Watercooling

At what point is watercooling necessary? Is it good practice period? Everything I've read is pointing to yes, watercooling is the greatest thing since sliced bread. Any thoughts, comments?

To put this in context, I am looking to do a new rig build. Here are some of the components I have been looking at:

case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6811119160
Mobo: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813131702
CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6819115070
HD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820148348
Vid: It will be an NVIDIA GX 500 series just unsure of which one yet.

I already have 8GB (2x4GB) of DDR3 1600 and a OCZ 700W Powersupply.

Are you talking about real water cooling or something like a corsair h50/h70, because the corsair units are really only comparable to close to high end air cooling, and really only offer a smaller on the cpu size for tight spaces. As for real water cooling, its expensive, and requires a decent amount of love for tinkering with your system, but if you are into that sort of thing, its fun.

Watercooling pro's

-it can dissipate more heat with less noise than an air cooler

-lower load cpu temperatures generally provide a higher overclock (though it must be said that the current sandy bridge 2500k/2600k run quite well with air and tend to only see minimal gains with even high end water cooling)

-if you decide to watercool your video cards, you can expect much better temperatures, while also reducing the amount of space they take up in the case as the full coverage waterblocks are much much smaller than the air coolers, with the added bonus that it wont sound like a hair drier when the card is under load.

Watercooling cons

-well, first off, there is water in your system, which, after being run in a loop with copper water blocks, will be conductive, no matter if you used distilled or payed the laughably high premium for one of the junk fluids that's supposed to be better than water and really isnt. So if you have a leak, you can and probably will damage hardware.

-cost, an entry level cpu only system is going to be 150-200 dollars, easy. If you buy high quality components, it will be closer to 250-300. If you want to add video cards into the same loop, you are going to need alot of extra radiator or its going to tank you cpu temps. And full coverage video card water blocks are the single most expensive piece of watercooling, to the tune of 100-120 per card. So watercooling the cpu + video card can easily approach 500 dollars.

-maintenance, expect to be tearing down your loop and changing the water every 6-12 months, which means a few hours to a day of having no computer. This will help stop buildup in the waterblocks and radiators. This gunk can be many things, algae and the like if you dont use a proper biocide/silver kill coil, dye if you use it to color your water (or buy colored fluid) yes this includes all of the products they sell specifically for watercooling. If you want color, use colored tubes, its just better, or even tiny bits of plastic depending on the tubing you use.


This is by no means a complete list, just a general idea of things to think about. But to give you an idea of why i watercool, and have no intention of giving it up. My current cpu is an intel q6600, which is downright ancient by todays standards. And yet, i can run it at 3.8ghz in the dead of summer (southern california) and 4.0ghz as a space heater in the winter. And i can do that with the radiator fans turned down to 7 volts so that i can hear my hdd/cdrom ect over the cpu cooling. So yeah, my cooling cost me quite a bit, but it allowed me to buy a 200$ chip close to 3 years ago that still runs strong today. And if i were to upgrade to a new sandy bridge today, my watercooling would transfer over, all i would need is a new backplate for my current waterblock (which is admittedly not the one i started with 3 years ago, but i love to tinker with my computer)

Just to stress out some things from the above poster.

He is absolutely right about the ceiling of OC for SB 2600K series being achievable with a good air solution. I'm running a 2600k on a Megahalem and I reach 5ghz. Going over that, the Hz/voltage/heat relationship becomes so steep, that you can't afford to go over 5.4-5.5 without a higher level solution (phase, Nitrogen )

Also, it really isn't a "build, close and forget" kind of thing, you'll need to watch the water level every day. Leaks aren't a problem if you do everything by the book. But the fear is always down there haunting you...

Make sure you mount the pump on foam too, or vibration will cause rattling in the case...

If you want to just WC for the experience, I'd suggest to just do it for your 5xx card. Thats the only place where water cooling will actually give you a signifigant amount of less temp on your card.

Also, to comment on personal experience. The loudest thing in my system is my 570. When everything is idling, the system is not loud enough to be heard. I keep my rig running over night, where I drop all fans down to 600 RPM and keep them there. I have 5 120" fans for airflow (2 top for out, 2 at the bot for in, and one in the back for out) as well as a 140" for input. I use another 2 on my megahalems and the card fan. All of the fans (bar the card) are connected to an controller along with the respective CPU,GPU,Ambient and HD temps. It costs quite a lot to build a rig this silent but the end result is just my thing. Powerful, silent and unambiguous (you need to see a pic to figure this out).

laterna wrote: Powerful, silent and unambiguous (you need to see a pic to figure this out).

I would like to see a pic. I'm big on quiet PCs.

@op: if you are overclocking, you might want to consider watercooling. If you are not, it may not be worthwhile.

I have a very minor overclock going (i5 3.2 -> 4.0) cooled using air ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6835106150 is the size of my head and very quiet).

I'll post some crappy phone pics soon









Here you go. Don't blame the quality, or the not so tidy cablework, I'm in the process of trying to work around a broken GTX570... But, when everything is closed and done, and the room is tidy, the PC seems to be like one I just bought from best buy (except for the fan controller).

Every fan used is a PWM controlled Sharkoon Silent Eagle (120 and 140) http://www.scan.co.uk/products/120mm-sharkoon-golf-ball-silent-eagle-se-fan-quiet-case-fan-inc-4x-speed-cable-set. I was gonna go with the scythe, but since I was going to go with white cable management (not clearly visible, since some wires aren't braided yet) I wanted a white fan, and the Sharkoons provide a very solid airmovement/sound ratio.

When idling, the temperature are within acceptable limits even with all the fans switched off. With the fans on 600RPM, the humm of the PSU is louder than the fans.