Hardware Watercooling 101

When I try and go to page three or four it tells me the page does not exist on the server o.0

I really want to read this too, I am wanting to WC my PC this fall

 

Nice article. It's nice to see a fairly comprehensive guide to watercooling.

I do want to address one of the initial points in favor of watercooling:

I see this point made in just about every watercooling guide, but I think it's a little misleading. If you're using watercooling to replace the fans on those beefy graphics cards, coupled with a power-hungry processor, you're going to need more than just a single, slow-spinning 120mm fan. You'll probably need 2 fans, both of them spinning fast enough to push a decent amount of air across the radiator. Add another fan or two for the passive components (hard drives, northbridge, etc.) and at least one more for the power supply, and the total number of fans is no less than when you started with air cooling.

A couple months ago, I was considering a watercooling loop, and silence was one of my main reasons/concerns. After my research, I found that with decent cable routing to aid the air flow, I can run my processor and graphics card at comfortable settings with fewer fans than would have been necessary with watercooling. By slowing the fan speeds, my system is now almost silent, runs cool enough, and not a drop of water was used.

I can see where watercooling can be attractive. Better overclocking, the l33t factor, even lower temps; these are all fine reasons. But with components putting out more heat nowadays, silence isn't really guaranteed with watercooling. At least, it's no more silent than a well thought out air cooling setup.

-monkey

 

pretty good 101

 

I tried water cooling and it wasn't for me and I can't understand why anyone but the most dedicated overclocker or no noise person would want it. With air cooling you can remove enough heat with good coolers and case cooling from the most high end components even when overclocked to quite high levels with almost silence if you know what your doing. But with water cooling your faced with leaks and most annoying a system you are unable to easily able to tinker with as it's full of tubes! (no more just quikly installing anything... evey job is suddenly at least 3hrs long while you replumb)...
For me water cooling was a big waste of money and someting which I wish I had thought about abit mroe before trying it.

 

Great guide! I didn't really understand how everything pieced together before that. I just might try water cooling on my next case.

 

As with everything, YMMV. A well-designed aircooled system can certainly hold its own against a watercooled system (although not outcompete it). If you build a watercooled unit well, you shouldn't have to worry about leaks and the loop should not get in the way of any tinkering.

 

I was want that, Nice guide, Thanks Bit-Tech Guys

 

Excellent guide. Makes me want to watercool my rig. The money factor is the main thing that's stopping me at the moment, but now I'm happy with my current hardware setup, I might give it a go come christmas. Would help if I actually had a case to put it in though, instead of the pile of wood that's still sitting on the floor (gotta be less lazy).

 

Great stuff, cheers bit-tech!

oooooooohhh...

 

thats a cruel statement to make

 

This is probably the best article about watercooling I've ever read (including the ones I wrote myself). Nice job guys!
I've been using watercooling in all of my mods, even my very first one (a ridiculously expensive ($300) Asetek kit). To those new to watercooling, I can only recommend getting 8/10mm (ID/OD) compression fittings. The fittings really are the source of at least 90% of problems with watercooling. And if you really want something thicker, you could try the 11/8mm Tygon tubing (you'll need special 11/8 compression fittings for that).

 

Nice guide for those who've never heard of or don't understand H2O cooling.

I myself was already familiar with the concepts due to having taken classes in thermodynamics and heat transfer.

I've been running water for ~1yr and I'll never go back to air (for my main rig) except while I've got it on a test bed (MB box); currently the case while I'm building a new custom acrylic case.

 

the swiftech and the fuzion are block that arent restrictive so they dont need a strong pump to keep up instead the aqua computer with the most restrictive design ive seen you will need a strong pump to make it shine....


beside if you have dual die like the qx you are better with a fuzion or the swiftech larger cooling base....

 

For the Bit-Tech staff or someone who has this set-up: Since you are about to review watercooling solutions can you review the Thermaltake Kandalf LCS (Liquid Cooling System) as I am looking to buy this soon. Is this a good set up for watercooling as the radiator is outside the case but built into the case. Does this have a good Pump, Block, ect.. it's priced at $260 US for case, fans, and watercooling setup. Thanks, Good 101

 

Oh my last reply might sound odd the Thermaltake Kandalf LCS is a Case with intergrated watercooling not a stand alone watercooling system.

 

Nonsense frankly. I'm water cooling an overclocked opteron, 7900GS, mosfets, northbridge, RAM and HDD all on a 120mm rad with a single 7v 120mm fan. It performs well and is damn near inaudible! Throw in a watercooled psu and you're saving yourself another fan.

 

ditto the above comments. very nicely done. im keep wondering about going water. as ive just ordered a q6600 it think the time to do it is now

 

I don't agree with that. I have two 120mm fans in my case, one intake over the radiator at the front of the case and an exhaust at the back of the case. Both fans are controlled by uguru to go between 0v and 7v so operate silently and they cool an over clocked Q6600 and a volt modded 7900GT easily and far more effectively than air cooling could. All this is achieved in a mid tower case with out loosing a single drive bay to the water cooling components.

I agree with you on the ease of swapping out components, it does take considerably longer with a water cooled system but then that is why its not a mainstream solution. How ever as i don't tend to change my CPU, GPU, or motherboard that often its not a major problem. Even then with a well planned loop you can make it almost completely painless.

 

I'm impressed Brett - you won't believe how much time you have just saved me.

My only gripe.................what took Bit-Tech so long! [j/k]

Looking forward to Part II

 

Dual Opteron and a Ati 1650 Pro on a single BIX here, baby! No sweat at all.