Why watercool

johny dolan · 5 May 2011 at 00:50

Got my Sandy and gfx cards on water which has turned a pc that sounded like a hoover to silent as a stick o ram and also great temps.

C64 · 5 May 2011 at 01:18

I disagree having my 1x 140mm on an archon running a Q6600 at 3.6 ghz at even 1240 rpm nevermind undervolted is very quiet.
And yes I can compare it to a very low rpm and noise level 120mm fan.
You guys are talking about people with 2x noisy high rpm 120mm fans on a heatsink and case fans.
I have compared 2x120mm fans at 5v and there's virtually no difference in noise level compared to a single 140mm at around 1000rpm.
Oh and my gpu is always very quiet too as I normally have a low rpm fan and aftermarket cooler on mine.

I never said air cooling is better I was more saying the noise levels aren't such a massive difference these days with the right fans and heatsinks.
btw those akasa fans are actually considered noisy (especially noisy on an h50) so no wonder it's a huge difference to your ears.

I don't think the big noise gap is there any more and I am pretty sure you'll need a bit more than a couple of fans at 500rpm to cool a whole rig at a high overclock.

johny dolan · 5 May 2011 at 01:30

A real water cooled pc not a h50 jobbie will always be cooler and quieter than a air cooled pc imo.Top modern gfx cards especially are very loud when the fans ramp up but with a water block they become silent and the temps half.

C64 · 5 May 2011 at 01:35

It's quieter but not hugely quieter certainly not as much as it used to be.
Bringing up gpu's with those leaf blower coolers is a bit cheap obviously those are very loud beasts but there's after market or better model cooler s with much quieter fans.

inaudible rpms ? 500 rpm is audible to me ? and that's not even blowing through a rad ? watercooling is quieter and cooler not disputing that What I am disputing is that there is still this massive gap in noise levels I just cant see logically how there can be.

My air cooler is capable of running a q6600 @3.6ghz 1.46 volts 24/7 with 1 fan at 500rpm the difference is that water cooling can do the same but lower temps.

These new massive air coolers are superb as the OP has pointed out.

JeffyB · 5 May 2011 at 02:05

My pc is in the living room and is used for home cinema and i don't like to hear anything from it. Air cooling was simply not up to the job at the clockspeeds i like to run (upto 4.5ghz) where my cpu alone is throwing out around 300w. There is simply no air cooler that can deal with that amount of heat at practically inaudible noise levels. The noisiest thing is now my storage drive read head and thats only noticeable if i am really close to the case when it's reading the drive. The difference between quiet and near silent is subjective without a reference but i have used high end air on this pc and it's not even comparable to a custom loop for cooling capacity and quietness.

mike gunnz · 5 May 2011 at 05:14

C64 said:
It's quieter but not hugely quieter certainly not as much as it used to be.
Bringing up gpu's with those leaf blower coolers is a bit cheap obviously those are very loud beasts but there's after market or better model cooler s with much quieter fans.

inaudible rpms ? 500 rpm is audible to me ? and that's not even blowing through a rad ? watercooling is quieter and cooler not disputing that What I am disputing is that there is still this massive gap in noise levels I just cant see logically how there can be.

My air cooler is capable of running a q6600 @3.6ghz 1.46 volts 24/7 with 1 fan at 500rpm the difference is that air cooling can do the same but lower temps.

These new massive air coolers are superb as the OP has pointed out.

I have no personal experience of air coolers over the last 3 to 4 years as I've been strictly on water since then, so I'm happy to believe they perform as good as you say they do. I've also noticed that high-end air coolers are absolutely massive.

I recently had dual 5870s and a i7 920 at 4.2GHz, all water cooled and almost inaudible at full load. You simply cant dissipate that amount of heat on air and have it remain quiet.

Yes, you can have a giant air cooler jutting out from your motherboard and a triple-slot after-market air cooler latched onto your GPU and heating up your case interior, but those aren't options I would consider.

Water dissipates large amounts of heat far more efficiently than air, therefore allowing a rig to run quieter. Whats not to get?

C64 · 5 May 2011 at 05:50

I never disputed that yes the noise is lower at extreme overclocks but my point is that you can have a very near as good overclock under air and not be massively much noisier.

