a hot water cooling thought

[Guest]

Hi All,

I have read the new <A HREF="http://www17.tomshardware.com/howto/02q3/020701/index.html" target="_new">Silent and Ice Cold</A> article.
(BTW the multi languages water cooling mounting video was fine. )

I am interesting to switch my HSF to a water cooling kit though it costs round double the price of an HSF with almost the same performances. The cpu cooler, the pump as the heat exchanger are very imposing & impressive.

#flat1: I think that the Innovatek Hard Disk Water Cooler is not very efficient because it cools only both sides but not the upper & the lower parts of the disk.
#flat2: You need a huge size case to succeed placing both the large heat exchanger as well as the PSU. How could we do otherwise?

It's a good silent cooling method & efficient as such noisy high cooling HSFs (& even more) but there are three annoying things.

The first one is that a leak of water is always possible to occur & then a great part of the electronics components could be irremediably destroyed. In that case you can have 2000 dollars of equipment fried in one instant.
Moreover how much time the plastic tubes remain secure? (physically the plastic becomes crackly after a certain period, it can split itself & creates leaks) What is the secure MTBF for a water cooling system?

The second point is the water tube assembly obstructs the case & hinders manipulations under it. This could be disturbing for an overclocker's computer. Is there a remedy to improve that?

The third point is you can buy only a simpler water cooling kit which cools uniquely the cpu then a complet HSFs & fans equipment which cools cpu, gpu, chipset, memory & hard disk likewise at the same cost around $200.

Then i am wondering which cooling equipment should i buy?

Welcome on this topic!


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[knowan]

#flat1: I agree. I wouldn't bother with a water cooled hard drive. A) it doesn't seem effective and B) it doesn't seem necesssary.

#flat2: Since they mounted the radiator internally, a large case was needed. However, you can always mount the radiator, and even the pump and resevoir externally. In that case you could save lots of room inside the case, and it wouldn't hinder upgrading and overclocking as much. It is recomended that you put the pump at the lowest point for increased efficiency, and making the rad external would also increase efficiency (since ambient temps are usually lower outside the case than inside).

Yes, a water leak will destroy your computer. Many people will tell you that using distilled water will prevent this, since distilled water is non-conductive. That is a myth though, since as soon as distilled water comes into contact with metals it starts to re-ionize (or "undistill") itself.

Plastic and rubber tubing will crack with age, especially when subjected to temperature extreems. The answer is silicone tubing. Silicone tubing will last for years, is easily available from hardware and aquarium stores, and is not appreciably more expensive.

You can save some money by building it yourself. Dangerden.com sells some pretty good waterblocks. Next get the radiator from a car's heating block for the rad. The pump, silicone tubing and various connectors and elbow bends can be found in an aquarium store. Any waterproof container can be the water resevoir. Throw in a few large case fans for the radiator and you're all set. You'll have to buy the block and the pump new (I recommend 200 GPH or greater for the pump). The rad you might be able to get used from a scrapyard (just be sure to check for leaks!). The tubing and connectors should be cheep. You'll come in at around $100.

Good luck!


--------------
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[CharlesHF]

Why use silicone tubing when you can buy Tygon? Especially since you want to spend that much money on silicone, spend a little more on a better type of tubing. It looks much better (crystal clear) and lasts practically forever. It's made for use in chemical labs where everything has to be completely nonreactive. Get the R-3603 variant, it's a little more flexible than the R-1000. (if I can remember the numbers correctly)
Tygon tubing is really hard to kink, if I heard correctly, you have to do some incredible bending on it to get it to kink. Go <A HREF="http://forum.oc-forums.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=90069" target="_new">here</A> to get more information.

Soyo Dragon+ Motherboard
AMD Athlon XP 1600+ AGKGA-Y
H20 Bong Cooled
256MB DDR RAM

 

[Guest]

thanks for all the tips.


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[Guest]

Cheers!


<i> I like THG Interactive, Inc.</i>