Reasons you watercool

mpteach · Post by **mpteach** » Thu Jan 15, 2004 6:54 pm

Everone dreams a about watercooling but very few people do. Heres a poll for SPCR.

NOTE: if your line of work requires serious overclocking and you watercool for silence Please specify what it is.

1398342003 · Post by **1398342003** » Fri Jan 16, 2004 1:44 am

I watercool for silent overclocking.

chylld · Post by **chylld** » Fri Jan 16, 2004 2:16 am

If I did watercool (and I plan to in my next system) then i'll do it for ease of heat removal. WC allows you to gather all the heat in one place (the radiator) which makes it much simpler to cool the computer.

Gooserider · Post by **Gooserider** » Sat Jan 17, 2004 6:43 pm

I want a quiet, but high power machine (Dual CPU, lots of drives, etc.) WC lets me have lots of loud, hot components without lots of fans.

daroach1414 · Post by **daroach1414** » Sat Jan 17, 2004 8:08 pm

Well for me...im an ex-Lego person. (if you dont know what legos are... well...

). So i always seem to need something around to tinker with or to build.

I decided to water cool my computer this year. Since then i cought the silent bug and have been coming to this site for quite a while now for all the cool information

Thanks all

mpteach · Post by **mpteach** » Sun Jan 18, 2004 12:20 pm

Im an ex-Lego person too. Unfortunatlely i have a friend who is still Lego-person. He has a bunk bed and the top bunk is for legos.

I dont have the money to watercool but it seems like it would be a long term investement because watercooling doesnt get outdated like everything else. How do people do maintanace on watercooling gear?

If a hose in a car gets a leak you'll find out about it pretty soon. If a hose in a computer gets a leak then enough water could collect on your mobo to blow everthing. Do people replace their hoses on a scheule or do pressure tests?

silvervarg · Post by **silvervarg** » Sun Jan 18, 2004 1:09 pm

Quickest real easy way to notice if you have a leak is to have the reservoar outside the case where you can easilly see it. Mark with a line your normal level, and you will quickly notice if it drops.
A more high-tech version would be to mount a floating device to measure the water height in the reservoar and also a few water detectors at the bottom of the computer. This would then be connected to some kind of alarm, or it could just cut power when an alarm occurs.

The high-tech version would be rather complex and costly...

mpteach · Post by **mpteach** » Sun Jan 18, 2004 1:34 pm

doesnt sound too costly. All you would need to do is attach a toilet float to a sensative switch.Or for great sensitivity use a float and a trip-laser. I think the problem would be that even a little bit of water can destroy a computer.

I think the best plan would be to check your hoses for cracks every couple of months. Once they start to degrade, get rid of them.

Why do people always use clear plastic tubing?

PiSan · Post by **PiSan** » Sun Jan 18, 2004 3:26 pm

I'm seriously considering something unique for my next pc (many years to come) and I thought about watercooling. I would hate for a little bit of moisture to cost me an arm and a leg in fried parts. I'm gonna stick to non-dangerous mods for now.

1398342003 · Post by **1398342003** » Mon Jan 19, 2004 8:55 pm

I have an almost disaster to tell. I was installing a new WB in my comp, and forgot to tighten a barb. (completly my fault) Water, water, all over the CPU. I then pressed the power switch. I got nothing. No boot, nothing. Long story short, the NF7 has a bios feature that stops power to the CPU if a short is detected. I tryed the system 2 weeks later and it was fine, though untill my new case is finished I won't be WCing. (4 weeks max)

Gooserider · Post by **Gooserider** » Tue Jan 20, 2004 1:41 pm

mpteach
I dont have the money to watercool but it seems like it would be a long term investement because watercooling doesnt get outdated like everything else. How do people do maintanace on watercooling gear?

Change coolant ~ once / year, vaccum or blow cruft out of rad periodically, thats about it.

If a hose in a car gets a leak you'll find out about it pretty soon. If a hose in a computer gets a leak then enough water could collect on your mobo to blow everthing. Do people replace their hoses on a scheule or do pressure tests?

Pressure in an automotive system are fairly high - 20 PSI or more, with much greater vibration, thermal and environmental stress. Pressure in a WC system is much less, with most pumps ~7psi MAX, so pressure is less of a problem. Temperatures are much lower, and the environment is much less hostile otherwise.

Also while leaks can be deadly to the hardware, it is worth noting that experience has shown them to be far less of a problem than you might expect. I have had a long running 'disaster survey' going at ProCooling, and it is amazing the %age of hardware that did NOT get long term damage from leaks. The other key lesson was that very few failures were due to genuine hardware failures, most were the result of either 'operator error' or bad design / implementation choices.

Why do people always use clear plastic tubing?

They don't

I've seen rigid copper setups, braided stainless, PVC, hydraulic hoses, etc. chosen for various reasons (often 'bling bling' factor)

However, I agree the most common choice is clear tubing. The generally reccomended Tygon R-3603 formulation tubing is highly flexible (a requirement, to avoid stressing the waterblock mount), kink resistant, and fairly reasonably priced. (though hard to come by) It is also extremely stable, and resistant to aging and deterioration. It is also less permeable than silicone tubing, so is less subject to diffusion losses of the coolant. Essentially when you look at all the features and requirements for WC tubing, it's the best overall choice. Thus far at least, experience has shown that it is not subject to age related failures.

Gooserider

Seal · Post by **Seal** » Tue Jan 20, 2004 4:26 pm

I watercool, but my reasons are neither of those. My reason is:

I want super quiet computer that is overclocked (more for value for money than fun) AND also runs cool.

Sounds unbelieveable but i have achieved all 3 of those by watercooling.

Heres a shot:

Oh yeah, and its the upgrade that im the most satisfied with ever. i think its VERY good value for money considering what you get from it/its easily upgradable and switchable to other systems, and dosent go out of date or half in price 3 months later like all the latest processor prices.

Also i cant stresss this enough, if you watercool, DO NOT buy a pre built kit AT ALL! Temperatures and performance is hideous! And theyre quite loud.

Seal

trodas · Post by **trodas** » Wed Jan 21, 2004 10:45 am

My watercooled reason is, that i must have QUIET machine, and i want run my Barton 2500 at 3200+

So i need powerfull watercooling W/O any fans, witch is possible with BIG passive radiators outside of my machine

However the project is not finished yet, because it don't working enought well to allow my switch from my old Abit ST6R mobo with Tualating 1300 running at 1600Mhz to my Epox 8RDA+ with Barton...

I need better tubing and Eheim 1250 to replace slow Eheim 1048

Seal · Post by **Seal** » Wed Jan 21, 2004 11:08 am

what waterblock / rad are you using trudas? I get amazing temps with my 1048. Heavily overclocked xp chip at 2.2ghz running at 1.8V

trodas · Post by **trodas** » Thu Jan 22, 2004 7:48 am

I using this cooper waterblock (Jaron Deep Freeze):
http://www.below-0.net/belowzero.asp?co ... %20Cooling

...and these cooper rads:
http://aquacool.cz/vymeniky.php?lng=cz&acm=4

More you can find there:
http://trodas.mujhost.cz/galerie.php?p= ... 7&d=1&v=v2