Unique cooling situation - do you recommend liquid cooling?

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lyphe

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Oct 4, 2010
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So here is my rather unique cooling situation.

I built my wife a gaming computer that she uses pretty extensively. Nothing is OC'd, so cooling requirements aren't huge. She's got a stock 3820 cpu and gtx580 gpu. Her case is a mid size tower ( Thermaltake V3 Black ), so there is space - but it is limited.

The problem is that she tends to put things on top of the computer and limit air flow. No damage yet, but her computer will shut down to protect itself occasionally. I've checked her temps and she sits around 35c idle, so everything is aok except when she piles things over the venting.

I was thinking about replacing her air cooling with liquid cooling in the hopes that it might run her system cooler overall and afford a bit more slack when she isn't paying attention and piles stuff on the case. My questions on this are:

1. Will liquid cooling actually provide lower temps overall ( I've never used liquid cooling )?
2. How are the Corsair H90 or H60 as cooling units? I'd like to get the H90, but not sure if it'll fit. And I've read a few forums where ppl say the H60 isn't much better than air cooling.

Any advice/thoughts appreciated and cheers!
 
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Tell her to stop...putting things over computer vents is like putting your hand on the intake of a hair dryer.... liquid cooling will still not fix everything if no ventilation is going on. those coolers are still good, but the h90 will likely not fit in your case. try the h80 instead and have it as an exhaust. there is no real fix besides telling her to stop putting things on top of the computer.
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Brantyn Gerik

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Sep 18, 2013
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Tell her to stop...putting things over computer vents is like putting your hand on the intake of a hair dryer.... liquid cooling will still not fix everything if no ventilation is going on. those coolers are still good, but the h90 will likely not fit in your case. try the h80 instead and have it as an exhaust. there is no real fix besides telling her to stop putting things on top of the computer.
 
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lyphe

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Oct 4, 2010
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So you think the H80 would be a reasonable improvement over air cooling? And yep, I'll be working on her habits - but if this helps in the meanwhile - I'll be happy. I just didn't want to go to the expense of replacing her cooling with liquid if there is no real benefit over air. Going to check out the H80 and thanks for the advice.
 
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Brantyn Gerik

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Yes, but like i said, if she covers up the vents, no hot air is escaping like it should and temps will still rise gradually to the shutdown point. tell her covering up the vents WILL significantly reduce the lifespan of the computer, and that if it breaks down due to overheating and she has stuff on top, that you are not going to use your own money to replace it..., or just buy her a desk to put the computer in so that she pretty much can't put stuff on top of it
 
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lyphe

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Lol, if you are married - then you know there is a gap between what the other party "should" do and "will" do. She always leaves some of the vents open, just covers one which seems to be enough to shut down the cpu when she's got a lot of load on it. If I can shave 10 degrees of the normal running temps, that'll be enough to help. Gonna pick up a H80 this weekend and see how it works.
 
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