Is water cooling worth it?

leecho7

leecho7

Partition Master
I have a decent Fan/Heatsink, one of those Thermaltake Volcanoes (I think.. can't remember). Also have 3 case fans (mid tower case.) My comp stays around 43ish degrees (in celcius) under heavy load. Is that a decent temp for your cpu? My mobo temp runs at about 38ish (in celcius). The reason why I ask, is because a couple of my buddies have those fancy schmancy liquid cooling rigs where theres tubes and a fish tank or whatever.

Is it worth spending the hundreds of bucks or so to get liquid cooling? Or is it only for those who like to over clock?
 
Rob Williams

Rob Williams

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Well.. it's definately a plus to overclockers. I have yet to get one myself, but hope to in the near future. It's also for people who want a QUIET system. Since you have three fans, that's a lot of noise, and WC would cut down on that quite a bit.

Combine better overclocking, better looks and quietness.. that's about all Watercooling amounts too.

If you have the extra money to spend, go for it. Especially if you want to overclock your CPU / GPU.
 
leecho7

leecho7

Partition Master
My pc is actually pretty silent considering the amount of fans I have in my rig. The reason why is because I got those Vantec Stealths up in there. Pushes a good amount of air, and stays very quiet at the same time.

I used to have this one fan my cousin gave to me. I asked him why he didn't want it anymore and he just said 'Just didn't like it, good fan though, serves its purpose'. So I decided to try it out.

When I turned on my system, the first noise I heard was this very extremely ridiculously loud scream. It was like a blow dryer on max power. I felt the air blowing against my leg though, and boy did it push air. But the sound was just unbearable, you couldn't hear yourself think with that thing on.
The brand of the fan is Vantec, the type is Tornado. Man Vantec Tornados, they push ungodly amounts of air, but at the same time make ungodly amounts of noise.
 
R

reptilezs

Obliviot
i ran a thermaltake aquarious 2 a year or so back. it was a decent system that is quiet. the performance was comparable to air cooling but less noise. if you move up to higher quality units, youll get better performance for simaler noise. if you dont want watercooling just change the fans to low rpm fans.
 
Rob Williams

Rob Williams

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Nice set up man.

As a WC noob.. can I ask what that black stuff is in the bottom of your tower?
 
madmat

madmat

Soup Nazi
leecho7 said:
The brand of the fan is Vantec, the type is Tornado. Man Vantec Tornados, they push ungodly amounts of air, but at the same time make ungodly amounts of noise.
Click to expand...

I had one of those a friend of mine gave to me and I ended up giving it to another friend of mine...it wasn't the noise, I had it hooked to a rheobus so I could turn it down, it was the fact that it was like the siren song of old, every time I was around it it kept speaking to me "Come, stick your finger in my blades..." I just had to get rid of it.
 
Bobbythecat

Bobbythecat

E.M.I.
I have an Acetec Waterchill. Yeah, it's nice and quiet. The only sound I hear are those damn system fan and VGA fan. I had switched from a Socket 754 AGP DFI board to a eVGA Sli board, but the newer board is impossible to watercool, with the VGA blocking the system fan. So I get really good cooling for my CPU, but the system fan gets to make some noise. I could get a waterblock for the VGA, but usually it remains quiet, as whatever that I run isn't too demanding for it yet. Definately, go for watercooling if you'd like a silent PC. But don't forget a silent PSU as well. That thing could have up to 3 fans, and oh boy do they make noise! There are WC-kits out there that's relatively cheap for the performance they give. If you have the dough to buy a XP-120 or XP-90 from Thermalright, then I might reach a little more for the watercooling kit. (I have both WC and a XP-90 w/ Panaflo fan. Yeah, both pretty damn good cooling solutions, but the former is silent.)
 
Rob Williams

Rob Williams

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I can't believe you don't have a waterblock for your GPU! I'm currently working on a review for the Titan Robela water case, and am impressed so far. With the stock cooler, my load temp was 67ºC, but now with WC'ing it's 53ºC.
 
Bobbythecat

Bobbythecat

E.M.I.
The thing is, my GPU, if reported correctly, doesn't get much hot. So I decided not to get it. Yeah..if it does get hot, I'd have it already. My main thing is the 40mm fan that screeching inside my system....that little crybaby, makin some noise so long as my PC is on.
 
Rob Williams

Rob Williams

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Good points.

My previous max overclock was 470/1.2, now it's 480/1.2. Still not that impressive, but the driver won't allow it a MHz higher.
 
Bobbythecat

Bobbythecat

E.M.I.
Oh so sad, my 7800GT refuses to go higher than 460/1100...perhaps I shall get a memory heatspreader...and today, for the first time, I've seen my VGA hit 70 deg. Celsius! Well, by next month, I'll either have a DFI Infinity or ECS (the better and more recent one, but forgot the exact name), both the SLI version, and perhaps I'll add the VGA watercooler as well as chipset cooler. The ECS board's layout looks particularly water-cooling friendly! :) Finally, then, I'll get my Acetec to do some work!
 
Rob Williams

Rob Williams

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70ºC is not so bad. My 6800GT has been able to hit 100ºC. I could almost cook breakfast on it.
 
Bobbythecat

Bobbythecat

E.M.I.
Wow...that'll certainly scare me! One time I begain smelling something burning while playing CS for a long time...a day earlier, I was studying like crazy, so the next day I just played CS like crazy. Well, smelling something burning, I went into panic mode that I rarely enter. I immediately turm my PC off, and looked into it, so see if something was charred or smoking.... This was soon after I installed the Asetek Waterchill as well.. My case has that Antec Phantom 500W PSU on it that, through conduction, uses my case as a radiator, instead of the usual fan cooling. But at that moment, a hot case was the last thing I wanted, and aggravated my panic. But after 30 min. of inspection, there was nothing wrong. I decided to check the air outside, and sure enough, something was burning. Turns out that my neighbors were having a barbecue..dammit! :p
 
Bobbythecat

Bobbythecat

E.M.I.
Watercooling is worth the 150+ bucks!

Anyways, back to the query...on law school exams, going off topic, even slightly, is death.

Watercooling doesn't allow for a perfectly silent PC, unless you have a Zalman Reserator. When you have the Waterchill that I have, your CPU won't get much hot. Mine's usually around 45 deg. C under load, leaving some room for even greater voltage/heat. You could add other blocks for the VGA and chipset, and expand the radiator (be creative, and your case is also THE radiator!), for a completely watercooled system that is relatively quiet. Installing a watercooling unit also is fun! Spending time with my PC, adding stuff to it so that it could perform even better than before! :D
 
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