New Generation cooling

[Annoyingrob]

I don't know why i'm posting this, probably because I have nothing else to do....

Many of you out there use water cooling, probably with a TEC too. But how well is your cooling system working? Is your radiator up to the task? you could get a bigger, better radiator, or you could invest some time, and a few bucks in one of the biggest changes in pc cooling since....well...watercooling.

How many out there have heard of evaporative cooling (aka Bong Cooling)? The concept is old, but recently it has been popping up around the oc sites. Evaporative cooling usually uses a section of tubing, about 3 feet high, with a shower head at the top, to help mist the water coming down through it. The water falls, and some evaporates, taking heat away in the process. Most people put a fan in the bottom, via a "t" fitting, and blow air up through. The fan does not need to be that powerful.

Now, most people know what I'm talking about now, but some are still sitting there going, "Yeah, so... what's your point?" Well, my point is that these contraptions can actually cool your water better than any radiator could. These things can actually get your water below ambient temperatures! And best of all, the cost is next to nothing. A piece of pipe, and end cap, a t section maybe, and a shower head.

Now there are drawbacks to this design, like it's not very portable, and has to be refilled (Depending on resivoir this might a long time though). But, in the beginning, water cooling had drawbacks too, like big, bulky, and stupid (Who would put water in their pc???).

I know that evaporative cooling is the new wave of cooling your water, it still has some hills to get over, but it'g going to catch on, and people will be ocing their chips faster, and keep them cooler than ever before.

 

[Staz]

Maybe this should have been posted in the cooling section?

 

[Annoyingrob]

Hmm, that might have been a good idea. I can't believe I missed that. oh whell, it's here.

 

[Kingslayer]

Yes it is pretty neat. But I don't think it's worth it. By the time you made the bong, even a cheap one, you could have bought a cheap resevior. And I think a sealed resevoir is better. Less evaporation, less water use in the long run. And spillage is a big possibllity with a bong cooler.

But, like I said, the are pretty neat though, and I'm glad to see people thinking. And yes, they do work well.

 

[cjtune]

Annoyingrob, Yes, yes, yes, and yes. Since you seem rather behind on the progress of WC 'technology' here at this forum (and I have some time to reply to your post...), I'll update you to the fact that lots of us who watercool have already built bongs and radiators and just as popular. Not many of us are mechanical engineers but we all have grasped the basic concept of the 'bong'/evaporative cooler you were yammering about -otherwise poor overclocking results would have show otherwise. I agree to everything in your post including the fact that bongs can cool better than radiator-based WCs (for a given flow rate, $$ cost, etc.) and CAN cool the CPU below ambient (but practically, this is negligable) but I this I disagree is that bongs are NOT portable. Look around the articles in the main page and through the old posts and you will realise this fallacy. I built my bong to be portable and used a 13.5' by 19.5' by 12' plastic tank to be both the reservoir and cooler and if you need to bring your PC somewhere, you can just dump the rig in your car's boot and drive away in a jiffy. Another thing is, WC isn't likely to catch on as the mainstream method of CPU cooling simply because not many ppl would want the hassle of installing a WC let alone maintain it, and cost wise, air cooling is still the most energy-efficient, cost-efficient, widely available, no-brainer method of cooling, especially the future trend is now towards lower-energy consuming CPUs. But I do look forward to the day where every CPU would have a stock waterblock rather than a stock HSF...