Who needs water??? i have an entirely air cooled rig and im running my xp3000+ at 2.4ghz @ 27°c Folding (ambient 20°c) - thats with a 120mm delta pushing 190cfm. My temps are better than a lot of water cooled setups at a fraction of the price. Nuff said. If youve got money to waste on fancy cooling that looks nice - water. If you want practical cheap effective cooling - air.
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H2O better than air?
- Thread starter f1lite
- Start date
- Joined
- Sep 18, 2002
- Location
- Austin, Texas
Vrykyl said:I love my eardrums - honest
im running:
1x 120mm delta 190cfm
5x 80mm Tornados
2x smart case fan2's
2x 80mm panaflos
7x assorted other small fans for custom component and hdd cooling
And is all that worth it? What are your case temps and how's your overclock? The only way I could have that many fans in a computer is if...... well I'd personally never do it
jlin453 said:
And is all that worth it? What are your case temps and how's your overclock? The only way I could have that many fans in a computer is if...... well I'd personally never do it
Yeh its worth it - i dont even notice the noise, i leave my pc on over night (except when its stolen by @ssholes) and still sleep in the same room.
My ambient case temps are between 19-21°c, ok an increase from 2.17ghz to 2.4ghz doesnt seem a lot, but the performance boost got me an over 6500 3dmark03 score - which is pretty damn good IMO. all of my fans are on fan controllers or custom installed rheostats.
- Joined
- Mar 14, 2002
- Location
- Wisconsin
f1lite said:
The DangerDen RBX and the Cascade Whitewater blocks easily hit .10C/W, even reaching .08 if you get enough GPM...that easily spanks aircooling.
My RBX is currently running at a near silent .10C/W ratio, something you will NEVER see on an aircooled system. A WC setup also gives satifaction of a job well done, a unique system many don't have, and the ability to run an OCed rig all night only two feet from my head.
- Joined
- Dec 28, 2001
- Location
- Corner of No and Where
Another point to consider- which can be both for or against water cooling depending on your viewpoint- ()
Messing around with H2O provides you with more modding, creativity and tweaking opportunities.
Water can be set up that needs little or no maintenance- I have two rigs that get no more maintenance than my air cooled stuff: less clogging in the fans due to lower speeds, but add checking water level every few months. Comes out the same. (I don't use fan filters on anything.)
But messing with a water cooling system can be a hobby in and of itself, if you enjoy it!
Personally, I do- I have four water cooled machines, including an mATX rig for LAN use, and three air cooled rigs.
It really comes down to personal choice: an air cooled system CAN be made quiet and competitive (behind the best H2O but better than many decent setups) with water but you can easily end up spending the same money.
Water cooling is not for everyone, just like overclocking isn't done by most computer users.
Of course, I am hooked, but I can see the (dis)advantages of both.
Personally (obviously!) I think the added flexibility of water cooling is well worth the time and effort: my main rig is normally one of my quietest computers and has decent temps.......when I turn my fans up to full power, it is the loudest.
Temps drop to insanely low levels though.
And even with the fans at their quiet settings, the performance is on par with High Performance air cooling.
)Messing around with H2O provides you with more modding, creativity and tweaking opportunities.
Water can be set up that needs little or no maintenance- I have two rigs that get no more maintenance than my air cooled stuff: less clogging in the fans due to lower speeds, but add checking water level every few months. Comes out the same. (I don't use fan filters on anything.)
But messing with a water cooling system can be a hobby in and of itself, if you enjoy it!
Personally, I do- I have four water cooled machines, including an mATX rig for LAN use, and three air cooled rigs.
It really comes down to personal choice: an air cooled system CAN be made quiet and competitive (behind the best H2O but better than many decent setups) with water but you can easily end up spending the same money.
Water cooling is not for everyone, just like overclocking isn't done by most computer users.
Of course, I am hooked, but I can see the (dis)advantages of both.
Personally (obviously!) I think the added flexibility of water cooling is well worth the time and effort: my main rig is normally one of my quietest computers and has decent temps.......when I turn my fans up to full power, it is the loudest.
Temps drop to insanely low levels though.
