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Serious Question...

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JDawggS316

Member
Joined
Apr 22, 2007
Location
US
I've been thinking a lot lately as I've been planning and researching for my first water cooling loop. I've spent the last 2 to 3 weeks asking questions on this board and many others, making sure I get the best water cooling components for a Core 2 Duo E6600 CPU.

I'm pretty much finished researching and have my parts all picked out. All together, it adds up to a good chunk of money out of my pocket for the sake of overclocking and keeping my CPU (and other vital parts) as cool as possible.

So, with that being said...

With all the money we put into water cooling to get the CPU temp's down, why not just go to phase change? I mean, CPU temp's don't even compare to water cooling temp's. I see the forums on phase changing, and have begun asking myself this very question.

It almost adds up with all the tools and gear for water cooling needed, compared to the block, reservoir and phase change unit.

Just a thought...Here I am, all ready to jump into the water cooling game when I stumble across phase chage.

Thoughts?
 
I think you run into a whole new can of worms and more problems with phase change. Using phase change, your temperatures drop below ambient, so you have to coat your motherboard and socket with a dielectric grease, to protect your motherboard and processor from condensation. Also, the condenser and pump on phase change units can be quite loud (from my understanding) and you still have to have fans for it, like you would on a watercooling radiator.

With watercooling, the lowest your temperatures could reach is ambient, so you never have to worry about condensation, and a well set up water system is practically maintenance free. You can make your system virtually silent. In my system, I only hear a faint whir of the 2 Yate Loon fans on the rear of the radiator, but I am running them full speed at 12 volts. I cant hear the pump unless I take the side panel off my case, and put my ear close to it.
 
So, if one were to stick with water cooling over phase change, and wanted the lowest temp's possible, as you've mentioned, how would he do that?

Refridgorate the coolant/additives?
 
Well, what are you trying to cool? An entire system? Just the CPU?
Are you trying to cool your graphics card, chipset, hard drives and ram?
Or do you just want to cool the CPU for benchmarking runs?
Is this an everyday use computer?

As far as I know, most phase change units cost 300+ and only come ready to cool the CPU. I just built a great watercooling system for a little under 400, and it cools my graphics card and cpu much better then the aircooling I had, and is quieter also. My computer runs 24/7, and I play a multitude of intense games on it. The lower noise level is great, plus the stability i have with the modest overclock I run awesome.

I guess what I am getting at, is it all depends on what you want your system/cooling for. If you want maximum speed for one off benchmark runs, go phase change. If you want 24/7 stability/low noise, go watercooling.
 
I have invested heavily into water cooling and I also wonder if it would be better to have spent that money on a vapour chill setup...
 
If you want the lowest temps possible, phase change is where it is at. Water cooling is just more practical. Everything comes with a cost, and I am not just referring to money. For me, I didn't go with phase change because of space issues. But to be honest, with my results so far from water cooling, I see myself going phase change by the end of this year.

And does your title imply the rest of the posts in here aren't serious?

--pak
 
Oh come on, of course not. Every question is a serious one, whether it pertains to water cooling or phase change; this just happens to put the two side by side.

Anyway...

It is something I've been thinking about. Mainly, I want to cool the CPU, then the GPU secondly.

I mean both obviously have their pros and cons.

- Water cooling offers the "bling bling" where phase change doesn't.
- Phase change offers better CPU cooling results where water cooling doesn't.
- Water cooling is less maintenance and phase change, at least from a n00bs point of view, looks to be the same way.
- Water cooling and a phase change unit add up to be about the same if you really think of all the money that goes into water cooling (over time anyway).

So these are the issues I'm wrestling with...And believe me, it's hard :bang head
 
Well what is keeping you from deciding? Seems like you got some good info and done your research. I say you do it.

--pak
 
Dont forget the electricty bill with phase chage....

But I THINK you can have best of both worlds I have seen a pelt shoved onto a water block before. Im unsure how good it is and if it can beat vapour chill or not.

You will quickly grow out of the "nube phase" when you setup your PC, so dont worry so much about the "nube factor".

I imagine phase to be less maintence than water but never had phase so I dont know but imagine... never had to change the water, clean the dust of of a rad, replace tube, etc etc.

I also imagine phase to be quiet, compared to havin 6 fans whizzing around a rad... (noize depends on your setup)
 
Well, the thing is, I posted for feedback and was hoping for an easy "no" or "yes" heh, but I know so many different opinions vary.

It's just, I respect everything that goes into water cooling; the craft of it all: pumps, reservoirs, radiators, water blocks, GPU blocks etc. etc.

It truly is amazing and looks d@mn cool.

