Why do people pay so much for water cooling?

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greens

greens

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Copper and aluminum are some of the most abundant metals on our planet and they are easily recycled. There are thousands of feet of copper in any modern house, like 3 different radiators in any car, yards acrylic tubing is in every refrigerator and washer, even DC 5v pumps are common.



I am writing up a guide on my loop which totaled less than 175 on my 2 GPUs and CPUs. And I have the pics and invoices to prove it.

So why would people buy a closed for 100 plus that cools one thing?
Why do they buy compression fittings for a WC loop when a 2cent clamp will do it better?

I just don't get how these sites are seperating people from their cash for bits of aluminum and copper.

I don't over clock, but I could, and I get that the super pro ocers need the best stuff, but the bulk of people seem to have noise concerns which can be done so, so, much cheaper than what is out there being advertised
 
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USAFRet
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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And the vast majority of people would choke at $175 for water cooling in the first place.
Why do I need to watercool this thing?

Need accessory cooling over the stock fan thing? $25 for a Hyper 212 PLUS.

Watercooling is a hobby, not a need for 99.999%. Hobbies cost.
Same reason someone will spend days and extra $$ looking for that specific shade of blue LEDs inside the case.
 
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Pinhedd

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Water cooling components are manufactured to much tighter tolerance than household plumbing. Copper and aluminium may be cheap, but pure copper that's been machined into a particular shape, ground down to a mirror finish, assembled to be water tight, and sometimes electroplated with nickel is not.

If you can assemble a fully functional water cooling loop for $175 then bravo, but I'm sure that you'll make several amateur mistakes which will come back to haunt you in the future.
 
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greens

greens

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For sure, the whole looks thing is a big part of it i'm sure, mine doesn't have any bling whatsoever.
Hobbies cost, but i guess i always felt like the purpose of a hobby is more about the time spent than the cash.
If i had wanted to get like black anodized fittings to match my black case my loop's cost would have doubled.



 
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greens

greens

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Can you provide any evidence that WC components are manufactured to a higher tolerance? I had never heard that before and would make the cost justifiable... but copper baseboard heating components for example must be able to withstand great amounts of pressure from the heat of boiling water. Automobile coolant boils at like 350F and still won't blow the radiator cap until like 10psi, which means all the components are rated for at least that much. A WC loop that goes above 60c or 1atm has something wrong with it.

The blocks are the one thing that i did have to buy prefabbed, but with some research i found a place that sells them for very reasonable amounts, origin is China i'm sure, but the tops are POM the fittings look good the copper appears quality. A search on Ebay will turn them up quickly, and i have seen top notch blocks with identical patterns. Also, nothing says that EK or DD or any even Laing aren't getting their materials from China. 2 gpu blocks 1 cpu block and 1 15w 5v pump = 112USD, the bulk of my costs.

And as far as the reference to amateur mistakes, those same mistakes would have been made if i'd spent 1k on the loop. Amateurs are amateurs and they make mistakes regardless of the equipment being used.

The pump is the one thing i can justify more money on, but who knows, i may have just found the next big pump in WCing for 15$ on amazon.

I guess i just see so many tutorials suggesting people spend so much money on this and that, and i'm sure it turns people away from the community. Why not tell them to go outside of the box, go to home depot and rummage around, teach them that water is water and heat is heat, that thermodynamics are the same regardless of application.

I'm also apprehensive to post my guide, even with the numbers to back it up, the WC community has a lot of haters and well, haters gonna hate.

 
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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I guess i just see so many tutorials suggesting people spend so much money on this and that, and i'm sure it turns people away from the community. Why not tell them to go outside of the box, go to home depot and rummage around, teach them that water is water and heat is heat, that thermodynamics are the same regardless of application.
Click to expand...

Building a WC loop from stuff at Home Depot takes a special kind of inventiveness and experience. Most people doing a WC setup, either prefab or entirely custom, are doing it for only the first or second time.

If I were so inclined, I could probably cobble together a home-built loop, with an old motorcycle radiator, some home depot pipe, etc, etc, etc.
Many hours putting it together, getting the right non-corrosive fluid, testing the couplings, blah blah blah.

Would I risk an expensive CPU to do it on the first try? Not a chance. And as I don't have the money to potentially blow on killing an expensive CPU when something pees all over the inside of the case...I would probably go with a tested series of components. Which costs money.

How many have you built? How many have worked? How many have failed? Building something like that from raw parts is not for everyone.
 
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greens

greens

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That does make sense, people inclined to DIY do just that, they do it themselves. Searching the forums for ideas maybe, but not so much asking for help or needing basic guides. On the same note however, the things i bought at homdepot were not outlandish or any different than what you'd buy at a reputable online WC retailer. 3/8" is a common ID size and fittings and tubing are readily available at your local hardware store. If you went 1/2" you get an even greater selection (my first amateur mistake was not realizing this and building the whole loop on 3/8" instead)

I will admit that the thing was running 24/7 outside of my box for a week just to be 100% sure there were no leaks.
And then run it for a while on a powered down system with a jumped PSU. Then again, you'd do these things if you spent 1k or 100.

Maybe all we need is to get more DIYers to post pics and guides to make their presence more known!

 
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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See this current thread:
http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-1969280/water-cooling-questions.html#12384728
 
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greens

greens

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HA. Point taken, maybe DiY isn't for everyone.

Keep an eye out for my Knowledge post featuring my build!
 
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greens

greens

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Really?
I already selected a best answer...
I clearly stated i purchased the blocks purpose built.
It still doesn't answer the question as to why people recommend/pay well over 80 bucks for an EK block, without fittings, plus shipping, when http:// comes with fittings, has free shipping, and is a US retailer.

I don't think tools or skill have anything to do with it... Almost everyone has a drill or a dremel, and if they don't; they know someone who does. If EK blocks were the only available i would have made my own.
It comes down to balls. If your scared go to church!
 
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manofchalk

manofchalk

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I'l admit I didn't read the entire thread, and your argument that a block of Copper is cheap had me thinking you were coming from a DIY standpoint.

Why I would buy an EK block over that, for the same reason I would buy a Seasonic PSU over a generic. I know that it wont fail on me.
You need a bit more then a dremel to make a water-block, which really leads me to question how they can sell those waterblocks for $25.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-Yd8v2Ub9E
 
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toolmaker_03

toolmaker_03

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I have built cheap builds, and expensive builds, both types are functional, but the level of difficulty between the two is drastic.





Total on this build was around $500 for all of the water cooling products, and that is not too bad.

The cheapest I have ever built a CPU loop, was for $250.





This build was quite a bit more but it was a lot easier to build.

This is only my opinion but the fittings make a loop easer to assemble and maintain.
 
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