Heat pipes vs water cooling?

Over the weekend i went to a computer store.(microcenter) I asked the guys there, what did he think of water cooling and was it worth it. He told me that water cooling is good(better then fans and quieter) but that it is limited to what degree it can cool. I think he meant that ex. if the water is 30celcius, it want get any lower. Then i asked what is the most effective cooling(other then extreme cooling). He told me that heat pipes (i think thats what its called) are good and are cheaper then extreme cooling.

What is heat pipes? How much do they go for and how effective are they? also where can i get them?

those tube things are heatpipes...

a good watercooling kit will be better (noise and effientcy)

yes watercooling does has a max cooling potential but so does air

is that heat sink one of the most effective ones u can buy?

yeah, its for intels only. there is a new one SP97 for AMDs in the works.

heat pipes are always intersting, but you have to get one that is rated for a CPU of your speed, otherwise they easily overheat. If you have a heatpipe heatsink and your CPU is alot lower than whats recommneded it is possible to achieve "water cooling temperatures'.

a few days ago i bought this one is this one decent?

Its not a heatpipe but the Zalmans are good (not great) and are quite

If you throw a 92mm tornado on the sp94 or whatever the hell it is your temps will be damn close to that of the average water cooling computer. Just be warned, the tornado's noise level cannot be described in words. The best way to explain it is go turn on your vacum cleaner and put your ear to the suction part at the bottom. These are loud, but you cant get much better. I guess if you find a way to slap a 120mm fan on there you could push more air, but i dunno if thats easy to do.

it would make a nice vacuum too

I have a few of the tornado's and its really not THAT loud. Nothing even close to a vacum. Not even a little dust buster. It is louder than any other fan you have ever heard in a computer tho and you will know that its there. Altho 56 db/a is loud its not like your going to go nuts haveing it running. If you want you can always buy sound deadner for your comp. Its not the cheepest thing but it works rather well. I seen a tricked out box with 3 tornados and it was totaly encased in the sound deadner. It was a quite box and rater cool temps aswell. Tornado's move air like no bodys buisness tho. I would make a sound file of my system for you but im not sure it would do it justice.Best thing to do tho....Find a local store that sells them and have them install one into a system they have laying around so you can hear it.

Also I think i read somwhere that the new thermaltake HS with Heatpipes for the amd is done. I know i seen a review of it somewhere but im almost positive the guy said by the time you read the article the new HS would be ready for purchase. I could be wrong but i know its is very very close to being ready for purchase if not already.

And for the price you spent on that HS&Fan you could of bought a slk-900a and any fan you want. It would cool better anyway.

xstatics right, they arent THAT loud. I have two 80mm tornados running intake (5 regular 80mm out, and its still positively pressured.....) and i can hear them slightly in any room in my house. Maybe that is just cuz i am runnin two, i dunno, but in the summer, i can hear them outside if my window is open.

heat pipes are sill linkd to ambent temps also. like water cooling to. just becuse thy have refrigent in them dose not make them eny beter than water cooling .

A certain water cooling setup has a limit to "what degree it can cool", but with watercooling in general, you can always upgrade by adding a better pump or another radiator. Obviously you will never get below ambient, if that's what you meant, but that's still no worse than any heatpipe setup.

wait heat pipes wont work on amds if they dont someone should make them and become rich

Blueboy1986 said:

a few days ago i bought this one is this one decent?

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I have that exact Zalman HS ( I even got it at MicroCenter, too!) on my 2600+.
Temps are identical to my stock AMD HS with a 80mm fan adaptor.

It does look nice though.

Extreme cooling excepted, water cooling has the best noise/performance ratio and the worst price/performance ratio. Just ask yourself: What do I like more? A quiet/cool computer with a skinny wallet or a warm/loud computer with a fat wallet? You make the call!

Watercooling can get (with extreme measures) really close to ambient temps, within 3-5C.

Heatpipes on the other hand has to have their "boiling/condensing temp)" set so high above room temp that it will condense while being cooled.
So heatpipes always will carry that handicap of 10 - 15 C compared to watercooling.

It's not funny if the condense/boiling temp is set to 35C and the fan can't handle the heatload + rising ambient temps and NO GAS suddenly condense anymore... that will surely toast the cpu nice.

DROOL,guys Its finally here. THE FANMAN

SP-97 LINK

almondboy72 said:

wait heat pipes wont work on amds if they dont someone should make them and become rich

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yeah, its for intels only. there is a new one SP97 for AMDs in the works.

Click to expand...

Watercooling is great if you don't mind the time and money you will have to spend on it. Once you get it up and running though it is hassle free, very quiet (if you make it), and cools great. If your not very familiar with it, check the watercooling forum and maybe drop by your local compusa and check out some of the prebuilt koolance rigs. They don't perform very well but it may help you with some of the basic concepts involved. What are your priorities here? If it's overclocking and/or silence, I'd definitely consider water, but if it's not that important to you, then just about any thermalright heatsink will fit the bill nicely.