I don't get it

WildMonkey · Jan 18, 2008

Why do people spend hundreads of dollars for a water cooling rig that performs worst than a $50 CPU cooler?

I mean, I've looked around and seems that the best water cooling rigs perform worst than a good CPU cooler. I've seen average temperatures for wc rigs in the 50's-60's C, while a good CPU cooler can is always in the 40's under load.

karlthomas102 · Jan 18, 2008

it only works if ou use good stuff my wc set up deats my air cooling my 20C air would not lt you get to 3.5ghz on a amd 6200+
agin if you cut cornes like buying a crappy ket such as the TT big water 745 then yes you would get bad temps that a good air could beat

Dice · Jan 18, 2008

WildMonkey said:
Why do people spend hundreads of dollars for a water cooling rig that performs worst than a $50 CPU cooler?

I mean, I've looked around and seems that the best water cooling rigs perform worst than a good CPU cooler. I've seen average temperatures for wc rigs in the 50's-60's C, while a good CPU cooler can is always in the 40's under load.

That would make no sense to me either. From my research and from the watercooling loop I have been using for a few years now, I can tell you that the quality watercooling setup you seem to be speaking of does out-perform any $50 HSF, period.

From where are you getting your information? I suspect your source may be inaccurate.

meionm · Jan 18, 2008

It depends on config. Usually people with watercooling have their setup overclocked. So, comaring overclocked watercooling setup to stock runnning cpu with air cooler is not right. Also things like noise can be reduced through watercooling. Each system is different and many MB report temps wrong. Also the amount of stress put on cpu might be different producing different temps.

Basically it all depends on config and purpose.

Neuromancer · Jan 18, 2008

You have to compare apples to apples also.

If that watercooled PC is running a quad fully loaded at 4+GHz... versus a 3.2GHz quad on air and stock volts.

Also there are other reasons to consider Watercooling, if you are running a seriously beastly PC with tons of heat generated (SLI/Croosfire) quad core or supper clocked dual, then the number of fans and the types of fans required really generates a lot of noise.

Wit ha decent radiator you can run some nice low speed yates, and pick up a nice quiet pump, then the only noise you will really notice is your PSU or case fans.

bryan_d · Jan 18, 2008

WildMonkey said:
I've seen average temperatures for wc rigs in the 50's-60's C, while a good CPU cooler can is always in the 40's under load.

Do you have links for this statement? I do agree that spending money on most pre-built kits is useless, but if you are talking about "hundreds of dollars" on quality WC parts, it WILL beat air cooling; even more so in the summer. A CPU only loop that can run "hundreds" will surely beat any air cooler.

http://www.petrastechshop.com/pecoli.html

This kit with the $6 upgrade to the Apogee GT would beat air cooling I would bet. And that is not even reaching the "hundreds."

Low priced quality WC is much different than low priced cheap WC.

bryan d

Jas · Jan 18, 2008

WildMonkey said:
Why do people spend hundreads of dollars for a water cooling rig that performs worst than a $50 CPU cooler?

I mean, I've looked around and seems that the best water cooling rigs perform worst than a good CPU cooler. I've seen average temperatures for wc rigs in the 50's-60's C, while a good CPU cooler can is always in the 40's under load.

On the same chip, at the same speed, and same voltage. A High end, QUALITY watercooling setup will completely lay to waste any air cooling.

Shw me an air setup with the specs in my sig, that can boast cpu temps (both cores at 100%) under 55c, and at the same time, GPU temp of 34c (gpu also at 100%). Thats a 2.13ghz dual core cpu in my sig running at 3.6, just for clarification.

speed bump · Jan 18, 2008

Well considering my ultra cheap (Bip3 $40, 3 nidec beta V $5, Ehiem 1250 $15, Swifttech MCW-6002 $20 and $20 worth of stuff) water cooling setup beats any air cooling device I can find as well as bolts onto any platform without me having to take the system down I don't get why in the world I would want to use air.

edit: as an example I just built a WCing system for a friends dual opteron setup. This setup previously idled at 40°c and 42°c and saw loaded of 50°c and 54°c with coolermaster Hyper 6+'s loaded with Delta TFBs. After going to a PA120.3, Dual Dtek Fuzions, and an Ehiem 1260 it went down to idling at 27°c and 30°c and loading at 42°c and 43°c.

Spion · Jan 18, 2008

WildMonkey said:
Why do people spend hundreads of dollars for a water cooling rig that performs worst than a $50 CPU cooler?

