What's the point of water cooling?

Isn't the point of water cooling to eliminate the fans? Yet I see so many pictures with at least 1-2 fans in the case plus 1-2 fans on the radiator which many times is in the PC.

So what is the point of water cooling when you still have like 4 fans in the computer anyway?

The prices for these "water cooling kits" are ridiculous. All they do is move water through a radiator which is cooled by air!!! and they want hundred or so dollars for this?

Please explain this to me... or am I missing something here?

the point of water cooling is to cool ur computer quieter, more efficently and better. the fans just help keep the rest of the system cool. and yes the radiator needs a fan to cool the water. water can absorb the heat better due to the fact that its colder and its moving. dosent just sit and heat up. most people that overclock put say 5 case fans plus a loud mofo on the cpu. a water block on the cpu only requires a quieter lower cfm fan on it to achieve better cooling. this eliminates the need for all the extra cooling.

Yah I guess the basic idea is that with water cooling you can have a much bigger radiator than you could possibly mount right on the CPU. Then you can use a large fan at low RPM to move air thru the radiator.

secondarily, moving water is an efficient way of moving heat, so the thermal resistance of the waterblock with water going through it could be less than the thermal resistance of a chunk of copper bolted to the CPU.

that said, my impression is that most watercooling *kits* won't beat top notch air cooling like the SP 94 or SP 97.

the wesson

The fans required to keep a lower temp for watercooling than air are normally larger and slower.

This makes it quieter yet more effecient in cooling.

the point of water cooling is to cool ur computer quieter, more efficently and better.

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Pretty much sums it up.

9mmCensor said:

This makes it quieter yet more effecient in cooling.

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On a pure efficiency basis, at least from an engineering standpoint, water cooling is most likely LESS efficient- but it IS more effective.

The single biggest reason for the greater effectiveness is probably the fact that the cooled surface area of even a small radiator is MUCH larger than is practical with an air cooling heatsink and thus has higher potential for heat dissipation.

But that is me nit-picking really!

Most water cooling setups do have about as many fans as an air cooled system, but they tend to be much quieter.

The point of water cooling as I see it, is pretty much one of two things:

Increased cooling performance! (And who cares about noise!)
or
A much quieter system at a given level of cooling performance.

A combination of the two is probably what most of us actually shoot for:

Cooling performance a bit better than air but at slightly lower noise levels.

just use nothing but Panaflo ultra-low noise fans in your case and youll be just fine.

It is also possible to watercool your cpu with little to no fans at all. One or two low noise fans is all it takes to generate air flow through the radiator. 5 low noise fans is always quieter than a 5500 rpm rocket booster blasting ultrasonic air waves through a toaster... but then... thats just my 2 pence.

9mmCensor said:

The fans required to keep a lower temp for watercooling than air are normally larger and slower.

This makes it quieter yet more effecient in cooling.

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Why couldn't you just do that w/o the water hazard?

water is the earths most efficient thermal carrier(that isnt toxic . one word can sum up water cooling

EFFICIENCY

Because the tubing looks cool

FuzzyBallz said:

Why couldn't you just do that w/o the water hazard?

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Surface area is KING when it comes to heat dissipation.

If you look at all of the modern high-performance heat sinks they ARE using bigger fans and packing much more surface area into the heatsinks.....but they still can NOT match the surface area of even a fairly small radiator made for use with 80mm fans.

And most water coolers choose radiators that are use 120mm fans increasing surface area much, MUCH more.

As large as the new micro-finned, all copper heatsinks are, they STILL have less surface area than a simple Chevette heater core (which many people use, or use modified, prettied up copies of.)

In addition to the advantage surface area gives, there are others- one of the biggies being the ability to completely remove the heat being dissipated from the case by using an external radiator or having the radiator as exhaust instead of intake.

There are more advantages as well.

The dangers of water are actually far lower than most people think- electrostatic discharge while changing components in ANY system is more of a risk than water damage, in my opinion.

I have an all cooper HS with thin fins on it that I estimate to have a cooling surface area 135 sq.in. (counting only one side of a fin), my all copper rad has a surface area of 800 sq.in. by the same standard. That comes out to around a 6:1 ratio.

FuzzyBallz said:

Why couldn't you just do that w/o the water hazard?

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because it is more effecient... you can use bigger and slower fans on HSs but it doesn't cool as well