Water, or bong cooling?

While Im no bong expert, I can give the general idea. It uses cool air pushing through falling water droplets to evaporate water, making the water cool to slightly sub-ambient temperatures. Water gets pushed up with a pump to a shower head, or similar aparatus, where water droplets fall down a tube. Intake fans at the bottom push air upwards through the droplets. this cools them, and evaporation cools them further, allowing for great cooling. The rest of the system is very similar to a traditional watercooling setup. Water blocks, hoses, etc.

The problems happen when you look at space, and upkeep. Bong coolers evaporate water, so it needs to be refilled. Also, unless some fungicides are used, then some things may start growing in there, due to being open to the air. You need to be careful though, as some fungicides when airborne (the evaporation, remember) are toxic. also you need to make room for the bong cooler, and the bong tends to raise the humidity in the room.

Ive toyed with the idea of bong cooling, but in the end regular water cooling was cheaper, more space effective, less hassle, and a few extra degrees of cooling simply wasnt worth it.

OP, bong cooling IS water cooling. Not sure why people keep thinking they are different. It is open loop evaporative water cooling. Radiators are closed loop and do not shed heat by evaporation.

Re. the other responses. Only one of them is from somebody who actually uses a bong. If you want to know about this type of water cooling, read the bong lovers club thread and the guides linked in it. If you have questions after reading that I suggest you post them in that thread.

About a few points in previous responses.
Re. bongs are less efficient. This is wrong. Evaporative coolers are highly efficient.
Re. they cost more... that is funny. My evaporative cooler cost me under 25 bucks to build. I also have two 420gtx radiators, with 140x38 SanAce fans in push pull - those are over 150cfm each with very good static pressure - with 2" shrouds. Take a wild guess which has more cooling capacity? Hint.... it is not the $500 worth of radiators and fans....
which also happen to sound like a jet engine....

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I know that, but would you rather see a thread title of "water or bong cooling" OR "open loop evaporative water cooling or standard water cooling" ???

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go and have a read of the bong lovers club dude. Again if you don't know jack then don't post. "EVAPORATION" it makes the hot water dissapear and leaves the cold "sub-ambient" water in the freeze box or barrel. the more surface area that the fan blows on the more water evaporates and the colder it gets. Biocide balls and silver = no mold. maybe a film will develop if your a lazy sod and never clean it out in months ( i have have and no problem with a bit of silver wire ) and if a freeze box is bulky and hard to move the you need to go to the gym.

i got it down to 8C with 1.6vcore when the bong was tuned correctly. no ice or black magic.
I'm not explaining anymore to anyone else that is being ignorant, just go and do some research.

Here's a nice, bulleted list for you about bong myths:

• Naja Chiller (HVC/Horizontal Volenti Cooler) setups can be dead silent with only the sound of a pump
• Silver and breathable biocide (for humidifiers) can stop pretty much anything from growing in your system (you could also use a very small amount of chlorine bleach or antibacterial detergent)
• Energy is used in the phase change process from liquid to gas, this allows evaporative cooling to go below sub-ambient though it is normally only a few degrees and it is very hard to reach the dew point (if not impossible due to the very process by which evap. cooling works)

I run a small Naja Chiller and I can pull 36 degrees on the core under full load ([email protected] SMP & GPU simultaneously) with a $35 waterblock. I max out at around 38 under 12+ hours of Prime95 or 17+ hours of Linpack.

Don't bash evaporative cooling just because it is not mainstream. You can even make a Naja Chiller or Bong with clear acrylic, add some LEDs and make it a very attractive setup. If you want to take it one step farther, build an acrylic case and integrate a couple miniature bongs into it. The possibilities are endless with a setup like that.

Evaporative cooling can also dissipate massive amounts of heat. A Naja Chiller could easily handle a 1000w load and keep a very nice water-ambient delta. If you precool the water with a radiator, you can get even better performance.

EDIT:
Please note that el gappo is using a massive bong made out of a beer keg those temps are achievable. I've seen pics of his setup and it actually looks pretty cool.