Water Cooling?

[mobrien_12]

Ok, when I first heard about water cooling, I was thinking it was a pretty stupid idea.   Putting a conductive liquid inside your very expensive electronic equipment...

Well anyway, I'm getting really sick of computer noise.  I've tried things like fan-throttling power supplies (like Antec Trupower series), spacious, well-ventilated cases, and adding those little shock absorber gasket thingies to the fan and power supply mounts to deaden vibrations.  They help, but I know if I build a new box, the latest cpu and graphics cards put out so much heat that the noise would be much much worse.  

So I start to think about water.  

Who here has water cooling?  Does it make the box that much quieter?   Is it really complicated and risky?  Did you just water cool just the cpu or both the cpu and gpu?   Does the power supply fan or hard drive noise still get annoying??

[piratePenguin]

I remember I was gonna ask a similar question here before when I was interested in upgrading this machine (which I never did).

I only have one fan on the CPU and don't have it set to full speed (I don't have it overclocked) so I don't get too much noise but I'd still love to get rid of the bit that's there.

I once had this (not revolutionary) idea - and it would be great if you absolutely HATED noise - to keep the computer in another room, just have the monitor, kb, mouse and if you like external cd/dvd-drive (I don't use these much so I wouldn't bother with them) and whatever else you want in the room you're in.

I might do that when I'm older - but I'll probably just have one (or more) beast of a machine in a room on it's own and a bunch of shitty, quiet, low-power X terminals (or Y terminals if Y windows ever come along) around the house (connected wirelessly).

[Lead Head]

you might want to check out the Zalman vf-900 heatsink or the AC Accelero for GPU Cooling, an SI-120 or Big Typhoon for CPU, A PSU with 120MM fan, and a few Yate Loon case fans=Silent System

[H_TeXMeX_H]

I'm not sure, but I don't think it's pure water they use ... it's coolant (~50-70 % water) but still if the pipes rupture you may be in trouble. Never heard of this happening though. Here's a few examples of what they look like:

http://www.frostytech.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=76

http://www.xoxide.com/watcoolkit.html

and a good explanation of pros and cons:

http://compreviews.about.com/od/cpus/a/LiquidCooling.htm

So is liquid cooling worth the trouble?

At this stage of the market, liquid cooling is still only really effective for those people who are interested in over clocking their computers well beyond what air cooling will allow. Due to the size and difficulty of the installations for liquid cooling, it is not advised for general system use. There are many effective heat pipe designs being developed now that will cool off the current CPUs on the market without the noise from a large number of high speed fans.

If CPU speeds continue to increase and no new thermal breakthroughs are discovered in regards to CPU construction, I believe that liquid cooling will begin to become more common in standard system construction. This is going to be particularly true if PC systems are going to be integrated into consumer electronics such as home theater. People are sensitive to noise when watching movies or listening to music, so any system integrated into this environment must be able to run as quietly as possible.

[Pathos]

Who here has water cooling?  Does it make the box that much quieter?

You still will need decent air cooling for the gfx cards won't you ?

[mobrien_12]

You still will need decent air cooling for the gfx cards won't you ?

I think you can get water blocks that mount on the gfx card (the GPU) also.  This makes the plumbing more complex.

[mobrien_12]

I'm not sure, but I don't think it's pure water they use ... it's coolant (~50-70 % water)

Thanks for the links.  With the kits (like the ones in the second link) I guess it's not so hard now...no fabrication, and there are ones that are all self contained in the case (no "fish tank").

Antifreeze makes sense.  If the CPU ever got close to 100 degrees celcius and you used tap water it would boil... well if you've ever had a car radiator boil over you know that is bad.... with a PC it could be disasterous.  

The article does say it makes boxes run quieter...

[piratePenguin]

My main problem with fans is the dust...

[Jack2000]

My rig hasn't been dusted off from like 4-5 years and yes it is open(sceleton like only the things that hold stuff in place no covers)
the noise is not so bad ...
and when you listen to some music it just fades away t:)

[H_TeXMeX_H]

My main problem with fans is the dust...

Yeah, I agree, that would be my main reason to switch. I think I've said this before, but my GPU fan got clogged with dust ... which resulted in numerous seemingly unexplained crashes

Also, there are liquid cooling units with temperature sensors and alarms and shutdown systems to prevent "boiling over".

[Pathos]

http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=2&l2=6&l3=198&model=969&modelmenu=1

My brother just got a new case with a 12cm fan, its a hell of a lot quieter than mine but I suppose you've tried that.

[GenuineAdvantage]

The desktop I have with an Intel doesn't get that kind of hot, so I don't need water cooling. I'd get one in a second if I needed it though. In fact it still seems like a good idea because of the dust, though I probably won't get one. I'm not worried about the water because they're designed not to fail. It would be worth the quiet and lack of dust clog. But it's funny someone mentions the different room solution. That's what I do, sort of. My PC is in the closet. The fan is not set to be dynamic, that is highly annoying. One speed fan and closet treatment, peace and quiet out here. Except for the jackass neighbor sometimes

[Lead Head]

Water cooling uses Distilled Water. If your CPU ever hit 100*C, it would pretty much self destruct, and if it even reached 100*C with water cooling, you have some big issues. Decent water cooling that takes care of the GPUs to costs in the $300-400 range, for a lot less you could get a Thermaltake Big Typhoon cpu heatsing with a silent 120MM fan, a Zalman vf900 for the GPUs and a few silent 120MM case fans. Water cooling still needs fans...and to cool everything, GPUs, CPU, etc.. you will need a big radiator, like a 2 fan or possible 3 fan version... For nearly the same cooling performence just get a good air cooling setup thats silent.


EDIT: If you get annoyed by HDDs or PSUs with nearly silent fans,seak help

[H_TeXMeX_H]

You could use distilled water, but usually it's a special type of coolant or distilled water + anti-freeze.

http://www.planetamd64.com/lofiversion/index.php/t19768.html

P.S. If your CPU hit 100 C it would fry anyway ... so really it don't matter much

[Lead Head]

\

You could use distilled water, but usually it's a special type of coolant or distilled water + anti-freeze.

http://www.planetamd64.com/lofiversion/index.php/t19768.html

P.S. If your CPU hit 100 C it would fry anyway ... so really it don't matter much

No, check xtremesystems.org under water cooling, you don't use anti freeze unless you running a chiller in your water loop, there is no reason to add antifreeze, it would probably just lower cooling performence anyways. Like I said, its better off to use good quiet air cooling then dodgy water cooling. Another, if you get say a Copper CPU block, you will have to get a copper radiator, copper GPU blocks,etc..If there is any other metal besides copper, major corrosion will occur.