WHich cooling solution do I need? Water or air?

[Finiamh]

I am wondering what I might be doing wrong and need to do different on my setup. I will try to follow guidelines for asking to not be a total noob to this forum.

Situation:
Though my system is mostly quiet, after an hour or so of playing Battlefield 2142 and the like, the room I am in becomes steadily hot and uncomfortable.

Current setup:

Mobo-Asus A8N SLI Premium(fanless heat pipes for NB and SB)
CPU-AMD 64 X2 2ghz dual core. Not overclocked.(part # escapes me)
CPU cooling- Thermaltake P0075
Power Supply- Antec NEO HE 500
GPU- ATI Radeon X1900 XTX 512mb PCI-E
GPU Cooling- Factory fan it came with.
RAM- Generic mix totaling 1.5gb.(will upgrade after finding cooling solution)
Case- No idea of make. I have an 80mm fan on front and one on back drawing air in from front and out back. And the case has port on side panel that vents right to CPU fan.

Desired result- I am not sure if I need water cooling or better air cooling but would like to have it not heat the room as much and still stay somewhat quiet.

Thanks for input!!!

 

[mkirby]

what temps are you getting Idle and Load?

 

[Immortal_Hero]

If you are wanting to keep your room temperature down I would suggest water as it disapates heat into the air less rapidly. A lot of the heat is simply stored in the water and never disapated into the air.

 

[Finiamh]

I just found this forum today at work so I am not aware of my idle/load temps. Will check them when I get home. Yea, I am leaning toward water. If that is what winds up being suggested overall, I will search the forum for a setup, unless somone can reccomend a non-overclock setup here.

 

[Immortal_Hero]

Kits are generally not a good way to go. There are tons of threads in the H2O cooling section that will be helpful. Go look there and ask questions as necessary. There same parts come up over and over.

 

[noxqzs]

If you are wanting to keep your room temperature down I would suggest water as it disapates heat into the air less rapidly. A lot of the heat is simply stored in the water and never disapated into the air.

I am sorry, but your reasoning is incorrect. If the heat is stored in the water, where does it go, and how does the cpu cool? Air and water do the same thing, redirect the heat coming from the cpu into the environment. Water is more efficient due to the larger heat exchanger possible with such a system. The amount of heat dumped into the environment will be the same.

 

[Immortal_Hero]

I am sorry, but your reasoning is incorrect. If the heat is stored in the water, where does it go, and how does the cpu cool? Air and water do the same thing, redirect the heat coming from the cpu into the environment. Water is more efficient due to the larger heat exchanger possible with such a system. The amount of heat dumped into the environment will be the same.

If all the heat is disapated into the air then why does the water get warmer as the system runs? If it were 100% efficient the water after the rad would be the same temp as the ambient air which would be the same temp as the water started at. Is it in most water setups? Nope.

 

[Finiamh]

In an air cooled system heat dissapates from every hole and gap in the case it can find. In water cooled the heat is more concentrated coming mainly out of the rad. Correct? Well, and the PS fan and such.

This would be easier to manage rather than having the whole case act as a radiator for the room.

 

[Automata]

If all the heat is disapated into the air then why does the water get warmer as the system runs? If it were 100% efficient the water after the rad would be the same temp as the ambient air which would be the same temp as the water started at. Is it in most water setups? Nope.

The reason it heats up a little is because, yes, the radiator is not 100% efficient. The radiator would have to be very large to dissipate ALL of the heat that the system produces. It would be like the graph of 1/x where x>0. The Y axis is the temp and the X axis is time spent inside of the radiator. I'm not saying it is impossible to reach ambient, I'm saying it would take a large radiator to achieve it. It absorbs some heat until the water reaches equilibrium. At that point, the heat output of the processor and any other components included in the loop equals the heat coming out of the radiator.

If all the heat is disapated into the air then why does the water get warmer as the system runs? If it were 100% efficient the water after the rad would be the same temp as the ambient air which would be the same temp as the water started at. Is it in most water setups? Nope.

I second the motion, you can't escape the laws of physics!! OBEY!!!

 

[noxqzs]

If all the heat is disapated into the air then why does the water get warmer as the system runs? If it were 100% efficient the water after the rad would be the same temp as the ambient air which would be the same temp as the water started at. Is it in most water setups? Nope.

You are right, nothing is 100% effiecient. However, do not forget that a radiator is nothing more than a metal heasink with water traveling through it. All the water is doing is redirecting energy from one place to another, much like heatpipes do. Its the amount of heat the waterblock absorbs, versus the amount of heat that the radiator dissipates that will ultimately matter.

