Water Cooling Experience

[Natoma]

Just wondering if anyone uses water coolers, and if so, how often do you have to change the water, how well does it work, etc. Whenever I read reviews on water cooling, no one ever discusses how often you have to change the water to keep it cool. I keep imagining changing it every few minutes or so as it begins to boil from cooling a hot CPU or GPU.

 

[AAlcHemY]

My cpu and gpu are now about 1.5 years watercooled. Never had complains about it, never leaks. Quiet and overclocked better than aircooled.

First i used a simple reservoir of 20L, it was open on top, thus lost of water was gone after a day. Average taken, about 2L daily. Because i do a lot of lans, it was not very handy.

After a month or 2, i used a simple reservoir. About 1L in size. Easy to build in my midi case. That setup i still have at present. Its not really close on top, i refill it every 2 months. Normally you dont have to refill it, maybe after a year or so.

The water is cooled by a 240x 120mm radiator. 2x 120mm Papst fans on top. My setup costed about 200€ all together, most expensive were the fans ( 25€ each ) and the radiator ( 70€ ). Temps were never above 40° at default cpu speed. My present cpu ( 2000+ ), does 38° full stressed. At 220x 12 about 44°. Gpu clocks ( ti4400 ) went from 310 core to 345.

Feel free to ask more questions ..

 

[Natoma]

I'm basically trying to figure out the cooling differential between this:

http://www.arctic-cooling.com/en/products/vga_silencer/

and for instance, this:

http://store.yahoo.com/svcompucycle/swmcgrwablfo.html

If water cooling for a 9800 Pro has roughly the same temps as the air cooled one, then i'd only be interested in getting the air cooled one and not dealing with liquids. If the temperature differential is much greater though, and can cool far better than the 47C the silencer can at full speed, then I'd definitely be interested in going the water cooling route.

Unfortunately my googling efforts have come up empty in terms of measuring heat output on a 9800 pro when using water cooling.

 

[jpaana]

If water cooling for a 9800 Pro has roughly the same temps as the air cooled one, then i'd only be interested in getting the air cooled one and not dealing with liquids. If the temperature differential is much greater though, and can cool far better than the 47C the silencer can at full speed, then I'd definitely be interested in going the water cooling route.

Unfortunately my googling efforts have come up empty in terms of measuring heat output on a 9800 pro when using water cooling.

I bought the complete (CPU, northbridge, GPU) WaterChill kit myself, haven't installed it yet though, waiting for new motherboard and case.

Anyway, during the research process I found an article (http://www3.soneraplaza.fi/pelit/muropaketti/artikkeli/0,3573,6350_141243,00.html, near bottom of the page) having numbers comparing air and water cooling of Hercules Radeon 9700pro, unfortunately in Finnish, but the pictures and numbers are quite universal. The stock cooler keeps the chip at 60.3, WaterChill at 45.0 degrees.

 

[Natoma]

Yea I found quite a few 9700 comparisons. But given that a 9700 runs at 325Mhz, generally overclocking to 350/360 and a 9800 runs at 378Mhz, generally overclocking to 400/410, I would think that the 9800 would put a far far greater amount of stress in terms of heat.

The 9700 stock cooler according to that website puts off about 60C while the 9800 stock cooler according to arctic cooling puts off about 80C. Pretty big differential, know what I mean?

 

[jvd]

I've been water cooling for 3 years . Check out procooling.com its a great site for all the info you need. I have a maze 2 for my athlon and have a #rotor block coming in the mail for my a64. You can hit up dangerden.com for a good watercooling system just don't buy the maze4 stick with the maze3. They also sell cases pre set up so there is no modding needed. I'm very happy with my system. Have my 9800pro , northbridge , cpu and hardrives watercooled. If you need any help or advice you can just im me or email and I'd help the best I can.

 

[AAlcHemY]

Any pics of your rig, jvd?

 

[Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.]

Check out http://www.wetandchillychips.co.uk/ They have some interesting stuff, epsecially the complete kits for beginners at a reasonable price. I was looking at their stuff when I was considering going for watercooling.

 

[Sxotty]

I have water cooling on my CPU only, I have a swiftech setup but the pump started leaking sent it back, got it back leaked again so I bought an eheim pump now all is well, I never have replaced any water since. My system is sealed so it doesn't evaporate, I built my own resevoir out of PVC. http://www.virtual-hideout.net/guides/pvc_reservoir/index.shtml mine is similar to that, I used quick ties to hook it to the back of my case. My pump is outside case to avoid heat, and I have the quick disconnects for the tubing that I swiped from a chem lab, that way I can press a button and my tubing is disconnected, but cannot leak (there is valves built in) transporting it is easier this way. Someday in the future I will watercool my GPU, and MB, but I don't want to fool with it yet. I am very happy with it the swiftech stuff other than the pump is top notch, and they have a new pump model now as well so it might be ok.

edit: For joe, I actually did not "swipe" them, I paid for them, but at a better price .


The disconnects look something like this
http://www.omega.com/pdf/tubing/couplings/coupling_description/couplingslg.asp
but they have barb fittings on both ends, I cannot tell you how nice these are if you can find something like it for a reasonable price it is sooo much easier to deal with stuff like this.

 

[fallguy]

Watercooling my CPU, GPU, and HD. Soon to be my chipset as Swiftech just released its spring loaded MCW20 for Intel's 865/875 chipset. If done right, watercooling can be virtually leak proof. Ive been doing it for about 2 years, on three different rigs. Going from an all in one, Innovatek kit, to my own selected components.

I havent changed my water in about 6 months. I didnt have too then, but I had gree and wanted blue. It doesnt evaporate, or so it seems. A res is VERY nice to get bubbles out. The external parts lets me fill and empty without worrying about spilling in my PC. Takes about 5 mins to fill and bleed the system. In a closed loop system, it can be a major pain, as bubbles are bad.

What I have is,
Eheim 1048 pump
D-Tek heatercore
Swiftech CPU & GPU blocks
Innovatek Tank-O-Matic and HD block
Criticool PCI pump relay
Tygon 3/8" extra thickness tubing

Pics:

It cools very well. My 3.0c has been up as high as 3.825gig, but I have to go to 1.6v for that. I like to keep it under that for prolonged periods. I run it at 3.75gig every day, at a good temp. I could probably push it more, I just cooled the CPU, but I like the total package.

Gets my Radeon 9800 up to 480/380 stable and no artifacts. I can go over 500Mhz on the core, but it artifacts badly. Same goes for my memory, it can go past 410Mhz.

 

[jvd]

Any pics of your rig, jvd?

Not right now . I used to have pics of my athlon 2500+ system but my hardrive finally died in that system. Hopefully I will have pics when my system is finaly done. Doing alot of work to the case .