Why did you QUIT water cooling?

[james111]

I watercooled for about 2.5 years but got out of it in the summer of last year. It was great and I loved it, but back then I was changing hardware a lot and it was pain to take everything out etc.
Having been out of the game for sometime now, I've been thinking of going back. I guess it's because now I've got a naked x2 chip and wanna see if I can use the same settings with lower volts :S
Another reason I quit was because I didn't care about my temps as much as I used.

 

[JFettig]

Major PITA.

that and Im not gonna put watercooling into my mAtx case that wont even perform as good as my heatsink. What a waste.

Some of you guys spend WAY too much on this little hobby.

Jon

 

[Slayer2003]

Some of you guys spend WAY too much on this little hobby.

Jon

Is that a custom block I see in that pic you got there?

 

[JFettig]

I have LOTS of custom blocks

Each of my custom blocks cost me about $10 at the most though(typically around or less than $5) plus time.


Jon

 

[Chaos Snake]

I quit watercooling after about 2 years of cooling when I went from a Socket A to Socket 939. I just got to the point that I hated having to matain the thing (draining and cleaning). Plus I started going to LAN parties and it just wasn't that portable.

 

[Owenator]

Why did you quit water cooling?

I stopped watercooling when I got a socket 754 board and I didn't have the time to make a new water block. I've since gone to socket 939 with air cooling still.

I had a watercooled rig for around five years prior. I started posting about it in fall 2001. http://www.overclockers.com/tips672/)

Recently I have been feeling the itch to go back to water cooling so only time will tell. If I do go back it will be with a watercooled GPU and CPU.

O

 

[Joe Camel]

i stopped water cooling (my bench/sig rig's CPU) because i went to phase-change.

but im still using water to cool my TECed GPU... although i hope to be phase-change cooling that soon too...

i guess i would have to say that i quit water cooling because of performance.

 

[JFettig]

I actually brought some of my gear up the other day for a rainy day when I'm especially bored

Jon

 

[bryan_d]

I stopped watercooling because:
A) It almost killed my cats
B) Dirt poor ($300.00 goes to better things like... a life)
C) With air cooling now... I have spent more time actually enjoying my computer than I did in the last year watercooling it)
D) I always felt weird leaving it on for the long weekends.

But I will miss those sweet temps though, and the hummm...

Bryan d

 

[marscay]

I stopped watercooling because:
A) It almost killed my cats

teehee

 

[CCUABIDExORxDIE]

I stopped watercooling because:
A) It almost killed my cats

teehee

not funny! the antifreeze that we use to anti-corrode our loops kills livers on pets and other animals.

 

[Iron Hawk]

More of a time and effort or cost vs. reward thing.

I am a project oriented, and I like to home brew. When I was in high school, water cooling my computer was my hobby. I also played video games. I had fun chasing the highest benchmark.

I went to college, and my interests changed. I upgraded my computer, and used one of those Cooler Master self contained Pump/Waterblock combos for a few years. It was a gift, and I tried it out. It worked nicely with my CM stakder case. I wasnt playing video games as often, and didnt have a desire to overclock to push for more performance. My computer did everything It needed to.

I built a new computer about 18 months ago, and I decided to build it into a 19" EIA rackmount chasis. Less space, so I went with air cooling.

Ive considered get back into watercooling, but my other interests seem to be taking advantage of my time and money.

 

[Nebulous]

Holy thread resurrection Batman!

 

[dribblesnort]

I stopped watercooling my systems because they were no less noisy than a normally-cooled system, and cost far more money.

If I'ma sink $300 into a hella-nice watercooling system, slap me. Then tell me to save that money and go buy another 5870 or an SSD.

 

[Diggrr]

Though severely resurrected, I'll play along.

I've been watercooled since February before I joined here. Yeah, about 9 years next week.
It used to be a blast building everything, but like all hobbies over time, it has lost it's appeal.
I don't overclock, and I don't game. This little ITX needs little beyond what the Dynex 1-U cooler is doing for me (15°C above my water setup) with the same silence.

I have a really quiet yet powerful external water system built, but haven't used it since I switched cases, even though it would literally take minutes to install.
Thought about selling it actually, as it no longer is needed.

 

[4GHZ_or_bust]

I've been WCing for a very long time, since when I had socket 478 P4. I did quit briefly when I built an AMD X2 5000+ system and didn't have enough money. It was wintertime then so I wasn't too worried about heat for a few months.

 

[Spawn-Inc]

I stopped watercooling my systems because they were no less noisy than a normally-cooled system, and cost far more money.

If I'ma sink $300 into a hella-nice watercooling system, slap me. Then tell me to save that money and go buy another 5870 or an SSD.

get the right rad and right amount of it and it can be silent, just more costly.



still water cooling a plan to for the next good while on my main rig.

 

[rogerdugans]

Speaking of resurrection....

I've been watercooling for about... 8 years now, maybe?
I currently have 3 systems watercooled (main, webserver and one testing rig) and parts for one or two more.

The only systems I do not watercool are: car pc (Atom dual core) house machine (which I don't use) and some that are laying around.

I just don't want to have to deal with the hassles of air cooling- too much maintenance and too much risk of something overheating and dying for me.

As for the cost- I would bet money that I have spent less on cooling in the last 4 years than most people here.

 

[muddocktor]

I've been watercooling continuously on at least 1 system since early 2002, when I built my first loop on a socket 370 rig (with a tec no less). Since then I've trended more to air at times and in the last year or 2 I have gone to mostly water. It's a hobby to me and I find that with multiple computers running in the computer room I can keep the background noise lower running loops instead of high end air. But I can understand how someone would get tired of cleaning loops and it's a little more of a PITA than cleaning out a heatsink. I've never had any real problems with leakage and I've only had 1 pumnp failure and it wasn't an outright failure either but rather a pump started making some ungodly screeching noises one day out of the blue.

I presently have 3 watercooled systems running and 1 air cooled testbed system, plus a Mac Mini I bought on a whim at the house. I recently fried 2 motherboards in the testbed system, so I have a complete watercooling loop and case all set up with no mobo in it too.

 

[markp1989]

right now i have only water cooled 1 rig, that was for noise reasons, i have a 320 radiator for a cpu only loop with very slow fans, and a undervolted pump, so unless im under heavy load (such as prime) i cannot hear the fans, i could of probably got it silent with an over sized heat sink, but i had never wcd before, and wanted an excuse to get one

edit: @The person who mentioned there cat getting ill. was you using anti freeze and water or pt nuke or what?

i want details because i have 2 cats my self.