watercooling *NOT* so quiet

[touser]

hi all i have been watercooling my rig for about a month now and to tell you the truth i have more fans in my sytem then before..i have 1 120mm fan on a side blowhole blowing air onto the pci cards and mobo, an 92mm exaust fan, 2 power supply fans and 2 120mm fans on the radiator..now if it wouldnt be for the 2 fans on the raidator the noise wouldnt be so bad.. but people switch over to watercooling because they think its much quieter..how is it supposed to be so much quiter when it requires 1 or 2 120mm fans on the radiator to get good temps?

p.s. this is not a complaint just an observation by me..all that happens now is the t.v. is now louder and so is the stereo thus hurting my hearing hehe.

[N3D2000]

Well, I wasn't thinking of silence when water cooling, I was thinking of lower temps. :D

[touser]

yes, as was i but i see alot of ppl on the board mention that they want to switch to watercooling so it would be very quiet..just my observation tho..

[Crazy Jayhawk]

My advice would be to get a bunch of 120mm or bigger fans and run them at 7V. Lots of air without lots of noise.

[Burning Phoenix]

I'm going to buy one of those DD waterblocks soon for my P4 1.7 GHZ and use one of my peltiers from my last system. I was wondering how it performs as in temp drop for your setup. Are you going to use a TEC for i used one on my last P3 700@1008 with temps at idle of 8° F (-13° C). It was only a 72 W TEC.

By the way my Beckett 325 GPH sub. pump was not that quite even submerged in a 5 gallons of water with a sealed top and with the 5 fans in the case it is still load.

[SteenkyBastage]

watercooling IS a lot quiter (almost silent for me) if you use large fans with rheostats on them. i assume (but haven't tried) the 7v mod would do about the same idea, just not variable like my rheostat conrolled 120's are.

i only have to use one fan on my radiator (120mm @ lowest speed via radioshack 3.3w rheo), one intake (120mm @low speed rs 3.3w rheo), and a pair of 80's exhausting up front (both wired together on one 3.3w RS rheo at lowest speed setting). doin that gives me really cool temps and not a real noticeable noise.

[dimmreaper]

The truth is that water cooling can go either way.

If you want the absolute lowest temps, as always the more fans, the more noise the better.

If you want temp marginaly better than air cooling but without the noise, big radiators, and voltage controlled fans (like what Colin uses, or perhaps a 10V fixed voltage regulator would sufice) are the ticket.

It just depends on which way you want to go. But if you plan on using TECs, be prepaired for noise, and lots of it!

[Fjeld]

Originally posted by touser
hi all i have been watercooling my rig for about a month now and to tell you the truth i have more fans in my sytem then before..i have 1 120mm fan on a side blowhole blowing air onto the pci cards and mobo, an 92mm exaust fan, 2 power supply fans and 2 120mm fans on the radiator..now if it wouldnt be for the 2 fans on the raidator the noise wouldnt be so bad.. but people switch over to watercooling because they think its much quieter..how is it supposed to be so much quiter when it requires 1 or 2 120mm fans on the radiator to get good temps?

p.s. this is not a complaint just an observation by me..all that happens now is the t.v. is now louder and so is the stereo thus hurting my hearing hehe.

Hm, I think you may be overdoing things a little? 2x120mm fans at the radiator? At full speed? Your amb temps must be pretty high if that is needed? To compare, I have one 120mm running at half speed at my rad, one 80mm exhaust at approx.half speed, temp-regulated PSU-fan, and a 50mm fan at the northbridge in conjuction with a 100 ohm resistor.
Temps are: Amb.20-23C, CPU idle 30-32C, 45-46 at full load, system 27-30C. Fans all together giving only a low humming no-annoying noise, far better than a 6000rpm (screaming) CPU-fan!
T-bird 1133@1502 for the moment.

I think you may try to reduce the speeds (and noise!) of all your fans, because your temps are way under usual limits!

Good luck!

[toutin]

can't you just let it without fans?
Because I'll probably get a BMW motor radiator (I hope these are copper tubed) and they are quite huge (enough place to put 8 (4*2) 120mm fans). I think that's quite big and that it could do well without additionnal cooling, am I wrong?
Let's see now if pumps and tubing size will be adaptable as well with such frontal radiator.
What is your opinion about radiator size ?

[Colin]

BMW radiators are aluminum cores with plastic tanks.

Jeff hit the nail on the head. Watercooling can be quiet but more fans and more noise gives you better cooling. Personally I can't help dialing up the MHz and the noise. :D

[Billvill]

Let me try to clear the air for a lot of people who don't seem to grasp water, or for that matter air cooling to the fullest.

A lot of folks use 2 power supply’s to power their additional DC ( direct current ) fans. That in it self is a redundant problem in that now you have another fan making noise. A lot of folks use 2 DC fans for their radiator. Add to that a blowhole or two and now your system sounds like a jet taking off. That's not to mention the current draw your taking away from your system if you only run one power supply.

By no means am I saying this is the right way it is just a suggestion. I use one AC (alternating current) 120 mm fan to cool my radiator ( a cooling cube ). I have it slowed to a pace that I can just about hear it. The fan is tied to the ac in the power supply ac imput. This works for me because I turn everything on via a power strip and then the atx power on switch on the pc. I just haven’t found the time to add a relay!

Ok lets talk temps and fans. I have an array of three small cheap fans I had laying around from a hard drive cooler pulling air into the bottom of the case. They are very quiet. The power supply and ac fan on the cooling cube at the top of the case exhaust the hot air.

My temps are 30C in the case and 41C at the CPU under a typical load ( say after running 3d mark ) My rig is quiet and extremely dependable. I hope this may help a few folks thinking about going to water-cooling . Rest assured IT IS QUIET when done this way.

Billy

[Billvill]

Heres a pic that may help the description.

Billy

[Crappy]

I think you might have a new life form in there:D

[Kibler]

Nice setup Billvill, the radiator is covered with that plastic casing? Where is the exhaust for the radiator?

Kibler

[Billvill]

The fan on the rad ( the cooling cube at the top of the case ) blows from inside out the rear of the case.

As for the " life form " I guess you mean the red in the tubes. That is the residue from water wetter which I have since flushed .
I do not think water wetter is something you should use. I personally think it is hard on plastic.

Billy

[toutin]

would a big radiator (large enough for 8 120mm fans) without fans be as good as one of thise cube with fan?

greetings

[Billvill]

In my opinion NO. I would use the cube from danger den or the cube from aqua stealth which I really like the looks of. As an added benifit the cubes are very compact and easy to find space for in the case.

Billy

[cjtune]

Originally posted by toutin
would a big radiator (large enough for 8 120mm fans) without fans be as good as one of thise cube with fan?

greetings


...you meant 8x as large? Most probably it'll cool just as well w/o fans. A slight gust from a nearby table fan or ceiling fan might be all the airflow a large radiator needs. I'll go fool around with my old heat exchanger equations and graphs and get back to you fekllas on this....

[cjtune]

BTW, my bong is kinda noisy too but not because of the fans but due to the dripping and spraying of water.