Blogs Is there still a need for water-cooling?

Love my watercooled tj07

I went liquid cooled to cut down on the noise because my tower is on my desk about 2 feet from me and noise was getting annoying.
However after some careful cable tidying, UV coolant and fancy lighting it's more about aesthetics now.
So I get a nice silent system that looks really nice and still has a bit of a WOW factor from friends who don't understand the idea of liquid cooling.

 

For me watercooling is quite a change in noise but it can be a hobby next to pc's too.

 

I use my machines for design work. As long as it works, I don't care. I certainly don't wish to think about changing fluids monthly, or spending the price of a build again on water cooling components. Makes me laugh really when you see banks of computers churning away for years with stock coolers and parts.In the late 80s and the 90s it was Hi-Fi components and changing the interconnects etc, now computers are the new separates system for men.

 

No changing fluids for a year or so - fluids don't disappear. Just cleaning dust every few months more or less.
Stock is good for most of the people but there are PC enthusiasts also
One can hear the music but with appropriate HiFi headphones it could be a new world.

 

What great comments - this is why I read this site!

Dust and noise - I want my PC as quiet as possible, and low maintenance - high air flow = higher dust levels, or more frequent cleaning of filters.

DIY v Shop bought - how easy is it to buy a Corsair all in one! Don't have to worry about anything, leaks, kinks, bleeding, corrosion... Even modern cases are designed to house a 240 rad for the 5% of users who will ever water cool - it's too easy now and the cost of entry level is too low to ignore.

 

Tried water cooling for past 3 rigs, everything from kits to start off with to custom stuff. Really enjoyed it, but then it became a bit of a hassle. Now I've down scaled to a Corsair H70 for my I7 930 and with the GPU I decided to spend a little more and opted for the ASUS GTX 580 DirectCU II because of its awesome cooler so the heat and noise problem is sorted. Couldn't be bothered with maintaining a watercooling system every 8 months or so just so my rig looks 'pretty'. Now my old 1366 system still overclocks well and its a pleasure to live with. I still enjoy looking at other peoples watercooled builds though, and there are some beauties out there!

 

Don't have to worry about those things when u choose separate water parts either. To start with we no longer use water. We use vegetable based electrically inert coolant. Secondly kinks don't happen with most modern tubing. I use 12mm ID and it's very soft and flexible. Thick walled. If any tube is in danger of folding then buy some anti-kink coils. Hardly expensive and they look good in UV light.

Leaks? Ummm, no. Not unless you don't know what you're doing. I tend to prefer hose barbs with nylon hose clips. Very secure. I use plumber tape around nozzles. Even with push fit you have a secure system. Corrosion? How? Why? Not using water any more remember?

The 2 piece coolers have made cooling cheaper and easier for many people though. For me the downside is that you can't add extra blocks. I don't want a system limited to CPU liquid cooling. I advised my friends some years ago to go for XSPC kits rather than any 2 piece systems. They're still using their kits today but have expanded them somewhat.

I prefer large diamter 12mm (garden hose size) tubing.

 

A water cooled HTPC is bliss - only downside is the noisy DVD player!

 

Watercooling is not much use to me. I have an i5 SB overclocked to 4.5ghz which uses air cooling and it's as quiet as any watercooling setup and has very good temps too.

The only weak link for me is the graphics card, but that only becomes audible when it's being pushed in a game, and in those situations I have my sound turned up anyway so I rarely even notice it.

So for me the only thing I would want to water cool would be my GPU and that would just be if I had money to burn. Although my GPU is an HD 5870 which is surprisingly quiet. I think if I end up upgrading to one of the top end nVidia cards at some point, I would probably be more keen on water cooling that to keep it quiet.

 

I built a new rig a few days ago - an Asus P8Z98-V PRO, an i5-2500k and a ThermalTake Frio - uising 1 fan on the Frio and all 120mm fans down to 50%. *One* click on the Asus software and bang! 4.3Ghz! Thankyou very much. Thats an extra gig, for not a lot.

By turning the fans up and fiddling with the overclocking options, 4.5+Ghz wouldn't be too hard. Don't think I'll bother though.

Noise? Well 129mm fans are not really noisy! The most noise comes from my 4870 when I play Wittcher 2. Happy with it.

 

The article could be best entitled 'Is There Still a Need for Water-Cooling - for your CPU?'

Water Cheesecake IMHO. It's 24/7 stable - temperature changes in components occur gradually - an external radiator _CANNOT_ be beaten in the summer months (exhaust waste heat to the outside air directly - no 40C bedrooms ). I like not having blue screens from OC'd systems in the summer months.

Performance GPU's really benefit from watercooling as the article states.

Watercooling is more fun - aircooling is so mundane...

 

Totally agree. I was bored for the few months I went back to air cooling.

You can mod a liquid cooling system in so many ways also. I've just recently noticed pink tubing. Also may consider an in-line water chiller sometime.

 

Well that's the thing isn't it... Your CPU fans may be quiet but your 4870 not so much. I have a coolermaster cosmos. The one with the soundproof side panels. I've replaced one side panel with a windowed version but it's still a pretty quiet case. No amount of soundproofing could quieten those MSI 560's when I had them on air.

I don't want a lot of noise and heat when I play games.

 

I went with watercooling back in the day when the FX-57 was just coming out. Since then I have hung up the overclocking towel and just leave my hardware as is. I still use my watercooling loop as I already have it, and it will always be compatible with new sockets. A new socket is only a laser cut piece of steel away.

But if I had to consider doing it all over again I would probably not go through all the trouble.

 

Hello all
I have been very surprised at how cool Sandy Bridge architecture is. And thus i have been puzzling over the very issue, are Water cooling days numbered.
And i have come up with this. The question now is more like, How do you use your PC ?
Some people may do a little stress test in Prime, and run a game, let me tell you, Games do not push a CPU to 100 % load and keep it there for hours on end.
So if you like me and do some serious graphic rendering, yes i`m keeping my PC`s watercooled so that after 6 hours burning all cores at 100 % loaded and overclocked, they will still be okay.

 

I like air myself.. no problems over the long haul

you need to get a controller though.. adjust all the fans and have some good airflow into and out the case.. aftermarket coolers are a must- and what I like to do is run a duct to the graphics card and spot cool anything that needs it

true it's not as quiet as water, but you can get some good overclocks without crazy noise and no worries when your not there.. multiple fans in a system builds redundancy

 

I live south of Miami Florida and I have also had problems with heat and noise. I actually poked a hole in my wall and have the computer case in the storage room while I use it in my room. I removed my case side panels and got a nice 24 inch box fan up against the side of the case. It works great and it actually keeps dust problems to a minimum too. That room has no air conditioning and can get very hot especially now in the summer months it gets over 30C, my hard drives are at 35C and 4.3GHz 2500K is idle at 36C.

 

Oh come on, just because CPU HSF can keep up now doesn't mean there's no "need" for waterclooing. GPUs are still completely out of control.

It's a hobby itself, seperating average from serious, and is as much about aesthetics as functionality.