Is a Water-Cooling System Necessary?

[Boy'nBlack]

It's not for show, but can be. It is just currently a trend that makes it seem like it. The buyer may not use it for it's intended use, like a loud pipe on a Civic, and just like to say they have it. I mean, RAID 0 is held in this same light, isn't it? The technical side to this practice is getting more and more misted in some skewed details.

Cooling anything does not make it faster. No processor magically goes faster because it runs 10C cooler. I hope no one has ever related that aspect either.

Watercooling doesn't help allowing things to run for months at a time. In fact, you may end up in trouble just walking away from a water cooled rig and never looking at it. When it starts gurgling, you need to top off the water. Miss that, and the water part is gone. I also hope that this has been a perk related, as maintenance is one downfall of watercooling. Air isn't void of that either, as you need to do maintenance on them as well.

Those built for show seldom have the real horsepower an ugly system may hold. Show cars aren't race cars, They're built for looks. "Tricked out" is relative. I think a 2-liter Pepsi bottle is more trick than glow in the dark store bought stuff. It's not pretty, but does some actual good at little to no cost.

Water is a great media for carrying heat. Everything is compared to water. Air has the same ability to carry heat as wood. What you can do with water is send it to every component that needs heat wicked, carry it to one spot, and have it do the exchange at that spot. It can do this efficiently enough that the fan(s) never has to spin up to maintain a relatively great loop temp. This is the possible quiet aspect that might be a huge plus for going toward water.

Dropping temp is the enthusiast, overclocker's, side to water. While we can certainly get average OC's with even the OEM coolers, they go a bit further with cooling assistance. Sometimes. Of course if it's not bound by temp, it won't help. But when you venture into the voltage bumps and looking for that next big step, aircooling simply has it's limits. There's many levels to the enthusiast's wants and demands for water loops. As a flip side, that vCore bump may not even be needed to force it to go to work because it was heat bound.

There's no way I can say I could sit here with an aircooler and find it plausable to run a 4.2Ghz quad, at 1.23v, along with a pair of video cards with their own pair of 30% bumps...and have them all load up at what would be normal temps 24/7. It's not even noticeably running until it crosses 85F in here. I also give credit to the very much aged water loop to allowing a common 3.2G run at 1.0v and 36C. I feel that's amazing for a quad.

No, it's not needed. I strongly desire to run in these states and do so at a hush. Spending $300 over 4 years ago has been a great investment.
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Had this in reply to kits being too expensive so air is just as good. It was more fitting to state it here.

To put some perspective to it, the SFF's here like to run hot using air. More and more air can be shoved in, fans spinning to full blast and it may help a few degrees. Better passive coolers ($35) for the video card, fans ($5-$15 a pop), trying different HS/F's ($40-50), it's easy to get toward $100 on air. Finally caved in, called it a wash, and forked out $150 and put in a compact selection of water parts. Works awesome, and always quiet.

Another aspect is that water kits are portable from system to system. A set of Maze4's have been in the same box for years and many component changes. This is from the 6600's through 8600GTS's and now on ATI 3870's. Same with the CPU block that started life over a P4D 950. Well built, yet expensive at the time, DIY builds are great investments for upgraders. I'm not big on air, but it appears that air users are always having to look for the better cooler of the quarter.

Just my opinions and personal justifications in using water and not air. There's pluses and minuses to both sides. Each user has to weigh them out and see which way has more pluses or minuses for their intended usage. A lot of myths need talked about though, or we're just comparing trendy machines as what it's all about.

[polobunny]

Epic graveyard dig on that 1 year old thread. :P

[RAID]

of course water cooling is not 'just for show'. along w/ the sexy looks and e-cred, watercooling allows for a quieter system while giving you a higher OC ceiling and you get to show your creative side by designing your custom loop. once the initial investment is made, the possible performance gains are worth it IMO.

[screwballl]

Originally Posted by polobunny

Epic graveyard dig on that 1 year old thread. :P

granted... but this is an opinion or info that crops up every few months or so... it is kind of good to keep this going, even if it was necromancered.

I said this earlier in this thread... I had a 600MHz Celeron that ran 24/7 since it was built new and I just gave it away like a year or two ago. My oldest system is my XP3000+ system that has been run 24/7 since it was built some 4 or 5 years ago (minus some downtime when the hurricane knocked out power for a few weeks)... none of my system use WC.

WC is for highly overclocked systems or for show... otherwise it really does not give any advantage over air cooling aside from it being slightly quieter. Of course take that in stride with the possibilities for leaks.

[Zambini]

Its been 85 for the past couple days and my temps have all risen at least 10°C but it still runs fine.

[NaeKuh]

Necessary?
Well, how high is your OC?

Fun?
Well that depends on what your definition of fun is.

Worth it?
Well what were you going after, and did you get it or exceed it?

Water can be yes to all that, or no. Depends on the person and whose flipping the coin. The gains, well thats totally dependant on your setup. Ive built dirt cheap water rigs totalling 150 dollars. And high end top tier loops costing almost 4 figures. :P

All my rigs minus one is watercooled. The one on air is passive, and its a server without overclocking. :T

But if you ask me personally, im spoiled by water. I cant tollerate temps associated with air. People smile and go WOW my GPU is loading at 50C awesome! i cringe cuz mine load at 35C. :X

Cpu load temps on my rigs are on PAR with people's idles temps. This is the standard i gained cuz i started to water.

If you guys want pictures for proof i'll be glad to post them, but parker knows who i am, and i dont pull stuff out a blank bag. :D


EDIT: ahhh so this is where you hide out RAID. :D

[Parker]

Very well said NaeKuh.
I am the same way, I like my load temps... LOW. I do whatever I can for low temps.

Oh and BTW...


get em ready naek!

[NaeKuh]

Originally Posted by Parker

Very well said NaeKuh.
I am the same way, I like my load temps... LOW. I do whatever I can for low temps.

Oh and BTW...


get em ready naek!

oh let me be humble please.



I think the RD-30 alone would scare everyone.

Heres my way of saying hello tho:

[Parker]

Naekuh you water nerd!!

[theburan]

I really need to get some water cooling setup for my computer, maybe pick up a 3870 and water cool that as well. Hmmmm..... time to hit up petra's and price out a kit.