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Is water-cooling worth it?

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Alright guys, I've been thinking about this for a while, right now I have a 530j overclocked 15% cooled by a TT Big Typhoon, its suspended by fishing line to the top of my case (a TT tsunami with the top USB/audio I/O ports removed, works very nicely) so no mobo worries guys :wink: The thing will idle at about 30* in the day and around 28* at night. It never goes above 41* under massive load.

I'm planning on upgrading to a 940. I was thinking of just using my TT B.T. for the job since the 940 is a 65nm fab it shouldn't produce as much heat (however I haven't gotten to play with one much yet so I dont know how much of a heat difference we're looking at.) I am planning on over-clocking the chip no more then 20%.
My question to you guys is: say there was no difference in my temps from the 530j to the 940. 30* isnt a bad temp to be at, so would spending 250.00+ really give me that drastic of an improvement?
I've heard some talk about people using peltiers to cool their lines after the radiator, does this really offer much of an improvement gain either?

Ideally I'd like to have my chip running as cold as possible, but if an extra 200-300 bucks is only going to drop me 6-10* I dont know if its worth it right now... Any iput is welcomed1 :-)

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Here is my take on it. I am basing this opinion on a tech review from thinkcomputers.org The compared a stock H/S fan fro a X2 4400 to a variety of $50 plus H/S fans to include a aftermarket water cooling solution. Idle temps will be the same so I guess you can count that out. At load temps there was a meagre difference. Definitely not worth $300. But here is the difference: they kept on overclocking at putting the system uder load. One by the cooling solutions refused to boot or crashed during testing. As you can imagine, the water cooling solution was the last one standing.

here is the short story: if you are going to do some serious overclocking, water cooling is essential.

If you just want a quiet system, then you need to go get a BTX mobo and case. Asys makes a good one.

A satified customer... I mean it is the lowest cost complete kit, and works better than any air cooler.
Just want someone to consider it and save themselves hundreds for a first timer, you will not be disapointed.
The ones I am posting to are considering water, and I think a kit like this to simplify and insure all parts arrive that are needed, plus afterwards it looks nice all while not taking as big a bite out of your wallet.

See, that’s kind of my conclusion as well. :-

Right now my HSF is around 30* idle and 40* load, so seeing that go to 20* idle 30* load, I'd shell out the money in a heartbeat, but only going to 27/37 would work out to be about 100.00 USB per 1* and I'm not soo keen on that equation.

I did notice one thing I liked about the TT BigWater, the fact that you can pick up a second radiator that fits into 5.25in 2 drive days. It has a 12cm fan on the thing, but the problem I see with that is:
A) Raising case temps
B) Restricting flow
C) With my HD/Optical drives generating heat and being so close to the 2nd radiator would it even offer a temp decrease...?

I still kind of want to go water-cooled but I need a really good reason to push me over the edge. We'll see how much the tax return is, but I'm willing to go between 150-200. As long as it will beat these:



:-D :-D

Anyone got anything left to throw on the table?
Thanks guys! ;-)

I feel more comfortable with air and water combo, than a heat sink and fan, also I believe that a good strong fan blowing cool air throughout the motherboard and componts is very beneficial. The rad has to be big enough to cool down the water in the rad and return the cooled water back to the processors and GPU. If the fan is sucking the cool air from lets say a freezer or air conditioner and a condensation filter is installed, this would even cool a SLI system oced to the max. I know I tried this and it works. My GPU and CPU is hooked to the same feeds lines to the rad. However I know the everyday computer addict is not going out and doing all this but if that persons computer is where it is, with limited moveably the benefits are great. I have tested my system setup now for over a year and the performance has been superb for me. Not a problem in any aspect in ocing. I have tried this setup with the cold winter air and my temp dropped 15 degrees this was a consistent reading in temps.

Im finding now that keeping temperatures down below 40 degrees and under 60 degrees under load in the winter is not possible with fans, the summer will be hell with the pc kicking out even more heat. So im going for water cooling, not heard anything bad about it really.
I nearly bought a watercooling system the other day even though with my SLi setup inside leaving no room i would have to put the radiator outside the case, but then i saw that waterchill is doing an external system soon that sits on top of your case or somewhere else and incorporates the radiator and reservoir too, plugs into the USB and will have 2 vga blocks for SLi instead of in the current kit.

Would be loads better, i just dont know when it will be out to buy.

Its starting to get hotter here in the days and my chip is showing...

Now I'm going to be upgrading from my 530J to a 940 here soonish (tax returns and yadda) so it will run slightly cooler then my Prescott does right now.

However, I'm thinking of adding a few dollars to my budget and go water cooled.

I want it to get as cold as possible! Without breaking the bank. I've been looking around on Dangerden, frozencpu, and some others and I've seen alot of things I like.

Case in point the dual and triple rad's. But because this would be my first venture into water cooling, I don’t really know too much about it. Would this cause too much restriction in a normal setup? I've read alot that anything over dual 120mm's is for "low-flow" cooling. What advantages does low flow have to high GPH units?
Secondly, where the F. would you mount a trip radiator anyway? Just lay it along the top of your case? (mine happens to be a ThermalTake Tsunami)
I've been keeping fish and reptiles for many years now so I know a few things about pumps, but most of what I use are submergible, not inlines. I always pay more attention to GPH then head pressure. How strong of a pump do I really need?

I really don’t want to spend a fortune on the get-up. So would it be smarter for me to take something like a TT BigWater SE and add an aftermarket pump? Or Radiator?

What about going DangerDen? How would a kit like this compare to everything else out there? (I think I'd ditch the reservior and buy a more "stylish" aftermarket res...)

I've read Shawnizzle =]'s (sp?) guide on water-cooling but I'm still kind of in the dark about the specifics.
Danke!

okay, first of all, sorry for the fact that my guide isn't very clear.... i'm not mod or admin so i can't edit it now -_- and admins don't seem to respond to my PMs.

as for your loop, a high flow pump isn't necessarily a good one, what you want is a high pressured pump. it is measured in the height in which it can pump vertically. a iwaki md20rz can do 24ft which is extremely good. and a pathetic ehiem 1025 can do maybe 4-5.... which is indeed pathetic... the more head pressure you have, the better the pump is going ot deal with restriction throughout the loop and give you better flow rates


tripple and double rads can be mounted inside a case with some mods at the top or the bottom (front if you have a stacker). or it can be placed outside with a remote watercooling box.


parts suggested:

cpu block: Swiftech Storm (highest performing retail block... a little high on restriction, but thats fine with a strong pump)

pump: iwaki md/wmd 20rZ(don't forget the Z... Z is for high pressure).

radiator: dual heatercore, bix3, HE120.3 or my favoirte PA120.3 for maximum performance vs noise ratio

gpu block: maze 4

the rest is really up to you.


and that Big Water SE kit i think is junk compaired to the settup i gave you, but it is indeed a whole heck of a lot cheaper than the one i suggested. but what is comes down to is the BW SE doesn't leap that far ahead of your big tyhpoon performance wise while this custom setup will totally demolish it
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