Is Watercooling really better?

[taz1004]

I mean in terms of overall system performance. As shown in HardOCP's K7Master review, overclocking the FSB to achieve 1450 (145x10) gives much better overall system performance than overclocking with multiplier to 1466 (133x11) even if the CPU itself is clocked higher because you are also overclocking other components when you increase FSB.

I know you can overclock the CPU and even the GPU to higher clock speed with watercooling. But what about other components? We all know that GeForce cards are limited by RAM rather than the GPU. Are those RAM sinks good enough to handle high bus speed? What about system RAM? Northbridge? And other PCI devices? Hard drives? All of these components radiate heat and need cooling as well if you raise the FSB rather than the multiplier to achieve better overclocking results. Can we possibly watercool all these components?

If done properly, I think one advantage of air cooling is the fact that it cools the whole system rather than just few key components. You might not be able to reach as high CPU clock speed as the water cooling but I am pretty sure air cooling will allow you to reach higher bus speed and overall system performance. I guess one downside of air cooling is the noise.

Just my 2 cents.

--BrianC

 

[RJ]

If u want to play you will have to pay one way or another. I'm new to it and I like it so far. Loved my swiftech Mc 462 didnt like the noise, I had 8 fans in my system just 2 noisy.my 2cents worth.:-}

 

[stool]

Watercooling your CPU and/or video card doesn't mean you automatically disregard proper case cooling. A proper balance between the two is what you should be trying to achieve.

 

[Colin]

Water cooling makes sense for the hottest componants. In my book, that's only the CPU although some of the gaming oriented video cards may apply. Water cooling the CPU will remove the main heat source from the case and lower case temps but as stool pointed out, proper attention to case cooling is a must.

 

[William]

With water cooling you lower your cpu temps which will make your system more stable, and will allow you to go higher.

 

[inertia]

At 1.4 GHz the die is putting out like 90 watts. That's more than the rest of the system 10 times over. Get rid of that heat first. Now that you're done with that, you've not in any way impinged upon your ability to cool the remainder of the system in the traditional air-cooled fashion and you do not have all of the heat from the core.

 

[TT120]

William (Jun 15, 2001 01:45 a.m.):
With water cooling you lower your cpu temps which will make your system more stable, and will allow you to go higher.

Which will make more heat, so your water can cool more, so your system is more stable, so you can go higher, which will make more heat, so your water can cool more, so your system is more stable, so you can go higher, Which will make more heat, so your water can cool more, so your system is more stable, so you can go higher..............and on and on......