[High Treason]

I'm planning on changing my computer to watercooling, but I haven't touched the stuff for years (not since the Socket A days, and even then it was mostly other peoples home-made kit) so I want to know if anybody here knows some stuff about it.

I intend to cool the CPU (Pentium D 920) and possibly my GPU (GeForce 9600 - might upgrade to a 9800GT later) in the system with the liquid cooling, leaving the air cold enough to keep my hard drives running cool enough.

1. There are two pumps that I can put into the system, one is rated at 750 Litres per hour and the other at 200, Theoretically the 750 is better, but I fear that if I move water too quickly it won't get a chance to absorb the heat or be cooled in the radiator (I can only mount a single 120mm radiator in the system) so should I therefore use the slower one - I'm half decided here as I might just get the 750 and lower the voltage to see what happens.

2. Radiators now have a "Maximum fan speed" - WTF is that all about? Do they become less efficient if you exceed that as the fan that they will be mounted with runs at 2800rpm (And 53cfm) and the radiators are between 1800-2500rpm and I don't want to remove that fan, all I can assume is that it makes a lot of noise if you exceed it and noise doesn't upset me too much, obviously I want to be sure before I go ordering this stuff.

3. Will a single radiator actually be enough for such a cooling loop? Back on some of those ammeture systems you just relied on ambient temp and that never worked, but you never used to need a radiator that big, but now they are selling absolubtely massive ones (480mm! WTF!) which makes me wonder. At a push I might be able to put 2 120mm radiators in but it would not be easy.

Thanks and I hate to look like a noob, I just haven't touched this stuff in years and most of my knowlege is on older systems (anything pre-1996) and I just want to see if anybody can give me a second opinion.

[The Commander]

Do you even need a water cooled system?

Are you over clocking your computer so much that standard fans aint working?
When I upgraded my system the other month I got a new case,

The case comes with holes installed for water cooling, but I myself would never want to go there.

[High Treason]

Yeah, believe me it gets hot, especially the GPU (>80°C) - though that is designed for those tempratures, my main issue is the amount of hard drives and the fact that the air in the case is not cold enough for them or else they heat the air before it can go anywhere else.

I never overclock but this system was built with a FireGL V300 and 12 PATA hard drives and that was OK, but once I started replacing that stuff with bigger components (the 9600 and the 1Tb SATA drives) thermal problems started to emerge when the system is under load and it will often shut off if I play GTA 4 or leave anything running that stresses the CPU or Hard Drives. Now I have replaced the PSU and it's even worse, because the old one shifted a lot of air and acted as another exhaust fan, the new one hardly spins the fan at all even when it's really hot.

As for the case I reckon it'd be difficult to replace and I've grown attached to the one I have;


Of course, it's noisy as hell, and much as I don't mind the noise it does annoy me a bit when I'm recording commentary on something or whatever and a play it back and all I can hear is the computer.

And I don't know what you mean by it having holes for water cooling, why would I need holes? I've just realised that I nearly bought that exact same case when I built a little server a while back.

[The Commander]

High Treason, on Jun 16 2010, 09:09 PM, said:

And I don't know what you mean by it having holes for water cooling, why would I need holes? I've just realised that I nearly bought that exact same case when I built a little server a while back.

Bottom left of the picture.

You have some random stuff in your picture you have taken, it looks like your PC is in the kitchen due to the dish rack on the right of it, then there is a bicycle at a guess from the handle looking thing in the bottom right and is that a jar of Vaseline?

[High Treason]

The Commander, on Jun 16 2010, 02:28 PM, said:

(Pic of case)
Bottom left of the picture.

Still don't know why you'd need those, I assume some people want to move half of the thing outside, I guess that's useful for a resivoir for re-filling maybe or perhaps the radiator - but that seems a bit daft, I dunno, seems odd to me.
I'd be putting the radiator here on this fan and the 80Cfm front exhaust will pull the heated air out:

To the right there used to be hard drives above the audigy, but I have removed them because they didn't work properly and will be replaced with SATA drives lower in the case (where some of the other PATA drives were) so I can fit my pump and resivoir in there. (This one or this one) dunno yet.

Hard drives go under these ones using the second drive bay that slots in under the one in view - that is currently out of the case due to me removing the old drives - a heatblock will be placed on the CPU and possibly the GPU. Obviously that will screw things up with air cooling, those drives are in front of the RAM and both ram and drives make a lot of heat already without adding more in again.

Quote

You have some random stuff in your picture you have taken, it looks like your PC is in the kitchen due to the dish rack on the right of it

Yep, it's my house and I pay full rent, but the people that live with me won't let me put it in my living room because they can't hear my TV. Dunno abut other places but round here a flat that just has one room is common anyway so I see nothing odd about putting it in the kitchen or sleeping on my living room floor

Quote

then there is a bicycle at a guess from the handle looking thing in the bottom right

Yeah, Diamondback Sorrento FS, the stupid council demolished my shed and garage when I moved in so I have to keep it in the house, much to the councils dislike, the idiots shouldn't have took my shed down eh.

