Overclock.net banner

N00b questions on Water Cooling.

2K views 16 replies 8 participants last post by  holyindian 
#1 ·
Hi all,

I am very new to the concept of Water Cooling. I have seen lots of videos on WC on Youtube, and all, and i like the idea. Hence wanted to explore it myself. I have been using a computer on air cooling since over a decade now. But this is my first attempt in even understanding the concepts on water cooling. I have read the sticky on this section for water cooling, however many of my questions remain unanswered.
Please help me under stand these.

1. Couple of years back i had read the disadvantages of water cooling, and couple of them were.. that water cooling in a rig can fry up your computer cos they leak. Just wanted to know.. how much far has wc cooling come from the leaking problem. Can today's watercooling mechanism leak??

2. Why water cool?? Do people water cool only gaming rigs?? I will be using heavy cpu intensive applications such as VMware, Linux, Oracle Databases, Photoshoping, video editing.. CCE video encoding, plus gaming occationally. I know WC is a gaming enthusiast adventure, but i would like to try it.

3. What next after setting up a WC rig?? Meaning, i read somewhere, that maintainig the WC rig requires maintenance every month.. i.e. clearing the water and refilling it??

4. Most importantly i wanted to know.. if i can keep a WC computer up and running for extended periods of time. I keep my air cooled PC on for 24/7 most of the time for months togather. I guess last i shutdown/restarted my PC was 4 months back, its been running since.

5. Does watercoooling decrease the life of any computer components??

6. Last but not the least.. can someone guide me to a comprehensive guide on Water cooling, the first article in the sticky is still somewhat complicated for noobs.
 
See less See more
#2 ·
1. You make it all yourself, or get a fully sealed maintenence free kit, if you are starting out, get the Corsair h50, or h70. It cools just the CPU and can drop temps 20+ degrees on full load.

It increases lenght of components, by keeping them cooler so they dont get heat damaged.

watrr cooling can be run for months on end, unless you do need to maintain it.

It is way better than air cooled, the corsair h70 is equal or better than the BEST air cooling out there, including huge radiators like the megahalems (look at it on google)

Its also quiter in most situations.
 
#3 ·
1. Watercooling can leak, however the chance of this happening with modern equipment is very, very low. Most leaks are caused by user error and these should be caught in the leak testing phase, where your computer is turned off and thus not able to be damaged by any leaks.

2. I do a lot of what you listed (run Linux 24/7, run a Windows VM, video transcoding... etc) and I have to say I love my watercooling setup. It lets me run a 4.5 GHz/850 core on the GTX 460 while being 100% silent even at full load. If I turn up the fans I can hit 1000 core on the GPU and 4.8 GHz on the CPU.

3. Nope, once you install it you are good to go. As long as you just use regular distilled water and a silver kill coil you shouldn't have an maintenance issues.

4. Yep, no problem. I haven't shut my computer down (except for rebooting for OCing) in over 3 months and no issues yet.

5. No. In fact, it increases their lifetime as most component failures are due to heat.

6. Try this guide: http://www.clunk.org.uk/forums/water...beginners.html
 
#4 ·
Quote:


Originally Posted by MysticHawk
View Post

1. You make it all yourself, or get a fully sealed maintenence free kit, if you are starting out, get the Corsair h50, or h70. It cools just the CPU and can drop temps 20+ degrees on full load.

It increases lenght of components, by keeping them cooler so they dont get heat damaged.

watrr cooling can be run for months on end, unless you do need to maintain it.

It is way better than air cooled, the corsair h70 is equal or better than the BEST air cooling out there, including huge radiators like the megahalems (look at it on google)

Its also quiter in most situations.

Currenly i am using a monster air cooling heat sink.. i.e. Thermalright Silver Arrow. I guess Silver arrow does a much better job as compared to corsiar h70. However i would like to know abt water cooling other than mock water cooling like the h70
 
#5 ·
Quote:


Originally Posted by charliehorse55
View Post

1. Watercooling can leak, however the chance of this happening with modern equipment is very, very low. Most leaks are caused by user error and these should be caught in the leak testing phase, where your computer is turned off and thus not able to be damaged by any leaks.

2. I do a lot of what you listed (run Linux 24/7, run a Windows VM, video transcoding... etc) and I have to say I love my watercooling setup. It lets me run a 4.5 GHz/850 core on the GTX 460 while being 100% silent even at full load. If I turn up the fans I can hit 1000 core on the GPU and 4.8 GHz on the CPU.

3. Nope, once you install it you are good to go. As long as you just use regular distilled water and a silver kill coil you shouldn't have an maintenance issues.

4. Yep, no problem. I haven't shut my computer down (except for rebooting for OCing) in over 3 months and no issues yet.

5. No. In fact, it increases their lifetime as most component failures are due to heat.

6. Try this guide: http://www.clunk.org.uk/forums/water...beginners.html

THanks so much for your replies. I am researching the URL you've provided.
Other suggestions are welcome too..
 
#6 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by charliehorse55;12473874
5. No. In fact, it increases their lifetime as most component failures are due to heat.
Most failures that I've ever seen has always been due to a Chinese cap going bad.. Though certainly, most people failing to get overclocks are due to heat..

==========

As far as maintenance, if you do the loop right and follow directions exactly, your loop should be very low maint.. I recently had to flush my water out after 2 months in service because I apparently didn't clean my rads out well enough when I first put it together..

As far as overclocking.. I've got two GTX 470s overclocked to 1400 shaders (up from 1215) and they're running 15C colder under water than they ever did on air when they were running at stock clocks and had the fan manually set to 80% (noisy!!).. Now it's completely silent and much cooler.. Could overclock it even more if I wanted to.. EVGA and XFX have got lifetime warranties available on their cards.

All my computers run 24/7 for months at a time, typically they get a reboot once or twice a month and that's mostly due to Microsoft's Windows Updates nagging the heck out of me until I let it do it's thing.
 
#7 ·
1. Absolutely, even those H50 can leak (even though its the manufacturer's fault). Then again, there are always chances of leak. However, those leaks can be eliminated by leak-testing. Most leaks happens when the end-users aren't careful enough. Take your time, even a couple of days if needed.

2. I water cool for the sole reason of overclocking with minimal temps. It has nothing to do with gaming whatsoever. I've seen workstations being water cooled and they have nothing to do with gaming oriented stuff. Some people just like to take their CPU and overclock it. I won't have to care about heat.

3. Some people like to flush their water every couple of months, but I do not see the need to. However, you have to maintain the dust if you do not have a dust filter. But that's about it.

4. Absolutely, I tend to run my rig 24/7. With leak testing, I wouldn't worry at all.

5. No. Not that I know of.

6. I believe juggalo23451 makes great videos for beginners. You should check it out.



 
#10 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by charliehorse55;12476049
Make sure when installing the screws for the fans onto the radiator than the bolts do not pierce the radiator core.

If you aren't careful it's very easy to puncture the radiator core with one of the screws and cause a leak.
Thats a good point. I always do a practice test of the threading and length and I always end up cutting my bolts shorter.
 
#11 ·
lil hint..

when you use this..
image_p04301_i0.jpg

try to get some with a lil room and metal visible going in the tube to use this:
5_0.gif


with this you will reduce the leaking risk by a bit, giving it some more stability and preassure..
 
#13 ·
because the material of the tube is getting (sry for my english..) "stagnant/crispy" and begins to leak in long time. zip ties (almost not visible) are giving more stability, especiallly when he gotta move parts when the tubes are alrdy mounted.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top