Temps With Water Cooling

I've been looking over some articles in regards to water cooling, and wanted to know if it'd be worth all the toruble. In contrast to the hsf a water cooled system can be rather troublesome to install and maintain. Not to mention the risk of springing a leak and having your hardware damaged. Without a water setup involving a peltier would the temps differ so much from that of a SLK 800 with a Tornado Fan? By the way what temps could I expect if I went to water cooled setup for system in sig? Right now my temps are 45C idle and 49C load (using Volcano 7+). Should I just go for SLK 800 with Smart Fan, or a water cooled setup?

Here are components i'd would get for this setup:

Heater Core
Hydor L30 320Gph Pump or a Via Aqua 1300
2 Delta 120mm 80 CFM Fan (possibly with a rheobus)
For the waterblock it'd have to be something cheap, maybe something re used.

But how would that setup work and what temps could I possible expect. And is there a advantage to using 1/2 tubing over 3/8? Spending as lil as possible is preferable.

Sorry if i'm all over the place!

i would expect that you wouldnt improve your temps immensely with water cooling and that chip in your sig compared to the slk800/tornado.

It will in fact be cooler than a SLK-800 & Tornado. I went from a AX-7 & Tornado to my first water setup, then from a SLK-800 & 50cfm to my current one & temp difference is very noticable @ high voltages/clocks but when ur talkin a tornado vs watercooled w/ some low CFM fans on the rad, the noise difference is amazing

You start to find other parts of ur PC are the ones makin noise like any case fans or PS fans

mmm the biggest difference will be in noise... if you arent going with good wb's and pumps then i wouldnt expect a ton of temp difference. there are some people who buy premade and some that DIY water setups and dont beat slk800/tornado temps. that can drive you nuts real quick though, i would personally go water but it has to be done right.

do not dare pay $60 for the heatercore you linked to... go to autozone or similar and get one that works just as well for <$30. www.heatercore4u.com has model numbers if you want to look there, these are no different from what you linked to. the '86 or '87 chevette cores are very similar and popular also

The biggest source of confusion lies with inaccurate motherboard/CPU temperature sensors.

Everyone's setup is different. Trying to compare different ambient temperatures, thermal probe calibration, cpu overclocks, voltages, speed, different programs that generate different levels of heat, etc, it's a nightmare.

Many people who use air-cooling can come away thinking that their temps won't be better.

There is a good rule of thumb though. The cheaper the water-cooling setup, often the lower the performance, often to a point where a very good air-cooling setup can come close to matching.

Make no mistake, air-cooling performance has come a long way in the last two years, and the SLK-900 with a screaming fan is a tough combination to beat for even average water setups, but they typically do so with far less noise. The other thing here though is that the SLK-900 is relatively affordable, whereas top-end water-cooling is more expensive, so there tends to be a lack of reliable properly conducted test results. I've suggested to Bill Adams to grab hold of an SLK-900 to give us an idea of what one can do in relation to a good water-block.

If you setup a water-cooling system with top notch components though and you will see substantially lower temperatures than high-end air-cooling (I believe up to 10C lower in actuality for a properly calibrated and measured test setup), but the bonus is that this is without all the noise, and even mid-range water-cooling setups will give you better temperatures without the noise. Low-end setups (like the Thermaltake Aquarius II) will possible give about the same or slightly worse temperatures, but again, much, much quieter.

The price I showed you was in Canadian. But what do you guys think bout the setup i'd like to build?

The setup doesn't look bad. I would suggest 1/2"ID tubing from the start, and get the best waterblock you can afford. Otherwise, you will prolly be disappointed and looking for a better block in a short amount of time. I know this from experience, I've been waercooling for about 6 months and have bought 3 systems so far. First was an Iceberg kit, about the lowest water setup going, but stilll it cooled as well as my Volcano 7+ on Med speed and was quieter. Its biggest fault was the crappy res, which cracked around the screw holes and quickly spread. Second was a 3/8"ID setup with Gemini waterblock, heatercore, via pump. It did much better, but I was bitten by the waterbug by now. So now I have a 1/2"ID system with WhiteWater block, heater core, and via pump. I'm really pleased with my temps and OC now. I can't really compare temps with the other systems because I also changed cpu and m/b about the same time. My main point is that its a short trip getting past the initial fear to wanting as good as you can reasonably get. So with that in mind, you might as well save yourself some time and money and try and do it right the first time. ALso if you decide water cooling isn't for you (which I doubt) you will have an easier time selling good components.

peace.
unloaded

If you cant make a good water cooling setup then you shouldn't be inside your case. step away from the computer case close it.. use duct tape too. or sell your computer to someone who can use it and buy yourself an imac.


There are two reasons you should want to go water cooling. Noise reduction and cooler component temps. A water cooled system that performs only as good as some top end air cooling can be great if that person was aiming to get the lowest possible noise. That's fine. You can also have a water cooled system just as loud as these top end air cooling systems but it cools tons better. That's fine too. It depends on what you are aiming for at the beginning. Both goals are just as good, but deciding which one matters more is up to the individual. They _ARE_ mutually exclusive so do not expect to get one and the other ...you'll have to compromise like always.