this.

Get a water chillier and you should see close to 5c-10c temp's instead of just water.

If you go very hardcore and set up an excellent system you can be well under 100 dollars for a DIY, as well as the top performance you see guys having on the forum here. You can also build one through a mini fridge (a legal one for America btw with just two holes cut in the side ) and have extremely cool temps. Check out the water cooling guides on the main site and think of about how you would like to approch the situation and choose what is best for you. The thing about water cooling is the temperatures and boost you will normally experience at full loads. You won't be dissapointed if you work hard and set up the perfect setup for you that is made to perform. Good luck bro.

If your refering to a phase change setup, then thats alittle more than I want to spend at this time. As far as a TEC goes, is it worth going the extra step and spending the approx.$50 more to go with a watercooled TEC setup? I cant drop massive amounts of $$$ on this at one time, so I figure if I went with a water setup and wasnt happy with the results I would purchase the TEC unit at a later time.

I notice alot of views and few responses so let me say that I am all for watercooling, its just that I havent really been able to find answers to these question anywhere. I have ALOT of other possibly called noob questions that I havent seen asked or answered aswell. I just dont want to flood everyone with too much crap at once.



Imacrzyprsn, I know its possible to do it for under $100, But looks are important to me since I have a big plexi window in the side of my case. Gonna have to pay more for the glamour.

Pyros,

those who reach super low CPU temps@ high clocks requires waterchilling, like mentioned by the members above.

Your major consideration is going to be the condensation. When the cpus stay in the teens and twenties@ high clocks, the block is going to get icy cold and generate condensation all over the waterchilling system(hoses, blocks, any metal connects) and the water(from condensation) can get on to your motherboard, CPU packaging(both top and bottom surface), cpu pin holes on the socket, around the socket, mounting holes around the socket, and the rest of the circuits on the board. You'll have to take all this in mind before you set it up otherwise your system will be taking a good shower and result in caos.

Look for some sites that offer instructions on how to preparing for insulation setup. This is gonna take more work and time than doing anything else with your system. The more you parpare the insulation setup, the safer your system will be.


The lowest I've gotten my deep freezer while running my system was -33.5C water temp, fed my video card GF3 ti200 at 300mhz core at no volt mod. The entire freakin back of my card was starting to freeze even..

usualy the biggest justification for water cooling isnt the superior haet transfer ( water cooling does have a igher top end than air ) but the lack of a jet engine taking off in your room , so if you dont mind noise then there isnt as much justification and you could probly save yourself the cash . ( though once you go h20 you never go back)

keep in mind that in 10 years there will be no such thing as air coolling if we dont change our materials from ceramic to something better.

With noise not being an issue, straight water cooling may not be for you: while there ARE gains to be made, as you say the cost may not be worth it for just one or two degrees.

A question though: what ambient temps are you running in to get your load temp? (I pay no attention to idle temps, BTW- my rigs are never idle)
At a room temp of 30c I get 100% load temp of 38c average with an XP1600@1915 with nearly silent water cooling.

In any case, while straight water may not be for you more extreme methods could be!
Water chillers, Peltiers and phase change all can get your cpu temp lower than ambient; considerably lower in some cases!

Thanks for the good advice rogerdugans. You made a excellent point. I have my case sitting level with and a foot away from a 12,400btu window unit. Myambient temps right out side my case stay about 75f and my case temps stay about 81f, so Im sure my temps with a good WC setup should be real good.

I decided to build me a external setup. Think Im gonna buy the setup TC has in the classifieds. I think this will be a good start. Gonna set the radiator up in front of the window unit.

Hey, that ac might explain a few things!!


That setup TC has is excellent man: my first water cooled rig was the same kit except an Eheim 1048 instead of the new pump: did an excellent job, and I still have all the bits and pieces.
The block JUST got retired recently but has been in constant use for about two years.

That setup should do quite well and can be converted to Peltiers in the future.

" Hey, that ac might explain a few things!! "

gotta keep it cool by any means necessarry!

Yea, I was already looking at buying this block before he posted it because of the quality and the ability to use Peltiers.

Pyros said:

Gonna set the radiator up in front of the window unit.

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I have my ProCore sitting in front of a 5000btu window unit. Load w/ F@H stay around 30c, idle can get pretty cold 18c, cold enough to get my bayres sweating. I move the rad to the side of the A/C when I go to work in case I dont get a W/U from Stanford. I didnt insulate, and cant afford the condensation.

I'm real happy with my temps, just need to be carefull This is my first W/C setup btw, almost a week now.

Maze4
Ehiem1250
Dtek ProCore 1x120mm pulling
Bayres
all 1/2"

P4 2.4b @3.3 1.575v
SinXP1394

Your temps are pretty sick. IMO I don't know if you'd see any improvements or temp drops. The only thing beneficial would be the lack of the sound of a hairdryer inside your case

Your temps are incredible-literally. They are too low to even be logical. In reality, you'd be loading in the high 50's for sure, but motherboard readings are so far off, they're not even worth bothering with. Yes, you do have very low ambient temps, but core temps vary directly with them, and nothing more. If an A/C cools your room by 5°C, it cools your core by 5°C. You simply cannot compare your temps with others. My temps are spectacular-supposedly-and this is why I don't bother with them. The system in my sig, running at 1.95v has a load temperature of 39°C. There is no way on earth that I'd buy that. At the speeds you're at, it has a load in the low 30's. If you want temp decreases, there you go. Don't base your overclocking on temps at all. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised at all if you got a watercooling and had your reported temps increase. In reality, of course, this would not be true, but your motherboard would be reporting it, mainly because the insocket thermistors in most mobos these days report ridiculously low temps under airflow.

With my temp rambling out of the way, if sound truly is not of a concern to you, you may want to add this fan onto your setup. It still is quieter than a tornado at full blast, and nearly doubles its airflow.

I agree, my temps do seem insanely low. I use speed fan to check my temps with and Im sure it is off some. I agree with everything you said Gautam. I really need to get the on-die temps before changing to the WC setup to really have some numbers I can compare.

the insocket thermistors in most mobos these days report ridiculously low temps under airflow.

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Good point. I guess everything you said is what I was looking for. You gave me facts that I had not really though of.


But none of this really matters now anyways. Ive already went to water cooling and plan to have my setup this weekend. I decided I was bored with air cooling and went as far as it could take me. Time to move on to something new and exciting. Plus I get to do some more modding.

Good man!
Something new to learn and mess with is always worthwhile

And a note on temps (again.) There has always been a lot of tlak about verified actual temps.......too expensive.
In-socket thermistors are notoriously inaccurate and susceptible to airflow.
On-die is better, but bad bios code can result in temps that are way out of line too.
External sensors are less INaccurate but measure surface temp not the actual core temp.

There are a few things you can do to check how accurate your temps MAY be:
compare an externl sensor (digidoc, compunurse, etc.) to core temp reding: core should be higher.
Use another thermometer to check case temp: if it agrees (or is close) to what the system sensor reads, the cpu reading is probably fairly close....

Still, comparing one system to another is a very inaccurate thing but at least you can get a general idea.

And temps are not USUALLY off that wildly, either.