Why did you go watercooled?

[BS Dave]

It's expensive for the extra overclock you get over air and there's the danger it'll leak right?

I'm asking 'cos I'm considering it and wanna know what made you guys do it.

 

[P3N9U1N]

it'll only leak if you don't do it properly or get duff fittings. using compression fittings as opposed to barbs reduces risk of leaking, although rotary fittings can be a leaky problem. I went watercooled because of my 590, it's rated at 98 degrees max and it really does get that hot on standard cooler, so watercooled it for obvious reasons.

The max Iv'e hit on my 590 since watercooling it is 60 degrees so I'm happy

 

[OptimaLnrg]

-looks
-temps
-epeen
-looks
-quieter
-looks
-performance

 

[P3N9U1N]

Oh yeh, the looks, I forgot about that... they look bad ass

 

[andybird123]

I'm using a massively oversized rad, so temps and noise will be massively better than air -this also means my case fans can run on minimum

oh yeah, and watercooling looks awesome

 

[pgi947]

Temps for oc headroom, removing any real thermal limit is a plus for me, oh and it's near silent for me too.

Edit: like Andy I'm on an oversized rad, running almost passive on a 1080+360.

 

[zx|muppet]

looks, temps and silence! no stupid gpu fan spinning up and annoying me during the summer

 

[tintin82]

Temps,

When running IBT my 4.6ghz 2500k OC was hitting high 80's on my Titan Fenrir
Determined to stay at 4.6ghz so watercooled with a 360 rad, and a 140 rad.
Now temps at mid 60s with IBT.
Was going to add my 670 into the loop, but its not loud at all so forgetting about it. All i woul dbe doing is lowering my case temp a bit, so not really worth it.

Ohh, and it looks cool.

Overall very expensive (£300), but it is fun setting it all up, and the tinkering involved.

 

[BS Dave]

hmm. so if i was gonna cool a 7970 and say 3770k would 2 x 240 rads do the trick? with say the xpsc 120 quid pump combo? And would you put one of the rads in between them? ie

pump
cpu
rad
gpu
rad

I'd like to keep my 7970 sub 55 degrees. would that do it?

And if i wanted to add another 7970 what then? I have a CM 690 II case btw.

Thanks for all the replies

 

[ubersonic]

I wanted a silent system, passive water-cooling gives me that.

 

[andybird123]

hmm. so if i was gonna cool a 7970 and say 3770k would 2 x 240 rads do the trick? with say the xpsc 120 quid pump combo? And would you put one of the rads in between them? ie

pump
cpu
rad
gpu
rad

I'd like to keep my 7970 sub 55 degrees. would that do it?

And if i wanted to add another 7970 what then? I have a CM 690 II case btw.

Thanks for all the replies

2 x 240 would be fine for CPU+7970 but not sure you'd keep to the temp you want, for dual 7970's you'd want another 2x120
(e.g. a total of 6 x 120) I would think... rad position is not all that important as the water will be moving so quickly that the water in the loop all runs at the same temperature regardless of where in the loop it is

a good rough guide is 100 watts per 120mm fan, the CPU with a decent OC will be a little over 100, the 7970's will be close to 300 each

I'm using 12x120mm fans on really low for CPU plus 670 SLI (but then as mentioned above I wanted as near silent as I could possibly get)

 

[no_1_dave]

Temps.
470s in SLI, the bottom card was going over 90c even before overclocking it.
Now with more volts & heavily overclocked the max is 70c but that's at a push

 

[Freddie1980]

So I can be a part of the 'Good Ol' Boys' watercooling club.

Seriously though watercooling has interested me for a long time and when I started my watercooling project earlier this year I done it because

a) I wanted a new computer
b) I had the financial means to do it
c) I've always wanted to do it just to see what it was like
d) Watercooling is the only feasible way of enjoying quite computing with high overclocks on your video card and CPU.

It doesn't have to be expensive, you can save a lot money by buying 2nd hand parts like your rads and reservoirs on the members market on on Ebay.

 

[Stelly]

So I can be a part of the 'Good Ol' Boys' watercooling club.

Seriously though watercooling has interested me for a long time and when I started my watercooling project earlier this year I done it because

a) I wanted a new computer
b) I had the financial means to do it
c) I've always wanted to do it just to see what it was like
d) Watercooling is the only feasible way of enjoying quite computing with high overclocks on your video card and CPU.

It doesn't have to be expensive, you can save a lot money by buying 2nd hand parts like your rads and reservoirs on the members market on on Ebay.

The first rule of the 'Good Ol' Boys' is that you dont talk about the 'Good Ol' Boys' ....

Stelly

 

[Tea_Bag]

I'm doing it almost exclusively for noise. I have a 6990 and its incredibly loud. its taking a while (and took a back seat for a bit), but I'm doing it on the cheap almost exclusively second hand.

so far I have:
RS240 rad (£20, unused)
swiftech epsilon 6990 block (£22, like new with unused thermal pads)
Laing D5T strong, (£55)
EK pump top (Unused, Free)
8xbitspower compression fittings, (£4, 6 of them unused)
assorted O-rings, £3
4xGT 1850rpm 120mm, (£35 new)

all I need now is an xspc raystorm CPU block, a Res, tubing, another 240 rad, some more compression fittings and fan controller, then I'm good to go. I'll probably get them all together, but my motherboard is away on RMA cause a RAM slot died.

point is, if you're willing to be patient, water cooling doesn't have to be that expensive. Most of the parts will last me a long time (hopefully), aside from the GPU block, which will have to be upgraded with every GPU obviously, everything else should stay the same no matter what I change out.

 

[spixelspixel]

I have watercooling atm but going back to air ( I'll probably want to go back to watercooling once I see high temps again )

Reasons -
pump noise can be irritating, louder than air cooling with general use
temp improvement only relevant with high overclocks
novelty has worn off, prefer to keep things simpler now. air coolers are much easier for maintenance etc
water in pc is always risky
need money

I'll more than likely watercool in the future, but with a gpu added also. I think the real benefits in noise reduction come with watercooling the gpu, cpu not so much.

 

[pastymuncher]

The reason i did it was that when we moved here 6-7 years ago, i thought that the two cupboards at the top of the stairs knocked into one would be a good place to have a computer room. The room has no windows and was getting extremely warm with air cooling. I needed to get rid of the heat so a window mounted rad on the landing windowsill was the answer. I built a box to take the 360 rad (now 2x 360's) and ran a couple of 6 foot lengths of copper pipe through the dividing wall to make things easy. I then built another box to take the pump (now a pair), res and the watercooling circuits own psu. The box is soundproofed so i get no pump noise (the 50z's are quiet anyway). Case fans are on a controller and turned down so they are nice and quiet. I have 3x Yate Loon 38x120mm fans on each rad but they are pretty quiet anyway. The bonus is that i get stupidly low running temps, especially over the winter as the rads suck in cooler air from outside just by varying how much i open the window (only a crack in the winter). In the 6 years or so i have been watercooling i have never had a leak and have only upgraded a couple of components over all that time.

 

[Cleeecooo]

Sound and looks.

 

[Tattysnuc]

temps, and therefore ability to maintain a "high" overclock for a long period of operation.

Air coolers have come on somewhat since I moved over to water, but I've invested so much now that it'd cost more to go back.

 

[Tattysnuc]

Just to clarify - I have dual GTX 480's which I used to fold on... when I could afford to!