 

[enz660]

heat dissapation is a GOOD thing. You know your cooling is working when the room gets hot. What you want is better room airflow. Crack open a window, open a door or something. Every type of cooling (except dry ice) will heat up the room. Heat goes from the cpu, into the heatsink, and is dissapated into the air. If you go water cooling, yes, your cpu temps will probably be a bit better. But what does this mean? this means mroe heat is being dissapated somewhere else, probably out of the system, thus making an even hotter room. Sure some of the heat will stay in the water, but if it gets too hot, this means your wc loop sucks. Im guessing phase change works the same way but I dont know exactly how. Do you see what im getting at? You WANT any hot air to EXIT out of the case. If it comes down to it, play shirtless or naked

 

[jivetrky]

If all the heat is disapated into the air then why does the water get warmer as the system runs? If it were 100% efficient the water after the rad would be the same temp as the ambient air which would be the same temp as the water started at. Is it in most water setups? Nope.

Eve though the water does heat up, it evens out after a bit. At which point, you have the exact same amount of heat coming out either way. The cooling solution does not change the amount of heat that the CPU and rest of the system will produce.


The only thing that could be true is that with a water setup you can generally handle removing MORE heat from the CPU than you can with an air cooler. This means that you can increase the speeds/volts of the CPU and thus you are creating more heat. So with water it is possible to heat the room more quickly because your CPU can handle bleeding more energy. But at the same CPU settings, the heat removed will be the same either way.


So the real answer is that the only thing you can do is to try LOWERING voltages or even underclocking to produce less heatloss. Other option would be to hook a duct from the computer's exhaust and vent the hot air outside of the room/house.

Or just open a window?

 

[smokie mcpott]

If it comes down to it, play shirtless or naked

word...my computer room gets so hot, im tryin to get my wife to play naked too...so i just turn on a couple extra computers in the room...lets see her escape that.

lol
i put a window air conditioner in my computer room window, i even have to run it sometimes when its sub freezing temps outside. i have the air/heat vent that comes from my central unit, blocked off so the only heat produced in the computer room is from computers

 

[jivetrky]

heat dissapation is a GOOD thing. You know your cooling is working when the room gets hot. What you want is better room airflow. Crack open a window, open a door or something. Every type of cooling (except dry ice) will heat up the room. Heat goes from the cpu, into the heatsink, and is dissapated into the air. If you go water cooling, yes, your cpu temps will probably be a bit better. But what does this mean? this means mroe heat is being dissapated somewhere else, probably out of the system, thus making an even hotter room. Sure some of the heat will stay in the water, but if it gets too hot, this means your wc loop sucks. Im guessing phase change works the same way but I dont know exactly how. Do you see what im getting at? You WANT any hot air to EXIT out of the case. If it comes down to it, play shirtless or naked

Any type of cooling will produce the same amount of heat in the room. Dry Ice cooling is still removing that same heat out into the room. Same with Phase change. Only thing is that phase change will produce even more heat because there is additional heat coming from the compressor.

Although I guess the same is true with watercooling. The pump is actually creating additional heat.

 

[jivetrky]

word...my computer room gets so hot, im tryin to get my wife to play naked too...

This is a great reason for overclocking

 

[Finiamh]

Well, a secondary wish is less noise too. The GPU fan on that X1900 can get a good high pitched thing going on sometimes.

I have searched a bit for non-OC CPU/GPU setups but am having trouble. Can someone suggest better search parameters I can try or link to threads they can think off the top of their head?

Thanks

 

[UglyChild]

Quit arguing people, its pointless!



Finiamh

Open a window in your room or turn down the heat in your house. And keep the door to your room open so the heat and the cold mixes with the rest of the house.

 

[enz660]

Any type of cooling will produce the same amount of heat in the room. Dry Ice cooling is still removing that same heat out into the room. Same with Phase change. Only thing is that phase change will produce even more heat because there is additional heat coming from the compressor.

Although I guess the same is true with watercooling. The pump is actually creating additional heat.

well actually, heat energy comes from the cpu into the dry ice until both temperatures are equal. Its the only type of cooling that starts from a very cold source, unlike others, which have to work around ambient temps.

 

[jivetrky]

Unless you live in a warm climate, I would think the "free" heat would be welcomed I would certainly like to heat my house by the already running computers versus the electrical heat I have to use.

 

[jivetrky]

well actually, heat energy comes from the cpu into the dry ice until both temperatures are equal. Its the only type of cooling that starts from a very cold source, unlike others, which have to work around ambient temps.

Hmm, I don't understand what you mean. Have anything to show me visually? (links or something)

Only thing i could figure is that since there is no additional heat created from the process that is would end up putting less heat into the air (as in ONLY the heat from the CPU). But it's still putting out all of the heat dissipated from the CPU. otherwise, where does it go? I would think physics/thermodynamics would say it would HAVE to go somewhere, right? (BTW, I'm no physicist, just working on logic here)

EDIT: or does the extreme low temps somehow cause less energy to be leaked?