Christmas plea

[Tegan]

To all,
I am appealing for someone to inform me of the basics of pro cooling. I have recently been united with a relative who is an expert on the subject and i wish to find some common ground which we can share. For the past couple of months I've been visiting the site and reading all there is to read but as I'm not familiar with the subject I am unable to understand fully what people are doing, why they are doing it and the results they are achieving.

I'm well aware that this isn't the ideal place to post this message, especially with so many serious expert users and this is why I've not posted a message before now, but the general discussion board is only accessible after 250 posts, so I couldn't post there. This section appears to have the most posts so I thought it was as good a place as any. As it's Christmas night I'm hoping that you will all let me get away with it, and perhaps help me with a problem that's been stressing me for ages. If just one person could take the time to post me a reply to tell me simply the basics, enough for me to understand what the messages on the site mean, that would mean the world to me and would help unite two members of a family who should never have been kept apart for 30 years. You'll also be educating another interested person who will then go on to share the subject with others, surely that deserves a reply! And it is Christmas afterall!

Thank-you.

 

[crimedog]

Our computers make heat from 3 main areas:
CPU (hottest)
Northbridge (controller)
Video Card (yeah)

As overclockers, we want our equipment to run faster than stock. Once you raise the speed, the heat output WILL increase. Factory direct cooling solutions almost never do an adequate job. We try to get these three components as cool as possible, while staying quiet enough for us to think (well, most of us).

Air cooling: A copper/aluminum heatsink ontop of these components, and because there will not be a perfect contact between them thermal grease is used. Favorite brand is Arctic Silver. These heatsinks (usually) have fans that blow onto them, spreading the heat. Case fans move air through the case, keeping consistent airflow over these vital components (cold air in, hot air out).

Water cooling: "Waterblocks" rest on these components, these basically channel a steam of water over the center which by design picks up the most heat. The warmed water then flows through the system to a radiator or heatercore where the heat is dispersed and blown away by fans (usually larger and quieter than air cooling). These systems are typically quieter, more expensive, and do a better job cooling than air cooling.

Extreme cooling: The use of peltiers, phase changers, and other chilling devices is emplied on these hot spots, sometimes cooling them down to -100 degrees celcius. These systems typically take up a lot of space, time, and also cost a lot of money, but the results are the highest scores in every benchmark and comparison.

That is a very basic wrap-up for you Merry Christmas and happy holidays!

 

[clocker2]

Tegan.
I'm not familiar with the term "pro cooling".
Perhaps you could expand a bit on what it is you are looking to learn.
Crimedog's was a pretty concise and accurate synopsis of cooling in general.
Did that fit the bill?

 

[Xymurgy]

Are we talking about just cooling, or overclocking in general?

 

[prankstar008]

wow crimedog, that should be some sort of sticky...props

 

[shortbus_]

http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=70679

 

[Cypress]

Well, for me, i want good cooling because i wanna overclock. I'm not like some of the people here who upgrade every couple of months, we've just had what we needed in a computer, every couple of years or so we might upgrade(the most recent got us a 1.3ghz processor and 512ddr ram, that ram is the only damn good thing about our computer). So for me being able to overclock the computer(and since my dad's a programmer he says, "Sure why not" ), is a good idea. I intend on buying computer parts sooner or later and assembling my own computer, but we might move soon so i'll wait. So what's my best bet for a better computer? Overclocking .

So to overclock we need good cooling. I believe you're looking for just cooling "pro cooling", so for me i get good cooling to be able to overclock. The better the cooling, the less i spend on upgrades. There's also a bit of bragging rights involved, which is why people spend so much on extreme cooling, not to mention the speeds they get from it. There are also little things you can do, such as making a duct(either a direct line from the air outside to the cpu, or making a little duct from the HS to fan to get rid of the "deadspot"), blowholes(heat rises, make a hole at the top of the computer) and such.

To sum it up you:

Cool to make your computer better.
The cooler a computer is the higher you can make the processor, vid card and such go.
You can save money by buying a 2.6 and upping it to a 3.2, you want to have the fastest computer on the block, or you want to have and extremly good/fast computer so you gotta dish out more.

hope that helps.

 

[crimedog]

wow crimedog, that should be some sort of sticky...props

thanks thanks, i just hope he comes back and reads it