Question: Water cooling system-pros and cons ?

[Trux]

Originally Posted by AetasSerenus

I have always been more into mineral oil cooling, just dump the computer in a fishtank filled with the stuff and you're done, no annoying tubes and such..

isn't that an urban legend. the fishtank-cooling is on about every modding/cooling forum on the net, and it should work theoretically.. but is there actually anyone out there using such a thing in every-days-life? must suck ass to transport or mantain that thing..

Most of al I would want a efficient solid-state cooling system, I have always been a bit weary of things with moving parts..

i've heard about complete passive-cooled systems, but they are expensive as hell, and i think not suitable for high-power-rigs..

[Trux]

Originally Posted by Nih

I will defiantly look at water cooling my next custom build.

I recently replaced the fan coolers on my dual xeons with some hefty passive coolers i found.. i also gutted all the aging fans in the system and got some higher powered silent fans to increase the airflow.. but its still quite the little noise maker...

at what RPM are your fans running?
'high powered silent fans' will never work.. you have to run them on low RPM / power to silence them. any normal fan will make lots of noise on 12V, also a 'silent' fan. drive them just high enough to ensure save startup (4.5 - 6V usually does the job). you can even turn them further down after startup and check if they are running.

a silent fan-cooled rig will usually be not silent if you just build it up. you have to tune it! on the first switching on, run all fans full power and observe the temps. then reduce cooling-power till you are in a nice and save temp-range.
if you avoid high-power-components and small, high RPM fans, you will be very quiet - and cool, if the airflow in the housing is nice, steady and unidirectional..

[Jemima]

3 days ago my hubby would of sung the praises of water cooling system from the roof tops, now hes not so keen. 3 days ago he had a great water cooled computer, for the last 2 days hes had a plastic box with some expensive electrical decorations in it. he sprung a leak. he has used the zalman resorator system and had no problems with it whatsoever for over 3 years. he turned the computer on 2 days ago and a sorta fizzly pop noise (im not technical ) followed by some extremely loud expletives were to be heard through out the house. after some exhaustive testing over the bathroom sink, its not the pastic tubing thast caused the problem, its the cpu cooling block its self that has leaked. unfortunatly its dripped over his graphics cards and a few other thigns.

if you do decide to go for water cooling please remember that although u will get great cooling and probably never have any problems with the system, there is still the small chance that something like this may happen. or look into one of the non conductive gels that are available to be used with these systems (thats his next plan).

[AlexGold]

[QUOTE=Jemima;4632 or look into one of the non conductive gels that are available to be used with these systems (thats his next plan).[/QUOTE]
I have thought about this also. Putting the PC even in distilated water is kinda risky (for me at least). It will leak no later than a week because I like the *cough* kick my pc case when it loads slowly
The price doesn't actually matter because if done right I won't be having any problems with the PC for at least 2 years so it's worth it.
About what type of fluid to use for a cooling agent I think my choice would a gel-type substance. It will keep everything in there cool and even if there's a leak it won't do much of a mess.
There is one thing I don't understand. What If I want to change a hard drive in the PC or a maybe the Ram. Would I have to drain the whole thing out to add/remove elements ?

[Rednexi]

Originally Posted by Trux

at what RPM are your fans running?
'high powered silent fans' will never work.. you have to run them on low RPM / power to silence them. any normal fan will make lots of noise on 12V, also a 'silent' fan. drive them just high enough to ensure save startup (4.5 - 6V usually does the job). you can even turn them further down after startup and check if they are running.

a silent fan-cooled rig will usually be not silent if you just build it up. you have to tune it! on the first switching on, run all fans full power and observe the temps. then reduce cooling-power till you are in a nice and save temp-range.
if you avoid high-power-components and small, high RPM fans, you will be very quiet - and cool, if the airflow in the housing is nice, steady and unidirectional..

Setting the fan to run on low speed with just purely resistively can end up with a rattling fan, except when u have PWM (pulse width modulated) speed controller, which can efficiently run even bigger fans on low speeds without making them rattle at certain rpm-levels...

If you are into electrical stuff, you can build pretty nice independent temperature controllers to run fans smooth & silent at a wanted temperature...there are tons of guides to do so in the internet, but more efficient ones (PWM) need a bit of getting into first...

[rumsponge]

Originally Posted by Trux

isn't that an urban legend. the fishtank-cooling is on about every modding/cooling forum on the net, and it should work theoretically.. but is there actually anyone out there using such a thing in every-days-life? must suck ass to transport or mantain that thing..

Check out geekbrief.tv they just did a 3 part podcast on one they built. Actually, it doesn't look very practical.

http://www.geekbrief.tv/gbtv-528-fish-tank-pc-part-1

http://www.geekbrief.tv/gbtv-529-fish-tank-pc-part-2

http://www.geekbrief.tv/gbtv-530-fish-tank-pc-part-3

[Rednexi]

Originally Posted by AetasSerenus

I have always been more into mineral oil cooling, just dump the computer in a fishtank filled with the stuff and you're done, no annoying tubes and such..

Most of al I would want a efficient solid-state cooling system, I have always been a bit weary of things with moving parts..

Actually the solid-state cooling would not aquire a whole lot af moving parts, actually least of i can think of after 100% passive cooling which has only 1 element, which is the cooling fin...(and paste ofc.)

I havent had ever a solid-state cooling in my comp. but i would guess it has a peltier element innit, and sometype of heat conducting method, (heatpipe?) to a dispersing element, which i guess is just a cooling fin...And of peltier element needs power supply depending on the need of cooling power...These wont have that good efficiency, so they will most likeley take some power to get the cooling going, but once they do, i would bet they are a hasslefree and silent way of cooling your rig down...

buuut thats just speculative as i havent built one of those into my comp ever...

Originally Posted by Trux

isn't that an urban legend. the fishtank-cooling is on about every modding/cooling forum on the net, and it should work theoretically.. but is there actually anyone out there using such a thing in every-days-life? must suck ass to transport or mantain that thing..



i've heard about complete passive-cooled systems, but they are expensive as hell, and i think not suitable for high-power-rigs..

Yeah, i have seen a working rig on video with the Fishtank idea used innit, but i also remain sceptical of its use in everyday computing...

[Blake Seven]

As an electrical engineer working for an Electrical and Mechanical contractor and knowing how many leaks my mechanical colleagues get, I am in no rush to put water anywhere near my PC , let alone inside it.

[SideWinder]

I'ma stick with fans.

Water cooling scares me.

[AlexGold]

Originally Posted by SideWinder

I'ma stick with fans.

Water cooling scares me.

It looks scary but don't be afraid of the unknown