Quote

and is that a jar of Vaseline?

NO!

Can you tell I'm bored?

[Omni]

That air house coming out of the back of your power supply should hinder airflow more then help unless it has an external blower. Also I do not know what the end side is like but I assume its a cabling nightmare which also causes more heat buildup.

"Edit" Yes it is a cabling nightmare.

[High Treason]

Aww come on, it's not that bad

It was a lot worse when I had two power supplies in there, a bunch of home-made electronics and all the drives in with ribbon cables - thing is that used to work when it was built (except the second PSU which was added later and recently removed due to me getting a new PSU) but now even after cleaning it all out (filling half of the vaccum bag) and lubing the fans still doesn't keep it cool anymore.

Believe me, there are worse cabling nightmares in this house.

Edit: As for that duct, it's from that top inlet and I don't think it has a major impact on the air flow, it was first an experiment because when I had drives in there the inlet was sucking in hot air from the PSU and casing that was expelled lower down the case and causing some problems, that duct allows me to supply cooler air (via a handy vent at the top of my window) and there is no grill where the tube is mounted to the case, just a hole.

Hang on, why did you assume it was a cabling nightmare? What are you trying to imply? lol.

[Omni]

12 PATA drives is normally a cabling nightmare, also most people fail at cabling correctly.

[Zaxtor]

There are some disadvantage about water cooling, when you use water circulating instead of the well know fan for "air cooling"


If water or any power conducting fluids leaks and come in contact with the circuit board etc can damage any electronic components it comes in contact with. Most water coolant are sealed with rubber, rubber in longterm exposure to heat breaks down and become slimy like or cracks and cause leaks.

There are some fluids that doesn't conduct electricity such as mineral oils etc.

[The Commander]

Zaxtor, on Jun 17 2010, 12:18 PM, said:

If water or any power conducting fluids leaks and come in contact with the circuit board etc can damage any electronic components it comes in contact with.

[blackharted]

The Commander, on Jun 17 2010, 06:01 AM, said:

LOL!

[The Commander]

People that quote pictures with a one word reply are retards.

[blackharted]

The Commander, on Jul 6 2010, 05:43 AM, said:

People that quote pictures with a one word reply are retards.

You really shouldn't talk about yourself that way.

Oh yeah i forgot you really do have OCD

[Lunick]

blackharted, on Jul 8 2010, 01:52 AM, said:

You really shouldn't talk about yourself that way.

Oh yeah i forgot you really do have OCD

But he wasnt the one who quoted the picture and put one word -.-

[blackharted]

Lunick, on Jul 8 2010, 02:57 AM, said:

But he wasnt the one who quoted the picture and put one word -.-

I quoted the pic because thats what i was laughing at.

[High Treason]

Bloody hell, what has become of my thread? lol, nevermind, I decided to buy into this stuff but haven't got a waterblock on the GPU yet and have one of the two radiators out because they forgot to send the barbs for it.

Temperatures have improved a LOT!


I had one from before I installed it, I guess I will find it later, maybe be boring and post a load of crap photo's of the system I put in.

Edit: Oh, I did get a new graphics card, PNY GTX 260, waterblocks for that aren't bloody cheap though.

[Reavantos]

i use water cooling + a peltier. Standard water cooling on my video cards (trip sli) and a peltier + waterblock on my cpu

just have to be careful but its reliable and works great. even though my proc isnt top of the line (intel q8200) it idles at 10C and will go up to 15 under full load.


i first started doing it back in the days of the athlon k7(dye was off anyways so i could use a goldfinger device) but i had to install a program because using 52*F tap water from the pipes would cause it to ice up if left idling for more than 2 hours (not kidding!)

peltier devices can make a hell of a difference. do some research on them.

[High Treason]

That was interesting enough to read, problem with peltiers is they are expensive and not available in the UK - there are only two small businesses (one of which is in Wales) that sell any water cooling related stuff here. One idea I had was to place the radiators in one of those little portable fridges (seeing how they are 12V anyway) which seem to be cheap.

I rarely go above room temprature anyway right now, but I'm gonna have to make my own block for the GPU, because I can't find one that fits.

I started back on a K5/P1 system, back then you had to make everything yourself, some of that stuff was really fun, especially when others got it wrong. I did however take a long time off using it since my K7 (which it killed) - hence the original intention of my thread.

[Kathy]

I'm sorry, but do you understand that you have a BIG MESS in your PC? And if people are complaining about the noise then it's also a problem. You can have a pretty silent PC nowadays if you want.