I mean, I've looked around and seems that the best water cooling rigs perform worst than a good CPU cooler. I've seen average temperatures for wc rigs in the 50's-60's C, while a good CPU cooler can is always in the 40's under load.

Before i went WCing, i used to get about 50-52c load (reading from coretemp) with a big typhoon and my opteron OCed to 2.7GHz. After i installed my water cooling loop my temps went down to 38-40c load. thats about a 12c drop. so i fail to see your comparison.

boox2 · Jan 18, 2008

**** i want that 50$ air cooler since my water setup only gets me 30c idle and 43c fully loaded on seti, could've saved some mulla.

Deathknight · Jan 19, 2008

Some people opt to go water cooling for a good combination of excellent cooling and a quite system. A WC rig that using the "best" parts as you mentioned, that is built with the intention of maximizing cooling performance will beat any conventional HSF.

Aside from the performance aspect of WC, it is just alot of fun. Why do people paint miniatures or collect model trains etc? Just something fun to do! The superior cooling and silence are just gravy as far as I am concerned!

orion456 · Jan 19, 2008

WildMonkey said:
Why do people spend hundreads of dollars for a water cooling rig that performs worst than a $50 CPU cooler?

No $50 air cooler is going to beat hundreds of dollars worth of water equipment properly set up; not even close.

The fans are quieter. The CPU cooling uses water which has 10x the heat capacity of air. The heat is exhausted outside the case instead of inside.

I guess you will have to show some examples.

Meantime, get a Swiftech h20-220 kit and learn why people buy luxury; its nice. :soda:

SolidxSnake · Jan 19, 2008

Temp readings = inaccurate. You can't compare your temps to someone else's, period. Your ambient is different, your case airflow is different, your motherboard's temp sensors are different, your CPU's temp sensors are different, your CPUs are different, your CPU speed and volts are different.

Temps are worthless either way. Don't worry about them.

RIG RIDER · Jan 19, 2008

SolidxSnake said:
Temp readings = inaccurate. You can't compare your temps to someone else's, period. Your ambient is different, your case airflow is different, your motherboard's temp sensors are different, your CPU's temp sensors are different, your CPUs are different, your CPU speed and volts are different.

Temps are worthless either way. Don't worry about them.

Not to mention the fact that the op is talking about a CPU only air cooler, and most water cooled systems are CPU & GPU.

Evilsizer · Jan 19, 2008

bryan_d said:
Do you have links for this statement? I do agree that spending money on most pre-built kits is useless, but if you are talking about "hundreds of dollars" on quality WC parts, it WILL beat air cooling; even more so in the summer. A CPU only loop that can run "hundreds" will surely beat any air cooler.

http://www.petrastechshop.com/pecoli.html

This kit with the $6 upgrade to the Apogee GT would beat air cooling I would bet. And that is not even reaching the "hundreds."

Low priced quality WC is much different than low priced cheap WC.

bryan d

i think its a tie for that kit and this one.....
http://www.sidewindercomputers.com/swh2licokitr1.html
for about $30 more get a bigger rad for lower noise..
http://www.sidewindercomputers.com/swh2colicoki.html

billb · Jan 19, 2008

While you mention the poor performance you often see in water cooled systems, there probably just as many "over-cooled" systems out there too.

In it's infancy, water cooling was an "enthusiast's" activity requiring some minimal understanding of thermodynamics, a lot of study, and some fairly complicated math in order to figure out just exactly what would work and what wouldn't.

Look at the wealth of data available:
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=151627
http://www.thermochill.com/PATesting/
http://translate.google.com/transla...&article_id=222&langpair=de|en&hl=en&ie=UTF-8
http://www.matbe.com/articles/lire/146/comparatif-de-27-ventilateurs-120-millimetres/page1.php
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=137832
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=170224
http://www.overclock.net/water-cooling/278219-danger-den-mpc-universal-chipset-block.html
http://www.overclock.net/water-cooling/226800-bonnie-heater-core-flow-rate-test.html
http://forums.procooling.com/vbb/showthread.php?t=10825&highlight=how+much+pump+is+to
http://www.enzotechnology.com/sapphire_cpu.htm

Do people use any of this information to spec out a WC setup? Not many do.

People build WC systems based on what other people correctly, or incorrectly recommend in posts. Manufacturer's specs, test result, any kind of hard data is largely ignored.

multiple parallel rads, multiple pumps, ram coolers, fans with unknown CFM ratings, and LEDs, that's where it's at!

I don't get it

WildMonkey

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karlthomas102

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Dice

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meionm

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Neuromancer

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bryan_d

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Jas

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speed bump

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