And even with the fans at their quiet settings, the performance is on par with High Performance air cooling.
- Joined
- Jan 22, 2003
Water gave me 200 MHz more on my Barton compared to air. That's not such a big deal really, depending on how obsessed you are with this stuff.
The main thing I got from water was the ability to use any vcore I wanted without heat being an issue and without my system being loud. And like rogerdugans said, water gives you something else to mod and tweak.
The main thing I got from water was the ability to use any vcore I wanted without heat being an issue and without my system being loud. And like rogerdugans said, water gives you something else to mod and tweak.
- Joined
- Nov 6, 2003
- Location
- Denver, CO
Water can hold much more heat than air. Meaning you can hold MUCH MUCH MUCH MORE heat in a cubic inch of water than a cubic inch of air. So water is quite effective. You can do much more things with water too, like get an AC unit or a fridge and drop the evaporator in the res, and boom, you got subzero temps Or you can much more effectively cool a pelt, or simply have silence. Water however is more expensive 
Or you can much more effectively cool a pelt, or simply have silence. Water however is more expensive 
ElectroX
Banned
- Joined
- Jan 25, 2004
- Location
- Orange County
@md0Cer said:Water can hold much more heat than air. Meaning you can hold MUCH MUCH MUCH MORE heat in a cubic inch of water than a cubic inch of air. So water is quite effective. You can do much more things with water too, like get an AC unit or a fridge and drop the evaporator in the res, and boom, you got subzero temps
How could you get subzero temps? Wouldn't the water just freeze?
- Joined
- Jan 6, 2004
- Location
- USA
Water is more effective than air, but there are a lot of quality air cooling solutions that will do a quality job at a decreased price. The downside is noise, a quality air cooled system will make a good amount of noise (sometimes unbearable).
- Joined
- Jun 5, 2003
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- TEH INTERNETS
ElectroX said:
Put antifreeze in it? Many people use ethylene glycol, some use ethanol mixed together in water to lower the freezing temp.
Water is a much more effective heat transfer medium than air because of two things: it's specific heat capacity and it's density relative to air.
The SHC is the amount of energy required to raise 1KG of water by 1°C - in water's case it is 4.2 kJ kg-1 °C-1, air is 1.0 kJ kg-1 °C-1. This alone makes a mass of water 4 times harder to heat up than an equivalent mass of air, so the result is water can carry more heat energy per °C temperature rise, which means larger delta T between the cooling element and the coolant.
Now the figures above were for mass - water is ~780 times as dense as atmospheric air, so a MUCH smaller volume of water is required to remove a similar amount of heat.
And coupled with a radiator, this provides a much bigger surface area for the heat in the water to escape into the air, increasing the effectiveness of this inefficient step.
The implementation cost of a WC system is much more than that of a decent aircooling system, but it leaves more room for upgrading (pelts + GPU/NB blocks), tinkering and such.
And it's quiet.
- Joined
- Oct 9, 2003
- Location
- Phoenix. YOUR HAIR IS GOOD TO EAT
If you ask me, every day water cooling becomes less and less of a great cooling solution. I was able to run my Barton at 2.2V, with some generic 80mm fan, and get about 48c idle. Granted that's fairly hot, it was running quiter than most water cooling systems, with absolutely no case fans. That's with a $50 SP-97 that took a few minutes to install, and no assembly. With a 120mm fan for an intake, one on the side panel, one blowhole, and one exhaust, you can run your computer virtually silent, and still get very exceptionaly numbers. Honestly, 2.2V is the max my motherboard(NF7-S) will allow, who wouldn't want that? Watercooling looks beautiful though.
- Joined
- Jul 25, 2003
- Location
- Rio de Janeiro
Vrykyl said:
im running:
1x 120mm delta 190cfm
5x 80mm Tornados
2x smart case fan2's
2x 80mm panaflos
7x assorted other small fans for custom component and hdd cooling
Do you have pics i would like to see how you got all those fans into one case
- Joined
- Feb 16, 2004
- Location
- Tennessee. USA
All I can say is: this is one very LOUD case right now... three intake, volcano cpu cooler, two exit, one back blow, ( back blow is placed in the case to prevent dust from settling on components)
