H2O better than air?

In doing research on how to cool my P4 system, I had been leaning toward an H2O cooling solution until I started reading the reviews and tests. The best waterblock you can get, without using an "extreme" solution (due to cost and system requirements) has a C/W rating of .19, and most run .22-.25. The best heatsinks run .14-.18. So why would I want to use basic H2O over a quality HS, when there is such a large performance and cost difference?

water conducts heat 5000 times better than air.

If you have a low threshold for noise you would pay the extra money on a w/c to hear yourself think.

DO some more research,Use the search function and look at the air solutions as closely as the water cooled solutions.

There is not any reason air can not cool just as good as water temp for temp.But the fan needed to accomplish this is akin to a jet enging running next a simple V-8 automobile.......

And on air noise is not limited to the heatsink fan,You must have a big intake of fresh air to supply the heatsink fan and to do this is noisy, now add the exhaust fans you need to rid you case of that heat..

Eather solution COOLS well if done correctly so it comes down to personal preference..........................................

liquid cooling is pretty awesome looking plus its very quiet
air cooling is pretty awesome these days also.
liquid cooling is superior to air cooling, thats why you fill your radiator in your car with liquid and not air.

What other said already. To achieve a really good cooling on air you will need some powerful fans. 99.9% of the time this means your ears are going to bleed from the noise generated from the fans.

If you have a low threshold for noise you would pay the extra money on a w/c to hear yourself think.

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Agreed. As one who uses a tornado for cooling, I would recommend water if you haven't done anything yet. .22 C/W is good, but it requires the more expensive heatsinks, and very high noise tolerance on your part. I mean very loud. I'm thinking about moving over to water soon myself.

I have a 700 MHz OC , like you do. I use the SP-94 HS by Thermalright. With my case setup as is I get good temps on air. Yesterday it was 80°F ambient,and I was folding at 41°C ,case temp was 30°C...Fans were on near full though..See sig of rig and pic's in link..

CLICK HERE

H20 is alot better for many reasons.

is there a difference between the cooling of the radiator and the use of fans @ cpu and gpu?
you will have to cool the radiator too, also if your system is idle, i think

Neocron said:

is there a difference between the cooling of the radiator and the use of fans @ cpu and gpu?
you will have to cool the radiator too, also if your system is idle, i think

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A heatercore like the one for the chevy chevette has a greater effective cooling surface area, thus requires less air (larger fan, quieter) to cool it compared to a heatsink.

I've got mine watercooled but honestly will be switching back to air soon. The overclock is great and even though nothing (nothing) is leaking, I feel uneasy that it might. Besides, I'm not trying to overclock to the max; I'll be happy at 2.5ghz and air.

My main reason is my case temps are high right now. I have a cheap generic case which doesn't really have the room to fit a w/c system and yet have 'breathing' room.

(sorry I started rambling)

yeah thx, i will buy heatpipes instead of creating a watercooled system.
they seem to be very efficient and need air cooling @ low RPM

corrosion231 said:

water conducts heat 5000 times better than air.

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close enough....

its acctually only like 15 times better, not even that much, but you can see how well air does at cooling stuff by using fans. Your only limit with air or water cooling is room temp, thats when phase change and peltiers come into the picture. Only water can effectively cool a pelt. (Phase change can be aircooled, but only because its so efficiant, if somoene was to figure out how to make something similar to a pelt with like 85% efficiancy the number of people using phase change systems would drop.

Air cooling is probably more EFFICIENT in an engineering sense but water cooling has more potential.
Let me explain:

With air cooling, you have fewer transfers of heat (each transfer is INefficient to some degree)- from the cpu core to tim to heatsink to case air to room air= 4 standard transfers of heat energy. You lose efficiency 4 times in the process.

With H2O cooling the transaction is-
cpu core to tim to block to water to radiator to room air= 5 transfers of energy. One more transfer of heat in the process.

(NOTE- The above is for typical machines and does not cover all situations!)

This is one of the reasons that modern High Perfomance air cooling does so well when compared with water cooling: more efficient process....at least when only looking at the cpu temp.


Water cooling does have higher cooling potential though, mainly due to the fact (as stated above) that a radiator has more surface area than a heat sink. In fact, a radiator CAN be made big enough to passively cool a system, although it might be tough to find a case big enough for it.

The higher potential of a water cooling system also allows us to gain similar cpu temperatures at much lower noise levels (as also said above): slower, quieter fans can dissipate the heat just fine.

There can be additional benefits as well: with water cooling the radiator can be located externally or in a "Sidewinder" configuration (intake from one side of the case, exhaust on the other): cpu heat is NOT recycled into the case while still cooling the cpu with cooler room air, thus making both cpu AND the rest of the system cooler.

Heat pipes have some of the advantages of both but still not have the full potential of either- they are a compromise solution. Sometimes a very GOOD compromise, but.....

I am not trying to talk you into going one way or another with your cooling, just trying to present you with some information that might help you decide.

craig588 said:

Only water can effectively cool a pelt.

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Problem here is that to make a pelt worth the effort and expense, you need phase-change to cool it. With CPUs producing 100w of heat under load you need a 200w+ TEC to deal with it; now you have 300w+ of heat to deal with instead of the 100 you started with. Might as well start with phase-change right on the CPU.

rogerdugans, I understand what you are saying. I guess the reason I asked the question to begin with is because I've been researching this pretty heavily for the last month or so, trying to think of a way to affordably get my core temps down. Never really had an issue with noise; I'm a sysadmin and work in a datacenter. Nothing but big server-class machines and AC so it's pretty noisy, guess I'm just used to it.

I'll probably go with H2O though, just because I like to screw around with stuff like this;-)

Alright, first of all watercooling, if done right, will beat the hell out of air cooling. Price to performance air will win 9 times out of 10. Also consider that for air to come close to water your probably looking at an intollerable noise level; I will grant that blowers are awesome to move air with low noise though.

Another reason many go with H20 is to either be different or for the challenge, I know that was a draw for me, I love the Water look

f1lite said:

Problem here is that to make a pelt worth the effort and expense, you need phase-change to cool it. With CPUs producing 100w of heat under load you need a 200w+ TEC to deal with it; now you have 300w+ of heat to deal with instead of the 100 you started with. Might as well start with phase-change right on the CPU.

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Thats what I did

I think water cooling has a much higher potentional then air cooling, but i have only read bench-marks and do not have a w/c system myself. but i also use fans and i am not doubting air but air is so versital. that it is reused, and not as easily cooled as water (in a smaller unit). and water has more potential than air becuase your cooling methods are air tight, were as air is just flowing around you hope it gets the heat away from that area.

nuff' said water is superor