Phase change is a mini-like refridgerator underneath your PC, is loud, and offers no glamour.

I mean, I want my newly built PC to last as long as it can go (overclocking included), and phase change cools the CPU to ambient temp's, which to me sounds like it greatly enhances performance and life longetivity.

I guess I'm just wondering what the general consensus is in the overclocking world since I am the newbie. Over the past couple weeks I've been researching water cooling and all it's do's and dont's, and today, of all days (the day I finished my research for a water cooling rig), I stumble across the whole idea of phase change.

That's why it's so difficult for me to decide :-/
 
Another draw back, you can only effectively cool the CPU with phase change. GPU can be done, but a large amount of custom work has to be done and in the end is not really efficient. So that is another thing to keep in mind with phase change.

I dunno man. To me it seems like you know what you are getting into. I say you do it. Since you have already spent the last few weeks researching water cooling and just came across phase change today, maybe you should spend at least another week researching phase change. There is a sub section for it. Hell, it took me months before I decided to WC my setup.

--pak
 
Lol, how about this...I'll do phase change if you do it too.

That way, I won't feel like the odd man out in the cooling world.

What'da say? :beer:
 
I just put my water cool rig together less than a month ago and I have a new block coming in the mail. I am still having fun with my WC setup. I need to get to the point where I am at my absolute lowest temp before I got to extreme cooling. Go to the extreme cooling section, you will find lots of support there.

--pak
 
Well alright, but if anyone else has a say on this matter please do so as I am very interested in all of your opinions.

THX
 
IMO phase change is its own hobby. it is ABOUT the quest of lower temps. the use of the PC can sometimes take a backseat.

water cooling if a combination. there are a TON of water cooling setups that wouldnt even come close to the performance of those ultra-120 air coolers or whatever. but its still an enjoyable endeavor.

I havent gone to sub ambient cooling because at the end of the day, I NEED my computer to work. its my only computer and its my enjoyment after a day at work. I know itll turn on, perform well, and do it again tomorrow. aside from topping off the water occasionally, I dont even give it 2 thoughts.

but I enjoy every so often, redesigning my computer, and the added challenge it gives me when I set it up.
 
btw, one day, when Im rich. I would love to have 2 PCs, one a complete monster of a rig, cutting edge across the board, phase change all the way. a purist OC rig.

and another, watercooled, workhorse. something that will do what I need when the other one is malfunctioning. and as I replace parts on the high end machine, port them down for extended use in the workhorse.

some day...
 
Yeah if I won lotto it would be phase change CPU, phase change GPU phsechange NB phase change moffset, phase change dog.
 
If you spend wisely you can have a performance rig for less than any phase change setup. The parts to make my loop cost me well under $200. The most expensive part I've ever purchased was my D5 and that was more of a luxury item than something I had to have. It did net me a 3° drop in temps however :).

Honestly, if you want a good rig without spending an arm and a leg, an Apogee Series block, Bonneville heatercore, and a 120v pump like a Via Aqua will work just fine. The temp difference between that and the top of the line Thermochill Rad/D5/Apgee setup is only going to be about 6-7° (depending on fans used) at most while costing at least half as much (if not less).
 
Yeah, it's just right now I'm in the process of constructing a completely new PC, guts 'n all, and I want good cooling for the CPU. And you guys are definitely right, it's about the qwest of lowering tempratures.

But, when you're at a fork in the road, with no cooling system selected at all yet, you would want to get the best (well, maybe anyway).

So, it does seem like phase change is the higher goal of many to reach some day, so I guess I've got some thinking and more researching to do.

BTW, when researching phase change, I find a lot of people building their own units, whereas I am not that type of person; even in the Extreme Cooling forums here. I looked at FrozenCPU.com to find the VapoChill LightSpeed looking pretty cool, but what else goes along with setting it up? Does one have to construct his own tools for something like this?

I wish I were in the Matrix, where all ya had to do was download the information to your brain. So instead of saying, "I know kung-fu," I would be saying...

"I know phase change."
 
So today I'm where I was yesterday when attempting to make a decision between phase change and water cooling.

To help me out, I have a few more questions:

- What is the average temp for a fully loaded Intel Core 2 Duo E6600/E6700 CPU?
- Does refridgerating the coolant/distilled water/additives in any way help the cooling process?
- And, does the effect that phase change have on the CPU effect the surround components? (i.e. RAM, GPU, NB etc.) In other words, does the cold from the phase change on the CPU cover the surround areas? Does the internal temp of the case drop as well?

Loaded I know, but I've always been told it doesn't hurt to ask :)
 
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