Water cooling vs. Air cooling

[The Coolest]

I started making plans for my future water cooling setup and got a Q (question) : How much better will the water cooling setup cool the CPU than a Mini Super Orb?

[jeff_harrison_344]

Well there are PLENTY of variations, but definately a lot moe then a mini orb, you can expect a HUGE gain

[Richard]

I would think a more fair comparison would be a Swiftech M462A vs watercooling, or even a Thermalright SK-6 vs watercooling.

My take is this. You're going to be needing a fan in a watercooled rig anyway. (Unless you use a very very large radiator or some other space consuming heat exchanger.)

Many people find that their watercooled rig is nearly as noisy as their heatsink w/fan combination. Of course, you'll get better temps (and more stable temps as well with H20.)

However, the Swiftech with a 80mm fan is not to be overlooked; as it provides very near watercooling performance and is cheaper and less maintanence.

Now, if you're interest in watercooling extends to the hobbyist POV... Then by all means, bust out the heater cores and aquarium pumps. :)

[Kingslayer]

I concur with Richard. Heatsink technology has come along way. Most watercooling is just as loud as air cooling. Not to mention air cooling is cheaper.

[The Coolest]

I don't think that a two 80mm fans are as noisy as my Super Orb, my other comp has one 80mm fan on the HD one for exsuast and one blowing air in from side panel trough a duct onto the CPU, a 50mm CPU fan and a 40mm mobo fan and the system isn't loud at all...

I don't have an accurate way on getting the DBs cause I don't have a proper mic nor a program for that matter.

Another problem I can't replace that Orb in the store I bought it at. So I think I'll compare the noise level betwin the water cool and the Orb.

If u could paste a link to a noise mesuring program I would be greatfull.

[SteenkyBastage]

i tend to disagree with the loudness of watercooling as posted above. however, watercooling can (most likely will) cost a good deal more than a good aircooling solution. not counting all the fun stuff (dremmel and stuff) i probably spent 150ish on my watercooling rig.
but to put it in perspective, the hard drives are now the loudest thing on my system, and my temps went from around 130F (aircooled 1.2 ghz, default volt) to 98F (watercooled 1.2ghz @1.47ghz, w/ extra .1 volt). i put all my fans on rheostats and turned them way down, (big fan, lower rpm=still good airflow w/o noise).

just my experience, hope it helps

[Owenator]

I went to water cooling to cut down on noise. I bought a heater core that is essentially 160mm x 160mm and I run eight 80mm fans to it. Four in four out. I use the quiet 24cfm 21 dBA panaflow L fans on the output and four 'medium' 35cfm 30 dBA Sunon fans on a voltage regulator on the inside. This way the noisy Sunon fans run at a lower speed are pretty quiet and inside my case the sound is deadend. I have a 120mm Panaflo H series input at the bottom running at a quiet lower speed and a three 40mm fan HD cooler at the top also running a a lower speed. To round it out I put a Panaflo L 80mm inmy power supply and some dynamat onthe case sides and bottom. With the fans mounted on gromets (and my HD's btw) and the pondmaster 250 gph pump on some hd paking foam the whole thing is MUCH quieter than my old Glaciator system and the temps are 35 C idle with 40 C load and my case is within 1 degree C of ambient (my basement is about 25 C).

I built the whole thing to be quiet but I want close to silent. I am even thinking about water cooling the Power supply, northbridge and video card and then removing all but the Radiator fans and see how it goes. If I can find the circuit I may even try a temp regulated rad fan system.

Bottom line (IMHO) is you can have a quiter system that is just as cool or cooler than air but it will cost you some $$ and some time.

My $.02

O

[KeyboardCowboy]

Originally posted by Kingslayer
I concur with Richard. Heatsink technology has come along way. Most watercooling is just as loud as air cooling. Not to mention air cooling is cheaper.


i agree with richard and slayer, unless you have ice cold water, you can get roughly the same temps from a good hsf and fan combo

the problem that i see with water cooling is that it will only cool your chips and not the rest of the case very effectivly, so, not only do you need a water cooling system for your cpu/video card/ect you also need a case cooling system, imho it is easier and more reliable to go with strictly air cooling

[The Coolest]

The loudest part in my system is my Super Orb I wont have any problems with other fans in my system, but the soud that my orb makes is really getting on my nerves...

I think I'll go for the Tower/bong setup, seems simple enough and doesn't reqiuer a lot of space...

Sorry for my English tonight its 01:23 AM. I'm going to bed (LOL)

[IFMU]

Well I cant say for quieter.. I built a water cooling rig and quite honestly its louder than the fans I had runnin..... possibly its just the pump... but either way... you get to play with making the water cooling and the looks people give you when your trying to tell them that you put a radiator into your computer... lol... But then again I cant really compare to some of the louder fans out there... never bought any of em.. heard of water-cooling went straight for it, never looked back... fun as all you can possibly imagine...

[Owenator]

I agree, water cooling is fun!

The part I love about water cooling second to noise control in my case is drilling holes in and machining metal on my drill press! I was always a little envious of the machinists that could cut complicated parts out of raw metal stock. Now the only problem is I find myself trying to justify buying a $500 mill to make a waterblock I could buy for $30! I am not sure that is progress but think how impressive your tool collection woulf look! Realisticly I'll proabably just buy a middle of the road drill press to replace my $50 harbor freight special when I kill it's bearings. Then again I am using a $30 'machinists' cross vise too, so I am not exactly high precision but it is still a lot of fun!

O

[scap]

if your going to do water i would recomend an enhiem pump mine is not even a whisper!!

[funnyperson1]

i would go with air cooling plus a peltier....get like a 50-80 watt peltier and get a heatsink with quiet fans, your temps could be potentially lower than watercooling without a pelt.....