You start with a quiet case bung quiet low rpm fans on the exhausts a big quiet front intake fan and 140mm fan on a d14 or silver arrow and you have a very quiet pc capable of a very good overclock not claiming you can do 5ghz cpu with dual gpus and remain whisper quiet.

Of course water still rules the bleeding edge.

clone · 5 May 2011 at 07:24

Forgot to post a piccy in first post,dont get me wrong ive done my share of watercooling,just like the ease of aircooling with the sandy as i can clean and change around my case within a few minutes rather than hours of draining water and so on.
As for hot gpu my ASUS 580 runs at about 27c idle and 40-55c in gaming,maybe im getting old now but ive had my fun with water so it`s over to the young one`s

Supernaut91 · 5 May 2011 at 09:07

Greboth said:
Surely that depends on if they are into water sports

Dazboots · 5 May 2011 at 10:20

Noise levels make a lot of a difference if running heavy overclocked cpu and crossfire. gpu can make a racket when running eyefinity as the cards under much more stress can add up to 15c just running eyefinity alone.
got my 2600k 4.8ghz 2x ati 6950 bios flashed 970 core 1450 memory and pc is very quiet even under full load.

bedazzled · 5 May 2011 at 10:57

TheCenturion said:
Also gets you laid.

That would be the selling point for me

rjk · 5 May 2011 at 11:05

C64 said:
Because watercooling used to be a lot quieter than air cooling which isn't the case anymore.
Makes me laugh when people think watercooling is quieter erm how can 2 or 3 x 120mm fans on a rad be quieter than say 1x140mm fan on a heatsink ? It's more about extreme overclocks and cooling performance these days.

i have a pair of GTX 480s, if they were on their standard air coolers i would have thrown them out by now.

may as well put the cpu in the loop too.

i am willing to bet my entire system that my computer is quieter than anything air cooled.

Dazboots · 5 May 2011 at 11:44

rjkoneill said:
i have a pair of GTX 480s, if they were on their standard air coolers i would have thrown them out by now.

may as well put the cpu in the loop too.

i am willing to bet my entire system that my computer is quieter than anything air cooled.

deffo hit the nail on the head there. mine is the same

twist3d0n3 · 5 May 2011 at 11:47

1) quieter
2) cooler -> better overclocks
3) looks badass

that's enough for me

mjones1 · 5 May 2011 at 17:44

I don't think the noise difference between air and water is that huge as people say.
Soon there will really be no need for watercooling once all cpus are 32nm & the 28nm gpus are out.

paradigm · 5 May 2011 at 17:47

mjones1 said:
Soon there will really be no need for watercooling once all cpus are 32nm & the 28nm gpus are out.

That's a pretty naive thing to say.

twist3d0n3 · 5 May 2011 at 18:12

mjones1 said:
I don't think the noise difference between air and water is that huge as people say.
Soon there will really be no need for watercooling once all cpus are 32nm & the 28nm gpus are out.

as fabrication processes shrink, they cram more transistors onto the die, surely it won't decrease that much?!

Squakingcow · 5 May 2011 at 18:16

mjones1 said:
I don't think the noise difference between air and water is that huge as people say.
Soon there will really be no need for watercooling once all cpus are 32nm & the 28nm gpus are out.

Just because they are on a new node doesn't mean they will use less power, both CPU and GPU manufacturers traditionally target similar/the same power envelopes between process nodes (the power consumption/heat output of GPUs has actually been increasing fairly consistently for years now).

The next generation of chips will be just as hot and thirsty as the current generation, however they will offer more performance for it.

OLDPHART · 5 May 2011 at 20:18

Squakingcow said:
Just because they are on a new node doesn't mean they will use less power, both CPU and GPU manufacturers traditionally target similar/the same power envelopes between process nodes (the power consumption/heat output of GPUs has actually been increasing fairly consistently for years now).

The next generation of chips will be just as hot and thirsty as the current generation, however they will offer more performance for it.

+1-If you think about it as the chip gets smaller theres less space between the eletronic components, so theres less air circulating around them to cool them, so the heat builds up.

paradigm · 5 May 2011 at 20:34

OLDPHART said:
+1-If you think about it as the chip gets smaller theres less space between the eletronic components, so theres less air circulating around them to cool them, so the heat builds up.

Sorry, what? You think that the gap between transistors does anything to AID cooling? If anything it makes it worse.

lol.